The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-07-18

ToNenu6s give NE luITIy MILLIONS VI sOOeF
people, and We'll have revenue enough
and surplus"
We might in this country-this traffic
perished-have less revenue, but we
would have more happy homes, and we
would have more peace, and we wOalld
have fewer people in the penitentiary
and there would be tens of thousands of
men who are now on the road to hell who
would start on the road to Heaven. But
the financial ruin is a very small part of
it. This iniquity of which I speak takes
every thing that is sacred out of the fami-
ly, every thing that is holy in religion,
every thing that is infinite in the soul
and tramples it under foot. The marriage
day has come. The twain are at the altar.
Lights fash. Music sounds. Gay feet
go up and down the drawing room.
Did ever vessel launch. on such a
bright and beautiful sea? The scene
changes. Dingy garnet. No fire. On q
broken chair a sorrowful wife. Last
hope gone. Poor, forsaken, troddeu I'M
der foot, she knows all the sorrow of be-
ing q drunkard's wife. "Oh," she says,
she was the kindest man that ever lived,
he was so noble, he was so gooIl God
never made a grander man than he was
but the drink did it, the drink did it. 4"
Some day she will press her hands
against her temples and cry: ooh, my
brain, my brain!" or she will go out on
the abutment of the bridge some moon
light night and look down the CLASSY sur
face and wonder if under that CLASSY
surface there is not some rest for a
broken heart.
A young man, through the int8rce s.
sion of metropolitan friends, gets place
in bank or store. He is going to leave
his country home. That morning they
are up early in the old homestead. The
trunk is in the wagon. Mother says:
"My son. 1 put a Bible in the trunk; I
hope you will read it often" She wipes
the tears away with her apron. "Oh, 4"
he says, "come, don't be worried l know
how to take care Of my self. DON'T be
worried about me-" The father says:
''My son, be good boy, and write home
often; your mother will be anxious to
hear from YOU" Crack goes the
whip, and over the hills goes the
wagon. Five years passed on, and dis
sipated life has done its work for that
young man. There is q hearse coming up
in front of the old homestead. The
young men of the neighborhood who have
stald on the farm come in aud say: as
it possible? Why, he doesn't look natur-
al, does he? Is that the fair brow we
used to know? Is that the healthy
cheek we used to know? 1t can't be pos
sible that is him." The parents stand
looking at the cash in the forehead from
which the life oozed out, and they lift their
hands and say: 80 my son Absalom,
my son, my son Absalom; would God
had died for thee, o Absalom, my son.
my son"
Lorenzo de Medici was very sick, and
some of his superstitious friends thought
if they could dissolve q certain number
of pearls in a cup, and then he would
drink them it would cure him Of the dis
ease. So they went around and they
gathered up all the beautiful pearls they
could find, and they dissolved them in a
cup and the sick man drank them. Oh, it
was an expensive draught. But tell you
of a more expensive draught than that.
Drunkenness puts into its cup the pearl
Of physical health, the pearl of domestic
happiness, the pearl of respecta bility, the
pearl of Christian hope, the pearl of an
everlasting Heaven, and presses it to the
hot lips.
1 tell you the dramshop is the gate of
hell. The trouble is they do not put up
the right kind of sign. They have a
great many different kind of signs now
on places where strong drinks sold. One
is called the ''restaurant," and another
is called the saloon" and another is
called the ''hoteI," and another is called
the "wine cellar" and another is called
the sample room" What a name to
give one of those places! A "sample
room" saw man on the steps Of one
of those sample rooms" the other day.
dead drunk. 1 said to myself: 81 suppose
that is a sampled" I tell you it is the
gate.of hell.
"Oh," says some man, 81 am kind I am
indulgent to my family, I am right in
many resp ec;s, l am very generous, and l
have too grand aud generous moral nat
ure to be overthrow in that way" Let
me say that the persons who are in tue
most peril have the largest hearts, the
best education, the brightest prc spects.
This sin chooses the latest lambs for its
sacrifice. The brightest garlands are by
this carbuncled hand Of drunkenness torn
off the brow Of the poet and the orator.
Charles Lamb, answer! Thomas Hood.
answer! Sheridan, the English orator.
answer! Edgar A. Poe, answer! Junius
Brutus Booth, answeri
On, come and look over into it while
draw off the coyer-hang over it and look
down into 1t, and see the seething, boil
ing, loathsome, smoking, agonizing.
disappearing hell of the drunkard. Young
men, be master of your appetites aud
passions. There are hundreds-might !
not say thousands?-of young men in
this house this morning-young men of
fair prospects. Put your trust in the Lord
God and all is well. But you will be
tempted.
Perhaps yOn may this moment be adj
dressed on the first Sabbath of your COM
ing to the great city, and 1 give you this
brotherly counsel, speak not in a per-
functory way. speak as an older BROTH
er talks to younger brother. put my
hand on your shoulder this day and com
mend you to Jesus Christ, WHO Himself
was young man and died while vet
young man, and has sympathy for all
young men. On, be master, by the grace
OF God, of your appetites and passions !!
l close with peroration. Ministers
and spea kers are very apt to close with
peroration, and they generally roll up
some grand imagery to express what they
have to say. 1 close with a paroration
mightier than was ever uttered by mere
human lips. Two Quotations. The first
is this. ssIVbO hath ,voa9 ,rIo 1,.4r.