Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-05-23

is on the wagon. Mother saws: MY
son, put a Bible in the trunk. / hope
you will read it often" She wipes the
tears away with her apron. o." be
says, come, don't you BE- worried,
know how to take care of myself. Don't
be worried about me-" The father says:
My son, be good hoy 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 have passed on and a dissipated
life has done its work for that young man.
There is hearse coming up in front of
the old homestead. The young men of
the neighborhood who have stayed on the
farm come and say: lis il possible?
Why, he doesn't look natural, does he?
Is that the fair brow we used to know!
Is that the healthy cheek we used to
know! 1t can't be possible 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:
% my son Absalom, my son, my 500
Absalom; would God L had died for thee,
o Absalom, my son, my sonw
| Lorenzi de Medici was very sick and
some of his superstitious friends thought
| If they could dissolve a 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. o, 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 do
mestic happiness, the pearl of respecta-
| biiity, the pearl of Christian hope, the
pearl of an everlasting Heaven and presses
it to the hot lips.
tell you the dram shop is the gate of
hell. The trouble is they do not put up
the right kind of a sign. They have a
great many different kinds of signs now
on places where strong drink is sold. One
is called the restaurant" and another is
called the saloon" and another is called
the 'hotel," and another is called the
sample room" What a name to give
one of those places! A Sample roomW
l saw a man on the steps of one of those
sample rooms" the other day dead
drunk. 1 said to myself: Il suppose this
is samplep tell you it is the gate of
hell.
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 would have fewer
people in the penitentiary, and there
would be tens of thousands of men who
are now on the road to he'll who would
start on the road to Heaven.
o." says some man, Il am kind, l am
indulgent to my family, lam right in many
respects, l am very generous, and / have
too grand and generous a moral nature to
be overthrown in that way" Let me say
that the persons who are i'll the most peril
have the lightest hearts, the best educa-
ton, the brightest prospects This sin
chooses the latest lambs for its sacrifice.
The brightest garlands are by this car
buncled 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, answer.
o, come and look over into it while |
draw off the cover-hang over it end look
down into it and see the seething, boiling,
loathsome, smoking agoniZing. blasphem-
ing hell of the drunkard. Young man be
master of your appetiteS and passions.
There are hundreds-might l not say
thousands?-of young men in this house
this morning--young men of fair pros
poets. Put your trust in the Lord God and
all is well. But you will be tempted. Per-
haps you may this moment be addressed
on the first Sabbath of your coming to the
great city, and l give you this brother!y
counsel Isspeak not in the perfunctory
way. speak as an older brother talks to
younger brother. 1 put my hand on
your shoulder this day and commend you
to Jesus Christ who himself was young
man and died while yet a young man, and
has sympathy for all young men. o, be
master, by the grace of God, of your APP
petites and passions!
| close with peroration. Ministers and
speakers are very apt to close with per-
GRAFTON. and they generally roll up some
grand imagery to express what they have
to say. / close with peroration
mightier than was ever uttered by human
Inns. Two quotations. The first is this:
WHO hath woe? who hath babblins:
who hath wounds without cause: They
that tarry long at the wine, they that go
to seek mixed wine. Look not upon the
wine when it is red, when it moveth itself
Alright in the cup, for at the last it biteth
like a serpent and stingeth like an ad-
der" This is the other quotation. Make
up your mind as to which is the more i'm
preSsive. l think the last is the mighter:
Rejoice, o young man. in thy youth, and
let thy heart cheer thee in the days of
thy youth, and walk thou in the sight of
thine eyes; but know that for all these
things God will bring thee into judg-
ment"