Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-03-06
Thousa nds OF drunkards

glaring before their eyes or appealing to
their nostrils, they fighting aga nst it with
enfeebled VIII and diseased appetite, con-
quering, then surrenderng, conquer.ng
again and surrender. again, AMI crying;
''How long. . Lord how long before
these infamous solicitations shall be cone. I"
/ And how many mothers are waiting 10 see
/ IL tn q nat onal curse cannot lit! Obi is
that the boy who had the honest br,ath
/ who comes home with breath vitiated or
disguised? What a change! How quickly
! those habits of early coming home have
/ been exchanged for tho rafting OF the
night-key in the door long after the list
Waterman has gone by and tired to see
that 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 arr sansh y. or
/ in profession that would do honor to the
family name long after mothers wrnkled
hands are folded from the last tol! All
that EXCHANGED for startled look when the
door-bell rings, lest some thing 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
4
ness to his mother
Oh! what funeral IL will be when that
boy is brought home dead. And how
mother will st there and say: is this my
boy In It used To- iondic and that walked
the floor W tn in the night when h. was
sick? Is tn the boy that h Id to the
baptiSmal font for baptism? Is this the
boy for whom / to.led until the blood
burst from the FPS OF my fingers, that he
might have good home? Lord. way hast
thou let me live 10 see IN S? Can it be
that these swollen hands are the ones that
used TO wander over my face when rocking
him 10 sleep? Can IL be that this swollen
brow is that | once SO Iapturously k ssed?
Poor boy how tire he does look. / won
der who struck h m that blow across the
temples? ] wonder ii he uttered dying
prayer? Wake up, my son; don't you
hear me? Wake up! On! he can't hear
me. Dead! dead! dead! % lAbsalom, my
son. my son, would God that | had d.el
for thee, o Absalom. my son, my SON."
am not much Of mathematician. and
/ cannot estimate il; but ia there anyone
here quick enough at figures 10 estimate
how many mothers there are waiting for
something 10 be done. Ay, there are many
wives waiting for domestic rescue. He
promised something different from that
when, after the long acquaintance and the
care vi scrutiny of character, the hand and
the heart were offered and accepted.
What hell on earth woman lives in who
has drunken husband! o Death, how
lovely thou art 10 her, and how soft and
warm thy skeleton hand! The sepulchre
at midnight in winter is kings
drawing-room compared with that woman's
home. II is not 50 much the blow on the
head that hurts as the blow on the heart.
The rum fiend came 10 that beauti ul home
and opened the door and stood there, and
said: II curse this dwell ng with an unre-
lenting curse. / curse that father into
maniac | curse that mother into pau
per. i curse those sons into yagabonds. /
curse those daughters into prohigates.
Cursed be bread-tray and cradle. Cursed
be couch aul chair and family bible w, tn
record OF marriages and births and deaths.
Curse upon cursew Oh! how many wives
are there waiting TO see il something cannot
be done 10 shake these frosts OF the second
death of the orange blossoms! Yea, God is
waiting, the God who works through hu-
man instrumentalites, waiting to see
whether this nation is going TO overthrow
this evil; and if il refuse TO do so, God will
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 Thyatira, Church of Sardis. The
Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches
today stand side by side with an impotent
look. gazing on tn evil which costs tbs
country more than Hon dollars a year
10 AXE care of the 500. 900 paupers. and
the 3l5, 900 CT minals. and the 80. 900 idiots
and 10 bury the -, 900 drunkards. Prota-
gords boosted that out Of the sixty years of
his life forty yeaI he had spent IN running
youth; but this evil may make the more in
famous boast that all its life It has been
ruinin; the bodies minds and souls Of the
human race.
Put on your spcctacles and take a candle
and examine the platforms Of the two lie I'd
ing pol tical parties OF this CO lntry, an
see what they are doing for the arrest OF
this evil and for the overthrow of this
abominat on. Resolutions against Nor.
monism. against political corruption, about
protection aga nst 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.
look in another direction. The Church
OF God is the grandest and most glorious
institution on eIrth What has il in solid
phalanx accomplished for the overthrow OF
drunkenness? Think of three hundred
thousand churches and Sun lay-schools in
Christendom marching shoulder to shoulder!
How very short time it would take them
to nut down this evil, if all the churches OF
God, transatlantic and cisauantic, 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 annihlated. Only forty-two
men left out of the German brigade. The
Engl sh army falling ba,k aud falling