, 1886-06-20

ON that street. The street was full OF those
who are on small incomes, but l suppose the
contasion spread and that everybody had "A
sealskin coat, and that the people cane out
and cried, practically. TO- literally, Thou ii
the heavens fall we must have n scalskin
| WIS out west and u minister of the z y
pei told me, In Iowa, that his church aud
the neighborhood ha been impoverished bv
the fact that they put mortgag 8 on their
farms in order to send their families to the
Philadelphia centennial. 1t was not re-
spectacle not to 60 TO the centennial. b.
tween such evi and pauperism there Is a
very short step. The vast ma jority of
children in your almshouses are there be-
cause their parents are drunken, or lazy, or
recklessly improvident.
have no sympathy for skiniint saving,
but / plead Tor Christian prudence. You
say it is impos sible now to lay up anything
for n rainy day. l know 1t, but we are at
the daybrenk OF national prosperity. Some
people think it Is mean to turn the gas low
when they go out OF the parlor. They feel
embarrassed II the door bell rings before
they have the hall lightel. They apologize
for the plain meal II you surprise them at
the table. Well, it is mean If it is only TO
pile up a misery hoard. But If 1t be to edu-
cate your CHlluTtn. IL IL D 10 give hoic
help 10 your wife when she does not feel
strong. if 1t be to keep your funeral day
from being horrible hey ond all endurance
because it 1. to lie the disruption and an
initiation of the domestic circle-if 1t be for
that. then it Is magnificent.
There are those who are kept in poverty
because Of their own fault. They might
have been well Off. but they smoked or
chewed up their earnings, or they lived be-
yond their means; while Others. on the same
wages and on the same salarie', went on to
competency. l know a man who was all the
time complaining OF his poverty and crying
out against rich men, while he himself keeps
two dog and che WIS and smokes and is full
TO the chin with whisky and beer. wilkins
Mica wber snid TO David Copperfield: Cop
Ierfiell /. my boy. one pouni income,
twenty shillings AMI sixpence; result,
misery. But, Copperfsld. my boy. one
pound income, nineteen shillings and six
pence; result, happiness" But, o working
man Of America, take your morning dram
and your noon dram, and your evening
dram, and spend everything you have over
for tobacco and excurs ons, and you insure
poverty Tor yourself and your children ior-
ever. IL by some generous fiat OF the CAPT
ia | is OF this country. or by a new law of
the government OF he United State, twenty
five per cent or fifty per cent or one hundred
per cent were added to the wages OF the
working classes OF America. II would be no
advantage to hundreds of Thousands OF them
un ess they stopped strong drink. Aye,
until they quit that evil habit, the more
money. the more ruin; the more wages, the
more holes in the bag.
My plea this morning Is to those working
people who are in n disciplesnip to the
whisky bottl,. the beer mug and the wine
flask. And what | say 10 them will not be
more appropriate to the work ing class IS than
to the business classes, and the literary
clas .es, and the professional Glasses, and all
classes, and not with the people OF one age
more than OF all ages Take one good square
look at he suffering Of the man whom strong
drink has enthralled, and remember that
toward that goa multitudes are running.
The di>ci ile o. alcoholism suffers the loss
OF his self respect Just as soon as a man
wake II and finds that he is the captive of
stron drink, he feels demeaned. l do not
care how reckless he acts. Hs may say Il
don't cal y he does care. He cannot look a
pure man in the eye un'ess 1t is with
positive force Of resolution. Three fourths
OF his ma u-e is destroyed; his self-respect is
gone; he says things he would not otherwise
say he does things he would not otherwise
do. When a man IL nine-tenths gone with
strong drink, the frat thing he wants to do is to
peisuaae you that he can stop any time he
wants IN. He cannot The Phillistines have
bound lin name and foot, AMI shorn his
locks, and put on his eye, and ars making
him grind in tn mil of a great horror. He
cannot stop | wi prove it. He knows that
his course is bringing ruin upon himself.
He loves himself. II he coal | stop he woul |.
He knows his course is bringing ruin upon
his fanny. He loves them He woul | stop
II h, could. He cannot Perhap, he could
three months or n year ago-not now. Just
ask him 10 stop for a month He cannot; he
knows he cannot. SO he does mo-.
try. | had a friend who for fifteen
We rs was goin down under this evil habit.
He lad LARGE means. He had given thou
sands OF dollars to Bible societies and re-
forma DRY institutions of all sorts. Hs was
very gen al, very generous and We y low
able, and whenever he talkel about this
wi habit he would say, L can stop any
time Bat he kept going on, going on,
down. down. down. H. family would say,
II wish you would stop" WHY, he woul |
reply, Il can stop any time If l want to -
Alter II while he had delir .um iremens, he
had 1. twice, and yet after that he said, ~
could stop at amy time If | wanteI or He
is dead row. What killed himl Riml
rumi And yet among his last utterances
was, Il can stop at any TIM" He did not
stop it because he could not stop 1t. Oh,
there is a po mt in inebriation hey jnl VIII Oh
II II man COOS he cannot stop.
Ole OF thes, victims said to a Christian
man: Sir, II | were told that | couldn get
a drink until tomorrow night unless | had
all my fingers cut off. | would say: Bring
the hatchet and cut them Off now.'' have
a dear friend in Philadelphia whose nephew
came 10 him one day and when he was ex-
horted about his evil habit said: Uncle, |
can't give 1t up II there stood a cannon and
IL was loaded, and n glass of WINE were set
on the mouth OF that cannon, AMI knew
that you would fire it off Just as I came
up aud took the glass. l would start.
for | mu' t have It," On. 1t Is a sad thi ng
for a man To wake up in this life and feel
that he is a cnptivel He says; Il could have
got rid OF this once, but l can now. !
might have lived an honorable life and died
a c ristian death but there is no hope for
me now there is no escape for me. Dead
but not buried. ! am a walking corpse. /
am an appnrition OF what | once was. l am
a Gagged immortal beating against the wires
Of my cage in this direction beating against
the cage until there is blood on the wires
and blood Upon my soul, yet not abb, to get
out Destroyed without remedy T.
20 on and say that the Disciple OF rum
suffers from tie loss OF physical health.
The older men OF the congregation may re-
memb'r that some years ago DIR. Sewell
went throug this country and cleo rihed
the people by his lectures, in which hs
showed the effects Of alcoholism on the
human siomarh- He had seven or eight dia-
gram. Inv which ha showed tina devastation
OF strong drink upon thu physi cal system.
There were thousands of people that turned
back from that ulcerous sketch, swearing
e ernal abstinence from everything that
c nd intoxicate.
God only knows what the drunkard suffers.
Pain files on every nerve. and travels every
muscle. and gnaws every bone, and burns