Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-12-24

debauchery, disease, the
hospital, death. Drunkenness-evi COM
pany, cursing, swearing, gambling, pro
family, lnfidelity. death in impenitence
idleness, carelessness, des-
truction >of property, ruin of family
poverty, restitution, death in abandon
me.t. Drunkenness-riot quar- I
relling, injuries, insults, inhuman fight
ing, sudden death. Drunkenness law
less companions, thefts. rebberies, plots,
murders, the Jail, the chain-gang, the
gallows. Drunkenness-w weakness, gloom
mess, Indebtedness, melancholy, wild
fantasies, black horrors, madness.
Have the divine terrors lost their pow
ersY What q proof of the hardening and
effect of drunkenness Your
eyes. at least, are open to the consequen.
in hand, then, the cup of delusion anew,
quences, however appalling, drink
Why should you startle? The white bub-
bles that float on top of the cup-they
are only the tears of your wife Drink
on! You have drained her happiness.
Take the gloomy cup anew. Do you
begin to hesitate once more? The. drops
look red-they are only the blood from
your starved and neglected children.
Drink, then, drink on. You have already
drained your poor veins to utter impover-
i~hment. Take the horrible cup anew.
What Are you more dismayed than be-
fore? Yet the vision is true enough; it
is only the gray hairs Of your parents
that float on the surface, you have drain
ed their existence Drink, then, drink
on. But now you must take the cup, for
alas it is no longer the cup of choice,
but the cup of habit; no longer the cup
of enjoyment, but the cup of punishment;
no longer the cup of sweet delusion, but
the cup of necessity. Its pleasures are
gone, and nothing remains but it's bitter
ness. The cup has lost it's charms, and
the draught its enchantment; from the
mere force and necessity of habit you
20 on drinking its accommodating COM
pound, of miseries. 1t is thus that at last
God Furnishes the sinner with his sins. 4
But the hour is not yet come, though
every cup of intoxication hurries it; on
goes the drunkard, thoughtless, senseless,
desplsed,' to his destruction. Look at
that creature; how can call him man,
when he has lost all the qualities of man
hood? See him as he staggers on his
way; his frame shaken with excess, his
head failing, floating heavily on his body,
or falling over his side; his squalid ap-
pearance; his mouth of folly; his eyes of
wild, guilty insanity; his unmeaning
look, his incapable fury He has come
from the house of drunkenness. All that
can be done for him, for some time to
come, is to treat him alike helpless
idiot; to put him to his bed,-if it be pos
pible. until he RECEIVERS his existence, and
a feeling of jaded melancholy, a wretch
edness of mind and body, which he again
seeks to drown and forget in another fit
of intoxication; until he at length rounds
out his miserable remnant of life and is
dissolved in the grave. Look at that
fury. She once was a woman dear to
her friends, beloved of her relatives, ami
able to all. See that face, once meek and
lovely with the pure beams of innocence,
now convulsed with the diabolical pas
sions that issue from the internal pit.
Hearken to the impure, abscene, ungodly
flow of her lips. She. too, has come from
the house of drunkenness, and is hasten
ing to the den Of infamy; or, like some
unnatural monster, is going home to her
family to suckle her children with her
vices. See that young man. AT present
he is honest, useful, thriving; esteemed
by his friends and respected by all who
know him, But he is entering the house
of drunkenness He reads the lessons of
life in the school of vice, and every one
is beginning to be uneasy with apprehen-
sion, about him; to look towards his
future; to prophesy his course, and give
him over as lost He begins to suspect
himself neglected. then to feel himself
| disregarded, then to know himself de-
serted, then abandoned, then summed;
and he reasons foolishlyson the subject,
| for he has drunk of the wine of madness,
and he abandons himself.
| L know of no disorder so difficult of
cure as the disease of confirmed drunken
habitual, has eaten away too much of
the mind and reason to leave sufficient
nerve and vigor for a strong and stead
fast resolution. Far be it from me TO
discourage even those who have gone so
| deep. There are, sufficient examples to
show that they mag recover if they qoill
but take the means. But must not dis
semble the truth. I would warn the be-
glnner, and those who are tempted to be-
gin. IW0uld entreat them to consider
how rare and difficult it is to recover into
habits of sobriety after reaching certain
point. Let the beginner draw instruction
in time. Let him take to himself thought
arrest at the beginnings, pluck out the
habit whilst its roots are young and green,
and shield himself with caution. Let HIM
draw lessons from bad as well as good
examples. There was nation of heath
| ems (the ancient Spartans) who held this
vice in such horror that, though they
never drank to excess themselves. they
intoxicated their slaves, that they might
show their children, by example, to what
condition drunkenness brings our ma
| f,,pn MI 1,0x fDV
such an expedient. In every street, on
every road men calling themselves Christ
ians will read you this lesson. The land
reels with drunkenness. Consideri it well
and take profit to yourselves. Turn over
in your mind the anathemas of the apos,
tie and the woes OF the prophet, until
they inscrlhe themselves in your heart,
and the fear Of them become portion of
your being Mark them written on the
brow of the drunkard. Watch him in
| his career until you see them all accom-
! plisheQ. Write them over your door, in
scribe them over your chimney piece, in
your chamber, on your table, in the bot
tom of every glass; utter them in your
| devotions; hear them in the sounds of
every tavern as you pass, and read them
| on every slgn-board.
Do you ask me how you are to break
yourself from this degrading habit? The
| general rule is very simple. Have a will
ling mind; shun the occasion; fly idleness.
Fix for yourself measure in your friend
! ly domestic meetings beyond which you
are never, whatever be the occasion, to
| exceed; and never see the inside of a
tavern. Be fully assured that you cannot
80 beyond your measure, however little,
| on one occasion without going beyond it
always: Consider in what places and
with what persons you are tempted and
avoid them. Those that love the dan
ger shall perish in it," Let no motive,
no wish to appear hospitable. and no
cruel invitations, no pressines of seeming
friendship induce you to forget the
FRIENDSHIP which you owe yourself. Re
peat your resolution each morning when
you rise, and pray for strength to keep
it. Examine how you have kept your
engagement each evening when you go
to rest. If you have failed once, be not
discouraged; try again, Nothing de-
lights the eye of Heaven more than to
see us wrestling manfully with our in
frmitles. rising courageously after our
Fo11e humility from n1r weak