The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-08-23

his course is bringing disgrace and ruin
upon himself. He loves himself. If he
could stop he would. he knows his
course is bringing ruin upon his family.
He loves them. He would stop if he
could. He can not. Perhaps he could
three months or a year ago; not now.
Just ask him to stop for month. He
can not; he knows he can not, so he does
not'try.
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 generoEs 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:
II wish you would stop"
''Why," he would reply, 81 can stop at
any time if 1 want to-"
After awhile he had delirium tremens;
he had it twice. and yet after that he
said: 81 could stop at any time if 1
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 a man
goes, he can not stop!
One of these victims said to a Christian
man:
''Sir, if I were told that I couldn't get
drink until tomorrow night unless 1 had
all my fingers cut off, would say: Bring
the hatchet and cut them off nOw.'"
/ 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 loaded, and a glass
of wine sat on the mouth of that cannon,
and I knew you would fire it off just as /
came up and took the glass. l 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 a captive. He says:
''I could have got rid of this once, but /
can't DOW. 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. l
am a walking corpse. l am an apparitiOn
of what 1 once was. 1 am Gagged imTnor-
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 remedv!"
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 little while ago we're fore
most in the churches aud in reformatory
institutions? Do you not know that
sometimes they knelt in the family cir
Gle? Do you not know that they prayed
in public, and some of them carried
around the holy wine on sacramental
days? 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 a man like 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 if 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 kn Ows 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
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 ulceruus
sketch, swearing eternal abstinence from
every thing that could intOxicate.
ovaIvv In ovvu f1ta Il y-t1y I ar.J
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 fiends stand
by his midnight pillow! What groans
tear his ear What horrors shiver through
his soull 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 noise"
But it is effectuaI only for a moment,
for as soon as the keeper is gone they be-
gin again:
"Oh, God! 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 aud they
blaspheme, and they ask the keeper to
kill them.
stab me. Smother me. strangle mo.
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. IT 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. see it coming.
Oh, is there any thing that viii 50 de-
stroy a man for this life and damn him
for the life TO come? l hate that strong
drink. With all the concentrated ener-
gies of my soul. l hate it. Do you tell
me that a man can be happy when he
heart and clothing his children with
rags? Why, there are on the streets Of
our cities to- day little children barefoot
ed, uucombed and unkempt, want on
every patch Of their faded dress, and on
every wrinkle OF their prematurely 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
rgrava Oh ruu fhOu foe of God. thou