The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-07-15
Again, the inebriate suffers shroueh the

L L
he loves his wife and children: If this pas.
sion for strons drink hasmastered him,
he will do the r..ost outrageous things, and
| if he could aot 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 viii so
destroy man for this life and damn him
/ for the life that is to oomes l hate that
| strong drink. With all the concen-
| trated energies of my soul I hate
| 1t. Do not tell me that a 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 streets Of this land to-day
little children, barefooted 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 to-day and as well clad es you
are but for the fact that rum destroyed
their parents and drove them into the
! grave. rum, thou foe of God, thou
despoiler of homes, thou recruiting officer
of the pit, nate thee!
But my subject takes deeper tome 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,
II we are unforgiven here, our bad pas
| sions and appetites, unrestrained, will go
along with us and make our torment there.
So that, l 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 may
| have been very poor, he could beg or he
could steal five cents with which
to get that which would slake 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
brew it. No one to mix it. 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 HE'LL
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-
| iieve that 1t win be the absence of light. I
| do not believe that it will be the absence Of
holiness. 1 think it will be the absence Of
rum. Oh,
LOOK not upon the wine when It is red,
when 1t moveth itself Alright in the cup, for
| At the last it biteth like u serpent and 10
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 neighbor.
hoods, towns and cities were redeemed by
their Christian heroics. Thirty women
cleared out the rum traffic from village
OF 1000 inhabitants. If thirty women sur.
charged of the Holy Ghost could renovats
a town of thousand, three thousand con-
secrated women, resolved to give 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 thu work. I will
take the contract for drivinseout 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, then, a. a
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
1
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 I"
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 point beyond which
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. was in a
room in New York where there were many
men who had been reclaimed from drunk
ennsss. heard their testimony, and for
the first time in my life there flashed out a
truth 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 our hearts to
Christ, he has taken care of u.s."
/ 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 theroots 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 assemble yes
there are 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.
ton 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 perdiction. know this is
an awful thing to say, but can not help
saying it. Oh, beware! You have not yet