Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-03-14

DohHs anu no prayer IS uttered over the
grave into which they sink. Then there
is alcoholism, its piled up demijohns
and beer barrels and hogsheads Of fiery
death, barricade high and long as the
Alleghanies and Rockies and Sierra Ne
vadas, pouring forth day and night their
ammunition Of wretchedness and woe.
When q German wants to take a drink,
he takes beer. When an Englishman
wants to take drink, he takes ale.
When a Scotchman wants to take a
drink. he takes whisky. But when an
American wants to take drink he takes
anything be can lay his hands on.
Foes to he Overcome.
Plenty Of statistics to tell how much
money is spent in this country for rum,
and how many drunkards die But who
viii give us the statistics of how many
hearts are crushed under the heel OF this
worst demon Of the centuries? How
many hopes blasted? How many chill
dren turned out on the world accursed
with the stigma of a debauched ances-
try? Until the worm of the distillery
becomes the worm that never dies and the
smoke OF the heated wine watts becomes
the smoke of the torment that ascendeth
up forever and ever Alcoholism, swear
ing-net with hand uplifted toward
heaven, for from that direction it can
get no help. but with right hand stretch
ed down toward the perdition from
which it came up-swearinQ that il
will not cease as long as there are any
homesteads to despoil, any magnificent
men aud women to destroy, any immor-
tai souls to damn, any more nations to
balk, any more civilizations to extin-
guish.
Then there is what in America we
call socialism. in France communism
and in Russia nihiIism, the three
names for one and the same thing, and
having but two doctrines in its creed
First, there is no God; second, there
shall be 10 rights of property. One of
their chief journals printed this senti-
ment Dynamite can be made out of
the dead bodies of capitalists as we'll as
out of hogs" One of the leaders of CON-
munism left inscribed on his prison
wall, where he had been justly incar-
cerated, these words: "When once you
are dead, there is an end of everything.
Therefore, ye scoundrels, grab whatever
you can-only don't let yourselves be
grabbed. Amen" There are in this
country hundreds of thousands of these
lazy scoundrels. Honest men deplore
it when they cannot get work, but those
Of whom / speak will not do work when
they can get it, / tried to employ one
who asked me for money. / said,
Down in my cellar l have some wood
to saw, and will pay you for it. I" For
little while heard the saw going, and
then heard it no more / went down
stairs and found the wood, but the
workman had disappeared, taking for
company both buck and saw.
Socialism, communism and nihilism
mean, "Too wicked to acknowledge God
and too lazy to earn a living" and
among the mightiest obstacles to be over
come are those organized elements of
domestic, social and political ruin.
Myriads of Battlements.
There also are the Businesses of inf
deity and atheism and fraud and politi-
cal corruption and multiform, hydra
headed, million armed denominations all
over the land. While the mightiest
agencies for Righteousness on earth are
good and healthful newspapers and good
and healthful books and our chief de-
pendence for intelligence and Christian
achievement is upon them, what word
among the more than 100, 900 words i'll
our vocabulary can describe the work Of
that archangel of mischief, a corrupt
literature? What man, attempting any
thing for God and humanity, has escaped
a stroke of its filthy wing? What good
cause has escaped its Underwent? What
other obstacle in all the land so appal-
ling? But 1 cannot name more than one
half the battlements, the bastions, the
intrenchments, the redoubts, the fortifi-
cations to be stormed and overcome if this
country is ever taken for God. The sta
tistics are so awful that if we had moth
ing but the multiplication table and the
arithmetic the attempt TO evangelize
America would be an absurdity higher
than the tower of Babel before il drop
ped ON the plain of Shinar. Where are
the drilled troops to march against those
Notifications as long as the continent?
Where are the batteries that can be I'M
limbered against these walls? Where
are the guns Of large enough cahber to
storm these gates? Well, let us look
( around and see, the first Of all, who is
our leader and will be our leader until
the work is done Garibaldi, with 600
Italians, could do more than another
commander with 10000 Italians. Gen
eral Sherman, ON one side, and Stone
wall jackson, ON the other, each with
10000 troops, could do more than some
other generals with 90, 600 troops. The
rough boat in which Washington crossed
the icy Delaware with few half frozen
troops was mightier than the ship of
war that during the American Reyolu-
ton came through the Narrows, gun
at each portfolio, and sank in He'll Gate.
Our leader, like most great leaders,
was born in an obscure place, and it
was an humble home, about five miles
from Jerusalem. Those who were out of
doors that night said that there was
stellar commotion, and music that came
out Of the clouds, as though the front
door of heaven had been set open, and
that the camels heard his first infantile
cry. Then he came to the fairest boy
hood that mother was ever proud of,
and from IL to 80 years of age was off
in India, if traditions there are accu-
rate, and then returned to his native
land, and for three years had his path
way surrounded by blind eyes that he
illumined, and epileptic patients to
whom he gave rubicund health, and
tongues that be loosed from silence into
song, and those whose funerals he stop
ped that he might give back to bereayed
mothers their only boys, and those
whose fevered pulses he had restored
into rhythmic throb, and whose paralyt-
ic limbs he had warmed into healthful
circulation-pastor at Capernaum, but
flaming evangelist everywhere, hushing
crying tempests and turning rolling seas
into solid sapphire, and for the rescue
of race submitted to courtroom filled
with bowling miscreants, and to mar
tyrdom at the sight of which the sun
tainted and fell back in the heavens,
and then treading the clouds homeward,
like snowy mountain peaks till heaven