The Russellville Democrat., 1889-08-22

But he kept going on, going on, down, down, down. His family would say:
 "I wish you would stop"
 'Why," he would reply, q can stop al any time if want to-"
 After awhile he had de1irium tremens he had if twice. and yet after that he l said II could stop at any time if wanted to-" He is dead now. What Killed him? Rum ruml And yet among his last utterences was: q can stop al any time" He did not stop it, because he could not stop it. Oh there is point in inebriation beyond which, if man goes, he can not stop!
 One of these victims said to a Christian man:
 Sir, if were told that I couldn't get 0 drink until tomorrow night unless had all my fingers cut of, would say: Bring the hatchet and cut them of now.'" have a dear friend in Philadelphia, whose nephew came Go him one day, and when he was exhorted about his evil hab- it, said;
 Uncle can't give itup. If there stood 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 I | 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 l that he is a captive. He says:
 q could have got rld of this once, but can't now. I 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 walking corpse. I am an apparition of what once was. l am caged immor- | 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 remedy !"
 go further and 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 were fOre- most in the churches and in reformatory institutions? Do you not know that sometimes they knelt in the family cir cle? 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 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? An, there is, down in the depths of their soul, a 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 knows there is. He is there ncw
 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 ulcerous sketch, swearing eternal abstinence from every thing that could intoxicate. God only knows what the drunkard sui | fers. Pain flies on every nerve and trav- | els every muscle, and gnaws every bone and burns with every flame, and sting' with every poison, and pulls at him witt | every torture. What reptiles crawl ovel | his creeping limbs What fends stanC | by his midnight pillowl What groans tear his earl What horrors shiver througf his soul Talk of the rack, talk of thC | Inquisition, talk of the funeral pyre, tall | 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 steneh of their
 wounds driving back the attendants their voices sounding through the night The keeper comes up and says:
 Flush, now, be still Stop making al | this noise"
 But it is effectual only for moment | for as soon as the keeper Is gone they be- | gin again:
 "Oh, God! oh, God! Helpl Helpl Rum Give me rumi Help! Take them off me Take them of mel Oh, GodV And then they shriek and they rave, anC they pluck out their hair by handsful, and bite their nails into the quick, and then they groan, and they shriek and they bias pheme, and they ask the keeper tC kill them.
 "Stab me. Smother mo. Strangle me. Take the devils off me-"
 | Oh, it is no fancy sketch. That thing i' | going on in hospitals, aye, it is going or | in some of the finest residences of every neighborhood on this continent It went on last night while you slept, and I tel you further that this is going to be the death that some of you will die. l know | it. see it coming.
 Oh, is there any thing that will so de- stroy 0 man for this life and damn him | for the life to come? I hate that strong drink. With all the concentrated ener. gies of my soul, 1 hate it. Do you tel
 me that a man can be happy when h, | knows that he is breaking his wife': heart and clothing his children witt rags? Why, there are on the streets oi our cities to- day little children barefoot
 ed, uncombed and unkempt, want on
 every patch of their faded dress, and or | every wrinkle of their prematurely olC
 countenanees, who womb have been in
 churches to- day, and as well clad as you
 are, but for the fact that rum destrOye, | their parents aud drove them into ril,
 grave. Oh, ruml thou foe of God, tho,
 despoiler of homes thou recruiting ofl
 cer of the pit I abhor thee!
 But my subject takes deeper tone
 and that is, tAat tho inebriate suffer
 from ehe loss of the soul The Bible iu.
 inmates that in the future world if "
 are unforgiven here, our bad passions
 and appetites, unrestraiued, will 2,
 along with us and make our tormen
 there. So that l suppose when an in
 ebriate wakes up in this lost world h.
 will feel ea infinite thirst clawing ol
 him. Now, down in the world, althougl
 he may have been very poor, he coul
 beg or he could steal five cents witt
 which to get that which would slake hi
 thirst for little while; but in eternity where is tho rum to come fromy Dive
 could not ge { one drop of water.
 From what ohalioe of eternal fires vii
 the hot lips of tho drunkard drain hi
 draught? No one to brew it. No one tc
 mix it. No one to pour it. No one to