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


along with us and make our tormen t
there. So that l suppose when an in
ebriate 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 Stake 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 eternal fires will
the hot lips Of the drunkard drain his
draught? No one to brew it. No one to
mix it. No one to Tlur it No one to
fetch it. Millions OF worlds then Cor the
dregs which the young man just now
slung on the sawdusted floor of the res
taurant. Millions of worlds now for the
rind thrown out from the punch bowl of
an earthly banquet. Dives cried for wa
ter. The inebriate cries for rum. Oh,
the deep, exhausting, exasperating, ever
lasting thirst of the drunkard in hell 4!
Why, if a fiend should come up to earth
for some Internal work in grog shop,
and should go back taking on its wing Just
one drop of that for which the inebriate in
the lost world longs, what excitement it
would make there.
Put that one drop from off the fiend's
wing on the top of the tongue of the de-
stroyed inebriate; let the liquid bright
ness just touch it. let the drop be We. Y
small if it only have in it the smack of
alcoholic drink, let that drop just touch
the lost inebriate in the lost world, and
he would spring to his feet and cry:
THAT is ruml aha that is rum % and
it would wake up the echoes of the
damned
"Give me rum! Give me rum! Give me
rumw In the future world I do not be-
lieve that it will be the absence of God
shat will make the drunkard's sorrow; 1
do not believe that it will be the absence
of light; l do not believe that it will be the
absence of holiness; I think it will be
the absence of strong drink. Oh! ''Look
not upon the wine when it is red,
when it moveth itself Alright in the
cnp, for at the last, it biteth like
a serpent and it stingeth like an adder"
But l want, in conclusion, to say one
thing personal, for do not like a sermon
that has no personalities in it. Perhaps
this has not had that fault already. 1
want to say to those who are the victims
of strong drink that while / declare that
there was point beyond which a man
could not stop, I want to tell you that
while man can not stop in his own
strength, the Lord God by His grace,
can help him to stop at any time. Years
ago l was 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 1 never
understood. They said:
"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."
l believe that the time will soon come
when the grace of God will show its
power here, not only to save mans soul,
but his body, and recons truct, purify,
elevate and redeem it. verify believe
that although you feel graphing at the
roots of your tongues an almost omnip-
otent thirst, if you will this moment
give your heart to God He will help you
by His grace to conquer. Try it. 1t is
your last chance. l have looked off upon
the desolation. Sitting under my min
lstry there are people in awful peril from
ordinary circumstances: there is not one
chance in five thousand that they will get
clear of it.
see men in this congregation of whom
| mustmake 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 a drunkard's perdi-
ton. know that it is an awful thing to
say, but can't help saying it. Oh, be-
ware! You have not yet been captured.
Bewarel As ye open the door of your
wine closet to-day, may that decanter
flash out upon you: Beware! And when
you pour the beverage into the glass. il
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 drunk ards come up to get
their doom, want you to bear witness
thattI to-day, 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 it's in
fuence upcu your family, blowing out
some of its lights--a premonition of the
blackness of darkness forever.
Oh, if you could only hear this moment,
lntemperance, with drunkard's bones.
drumming on the head OF the wine eask
the Dead March of immortal souls, me-
thinks the very glance of a wine cup
would make you shudder, and the color
of the liquor would make you think of
the blood of the SO and the foam on
the top of the cup would remind you of
the froth on the maniac's lips,
and you would go home 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 last
call of the south wind the flowers would
come up all over the grave-sweet proph-
ecies of the resurrection. God has a
balm for such wound; but what flower
of comfort ever grew on the blasted heath
of q drunkard's sepu1cher?
TEASING CHILDREN.