The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1881-11-04
A very suggestive and profitable


A very suggestive and profitable
temperance meeting was held in the
James Methodist Episcopal church, in
Brooklyn, Monday evening. II was
such meeting as might easily be re-
produced in IFS main features in any
town or village, and perhaps its adap-
tatiOn to arouse and strengthen tenn
pcrancc sentiment lay in some degree
in the fact that all in attendance felt it
TO be ''our meeting"
The gathering on Monday night was
the opening meeting of the course.
The music was volunteered by spec
ial choir of upwards of forty young
ladies and gentlemen, under the leader
ship of MIR. John B Coffin. The selec-
tions were excellent, and rendered
with feeling and evidence of efficient
training The chairman of the meeting
was a citizen of the ward prominently
identified with the former wigwam
meetings, Mr.. 4. ". Cochrane. The
pastor of the church, the Rev. Mr.. Sim
mons, led in devotion, and read por-
ton of the fifth chapter of the prophecy
of Isaiah. The chairman. Mr.. Coch-
ranc, III introducing the speaker of the
Ievcning, Mr.. w. G. Soutar, of New
| dih, NCW JtI5cy, aluuCtt W luc scrip
turo just read, pronouncing woe upon
"men of strength to minsle strong
drink" and cited the following adver-
tisement from the New York Herald:
WAN ED.-A Grst-class La len. cr salary sl5
| ner week. 10 work fifteen hours day, and no
| sundays or afternoons on. Inquire for two
| days. NJ, FRErI., corner of Gates and Reid
Avenues, Brooklyn.
The chairman thought the man adj
vertised for, would need TO be ''man
of strength 10 "'mingle" strong drink
continuously sixteen hours q day, and
10 Sundays of. The place where he
was "wanted" was to this meeting
near home, which was an evidence of
the need of temperance effort, and for
listening TO just such words as Mr..
Soutar is so well qualified to speak.
Mr.. Soutar said his qualification for
speaking was the knowledge born of
experience. In the history of the Cos
pei temperance work all over the coun-
try we see men lifted from the gutter
to the pulpit. This was the speakers
experience, and he contrasted his pres
ent position as speaker from the sacred
desk, after enjoying distinguished hos
pitality, with his former experiences of
lVe or slN years on spree, and the
KIND charity of some poor colored
aunty, who gave him some food to
ward OIL the pangs ofhunger. In the fall
OF "a, when Mr.. Soutar was sentenced
10 Jail for thirty days for drunkenness,
the jailor objected that the Judge did
not do right in that his prisoner was no
vagrant, as he had forty men working
III his tailoring establishment, and that
four or five days to get sober was all
that was needed in his case. The TAILOR
had long talk with him, obtained his
discharge on promise that he would
sign the pledge, and on the same day,
after reaching home in safety, the poor
victim, driven by appetite, went to
look for rum. Ho was hailed by the
police. "Ah. Bill, out too soon?"
and was taken, bloody and bruised, to
the station house, with clothing torn,
and step unsteady. The kind jailor
took him TO the bath house, washed
away the blood from his wounds, and
assigned him to the same cell he had oc-
cupied the previous afternoon. Fail
ure followed failure. "When are You
coming back, Bill?-we'll keep room
for you,' fellow prisoners would say
when the term expired, and he was
temporarily released. ~ had no hope
OF liberty; no hope that there was
power that could save me. Pledge
after pledge failed, friend after friend
helped in vain. But the arm of flesh
was not long enough, nor strong
enough. At length friend tapped
him Gil the shoulder bringing mes
sage from the Woman's Christian Tenn
perance Union, inviting him to come to
their prayer meeting. lie regarded il
as jest. But he went, and the kind
greeting Of the women there, $50 glad
you have come, Brother Soutar,r
touched his sense of honor TO tell them
it was no use. Then in prayer. they
severally presented him by name to
Jesus; and as they prayed, burden
fell from his soul, and he became a free
man in Christ. The appetite for liquor
was removed and it has never return-
cd. God bless the Christian women of
America. God teach the drunkard
that Christ is his refuge.
The sins OF the past cannot recall,
iut the mercy Of Jesus has covered them all.
Mr.. CochraDe then vacated the chair
in favor OF Mr.. Twiddy, of the James
Methodist church, who introduced -Nr.
George Il. Scott, of Bloomfield, New
Jersey (foroman of the Witness print
ing oillce.) Mr.. Scott was known to
the audience not only as temperance
speaker, but rs one who had lent
hand to many fallen brother on the
way TO reformation. Although he
could say he never drank a glass of
liquor IN his life, his memory kcenly
recalled the facts of his arrival in New
York from England, when o lad, in
1913, and that when having climbed
over the side of the ship, where his
father had left him and got on shore,
his answer to gentleman who met him
accommodating and asked, Club, what
do you think of this countryp
al think said the small boy, "that
they drink too much here" Mr.. Scott
gave some interesting "reminiscences of
New York, and of the life among the
boys. Sitting on Fort Greene one day,
! n boy came and asked him TO go to
] Sunday school. In England, he had
known the Sunday school only as q
place where those went who were too
poor to learn to read and write else
! where. He deferred decision, though
! he ultimately went; but sitting there
at Fort Greene, he made four resolu-
tions tor the guidance of his life, first,
never to drink; second, to learn Il
trade; third, to give Jesus Christ his
heart; fourth, to marry good Metho-
Is dist girl. Tracing the career of the
Is carly friends he made, the speaker
" showed how many had been led TO
/. ruin by the intoxicating cup. lie
II pleaded for protection for those poor
d men, whose resolutions are overcome
r. by saloon attractions. lie was so in
le tense in hatred of liquor, that were he
I. Robinson Crusoe on his desolate
"A tisland. he would sign the pledge, be