St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-03-01
IN PRAISE OF COUGH.
n Glowing EuiOgy Paid TO G tough by
Rev. Dr. Forbes.

Services were held last evening at the
Jackson Street Methodist church in memory
of the late John b. Cough. The auditorium
was well filed. The pastor, Rev. r.
Forbes, read a part of the Twenty-third
chapter of Proverbs, beginning at the
twenty-ninth verse, which includes the pas
sage: Look not thou upon the wine when
it is red, etc" He read also from the Fourth
chapter of Second Timothy. In beginning
his discourse Mr.. Forbes said he proposed
TO spend half an hour with the audience
upon the points suggested by the life and
character of John b. Cough, and for his
text he would take:
II have fought good fight, have finished
my Counsel have kept the faith; Henceforth
there is laid up for me n crown of righteous
ness, which the Lord. the righteous Judge,
shall give me at that day; and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love his ap-
pearing.'
The apostle Paul wrote these words, he
said, while in prison, feeling ali the discom-
forts of the dungeon. Mr.. Cough used these
in one of his lectures, and said the world
could better spare all the emperors ever did
than spare those words of Paul. The name
of John b. Cough could not be mentioned
without suggesting the temperance reforms
in which he played so prominent a part for
more than forty years. He was born in Kent,
delphia, Feb. Is, 1886, being therefore not
quite 20 years of age. His father was a
retired soldier; his mother Christian woman.
When he came TO this country with another
family his mother wrote out scripture texts
and pinned them on his clothes that he might
see them often. He was apprenticed in the
book bindeiy trade in New York. During a
Methodist revival he was converted and
Joined the church on probation, but fell
away. Yet the fact that his heart was
touched in early youth remained with him
and had Il great influence on his after life.
He earned money enough to bring his mother
to America, where, after poverty and suffer
ing. she died in an upper room in which they
had existed.
He relates very feelingly how men came
and put her into plain box, took her TO the
pOttersfeld and buried her without a word
of prayer.
''This was enough" said he, Ito embitter
the man with life. Five years later he was a
concert singer in a low saloon in New York.
Then he married, and his wife and child died
of neglect. Still he sunk lower and lower
Think of the marvellous grace which could
change the man from what he then was TO
what he afterwards became. He tells how he
attended a religious meeting and. half intoxi-
Gated, passed the spittoons around for q col
lection among the congregation. Compare
this with the same man years afterwards adj
dressing thousands Of intelligent people i'm
credit TO God Almighty. He says he would
have committed suicide, but he remembered
that NO drunkard shall inherit the kingdom
of God. One summer evening in 1912 while
half drunk in the street some one tapped him
on the shoulder and asked him to go to a
meeting and sign the pledge. He promised
to do so the next night; he had some whisky
in the house and he wanted to drink IL up
first. He went, related his experience to the
meeting and signed the pledge. Think OF the
al, - Ill
right time in young mans life. He graph
ically describes the struggle which followed
For six days and nights he ate no food. the
old habit all the time asserting itself. He
never tired of telling OF the two men who be-
friended him at this time. Only once he
broke the pledge, although many traps were
set for him by his enemies. For forty-three
years he was before the public, and now he
is gone. His last words were: Young
man keep your record clean Let
these words ring in the ears of the
young men OF the country. He felt the stain
of his early life to such an extent that he did
not attend party for twenty-five years for
the memory of it. Coughs triumph over
himself was marvel of divine grace. For
forty years no man spoke TO so many people,
and no one was so successful in speaking TO
the average man. He was thoroughly in
earnest and thoroughly human, fun of SYM
pathy for the drunkard. 1t was to his adj
vantage that he was lied about and abused;
there was nothing better for a man than that.
Once after picturing the terrible work of
drink, he said he would rather be the miser-
able drunkard than the man who sold him his
whisky. His argument for total abstinence
was: If meat makes my brother To offend |
will eat no meat; he appealed TO high princi-
pies and not TO Legislation; he believed in
Outstanding and educating the people so
they would not want liquor; in destroying the
demand for il. If men wanted whisky they
would get il. The American people should
honor John B. Cough who achieved what
greatness he had, who came to the front, lived
and died well