The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-08-28

ever he talked about this evil habit ne would
say, ~ can stop any time" But 10 kept
going on, going on, down, down, down. His
family would say, II wish you would stop"
s'Why," he would reply, II can stop any
time If want to-" After while he had
delirium tremens; he had it twice; and yet
after that he said, ~ could stop at any time
il wanted to-" He is dead now. What
killed himl RUM Rum! And yet among
his last ut terances was, 81 can stop at any
time" He did not stop it, because he could
not stop it. o, there is point in inebria-
ton beyond which, if man goes, he can
not stop.
One Of these victims said to a Christian
man: '.Sir, if were told that couldn't get
drink until to morrow night unless l had
all my fingers cut of. would say: Bring
the Ratchet and,cut them of now" Ihave
a dear friend in Philadelphia, whose nephew
came TO him one day, and when he was ex-
hOrted about his evil habit, said: "Uncle,
l can't give it up. If there stood cannon,
and it was load ed and glass OF wine sat
on the mouth of that cannon, and l knew
that you would fire it off iustas / came up
and took the glass, would start, for must
have it," 0, it is a sad thing for q man to
wake up in this life and feel that he is
captive. He says: II could have got rid
of this once, but can't now. l might have
lived an honorable life and died Christian
| death; but there is no hope for HE now;
there is no escape for me. Dead, but not
buried. am walking corpse. l am an
apparition Of what was. am Gagged inn
mortal, beating against the wires Of my
cage in this direction and in that direction;
beating against the cage until there is blood
on the wires and blood on my soul, yet not
able to get out. Destroyed, without remedy
60 further, and say that the inebriate
suffers from the loss of his usefulness. Do
you not recognize the fact that many OF
those who are now captives of strong drink
only little while ago were foremost in the
churches and in reformatory institutional
Do you not know that sometimes they knelt
in the family circleg Do you not know that
they prayed in public, and some Of them
carried around the holy wine on sacra-
mental days! o, yes, they stood in theverv
front rank, but they gradually fellaway.
And now what do you suppose is the feeling
of such man as that, when he thinks Of This
dishonored vows and the dishonored sacra-
| ment-when he thinks Of what he might
have been and what he is nowl Do such
men laugh and seem very merryl All, there
is, down in the depths of their soul, a very
heavy weight. Do not wonder that they
sometimes see strange things, and act very
roughly in the household You would not
blame them at all if you knew what they
suffer. Do not tell such as that there is no
future punishment. Do not tell him there
is no such place as hell He knows there is
| He is there now! ne lv
go on and say tn at the inebriate suffers
from the loss of physical health. The older
men in the congregation may remember
that some years ago DIR. Sewell went
through the country and electrified the peo-
pie by his lectures, in which he showed the
effects of alcohol on the human stomach.
He had seven or eight diagrams by which
he showed the devastation Of strong drink
upon the physical system. There were
thousands of people that turned back from
the ulcerous sketch swearing eternal absti-
hence from every thing that could intoxi-
| CATE
God only knows what the drunkard suf-
fers. Pain files on every nerve, and travels
every muscle, and Gn1ws every bone, and
burns with every fame, and stingS with
every poison, and pulls at HIN with everI
torture. What Reptiles crawl cverAiS ttS6
ing limbs! What hends stand BY his mid.
night pillow What groans tear his ear
What horrors SILVER through his soull Talk
Of the rack, talk of the Inquisition talk of
the funeral pyre, talk of the crushing Of the
Juggernaut-he feels them all at once.
Have you ever been in the ward Of the hos
pital where these inebriates are dying, the
stencil Of their wounds driving back the
attendants, their voices sounding through
the night9 The keeper comes up and says
"Hush, now, be still. Stop making all
this noiser' But it is effectual only
for moment, for as soon as the keeper
is gone they begin again: 20, God
oh, Coda Help! Help! Rum! Give me
rum! Help! Take them off me! Take
them off me! Take them off me! o,
God" And then they shrek, and they
rave, and they pluck out their hair
by handful, and bite their nails into the
quick, and then they groan and they shrek
and they blaspheme, and they ask the keep.
ers to kill them. "Stab me. Smother me-
Straugle me- Take the devils off me-" O.
it is no fancy sketch. That thing is going on
in hospitals, aye, it is going on in some OF
the finest residences Of every neighborhood
on this continent. It went on last night
while you slept, and tell you further that
this is going to be the death some of you
will die. know it. see it coming.
o, is there any thing that will SO destroy
a man for this life and damn him for the
life that is to comet l hate that strong
drink With all the concentrated energies
Of my soul, hate it. Do you tell me that 6
man can be happy when he knows that he
is breaking his wife's heart and clothing
his children with ragsl Why, there are or
the streets of our cities to-day, little chill
dren, barefooted, uncombed 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 as you
are, but for the fact that rum destroyed
their parents and drove them into the
grave. o, rum! thou foe of God, thou de.
spoiler of homes, thou recruiting officer Of
the pit, abhor thee!
But my subject takes deeper tone, and
that is that the inebriate suffers from the
loss of the soul. The Bible intimates that
in the future world, if we are unforgiven
here, our bad passions and appetites unre
strained, will go along with US and
make our torment there. So I sup
pose that when an inebriate wakes up
in this lost 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; bu,
in eternity, where is the rum to come from
Dives could not get one drop Of water