Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-03-07


working classes is intoxicating liquor. 1t is
the anarchist of the centuries, and has boy
cotted and is now boycotting the body and
mind and soul of American labor Ii an
nually swindles Industry out OF large per-
centage OF its earnings. 1t holds out its
blasting solicitations to the mechanic or
operative on his way to work. and at the
noon spell and on his way home at even
tide On Saturday. when the wages are
paid, il snatches a large part OF che money
that might come to the family and sacrifices
it among the saloon keepers. Stand the
saloons of this country side by side, and it Is
carefully estimated that thsy would reach
from New York to Chicago.
This evil is pouring its vitriolic and dam
nable liquors down the threats Of hundreds
Of thousands of laborers, and while the
ordinary strikes are ruinous, both to en-
pioyers and employees, proclaim universal
strike against strong drink, which strike, il
kept up, will be the relief Of the working
classes and the salvation of the nation. l
will undertake to say that there is not a
healthy laborer in the Unite States who,
within the next twenty years, If he will re-
fuse all intoxicating beverages and be saw
ing, may not become capitalist on small
scale.
Oh, how many are waiting to see il SONS
thing cannot be done for the stopping of in
temperance Thousands of drum cards wait
ing who cannot go ten minutes in any direcI
ton without having the temptation giaring
before their eyes or appealing to their nos
tris, they fighting against it with enfeebledI
will and diseased appetite, conquering, then
surrendering, eonquerinr again and sur
rendering again, and crying, "How
long, Lord how long before these
infamous solicitations snail be gomez
And how many mothers are waiting to see
if this national curse cannot lift On, ia
that the boy who had the honest breath who
comes home with breath vitiated or dis
guised2 What changed How quickly those
habits of early coming no ne have been ex-
changed for the rafting of the night key in
the door long after the last Waterman has
gone by and tried to see that everything was
closed up for the night.
Oh! whats change for that young man,
who we had hoped would do something in
merchandise or in artisanship or in profess
sion that would do honor to the family name,
long after mothers wrinkled hands are folded
from the last toll! All that exchanged for
startled look when the door bell rings, lest
something has happened; and the wish that
the scarlet fever twenty years ago had been
fatal, for then he would have gone directly
to the bosom of his Saviour. But alasl
poor old soul, she has lived to experience
what Solomon said, "a foolish son is a
heaviness to his mother"
OH what funeral it will be when that
boy is brought home deadl And how moth
er will sit there and say: us this my boy
that | used to fondle, and that walked the
floor with in the night when he was sick? Is
this the boy that l held to the baptismal
font for baptism2 Is this the boy for whom
toiled until the blood burst from the tips of
my fingers, that he might have good start
.and good homer Lord, why hast Thou let
me live to see thiss Can it be that these
swollen hands are the ones that used to wan
der over my face when rocking him to sleep?
Can it be that this swollen brow is that |
onca so rapturously kisssi? Poor boyi how
tired he does look l wonder who struck
him that blow across the temple? ! wonder
if he uttered dying prayer? Wake up, my
son; don't you hear me? wake up! Onl he
can't hear mel Dead! dead dead! 'Oh.
/ Absalom, my son, my son, would God that
had died for thee, oh, Absalom, my son,
Eonr"
am not much Of a mathematician and I
aannot estimate it, but is there any one here
quick enough at figurss to estimate how
many mothers there are waiting for some
| thing to be done? Ay, there ara many
wives waiting for domestic rescue. Hs
| promised something different from that
when, after the long acquaintance and the
! careful scrutiny of character, the hand and
the heart were offered and accepted. What
| hell on earth woman lives in who has a
drunken husbandl o death, how lovely
thou art to her, and how soft and warm
thy skeleton hand The sspulcher at mid
night in winter is kings drawing-room
compared with that woman's home. 1t is not
so much the blow on the head that hurts as
the blow on the heart.
TIE rum fiend came to the door of that
beautiful home, and opened the door and
stood there and said: 81 curse this dwelling
with an unrelenting curse | curse that
1 father into maniac l curse that mother
| into pauper | curse those sons into vaga-
bonds l curse those daughters into pro1ig-
acy. Cursed be bread tray and cradle.
Cursed be couch and chair, and family Bible
with record of marriages and births and
deaths. Curse upon curss-o-a oh, how many
wives are there waiting to see sJ1fleTniag
| cannot be done to shake these frosts of tins
second death off the orange blossoms Yea,
| God is waiting, the God who works through
human instrumentalities waiting to see
: whether this nation is going to overthrow
| this evil, and il it refuse to do so God will
wipe out the nation as He did Ph9nicia, as
He did Rome, as He did Thebes, as He did
Babylon
Ay, He is waiting to sac what the church
of God will do. If the church does not dc
its work, then He will wipe it out as He did
the church of Ephesus, church of Thyatira,
church of Sardis. The Protestant and Ro-
man Catholic church IS to-day stand side by
side, with an impoten5 look, gazing on this
evil, which costs this country more than
billion dollars year to take care of the 300,-
| 900 paupers and the 3lS, 600 criminals. and
| the 80 600 idiots, and to bury the Is, 00)
druukards Protagoras boosted that out Of
the sixty years of his life forty years he had
spent III running youth; but this evil may
make the more infamous boast that all its
life it has been running the bodies, minds and
: souls of the human race
| Put on your Spectacies and take candle
and examine the platforms of the two lead
| ing political parties of this country, and sea
what they are doing for the arrest of this
! evil and for the overthrow OF this abomina-
ton. Resolutions-ohl yes, resolutions about
/ Mormonisml 1t is safe to attack that or
! ganized nastiness two thousand miles away.
But not one resolution against drunkenness,
which would turn this entire nation into one
bestial Salt Lake City. Resolutions against
| political corruption. but not one word about
/ drunkenness, which would rot this nation
/ from scalp to heel Resolutions about pro-
lection against competition with foreign in
dustries, but not one word about protection
of family and church and nation against the
scalding, blasting, all consuming, damning
! tariff Of strong drink put upon every flnan-
cial, individual, spiritual, moral, national
| interest.
! l look in another direction. The Church of
/ God is the grandest an 4 most glorious institu-
ton on earth. What has it in solid pnalanx
accomplished for the overthrow of drunken
: ness? Have its forces ever been marsha.ed?
( No, not in this direction. Not long ago
! great ecclesiastical court assembled in New
/ York, and resolutions arraigning strong
| drink were offered, and clergymeu with
strong drink on their tables and strong
drink in their cellars defeated the resolu-
! lions by threatening speeches. They could
not bear to give up their own lusts.
I tell this audience what many of you may
never have thought of, that to-day-not in
the millennium, but to-daythe church
holds the balance of power in America; anil
ii Christian people-the men and the women
who profess to love the Lord Jesus Christ
and to love purity and to be the sworn enc
mics of all uncieanness aud deoauchery and
sin-if all sucn wouil march side
by side and shoulder to shoulder
this evil would soon be overthrow
Think of three hundred thou
sand churches and Sunday-schools in Chris
tendon marching shoulder to shoulder. How
very short time it would take them to out
down this evil, ii all the churches OF God
transatlantic AMI cisatlantic, were arme on
this subject
Young men OF America pass over into
the army OF teetotalisn. Whisky, COOL to
: preserve corpSas, ought never to turn you
into a corpse. Tens of thousands of young
men nave Deeu IRA sged OUT Oh FepecVaoilty
and out Of purity. and out of good char
acter, and into darkness by this Internal stuff
called strong drink. Do not touch it Do
not touch it!
In the front door OF our church in Brook
lyn, few summers ago, this scsns occurred:
Sabbath morning young man was entering
for divine worship A ri MI pa sing along
the street sal |, "Joe. 90 1, a'on- with me:
am going Town to Coney island and we'll
have gay Sunday "Non replied joe; 81