St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-03-02
Rocks and Wrecks.

The history of the world is history O.
wrecks. From the first entrance of sin
which shipwrecked the hopes of a race
down to the last experience of human
transgression and human misery, ths
worlds history is tale of wreck and ruin
There are certain rocks on our coasts
that have been famed for disaster, and
that have for generations been strewn will
the wrecks of noble ships. So on the coast
of life there are rocks that have been the
ruin of myriads of souls and pre-eminent
among the desolatiops which sin has
caused, may be named the wrecks wrought
by intemperance
The history of the ages is strewn with
the records of these wrecks. The ante.
diluvian world "ate and drank" till the
flood came and took them all away. and
the one man who, with his household, es-
capped the deluge, yet was not unspotted
by this plague. The souls who fled from
the eternal fire that destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah, carried with them the wine
drinking habits of those abominable places.
Babylon fell in a drunken debauch. Min
even was destroyed in a bacchanalian
revel. The great American civil war was
brought about and inaugurated by whisky
drinking politicians, whose natural sense
was benumbed and dulled by the poison
of drink. So nations, communities, cor
pcrations, families, statesmen, ministers,
men and women of genius and power,
with all their hopes and prospects, have
been wrecked, ruined and swallowed up
by this engulfng vice.
What signals of distress have been heard
and seen upon those surf fringed rocks
What awful cries of despair have rung out
above the wall of those waves What
noble ships have been lured to destruction
by the false lights of conviviality which
wreckers have displayed What myriads
have been swept, unsuspecting and unre
sisting, to their doom. by the counter cur
rents that ebb and flow and swirl about
those dangerous sands! What costly car
goes have been sucked down into this
awful whirlpool How many noble YES
sci is to-day drifting and eddying in the
outer circle of that dark abyss, and is soon
to plunge into those engulfng depths. and
never to reach its destined port 'There
is no danger" says the unwary man but
the hidden rocks, the treacherous sands,
the dangerous leeshore, the sudden gust of
passion, the strong tyranny of appetite,
the madness of an hour which wrecks the
hopes of life time; all these contradict
the deceptive cry of peace. How many,
strong in self confident courage, have gone
on, needless of admonition, and have
stood the storm when winds were rough,
But in sunny hour fell off,
Like ships which have gone down at sea,
When skies were all tranquility
Strong hands end brave hearts may
hasten to rescue the perishing and care for
the dying, and bring one and another of
the victims to The shore, but The wreck
which intemperance causes never is re-
paired. The sting, the shame, the mad
ness, the anguish, the death cannot be un-
done.
"Who hath woe7 who hath sorrow 2
who hath contentious who hath babbling :?
who hath wounds without cause? who
hath redness of eyes7 They that tarry
long at the wine; they that go to seek
mixed wine. Look not thou upon the
wine when it is red, when it giveth its
color in the cup, when it moveth itself
Alright. At the last it biteth like ser
pent, and stingeth like an adder. The
Christian.