The Forrest City times., 1891-03-06
heir nostrils. they fighting against it with

''How long, O Lord how long before ;hese infamous solicitations shall be gone. And how many mothers are waiting to sec If this national curse cannot lift! Oh! is that the boy who had the honest breath who comes home with breath vitiated or disguised? What a change. Hsw quickly those habits of early coming home have been exchanged for the rattling of the aight-key in the door long after the last | watchman has gone by and tried to sec | hat everything was closed up for the night Oh what a change for that young man who we had hoped would do some thing in merchandise, or in artisanship, or n 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 toor-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: "A foolish son is heavi- ness to his mother.
 Oh! what funeral it will be when that boy is brought home dead, And how mother will sit there and say: ''Is this my pOy tudI uscu tN lOHIlc anu tildb WdLheu the floor with in the night when he was 1 sick? Is this the boy that l held to the baptismal font for baptism? Is this the boy for whom I toiled 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 thisp Can it be that these swollen hands are the ones that used to wander over my face when rocking h tD ( t,nt ( ht lI.,,, brow is that I once so rapturously kissed? Poor boy how tired he does look. won der who struck him that blow across the temp.esp l wonder if he uttered a dying prayer? Wake up, my son; don't you hear me? Wake up! Oh. he can't hear me. Deadl deadl dead. o absalom, my son, my son, would God that l had died for thee, o Absalom. my son. my sonr"
 am not much of a mathematician, and cannot estimate it; but is there anyone here quick enough ut 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 and accepted.
 
 has a drunken husband, o Death, how lovely thou art to her. and how soft and warm thy skeleton handl The sepulchre at midnight in winter is kings drawing-room compared with that woman's home. It is not so much the blow on the 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 SDi1s ..T thiS l,yaiiip,y ,,rit ay, lenting curse. l curse that father into a manlac. l curse that mother into pau per. l curse those sons into vagabonds. I curse those daughters into prodigates. Cursed be bread-tray and cradle Cursed be couch aud chair, and family bible with record of carriages and births and deaths Curse upon eurse.' 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 hu- man instrumentalities, waiting to sec whether this nation is going to overthrow this evil; and if it refuse 10 do so God will wipe out the nation as he did Ph9uicia, as he did Rome, as he did Thebcs, as he did Babylon. Ay. he is waiting to see what the Church of God will do. If the Church does not do it's work, then he will wipe it 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 a billion dollars year To take care of the 500. 900 paupers, and the 3l5, 900 criminals, and the 30, GOO idiots and to bury the 15, GOO drunkards. Prota- goras boasted that out of the sixty years of his life forty years he had spent in running youth; but this evl may make the more in- famous boast that ali it's life t has been runInS 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 evll and for the overthrow of this abomlnaton Resolutions against Nor. moaism. against political corruption about protection against competition with foreign industries, but not one word about protec- ton or family and church and nation against the seadinc. blasting. all eonsum- ing, damntng tarin of strong drink put up- on every hnancial. individual. spiritual, moral, national interest.
 1 look in another direction Tho Church of God IS Inc grandest and most glorious insutution on earth. What has It in solid pha,anx accomplished for the overthrow of drunkenness? Think Of three hundred thousand churches and sunday schools in Christcndom marching shoulder to shoulder, How very short d time il would take them to put down this cv,t, if all the churches of God, transatlantic and ciss,uantic. were armed on this subject
 But this evA wal e.e arrested Butcher came up just before night and saved the day at Waterloo. At tour o'clock in the afternoon It looked very badly for the English. Generals Ponsonby and Picton fallen. Sabros broken, flags surrendered, Scots Crays annihilated. Only forty-two men left out of the Germar brigade. The English army failing back and falling back. Napoleon rubbed hs hands together, anu said. ''Aha, aha welt teach that ltttle Englishmau a lesson Ninety chances out of hundred arc iu our favor. Mag nlicent. magnificent" He even sent messages 10 Parls to say he had won the day. But before sundown Blutcher came up. and he who had been the conqucror of Austerltx became the victim of Waterloo. That name when had shaken all Europe and flled even America with apprehension; ; that name went down. and Napoleon. muddy and ha,leSs. and craeed with his disasters, wa> found fccilas for the stir rup of a horse. that he might mount and resume tho conflict
 We'll, my friends. alcoholism is imperial. aud It Is conqueror and there are good people who say the night of national over |