Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-03-06


their nostrils, they fighting against it with
enfeebled will and diseased appetite, CON
quering, then surrendering, conquering
again and surrenderng again, and crying;
elbow long, . ord how long before
these infamous solicitations shall be gone. "
And how many mothers are waiting 10 see
II this natona curse cannot liftl Obi is
that the boy who had the honest breath
who mes home with breath vitiated or
disguised? What a change! How quickly
those habits of early coming home have
been exchanged for the rafting of the
night-key in the door long after the last
Waterman has gone by and tired to see
that everything was closed up for the
nightl oh what a change for that young
man who we had hoped would do some
thing in merchandise or in artisanship. or
in profession 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 alas poor old
soul she has lived TO experience what
Solomon said: IA foolish son is a heavi-
ness to his mother
Obi what funeral it will be when that
boy is brought home deadl And how
mother will sit there and say: "Is this my
boy that / used ~ fondie and that walked
the floor with in the night when he was
sick? Is THE the boy that held to the
baptismal tont for baptism? Is this the
boy for whom / toled until the blood
burst from the tips of my fingers, that he
might have good home? Lord, why hast
thou let me live to see this? Can it be
that these swollen hands are the ones that
used to wander over my face when rocking
him TO sleep? Can it DO that this swollen
brow is that once so rapturously kissed?
Poor boy! how tired he does look. Won
der who struck him that blow across the
temples? wonder if he uttered n dying
prayer? Wake up, my son; don't you
hear me? Wake up! Oh! he can't hear
me. Dead! dead! dead % Absalom, my
son, my son, would God that / had died
for thee, . Absalom, my son, my SOM"
l am not much of mathematician, and
1 cannot estimate it; but is there anyone
here quick enough at figures to estimate
how many mothers there are waiting for
something TO be done. 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 aud accepted
! What hell on earth woman lives in who
has drunken husband o Death, how
lovely thou art to her, and how soft and
warm thy skeleton hand! The sepulchre
| at midnight in winter is kings
drawing-room compared with that wonan's
| hOma II q npt ca n blnlu, ha
head that hurts as the blow on the heart.
The rum fiend came to that beautiful home,
and opened the door and stood there, and
said: II curse this dwelling with an unre-
lenting curse. l curse that father into a
maniac. l curse that mother into pau
| per- l curse those sons into vagabonds
curse those daughters into prohigates.
| Cursed be bread-tray and cradle. Cursed
be couch aud 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 10 shake these frosts of the second
death off the orange blossoms! Yea, God is
waiting, the God who works through hui
man instrumentalities 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 as he did Ph9uicia, as
he did Rome, as ha did Thebes, as he did
Babylon. Ay, he is waiting to see what
| the Church of God will do. If tho Church
| does not do its work, then no will wipe il
out as he did the Church of Ephesus,
| Church of Thyatira, 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 billion dollars year
TO take care of the 800. 900 paupers, and
the 3l5, 600 criminals, and the 30, 600 idiots
and TO bury the IS, 900 druukards. Prota-
/ goras 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 in
famous boast that all its life It has been
running the bodies, minds and souls Of the
| human race.
Put on your spectacles and take 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 tho overthrow of this
abominat on. Resolutions against Nor.
monism, against political corruption, about
protection against competition with foreign
industries, but not one word about protec-
ton of family and church and nation
against the scalding. blasting, all-consum-
| ing, damning tariff Of strong drink put up
on every financial, individual, spiritual
moral, national interest.
J l look in another direction. The Church
of God is the grandest and most glorious
institution on earth. What has it in solid
phalanx accomplished for the overthrow of
drunkenness? Think Of three hundred
thousand churches and Sunday-schools in
| Christendom marching shoulder to shoulder!
How very short time it would take them
to put down this evil, If all the churches of
God, transatlantic and cisatlantic, were
| armed on this subject.
| But this evil will he arrested. Butcher
came up just before night and saved the
day at Waterloo. AT four o'clock in the
afternoon 1t looked very badly for the
English. Generals Ponsonby and Picton
fallen. Sabres broken, flags surrendered,
| Scots Grays annihilated. Only forty-two
men left out of the German brigade. The
English army falling back and falling
back. Napoleon rubbed his hands together,
and said: ''Aha! ahal Wen teach that
little Englishman a lesson. Ninety chances
out Of hundred are in our favor. Mag
nihcent! magnifcentw He even sent
messages to Paris to say he had won the
day. But before shutdown Butcher came