The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-10-17

could stop he would. he knows his
course is bringing ruin upon his family
He loves them. He would stop il he
could. He can not. Perhaps he could
three months or year ago; not now,
Just ask him to stop for month. He
can not; he knows he can not, so he does
not try.
l had friend who for fifteen years was
going down under this evil habit. He
had large means. He had given thou
sands of dollars to Bible societies and
reformatory institutions of all sorts. He
was very genial and very generoGs and
very lovable, and whenever he talked
about this evil habit he would say:
81 can stop at any time"
But he kept going on, going on, down,
down, down. His family would say:
81 wish you would stop"
''Why," he would reply, 81 can stop al
any time if want to-"
After awhile he had delirium tremens
he had il twice, and yet after that he
said: 81 could stop at any time if
wanted to-" He is dead now. What
killed him? Rum! rum! And yet among
his last utterances was: 81 can stop at
any time" He did not stop it, because
he could not stop it. Oh, there is a point
in inebriation beyond which, if man
goes, he can not stopl
One of these victims said to a Christian
man:
Sir, if 7 were told that couldn't get a
drink until tomorrow night unless 1 had
all my fingers cut off. would say: Bring
the Ratchet and cut them off now"
l have a dear friend in Philadelphia,
whose nephew came to him one day, and
when he was exhorted about his evil hab-
it, said:
Uncle, can't give itup. If there stood
a cannon, and it was loa led, and a glass
of wine sat on the mouth Of that cannon,
and knew you would fire it off just as 1
came up and took the glass would start,
for must have it." Oh, it is sad thing
for man to wake up in this life and feel
that he is captive. He says:
II could have got rid Of this once, but l
can't now. l might have lived an honor
able life and died Christian death; but
there is no hope for me now; there is no
escape for me. Dead, but not buried.
am walking corpse. am an apparition
OF what | once was. am Gagged immor-
tai, 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 upon my
SOUL yet not able to get out. Destroyed
without remedyt'
go further. aud 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 a little while ago were fore
v11O inf bn 4 !.
institutions? Do you not know that
sometimes they knelt in the family cir
Gle? Do you not know that they prayed
III public, and some of them carried
around the holy wine on sacramental
daysf Oh, yes, they stood in the very
front rank, but they gradually fell away
And now what do you suppose is the feel
ing of man like that when he thinks of
his dishonored vows and the dishonored
sacrament he thinks of what he
might have been and Of what he is now?
Do such men laugh and seem very merry?
All, there is, down in the depths Of their
soul, very heavy weight. Do not Won
der that they sometimes see strange
things, and act very roughly in the
household. You would not blame them
at all il you knew what they suffer. Do
not tell such as that there is no future
punishment. Do not tell them there is
no such place as ilelf. He knows there
is. He is there nowl
&c on, and say that the inebriate suf-
fers from the loss of physical health. The
older men IN the congregation may re-
member that some years ago DIR. Sewell
went through this country and electrified
the people by his lectures, in which he
showed the effects of alcohol on the hu-
man stomach. He had seven or eight dia-
grams by which he showed the devasta-
ton of strong drink upon the physical
system. There were thousands of people
that turned back from that uleerous
sketch, swearing eternal abstinence from
every thing that could intoxicate.
God only knows what the drunkard suf-
fers. Pain flies on every nerve and trav-
els every muscle and gnaws every bone,
and burns with every flame, and stings
with every poison. and pulls at him with
every torture. What reptiles crawl over
his creeping limbsl What fends stand
by his midnight pillowl What groans
tear his earl What horrors shiver through
his SOUL Talk Of the rack, talk of the
Inquisition, talk of the funeral pyre, talk
OF the crushing Juggernaut--he feels
them all at once. Have you ever been in
the ward of the hospital where these in
ebriates are dying. the stencil of their
wounds driving back the attendants.
their voices sounding through the night?
The keeper comes up and says:
"Hush, now, be still Stop making all
this noisel'
But it is effectual only for moment.
for as soon as the keeper is gone they be-
gin again:
"Oh, God! oh, Godl Helpl Helpl Rum /!
Give me rum! Help! Take them off me .
Take them off me! Oh, Godl"
And then they shrek, and they rave, and
they pluck out their hair by handsful. and
bite their nails into the quick, and then
they groan, and they shrek and they
blaspheme, and they ask the keeper 10
kill them.
stab me. Smother me. Strangle me.
Take the devils off me-"
Oh, 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. 1t went
on last night while you slept and I tell
you further that this is going to be the
death that some of you will die. | know
it, see it coming.
Oh, is there any thing that will so de-
stroy man for this life and damn him
for the life to come? l hate that strong
drink. With all the concentrated ener-