The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-06-03

suncIs. iain MES on every nerve, ana
travels every muscle. and gnaws every
, bone. and burns with every flame, and
stinSs with every poison. and pulls at him
. with every torture. What reptiles crawl
overhis sleeping limbs. What aends stand
by his midnight pillow. What groans tear
his ear. What horrors shiver through his
soul. Talk of the rack, talk OF the inquisi-
tion, talk OF the funeral pyre, talk of the
crushing JugGernaut-he feels them all at
once. Have You ever been in the ward of
the hospital where these inebriates are dy.
ing, the stencil OF their wounds driving
back the attendants, their voices sounding
through the night? The keeper comes up
and says: Hush, now be still. Stop max
ing all this noise" But IL is efrectual only
Tor moment, for Us soon as the keeper IL
gone they begin again: 80 God! O God
Help! Help, Drink Give me drink! Hclpi
Take them OF mel Take them of me! q
God!' And then they shrek. and they
rave, and they pluck out their hair by
handfuls and bite their nails into the quick
and then they groan, and they shrek, and
they blasphcme, and they ask the keepers to
kill them-"Stab me! smother mel
Strangle me! Take the devils of mel" Oh
it is no fancy sketch. That thing is going
on now all up and down the land, and ]
tell you further that this is going to be the
death that some OF you will die. l know
1t. see 1t coming.
Again the inebriate suffers through the
loss of home. do not care how much he
loves his wife and children. il this passion
for strong drink has mastered him he will
do the most outrageous things. and II he
could not get drink in any other way he
would sell his family into eternal bondage.
How many homes have been broken up in
that way no one but God knows. Oh, is
there anything that will SO destroy man
for this life and damn him for the life that
is to come? Do not tell me that a man can
be happy when he knows that he is break
ing his wife's heart and clothing his chit
dren with rags. Why, there are on the
roads and streets Of this land to-day little
children, barcfooted, unwashed and un-
kcmpt, want on every patch of their faded
dress and on every wrinkle of their pre-
matureiy old countenan"es, who would
have been in churches to-day and as well
clad rs you are but for the fact that rum
destroyed their parents and drove them
into the grave. Oh, rum, thou foe of God.
thou despoiicr of homes. thou recruiting
oil'oc OF the pit, | hate thee.
But my subject takes deeper tone, and
that Is that the unfortunate of whom |
speak suffers from the loss Of the soul. The
Bible intimates that in the future world If
we are unforgivcn here, our bad passions
and appctitcs, unrcstrancd, will go along
with us and make our torment there. SO
that, suppose, when an inehriatc wakes
up in that world he will feel an infinite
thirst consuming him. Now. down in this
world, although he may have been very
poor, he could beg or he could steal five
cents with which to get that which would
slakc bis thirst for u little while but in
eternity whcre Is the rum to come fror.?
Oh, the deep, cXhausting. cxaspcrating.
everlasting thirst of the drunkard in he'll!
why, II ilend came up to earth for some
internal work in Il grogshop and should 20
back taking on its wing just one drop Of
that for which the ircbrate in the lost
world longs, what excitement would it
make there! Put that one drop from Off
the iend's wing on the tip of the tongue OF
tho destroyed ncbriatc let the liquid
brightness Just touch it, let the drop be-
very small, if 1t only have in II the smack
of alcoholic drink; let tina: drop Just touch
the lost inehratc in the lost world and he
would spring to his feet and cry: That il
rum, ahal That is rum,' And it would
wake mp the echoes of the damned: Give
M" rum! Civ" mo rum Give mo rumr'
In the future world do not believe that it
will hc the ahscnc" Of God that will mako
the drunkard's sorrow. | do not believe it
will be the absence of light. | do not be-
lirve that it will be the absence of holiness.
Look not upon the wine when it is red,
when it movcth itself Alright in the cup, for
at the last it hitoth like IL serpent, and it
stingeth like an adder"
verify believe that although YOU feel
graphing at the roots of your tongues an
almost omnipotcnt thirst, IL you will give
your heart to Cox, he will help you by His
grace to conquer. Try it. 1t is your Inst
chance. | have looked oft upon the desc
lation. Sitting next to you in our religious
assemhlagcs there are n good many people
in awful peril, and Judging from ordinary
circumstances there Is not one chance in
five thousand that they will get clear Of it.
There are men in every congregation from
sabbath to Sabbath of whom | must make
the remark that II they do not change their
course within ten years they will, as to
their bodies, lie down in drunkards graves,
and as 20 their souls. lie down in n drunk
ard 5 pcrdition. | know that is an awful
thngto say, but ] cannot help saying it.
oh, beware! You have not yet been cap
turcd. Beware! Whether the beverage he
poured in golden chalirc or pewter mug in
the foam at the top, in white letters, let
there be spelled out to your soul. beware"
When the books Of judgment are open. and
10000 600 drunkards come up to get their
doom, | want YOU to bear witness that |, in
the fear Of God and in love for your soul
told you, with all affection and with ali
kindness, to beware Of that which has
already cXcrtcd It's influence upon your
family, blowing out some Of its light-a
premonition OF the hlachncss Of darkness
forever.
Oh, il you could only hear intcmprrance
with drunkards' bones drumming on tho
head OF the liquor cask the dead march Of
souls, mcthinks the very glance
OF Il wine cup would make YOU shudlcr
and the color Of the liquor would make you
think of the blood of the soul and the foam
on the top Of the cup would remind you of
the froth on the maniacs lip, and you
would kncel down and pray God that,
rather than your children should become
captives Of this evil habit, you would like |
to carry them out some bright spring day
to the cemetery and put them away to the |
last sleep, until at the call of the south |
wind the flowers would come up all over |
The gravc-sweet prophecies of the resur- |
rection God has II balm for such II wound, |
but what flower Of comfort ever grew on u |
drunkard's sepulcher?