The Penn's Grove record., 1897-01-15

some On0 VINO was q Httlo nlBuoT UP
In social life or In financial resources.
| Our friend felt fattered to have an
invitation from ono OF superior name.
| Each one drank not only when he felt like
II, but when the other felt like it. Neither
/ wanted to seem lacking in sociality when
he was invited. So 100, 900 men every year
( are treated into he'll. together are they
toward their doom, together they make mer-
~ over the cowardice and p%uritanieal senti-
lent of those who never indulge, together
they Join their voices In the song OF the
drunkards. II the one proposes to stop, the
other will not let him stop. When men arc
getting down themsel vcs, they do not want
their associates TO turn back. Those who
turn back will be the scof and caricature of
those who keep on, and there will he con-
spirAcy to bring them back to the old places
and their old environment, and so have them
renew the song OF the drunkards.
Agiiu, tho song of the drunkar1s is easily
learned. rhrnugh what long AMI difficult
and inspiring singer! Emma Abbott, among
the most eminent cantatriees that ever en-
chanted academies of music, told me on
ocean ships deck, In answer to my question,
"Whither are you bon "" II am going to
Berlin and Paris to study music" "What!'
l said. "Aftrrall your world renowned sue
cesses in music, going to study2n
Then she told ne through what hardships,
through what self denials, through what
almost killing fatignes, shs had gone in
order to be a singer, and that when In her
earlier days a great teacher OF music had
| told her there were certain notes she
could never reach, she said, II will reach
them" and through doing nothing else
but practice for five years she did reach
them. Oh, how many heroes and heroines
OF musical achievement There are songs
which are easy to hear, but most difficult to
render. When Handel, with u new oratorio,
entered a room where a group OF musicians
had assembled and said, ''Gentlemen, you
all read muster, They said, Eyes, We play
in church" VERY well,'' said the great
composer. tPlay this. But the perform-
ance was so poorly done Handel stopped his
ears and said; "You play in church, Very
| we'll, for we real the Lord Is lorg suffering,
transgression and sin. Blu you shall not
play for me-" Pure music, whether fingered
| on instrument or trllled from human lips, Is
most difficult. But n OF the easiest
songs to learn Ia the song OF
the drunkards. Anybody can learn
highest note OF conyiviality or the lowest
note Of besottedness. Begin moderately, a
| sip here and a sip there. Begin with e!aret,
go on with ale and wind up with coSnac.
First AXE the stimuiant at q wedding. then
| take 1t at meals. then takeit between meals,
then all the time keep your pulse under its
| stcalthy touch. In six months the dullest
scholar in this Apollyonic music may become
an expert. First It will be in q htc-
| cough. After awhile 1t will be heard ii a
| silly ha, ha, Further on 1t will become a
wild whoop. Then 1t will enable you to run
up and down the i've lines OF the musical
scale internal. Then you will have mastered
1.-THE song OF the drnnkards.
/ have been at q concert which went on
for two hours and o half, and many people
got up and left because 1t was too long. But
ninety-hve per cent. of those who are singing
the drunkards' song will TO the last breath OF
their lungs and the last beat of their hearts
keep on rendering it, and The galleries OF
earth and heaven and hell will stay filled with
the astounded spectators. It is such a con-
tinuous and prolonged song that mt feels
like making the prayer which a reformed
inebriate once made; almighty God! II
it be Thy will that man should suffer, what
ever seemeth good in Thy sight i'm
pose upon me. Let the bread OF af-
fiiction be given me to eat. Take from
me the friends of my confidence. Let the
cold nut OF poverty DO my dwelling place
and the wasting hand of disease infiict its
painful torrents. Let me sow In the whirl-
wind and reap In the storm. Let those have
me in der.s.on who are younger than ]. LIE
the passing away Of my welfare be like the
fieetln2 OF n cloud, and the shouts OF my
enemies like the rushing OF waters. When l
anticipate good, let evil annoy me. When l
look for light, let darkness come upon me.
Let the terrors of death be ever before me.
Do all this, but save me, merclful God! save
me from the fate Of a drunkard. Amen"
You SEQ this sermon is not 20 much for
cure as for prevention. Stop before you
start, II you Will forgive the solecism. The
clock of st. Pauls cathedral struck thirteen
one midnight, AM so saved the life OF q sem
tinel. The soldier was arrested and triel
/ p. fu1fE,o aelua1 - Lta -Aat awe pnfNpfyhf
But he declared that no was awake at mid
night, and in proof that he was awake he
said that he had heard the unusual occur
renee OF the clock striking 10 instead
OF II. He was laughed TO scorn and
sentenced to death. But three or four per-
sons, hearing OF the case, came up in time
TO swear that they, too, heard the clock
strike 10 thai same midnight, and SO tho
mans life was spared. My nearer, II you go
on and thoroughly learn the drunkards'
song, perhaps in the deep midnight OF your
soul there may sound so something that will
yet effect your moral and eternal rescue.
But 1t is a risky i'perhaps." It Is excep-
tionai. Go ahead OF that wrong road. and
the clock will more probably strike the 10
that closes your day OF opportunity than
that 1t will strike 10, the sound OF your de-
liverance.
A few sabbaths ago on the steps OF this
church a man whom I had known In other
L YbdtS tUutktutdu ll6. AT tuo ufSI Rlhucb 4
saw that he was in the fifth and last act oil
the tragedy OF intemperance. Splendid
even in his ruin. The same brilliant eye,
and this same courtiy manners, and the re-
mains of the same intellectual endow-
ments, but o wreck. I had seen that craft
when it plowed The waters, all sails set and
running by true compass; wife and chill
dren and friends on board. himself com
mapding In a voyage that he expected
would be glorious, putting INTO prosperous
harbors of earth ana at last putting into the
harbor of heaven. But nov a wreck, towed
along by low appetites, that ever and anon
run him into the breakers-a wreck of body,
a wreck of mind, a wreck of soul. "Where
10 your wife2" 81 10 not know where
are your children" II do not know"
Where Is your Godp" ~ do not know"
That man Is comingto the last verse OF that
long ~cantaia, that protractsd threnody. that
terrific song OF the ~drunkards.
But II these words should come-for you
know the largest audience l reach ! never
see at ALL say II these words should come,
though Mt the ends of the earth. to any fall
len man, let me say to him: Be the excep-
ton to the general rule and turn and live,
while l recall to you q scene in England,
where some one said TO an inebrlate as he
was going ont o ohuroh where there was a
great awakening, "Why don't you sign the
piedge?n He answered, 81 have signed il
twenty times an I viii never sign 1t again."
'swhy. thep,' said the gentlemen talking to
him. Hdon't you go upand knesi atthe altar,
amid those other penitents?" He
took the advice and went and knelt.
After awhile a little girl, in rags
and soaked with the rain looked in the
church door, and some one said: "What are
you doing here. little grip She said:
"Please, sir. I heard as my father Is here.
Why. that is my father up there k~neeling
now" She went ny a n I put her arms
around her fathers neck aud said: "Father.
what are you doing hsre?' n he said
II am asking God to forgive me" Said
she; "If He forgiyes you, will we be happy
again?'' tsYes, my DEAR" Will we haya
enough to eat again?s Eyes, my DEAR
"And will you never strike rs again?'
tsNo, my child" swat here" said she,
sstill / go and call mother" And soon the
child came with tho mother, AMI the mother.
kneeiing beside the husband. said: ssSavo
me tool Save me tool"
And the Lord heard the prayer at that
altar. and one of the happiest homes in Eng
land Is the home ovcr which that father and
mother now lovingly preside. So. Il in this
sermon / have warned Others against a dis
L afDafad l{fa With tina fart that an faru rain m