Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-04-05
The Righteous Mans Little.

tHe hikUtpOuS MHn's Lttlp.
"a little that righteous man hath is
better than the riches of many wicked"
says the Psalmist; and we were strikingly
reminded of the declaration as Tom Collins
was giving us hasty recital of his expert
ence not long ago.
Collins is an lrishman with broad accent
but native shrewdness. He came to this
country in '63, and went directly into the
army. lie had been brought up in the Prot
estant faith and by God fearing parents, but
had never been converted. Still he lived a
correct life for, as he expressed it, he had
been started right and went of himself"
In the army he contracted habits of in
temperance. Having no principle to the
contrary, when invited by his comrades he
drank, and, as usual, a love for whiskey was
developed, and the appetite, gaining strength
with every indulgence, soon became his
master.
He came to his family in Jersey con-
firmed drunkard; and then, that he might
have greater facilities for indulgence in
drink, moved them to New York. Here his
course was rapidly downward. He had a
good wife. Though not Christian, she was
sensible, kindly woman, and, while grieved
in spirit at the wreck of her husbands man
hood, she stood by him and bore and endured
and toiled as drunkard's wife alone has to
do He at first found business with liberal
pay but the Bible was put, as the Bible ex-
presses it, "into bag with holes" and did
them no good. All he earned, literally all,
went to the dram-shop, and poor Mary had
TO earn the little on which she and her chill
dren subsisted by the labor of her own hands,
Their home was sight to be seen. No
-, .lo,~ N,I.I L,l 4 -.
in it; he broke them TO bits in his drunken
fury, or pawned them for liquor. And the
one room, to which they were finally re-
duced, was as bare of comfort as a barn or a
dog kennel; and, as necessary consequence
of his excuses, he lost his situation, and be-
came wretched, drunken tramp
But an angel of mercy passed that way in
the person of Christian woman. Looking
for Sunday scholars, she fell in with this
shattered home and wrecked man. Her
sympathes were enlisted. She labored and
prayed with the poor inebriate, while she
helped the suffering wife and children, and
was richly repaid when one day, as they
knelt in prayer, Thomas declared I" 1t is
enough will come to Jesus and be made
whole" And the angels in heaven rejoiced
over the repentant sinner.
From that morning the course of the
household was upward. By degrees they
crept back to comfort and plenty. Tears
were exchanged for gladness, and the voice
of prayer was heard where before vile and
angry oaths had pierced the air. Mary, too,
accepted the Saviour, and husband and wife
sang together the song of redeeming grace
and undying love.
1t was at the end of five years that we,
who had just come to know the family,
were invited up the four flights of stairs to
the upper floor of tenement-house to see
what a "nice Christian home" they had.
A small, comfortable suite of rooms they
rented-a parlor, kitchen, and two bedrooms.
The parlor, with its neat carpet and comfort
giving stove, furnished with pretty set of
furniture, an organ, curtains aud pictures !;
the well attired bedrooms and the kitchen,
with its tea-table spread with the incest of
bread, fruit and cake indicated taste and
refinement, as well as abundant means.
"Do you see how comfortable we are 2"
asked the proud, happy, grateful man. al
want to show you how much farther my ten
dollars a week go than the forty | used to
get; for every cent tells now in solid good.
| am not as strong and able to work as
once was" he continued; "those years of
drunkenness almost killed me. | can only
earn as much in a month as | used to earn
every week, and my little daughter here
earns little. But we have plenty for food
and clothing and to keep up our housefur-
nishing. Mary and reckoned the other
evening how much the things round here
were all worth, and we counted up more
than five hundred dollars, and everything
paid for. That's five hundred dollars that
once would have gone to the rum-seller.
Now it is ours; and we like it," he said,
with a shake of his head. al haven't saved
much for rainy day yet, but I've begun.
Let me tell you about it. You used to talk
TO us about giving up tobacco, and resisted
it. By the help of the Lord had given up
my whiskey, but thought there was no
harm in tobacco. And wouldn't go to the
mission sometimes because they said so
much about it. But one night, not long ago,
| heard Jim Regain give his testimony. He
said he'd given up his pipe, because he
wanted to be all clean before the Lord ;
and | asked myself: Tom Collins, says |,
don't you want to be all clean before the
Lord Sure the Lord has done enough for
you, and it's time now you was thinking
about pleasing him 7 So when | came out
| Just pitched my tobacco over the fence,
and the pipe smashed when l got home.
That week put dollar in the savings, the
first / ever put in in all my life, but it wasn't
the last. A dollar, and more too, has gone
in every week since, and I'm clean now.
My bread and butter and coffee and meat
taste ten times sweeter and better than they
used to; aud when l ask a blessing on our
food as we sit down to the table, thank
the Lord that he's taken away the taste for
bad things, and more than made it up in
the taste for the good things he gives.
tell you It's grand exchange. I'm very
happy Pm not rich, and never expect to
be, but the little ] have goes wonderful
way. l wish poor folks like us knew how
far little, when God blesses it, will stretch,
and the peace and comfort he sends along
with it,"
We echoed the honest wish of this Chris
tian man, who, with his ten dollars week,
is reaping joys which the riches OF many
wicked can never give.-7emperance AdvO-
cdfe,