The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1892-01-08
..No, Trom NY Bottle

| otiAA AI14EDt VI bOIIt11cScls las hNAi
the recent no license campaign. Mr.. Wool
ley styled his discourse a study of ind
yidual Christian duty. and took for b;
text the 18th verse of the second chapter o
Habakuk, which he characterized as
double star in q constellation of curses.
Il is a royal text for Christian citizenship
touching ''the drink"
"The first clause said the speaker
reads Woe unto him that giveth BIZ
neighbor drink to that we all say Amen,
But wait-read on, That puttest Thy
bottle to him. There are -four character
in the tragedy; first. God, last, the drunk
ard; and between them the dramseller and
his accomplice. 'Woe unto him that gig
eth that disposes OF the dramseller. Nc
drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom ol
Heaven that leaves nothing to say for the
neighbor; aud all that remains is God aud
thy bottle, and this is the liquor question
in its ultimate form.
"There is nothing to be said about God,
for the chapter closes with these words,
But the Lord in His temple; let all the
earth keep silence before Him.
but what about thy bottle?' That is
what it says, not a bottle, nor his bottle,
but thy bottle. You say, certainly, any
bottle-no matter whose-the woe is in the
putting. But wait, l think you will see it
makes a ffightfnl difference. Whose bot
tie?
"Notice the verb .puttest.' Verbs must
agree with their substantives in person and
number. II the woe were only to him
the other man-the dramseller, the verb
would be tputteth.'
son the other hand. if the woe were only
for the owner-the thy of the text-'him'
would not have been pat for the subject OF
sentence, yet it is, but .puttest'agrees with
chou The curse is joint and several. to
cover him who puts the bottle to his neigh.
bors lips, and his silent partner who has a
right of property or authority in the bottle.
But wait.
..Have yon a bottle? Is there a bottle
on your sideboard from which your wife,
daughter, servant, self, pours out the drink
to put to neighbor's lips? Mo- you thun-
der, after the lightning of your eye has
flashed a denial. Your house is not a
drinking place. Amen But wait!
"Have you a bottle in your church? II
this were communion Sunday, and the en-
blems were spread out here, might the
fumes of my old deadly enemy faint the
sweet air of the sanctuary, and make it an
accursed place to me?
"Once, after l had been sober 19moutbs.
and my little tree of lite had put forth
leaves and flowers after a chilling frost. a
triding sip of wine, taken by accident,
made brushwood of it in an instant, and
set it blazing with the fires of hell.
"0nly a few churches, comparatively,
insult the memory of the Son Of God by
pledging Him in that which is the pet
symbol of Scripture for the wrath of God,
the mixed wine, which shocks and lies and
stings like adders at the last.
Some do. There was an account in the
New York Herald some time ago Of two
burglars who broke into one of the finest
churches in New York to steal the silver
service. They effected an entrance, found
the silver, but also found demijohn Of alec.
holic wine, and when the sexton came next
morning he found the tw dead-drunk be
hind the altar rails. It is a good thing to
oaFoI a I'm rni.r bn+ oh nv friopds ".
hardly ever catch a burglar that way.
Nearly always it is some honest, hopeful,
happy man, coming with a glad heart to
celebrate his " cleansing by the blood
of Jesus Christ, that is entrapped by sacra-
mental alcohol. And you don't use it.
Amen! But wait!
'Haye you a bottle anywhere from which
a tempted man might drink ard be undone?
81 hate a saloon. The saloon hates me,
too. Every time my precious wife smiles,
the saloon devil sneers. Every time my
sons start to school the drink fiend lGrks
in their way, aud watches a chance to trip
their happy feet. Every time | leave my
door to go preaching the gospel of the
grace of God to tempted men and fallen
men, 200, 900 dramshops breathe upon me
and yearn for my soul.
IF ! should fall tomorrow ia this city,
cruelty my Savior afresh, break my wife's
heart again, and put to shame the whole
Christian world that has trusted me and
helped me on my way, might thy bottle
be the cause? "A thousand times MOI you
say. Amen, But wait!
"IIere is a saloon. guided, glazed, cmboss.
ed, polished and fairly phosphorescent. in
your eyes and mine, with hell light.
Whose is ii? Let us enter and inquire.
You hesitate? Come in. let the drink
alone, aud it V i'll not hurt you,' they say.
1t did not work so 18th my mother. She
let it alone, but it whipped tue last years
of her life into GDe great wave OF pain. My
wife was an exception, too. She never
touched it, but in the very fash and pride
of her young womanhood it crushed heI
to the very dust with everlasting heart
aches.
tsStill, that's the rule. Come in. Beauti.
full, isn't it? Plate glass, cut glass, electric
light, silver, ivory, mahogany and gold! II