The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-08-29


from the loss of physical health. The older
men In the congregation may remember that
some years ago Dr. Sewell went through this
country and electrified the people by his lee
lures, In which he showed the effects OF alco-
hol on the human stomach He had seven
or eight diagrams by which no showed the
devastation OF strong drink upon tho physt-
cal system. There were thousands of people
that turned back from that ulcerous sketch
swearing eternal abstinence from everything
that could intoxicate.
God only knows what the drunkard sur.
fers. Pain files on every nerve, and travels
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 Creep
ing limbs What tiends stand by his mid
night pillow What groans tear his carl
What horrors SILVER through his soul Talk
of the rack, talk of the Inquisition, talk OF
the funeral pyre, talk of the crushing Jug
gernaut-he fecls them all at once. Have
you ever been in tho ward of the hos
pital where these inebriates arc dying,
the stencil of their wounds driving
back the attendants, thor voices sounding
through the niShtf The keeper comes up
and says: "Hush, now, be still. Stop MAX
ing all this noisep But it is effectual only for
a moment, for as soon as the keeper is gone,
they begin again: 'oh, God oh, God Helpi
nelDl ItuU. olVe Asfe rum! I1elpI Lake
them off mo! Take thom Off me! Take them
off me! Oh. Godr and then they Shrek, and
they rave, and they pluck out their hair by
handsful and bite thoir nails into the quick.
and then they groan, and they shrek,
and they blaspheme and they ask the keepers
to kill them. Stab me. Smother me.
Strangle me. Take the devils off mem Oh,
it is no fancy sketch That thing is going on
in hospitals, aye, it is going on in some of the
Gpaat rcciInnaas Of npiulthnrnn0I on,
this continent. 1t went on lastnight whileyou
slept, and tell you further that this is going
to be the death that some of You will die,
know it. / soc it coming.
Again. the inehriate suffer- through the
| loss of his home do not care how much he
| loves his wife and children, if this passion
for strong drink has mastered him, he will
| do tho most outrageous things, ard if he
| coald not get drink in any other way, he
would sell his family into eternal bondage.
| How many homes have been broken up in
that way, no one but God knows.
Oh, is there anything that viii so destroy
| a man for this life and damn him for the life
that is to come? l hate that strong drink.
| With oil tho concentrated energies of my
soul, hate it. Do you tell me that man
can be happy when he knows that he is
breaking his wife's heart and clothing
his children with rags2 Why, there
are on the streets Of our citiI
to-day little children, barefooted, un-
combed aud uI,iempt; want on every patch
Of their faded dress and on every wrinkle Of
their prcmaturely old countenances, who
would have been in churches to-day, and as
we'll clad as you are but for the fact that
rum destroyed their parents and drove them
into the grave Oh, rum! thou foe of God,
thou destroyer of homes, thou recruiting
officer Of the pit, | abhor thee!
But my subject takes a deeper tone,
4l,oE ,, hat i,ai, 70 Fore
from the loss OF tho soul The Bible
intimates that in the future world, if
We are unforgiven here, our bad passions
and appetites, unrestrained will go along
with us and make our torment there Sc
that | suppose when an inebriate wakes up
in this lost world he will feel an in
finite thirst clawing on him. Now, down
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 set one drop of water. From
what cbalice of eternal fires will the hot lips
of tho drunkard drain his draught? No ono
to brew it. No one to mix it. No one to pour
it, No one to fetch it. Millions of worlds
then for the dregs which the young man
just now sluHg on the saw-dusted
floor of the restaurant. Millions
of worlds now for the rin6t
thrown out from the punch bowl of
an earthly banquet. Dives cried for water.
The inebriate cries for rum. Oh, the deep,
exhausting, eXasperating, everlasting thirst
OF the drunkard in hell Why, if a fend
came up to earth for some Internal work in a
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 OK
citenont it would make there. Put that one
drop from off the iend's wing on the tip Of
/ AZ oe bo incl ~. ~
the liquid brightness just touch it,
let the drop be very small if
it only have in It the smack Of alcoholic
drink. let that drop lust touch the lost ine-
pirate In the lost world, and he would spring
to his feet and cry: THAT is rum ahal that
is rumm and it would wake up the echoes OF
the damned: ''Give me rum! Give me rum
Give me rumr' In the future world, dc
not believe that it viii be the absence of God
that will mako the drunkards sorrow; dc
not believe that it will be the absence Of
light; do not bslieve that it will be the alb
sence Of holiness; / think it will be the alb
sence of strong drink. Oh! look not upor
the wine when it is red, when it moveth it
self Alright in the cup for at the last it bitett
like a serpent and it stingeth like an adder. ,
But l want in conclusion to say one thing
personal, for l do not like a sermon that has
no personalities in it, Perhaps this has not
had that fault already. want to say to
those who are the victims of strong drink
that while declare that there vas pom.
. beyond which man could not stop, wan
! to tell you that while man cannot stop ~
his own strength, the Lord God
by His grace, can help him &c
stop at any time. Years ago l was II
! a room in New York where there wert
many men who had been reclaimed IRON
{ drunkenness / heard their testimony, ane
for the first time in my life there flashed on
l a truth never understood. They said; W.
Q were victims of strong drink. We tried t.
8 give it up, but always failed; but somehow
s since we gave our hearts to Christ he ha
5 taken care of u.s. / believe that the tim
! will soon come when the grace of God Wi
:, show its power here not only to save man
i SOUL but his body, and reconstruct purify
9 elevate and redeem it. verify believe tha'
4 although you feel graphing at tn
s roots OF your tongues Gu almost omnlpoten
{ thirst, il you viii this moment give you
Q heart to God He win help You, by His grace
= to conquer. Try it. 1t is your last chance
! have looked off upon the desolation. Sr
$ ting under my ministry there are people i
:. awful peril from strong drink, and, judgin
|. from ordinary circumstances, there Is no
S one chance in five thousand that they wi
o get clear of it. l see men in this congrt
9 CATION of whom | must make the remark
d that if they do not change their course
II within ten years they will, as to their bodies
q lie down IN QrunkthuS graves. anu u W VIC
IS souls, lie down in drunkard's perdition.
5. know that it is an awful thing to say, but
: can't help saying it. Oh, bewarel You has
d not yet been captured Beware! As J
n open the door of your wine closet to-da!
& may that decanter fash out upon yo'
d Beware! and when you pour the beverae
q into the glass, in the foam at the top,
It white letters, let them be spelled out to yor
!; soul: "Bewarer' When the books of JUDI
|: menr are open, and ten million drunkarC
" come up to get their doom, l want you
II bear witness that l, to-day, in the fear {
s God and in the love for your soul. told 70
It with all affection, and with all kindness, .
!, beware of that which has already exerted ii
l. influence upon your family, blowing gu
some of its ights-a premonition of th
\ blaclness of darkness forever. Ot
{ If you could only hear TIL
!. moment, intemperance, with DRUM
q ards bones drumming on the head OF th
wine cask the Dead March of immortal soul
+ methinks the very glance of a wine Gu
I, would make you shudder, and the color {
i the liquor would make you think OF tn
blood Of the soul and the foam on the top
the cup would remind you of the froth
{ the maniac's lip, and you would go HON
from this service and kneel dow
I and pray God that, rather tina
> your children should become captive