St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-07-03

|
sion for strong drink has mastered him.
he will do the most outrageous things, and
If he could not get drink in any other
way he would sell his family into eternal
bondage. How many homes have been
broken up in that way no one but God
knows. Oh, is there any thing that will so
destroy man for this life and damn hina
for the lite that is to come?
But my subject takes deeper tone, and
that is that the unfortunate of whom I
speak suffers from the loss of the soul The
Bible intimates that in the future world,
if we are unforgiven here, our bad pas
sions and appetites, unrestrained, will go
along with us and make our torment ere.
SO that, | suppose, when an inebriate
wakes up in the last world he will feel an
infinite thirst clawing on him. Now,
down in the world, although he NAV
have been very poor, he could beg or he
could steal five cents with which
to get that which would Stake his
thirst for little while; but in eternity
where is the rum to come from? Dives
could not get one drop of water. From
what chalice of fire will the hot lips of the
drunkard drain his draught? No one to
| DI6" IL. No one w nix IL. NO one TO
pour it. No one to fetch it. Millions Of
worlds then for the dregs which the young
man just now slung on the saw-dust floor
of the restaurant. Millions of worlds now
for the rind thrown out of the punch bowl
of an earthly banquet. Dives cried for
water. The inebriate cries for rum. Oh,
the deep, exhausting, exasperating, ever
lasting thirst OF the drunkard in hell!
In the future world do not believe that
| it will be the absence of God that will
make the drunkard's sorrow. do not be-
lieve that it will be the absence of light. I
do not believe that it will be tn 10 absence of
| holiness I think it will be the absence OF
rum. Oh,
| Look not upon the wine when 1t is red,
| when it m oveth itself Alright In the cup for
at the last it bteth like a serpent and il
| stingeth like an adder.
| 1t is about time that we have another
| woman's crusade like that which swept
| through Ohio ten or twelve years ago,
With prayer and song the women went
| into the groggeries, and whole neighbour
hoods, towns and cities were redeemed by
their Christian heroics. Thirty women
cleared out the rum traffic from village
| charged of the Holy Ghost could renovate
a town of thousand, three thousand con-
| secrated women, resolved to gil Them
selves no peace until this crime was extir-
pated from this city, could in six months
clear out three-tourths Of the grog-shops
| of Brooklyn. If there be three thousand
| women now in this city who will put their
hands and their hearts to the work. will
take the contract for driving out all these
| moral nuisances from the city-at any
rate ee-fourths of them-in three
months. If, when that host of three thou
sand consecrated women is marshaled,
there be no one to lead them, then, as a
minister of the Most High God. 1 will offer
to take my position at the front of the
host, and will cry to them:
"Come on, ye women of Christ, with
your songs and your prayers! Some of
you take the enemy's right wing and
some the left wing. Forward? The Lord
of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is
our refuge! Down with the dram shops"
But not waiting for those mouths of hell
to Close let me advise the working and the
business classes, and all classes, to stop
strong drink. While declared some time
ago that there was a point beyond which
a man could not stop, l want to tell you
that while a man cannot stop in his own
strength, the Lord God, by His grace, can
help him to stop at any time. I was in q
room in New York where there were many
men who had been reclaimed from drunk
euness. heard their testimony, and for
the first time in my life there flashed out
truth never understood. They said:
"We were victims of strong drink. We
tried to give it up, but always failed; but
somehow since we gave our hearts to
Christ, he has taken care of u.s."
l believe that the time will soon come
when the grace of God will show it's power
not only to save mans soul, but his body,
and reconstruct, purify, elevate and re.
deem it.
verify believe that, although you feel
graphing at the roots of your tongues an
almost omnipotent thirst, if you will give
your heart to God He will help you by His
grace to conquer. Try it. It is your last
chance. have looked off upon the desola-
ton Sitting in our religious assemblages
there are a good many people in awful
peril, and judging from ordinary circum-
stances, there is not one chance in five
thousand that they will get clear of
it. There are men in my congrega.
tion from Sabbath to Sabbath of whom I
must make the remark, that if they do not
change their course, within ten years they
will, as to their bodies, lie down in drunk.
ards graves; and as to their souls lie down
in drunkard's prediction. | know this is
an awful thing to say, but can not help
saying it. Oh, beware! You have not yet
been captured. Beware! Whether the !
beverage be poured in golden chalice or
pewter mug, in the foam at the top, in
white letters, let there be spelled out to
vour soul. HRewareD