The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-20


Again, the inebrate suffers through the loss Of
his home. l do not care how much be loves bis
wife and children; If this passion for strong
drink has mastered him, he will do the most out
rageous 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 in that way, no one but God knows. Oh,
is there anything that will so destroy man for
this life and damn him for the life that
is to come? / hate that strong
drink. With all the concentrated energies
of my soul, / nate it. Do not tell me that q man
can be happy when he knows that he is breaking
his wife's heart and clothing his children with
rags. Why, there are on the roads and streams
of this land to-day little children, barefooted I'M
combed and unkempt-want on every patch OF
their faded dress and on every wrinkle OF their
prematurely old countenances, who would have
been in churches today and as well clad as you
are but for the fact that rum destroyed their
parents, and drove them into the grave.
0 rum, thou foe of God, thou despoerof homes.
thou recruiting officer of the pit, hate thee!
But my subject takes deeper tone, and thai
is that the unfortunate of whom l speak suffers
from the loss of the soul. The Bible intimates
that in the future world, If we are unforgiver
here, our bad passions and appetites, unre
strained, will go along with us and make ouf
torment there So that suppose. when an in
ebriate wakes up in the last world, he will IND
an infinite thirst clawing on him. Now, down
in the world, although he may 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 'front.' Dives could
not get one drop of water. From what chaice
of fire will the hot lips of the drunkard drain hs
draughtg No one to brew it. No one to mix IL
No one to pour it. No one to fetch it. Millions
of worlds then for the dregs which the youns
man just now slung on the sawdusted floor Of
the restaurant. Millions of worlds now for the
rind thrown out OF the punch bowl oil
an earthly banquet Dives cried for
the Deep exhausting exasperating, everlasting
thirst of the drunkard in HE'LL Why, if a fend
came up to earth from some Internal work in Q
grog shop and should go back taking on its wing
Just one drop Of that for which the nebriate ia
the lost world longs what excitement would il
make there! Put that one drop from Off the fenda
wing on the tip of the tongue of the destroyed
inebriate; let the liquid brightness just touch It;
let the drop be very small, If it only have in
that drop just touch the lost inebriata
in the lost world, and he would
spring to his feet and cry. 'That is rum, ahai
That is rum" And it would wake up the echoes
of the damned: ''Give me rum! Give me ruml
Give me rum!r In the future world do not be-
lieve that it will be the absence of God that will
make the drunkards sorrow. I do not believe
that it will be the absence of light; do not be-
lieve that it will be the absence of holiness.
think it will be the absence of rum Oh, look
eth itself Alright in the cup, for at last 1t biteth
like serpent and it stingeth like an adder"
tits 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
neighborhoods. towns and cities were redeemed
by their Christian heroics. Thirty women cleared
out the rum traffic from avillage of one thousand
inhabitants. If thirty women surcharged of the
Holy Ghost, can renovate town OF thousand.
three thousand consecrated women, resolved to
give themselves no peace until this crime was
extirpated from this city, could in six months
clear out three-fourths of the grog-shops OF
Brooklyn. If there be three thousand women
now in this city who will puts 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 three-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, as minister of the most
high God will offer to take my position at the
front of the host. and will cry to them: Come
on. We women of Christ, with your songs aud
your prayers! Some of you take the enemy's
right wing and some the left wing. Forward
The Lord of Hosts 10 with US; the God of Jacob
is our refuge! Down with the dram shops!"
But not waiting for those months 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 q
point beyond which man could not stop, Iwant
to tell you that while man cannot stop in his
own strength, the Lord God by His grace can
in a room in New York where there
were many men who had been re-
claimed from drunkenness l heard their
testimony, and. for the first time in my life,
there flashed out truth l never understood.
They said 1--WE were victims of strong drink.
We tried to give it up. but always failed; but.
somehow, since we gave up our hearts to Christ
He has taken care of u.s." / belive that the time
will soon come when the grace of God will show
- L.-Ll
body, and reconstruct purify. elevate, and re-
deem it.
I verify believe that, although you feel Crap
ping at the roots of your tongues an almost om-
nipotent thirst, if you will give your heart to
God He will help you by His grace to conquer,
Try it. 1t is your last chance. have looked of
upon the desolation. Sitting in our religious as
semblages there are good many people in awful
peril; and judging from ordinary circumstances,
there is not one chance in five thousand that
they will get clear of it. There are men In
my congregation from Sabbath to Sabbath Of
whom must make the remark that if they do
not change their course, within ten years they
will, as to their bodies. lie down in drunkards
graves, and as to their souls lie down in drunk
ards perdition. / know that is an awful thing
to say, but cannot help saying it. Oh, bewarel
You have not yet been captured Bewarel
Whether the beverage be poured in golden chai-
ice or pewter mug, in the foam at the top, in
white letters let there be spelled out to your
soul "Beware!' When the books of judgment
are open, and ten million drunkards come up to
get their doom, want you to bear witness that
l. this morning, in the fear of God and in the
love for your soul, told you with all affection
and with all kindness to beware of that which
has already exerted its influence upon your
family, blowing out some of its lights-a pre-
monition of the blackness of darkness
forever. Oh, If you could only hear this morn
ing intemperance with drunkard's bones drum
ming on the head of the liquor cask the dead
march of immortal souls, methinks the very
glance of winecup would make you shudder,
and the color of the liquor would make you
think of the blood of the SOUL and the foam
the top of the cup would remind you of the froth
from this service and kneel down and pray God
that, rather than your children should become
captives of this evil habit, you would like to
carry them. out some bright spring day to the
cemetery and put them away to the last sleep.
until at the call Of the south wind the flowers