Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-03-02

I pNyer wake up, my son; don't you hear
mei wake upl on! he can't hear mel
Dead! dead! dead oh, Absalom, my son,
my son would God that / had died for thee,
I ON, Absal0m, my son, sonp"
THE WORDS or THE RUM FIEND.
! am not much Of mathematician and
cannot estimate it, but is there any one
here quick enough at figures to estimate
/ how many mothers there are waiting for
something to be doneY Ay, there are many
wives waiting for domestic rescue. He
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 0 death, how lovely
chou art to her, and how soft and warm
thy skeleton hand The sepulcher at mid.
night in winter is a kings drawing room
| compared with that womans home 1t is
not so much the blow on the head that
| hurts rs the blow on the heart.
The rum fend came to the door Of that
beautiful home, and opened the door and
stood there and said: "Icurse this dwelling
with an unreenting curse, / curse that
father into a maniac | curse that mother
into a pauper. | curse those sons into
yagabonds curse those daughters into
proaigacy. Cursed be bread tray and
cradle, Cursed be couch and chair, and
family Bible with record of marriages and
births and deaths Curse upon curse"
Oh, how many wives are there waiting
to see if something cannot be done to
shake these frOsts of the second death off
the orange blossoms! YEA God is waiting,
the God who works through human in
strumeutalites, waiting to see whether
this nation is going TO overthrow this evil,
and If it refuse to do so God will wipe out
the nation MS he did Phonicia, as he did
Rome, as he did Thebes, as he did Babylon.
Ay, he is waiting to see what the church
of God will do. If the church does not do
its work, then he will wipe it out as he did
the church OF Ephesus, church of Thya-
tira, church of Sardis The Protestant and
Roman Catholic churches today stand side
by side, with an impOtent look, gazing on
this evil, which costs this country more
than a billion dollars year to take care Of
the 100000 paupers, and the 3l5, 600 crimi-
nails, and the 30 900 idiots, and to bury the
$4,000 drunkards. Protagoras boosted that
out of the sixty years of his life forty years
he had spent in 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.
THE POLITICIANS ARE DOING NOTHING. .
Put on your spectacles and take a candle
and examine the platforms of the two lead
ing political parties of this country. and
see what they are doing for the arrest of
this evil and for the overthrow of this
all. IA4agIvfiIt,- ~
utiOus about MOrmonsm! 1t is safe to
attack That organized nastiness two thou
sand miles away. But not one resolution
against drunkenness, which would turn
this entire nation into one bestial Salt Lake
City, Resolutions against political COR
ruptiou, but not one word about drunken
ness, which would rot this nation from
scalp to heel. Resolutions about protec-
ton against competition with foreign in
dusDriua, but not one word about protec-
ton OF family and church and nation
against the scading, blasting, all consum-
ing, damung tariff of strong drink put
upon every financial, individual, spiritual,
moral, national interest.
look in another direction. The Church
of God is the grandest and most glorious
institution on earth What has it in solid
phnlanx accomplished for the overthrow
of drunkenness? Have it's forces ever been
m0rshalcd2 no, not in this direction. Not
long ago q great ecclesiastical court assem-
blul i'm New York, and resolutions arraign-
ing strong drink were offered, and clergy
men with strong drink on their tables and
strong drink in their cellars defeated the
resolutions by threatening speeches. They
could not bear to give up their own lusts.
tell this audience what many of you
may never have thought off, that today
not in the millennium, but today-the
church holds the balance Of power in
America; and if Christian people-the
men and the women who profess to love
the Lord Jesus Christ and to love purity
aud to be the sworn enemies of all unclean-
ness and debauchery and sniff all such
would march side by side and shoulder to
shoulder, this evil would soon be over
thrown Think Of three hundred thou
sand churches and Sunday schools in
Cmistcndom marching shoulder to shout
dcrl How very short a time it would take
them to put down this evil, if all the
churches of God, transatlantic and cisat-
lantic, were armed on this subiectY
Young men Of America, pass over into
the army Of teetotalism. Whisky, good to
preserve corpses, ought never to turn you
!utoa corpse. Tens of thousands of young
men have been dragged out of respecta-
biluy, and out Of purity, and out of good
character, and into darkness by this in
feanal stuff called strong drink. Do not
touch il, DO not touch It'll
LOOK NOT UPON THE VINE.
In the front door Of our church in Brook
lyn few gummGVs ago, this scene Oc-