Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-08-06
Coughs Farewell In England.

| am very sure you cannot find me man
not one-who will say to you, 81 am sixty
years of age; never drank glass of liquor
in my life, and / am sorry / did not learn
to drink when was young man."
You never hear man say, do not call
me thief am not thief if any man
calls me thief will knock him down
know steal once in a while, but am not
thief" But yet you hear men say, "Do
not call me drunkard | am no drunkard
drink little too much occasionally, but
am not a drunkard." Now, if a man steals
once he is thief, if man lies once he is
liar, but we do not call man drunkard
until he gets drunk about two-thirds of his
time It requires some self.denial to be
teetotaler. 1t costs some men more moral
courage to invite honored guests TO the
table and keep the wine away than it would
to march right up TO the canuon's mouth OH
the field of battle.
Come with me TO the Yosemite Valley
yonder stands FL Capitan--the atmosphere
so clear, it seems as if you might strike it
with stone. Approach nearer; how it
looms up; how it grows and widens how
grand See yonder those shrubs in the
crevce-shrubs ? They are trees, hun
dred feet in height, three feet and more in
diameter Do you see that bend in the face
of the rock That is assure, seventy-fve
feet wide. Nearer yet, still nearer. 1t
seems as if you might touch it now with
your finger. Stand still under the shadow
of FL Captain. A plumb line from the sum-
init falls fifty feet from the base. Now
look up, up, up, three thousand six hundred
feet-two-thirds Of a mile-right up. How
grand and sublime Your lips culver, your
nerves thrill, your eyes fill with tears, and
you understand in some degree your own
littleness "The inhabitants of the earth
are but grasshoppers." How small | am
could not climb up fifty feet on the face of
that rock, and there it towers above me.
Yonder is the great South Dome, rising
sheer up six thousand feet-more than a
mile, scanned and scared by the storms of
ages, but anchored in the valley beneath.
There are the Three Brothers, there the
Cathedral rocks and spires, there the Senti-
mel Dome and the Sentinel Rock. How
magnificent See yonder the wonderful
Yosemite Falls leaping through a gorge
eighteen feet before it strikes, coming down
like sky-rockets, exploding as they fall (;
striking, it leaps four hundred feet, and
again it leaps six hundred feet More than
half.a-mle the water pours over. What
DASH what a magnificent anthem ascend
ing to the great Creator Now look around
littleness of man. Oh | am but as the
dust in the balance; but as the small dust
in the balance; but God created man in his
own image, and breathed into his nostrls the
breath of life, and made him--not gave him
but made him living soul therefore am a
man, living man, but that is a dead rock.
am living man. The elements shall melt
with fervent heat, the world be removed
ike cottage, the milky way shall shut its
two awful arms and hush its dumb prayer
Tor ever, but / shall live, for l am a man
with the fire OF God in me and a spark Of
immortality that will never go out. The
universe, grand and magnificent and sublime
as it is, is but the nursery to mans infant
soul, and the child is worth more than the
nursery; therefore, |, living, breathing,
thinking, hoping man, with a reason capable
of understanding, in some degree, the great
ness of the Almighty mind capable OF
eternal development, an / heart capable OF
loving him, am worth more than all God s
material universe, for | am man with a
destiny before me as high as heaven and as
vast as eternity. Now, there is not horse
in your stable, there is not an OK in the
stall. there is not snake that draws its
Shiny length through the long grass, there is
not a reptile that you crush with your heel,
and shudder as you crush it, but is better
and more nobly fulfilling the purpose of
God in its creation than man is when he
gets drunk. That is my idea of simple in
toxication. Then what must habitual drunk
enness be
: have worked for thirty-six years, and al
9 though have found great many wonder
4. fully hard cases, yet | have never found a
. man destitute of a mans heart scared al
= over, covered up, a great many cobwebs all
+. round the door, and the door up a great
I many pair of winding stairs but get at it,
. tap upon it once twice, or thrice, and the
quivering lip or the starting tear will tell you
! That you have been knocking at the heart oil
! a man. not at the heart OF a brute. We
!. often despise them and cast them out with
: out knowing anything Of the circumstance:
Of the case. Now, believe that the one
great crying sin OF the present day is harsh
cruel, unjust, Pnarasaical judgment of oui
, fellow-men.
The other day had an attack of neural
gia in the face it was as ii fingers OF fir,
were feeling for every nerve, and it was 81
agonzng at times that just grasped thu
side of my face with clenched hands ant
cried out. A gentleman said to me, Would
I you take tablespoonful of brandy if yol
knew it would relieve you of that pain 2"
was not long in saying, No." You ma,
call that extra fanatcism, but | would no
take spoonful of brandy to save my life
You say that is suicide. | have anothe
\ Judge beside you, and | shall stand in hi
= presence. | am ready TO give an accoun
: ON that question. If were to take glas
of brandy to ease me of pain, it would in
ure my influence for good, and man VIII
willingly does that which will injure his in
+ fluence for good among his fellow-men,
hold, commits sin. | am willing to worl
Or with all who labor in any way for the pre-
lie motion of the cause of temperance, but
advocate law for the tempter, and for tn
tempted, love and sympathy. Let us strik
e, hands and work together for the grea
"a cause, willing to sacrifice ourselves II nee
), cessary. Let US remember the responsible
" ity standing between Gods will and tn
work he wills to have done. Oh it is
great thing to cooperate with him and wit
: the angels in preventing sin.