West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1884-07-30

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rible traffic which is pouring such
a flood Of death upon the people
whom they are laboring to save,
which is making their gospel a
thing of disrepute, jest, an object
of sarcasm and derision and ridicule,
your hearts would bleed and your
souls sink within you. No wonder
the cause of foreign missions has
made such slow progress when, by
the efforts of Christian naGions, ten
times more heather have been con-
verified to drunkenness than to the
gospel. We who feel the weight of
the Masters commission, GO,
preach the gospel to all the world
must crush the liquor fend as the
deadliest foe to the worlds evangel-
ization. The angel of the everlast-
ing gospel wings a retarded flight
in the track of this angel of death
which spreads it's wings like a
winding sheet over all the nations
of the earth.
THE GREATEST CHARGE.
But the greatest charge against
the liquor crime is yet to be made.
I refer to it's ruinous effects upon
the moral faculties of the human
soul, and its pre-emption of men
from the influence of the gospel.
The drink habit tends invariably
to deterioration ofcharacter. Follow
the steps of the SOULS decay. Even
moderate drinking can soon elimi-
nate from character its sweetness
of disposition, its tenderness and
kindness, its refinement of feeling,
its high sense of honor and it's sa-
cred regard for truth. A man who
habitually drinks whisky will tell
lies. Then the character is soon
despoiled Of it's acute moral rrooep-
ton, good is called evil and evil
good. Then follows the lossof self
respec!. and respect for others, the
lowering of ambition, the fading
out of hopes. The imagination at
length is befouled, the mind i'm
paired, the heart deadened, and the
conscience well nigh scared. The
will is broken down and the soul
occupied by all the kindred sins of
intemperance. The body of course
is SCARED; but this is not to be
compared to the scar cut deeper
and deeper into the immortal soul.
The poor man becomes insensible
to the cold, old story of the Cross"
He has no disposition to hear the
gospel. A bar-room is more invit-
ing to him than a christian church.
The wine-cup is more palatable
than the cup of salvation the bac-
chanal song sweeter than the song
of redeeming love. At last the
soul, burnt and blackened by the
fires of rum, sinks steadily but sure
ly downward into a drunkard's
grave and drunkard's hell forev-
err. O, how dark and sad Sound it
to the ends of the earth, that the
liquor. traffic bars thousands to the
impresslonso Of the gospel when they
hear it, and keeps thousands more
from ever hearing the gospel at all.
DR.. Albert Barnes once said: "Let
it be trumpeted through the land
that the sound conversion to God
of the man who uses Intoxicating
drink is well nigh hopeless" DR..
Thomas Guthrie, the celebrated
Scotch divine, said of the liquor
traffic: II believe we will in vain
plant churches and schools, though
they be thick as trees in the forest,
unless this evil be stopped" The
fact seems obvious that drunkard-
makers and drunkards are well nigh
proof against saving influences.
But let me be more specific. What
hope can we have Of the saZo0a-
Keeper He doesn't 60 to church.
He would rather make few dol
lars during that, time selling whis-
ky. There is but little hope of max
ing an upright, decent man out of
him, much less Christian. Drunk
ard,makers are the most hopeless
class of men in any community
LAUGH AT PRAYERs.AND TEARS.
I declare to you the liquor dealer
will resort to any means the public
will tolerate to save his death deal
ing traffic from doom. There is
nothing too cowardly and sneaking,