The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1889-08-22

Il can stop at any time."
But he kept going on, going on, down,
down, down. His family would say:
II wish you would stop"
why" he would reply, 81 can stop at
any time IL l want to-"
After awhile he had delirium tremens;
he had IL twice, and yet after that he
said: 81 could stop at any time IL l
wanted to-" He is dead now. What
killed hims Rumi rumi And yet among
his last utterences was; 81 can stop at
any time" He did not stop it. because
he could not stop IL. oh, there is point
in inebriation beyond which, il a man
goes, he can not stopi
One Of these victims said to Christian
man:
Sir, IL I we're told that couldn't get
drink until tomorrow night unless had
all my fingers cut of. would say: Bring
the Ratchet and cut them off now"
1 have a dear friend in Philadelphia,
whose nephew came to him one day, aud
when he was exhorted about his evil hab-
it said:
Uncle, can't give itup. If there stood
a cannon, and it was loaded, and glass
OF wine sat on the mouth OF that cannon,
and knew you would fire it off just as 1
cameup and took the glass, would start,
for must have it" Oh, it is a sad thing
for man to wake up in this life and feel
that he is captive. He says:
81 could have got rid Of this once, but /
can't now. 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 a walking corpse. am an apparition
.1,aN 7 7 ,r,,V vND--
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 remedyr'
60 further. aad 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 we're FORE
most in the churches and in reformatory
institutions? Do you not know that
sometimes they knclt in the family cir
Gle? Do you not know that they prayed
in public, aud some of them carried
around the holy wine on sacramental
days? On, yes, they stood in the very
front rank, but they gradually fell away.
ing of man ike that, when he thinks of
his dishonored VOWS and the dishonored
sacrament-when 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 ii 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 hell He knows there
is. He is there now!
go 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 DR.. Sewell
weut'through this country and electrified
the people by his lectures, in which he
showed the effects of alcohol on the hui.
man stomach. He mad seven or eight dia-
grams by which he showed the deyasta-
ton of strong drink upon the physical
system. There were thousands OF people
that turned back from that ulcerous
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 limbs! What fends stand
by his midnight pillow! What grOans
tear his ear! What horrors shiver through
his soul. Talk of the rack, talk of the
fnqusition, 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 whore 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 nOise"
But it is effectual only for moment,
for as soon as the keeper is gone they be-
gin again:
"Oh, Godl oh, God! Help! Help! Rum!
Give me rum! Help! Take them off me !
Take them off me! Oh, God!"
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 groau, and they shrek and they
bias pheme, 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
ueighbOrhood on this continent. 1t went
on last night while you slept and tell
you further that this is going to be the
death that some OF you will die. know
it. l see it coming.
Oh, is there any thing that will so de.
stroy a man for this life and damn him
for the life to Gomez | hate that strong
drink. With all the concentrated ener-
gies of my soul l hate il. Do you 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 streets Of
our cities to- day little children barefoot
ed, uncombed and unkempt, want on
every patch of their faded dress, and on
every wrinkle of their preSaturely old
counteuances, who wOuL1 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 tne
grave. Oh, rum thou foe of God, thou
despoier of homes, thou recruiting off :
Ger of the pit, abhor thee!
But my subject taxes deeper tone,
ana that is. that the inebriate suffers
from cue loss of the soul. The Bible in
Inmates that in the future world, if we
are unforgiven here, our bad passions
| and appetites, unrestraiued, will 60
along with Us aud make our torment
there. So that l suppose when an in
ebriate wakes up in this lost world he