The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-01-22

this alpollyonic music may become -
expert. First 1t will be sounded in q
hlecough. After awhile 1t will bs
heard in silly hal hal Further on Il
will become a wild whoop. Then IL
will enable you to run up and down
the five lines of the musical scale in.
fernal. Then you will have mastered
1.-THE song of the drunkards.
The most skillful way is to adopt
the modern theory and give the in.
toxicant to your children, saying to
yourself: "They will in after life meet
the intoxicants everywhere, and they
must get used to seeing them and
tasting them and controlling their ap-
petites." That is the best way of
teaching them the song of the drunk.
ards. Keep mp that mode of educa-
ton, and if you have four boys, at
least three of them will learn the
drunkard's song and lie down in
drunkard's grave, and If l ever laid
wager ] would lay a wager that
the fourth will lie down with the
other three. Or, if the educa.
ton of the children in this music
should be neglected, it is not too late
to begin at 81 years of age. The
young man will find plenty of young
men who drink. They are in every
circle to be found. Surely, my boy,
you are not coward, and afraid of
it? Surely you are not going to be
hindered by sumptuary laws or the
prejudices of your old father and
mother? They are behind the times.
Take something. Take it often. Some
of the greatest poets and orators have
been notorious imbibers. If you are
to enter a parlor. it makes you
more vivacious and Chesterfeldian.
If you are to transact bust
ness, your customer is apt to
buy more if you have taken with him
sherry cobbler. If you are to make
a speech it will give you a glibber
tongue. Gluck could compose his best
music by having his piano taken into
the midst of meadow, and a bottle of
champagne placed on each side of him.
The earlier you begin to learn the
song of the drunkards, the easier
it is; but none of you are too old to
learn. You can begin at so or 60, un-
der prescription of doctor for aids to
digestion or breaking up of infrmities,
and close life by rendering the song of
the drunkards SO well that all Pande-
monium will encore the performance
and want it again and again.
You see this sermon is not so much
for cure as for prevention. Stop be-
fore you start, if you will forgive the
solecism. The clock of st. Pauls
cathedral struck Is one midnight and
so saved the life of sentinel The
soldier was arrested and tried for fall
ing asleep at his post one midnight;
but he declared that he was awake
ut midnight, and in proof that he was
awake he said that he had heard the
unusual occurrence of the clock strik-
ing 13 instead of II. He was laughed to
scorn and sentenced to death, but three
or four persons, hearing of the case,
came up in time to swear that they,
too, heard the clock strike 13 that
same midnight, and so the mans life
was spared. Ny nearer, if you go on
and thoroughly learn the drunkards'
song, perhaps in the deep midnight of
your soul there may sound something
that will yet effect your moral and
eternal rescue. But it is a risky ''per-
haps." 1t is exceptional. Go ahead
on that wrong road and the clock will
more proba bly, strike the IL that closes
your day of opportunity, than it will
strike Is, the sound of your deliver
ance.
A few Sabbaths ago, on the steps of
this church, a man whom l had known
in other years confronted me. At the
the first glance / saw that he was in
the fifth and last act of the tragedy of
intemperance. Splendid even in his
ruin. The same brilliant eye, and the
same courtly manners, and the re-
mains of the same intellectual endow-
ments; but a wreck. ! had seen that
craft when it plowed the waters, all
sails set and running by true
compass; wife and children, and
friends on board, himself command
ing in a voyage that he expected
would be glorious, putting into pros
porous harbors of earth, and at last
putting into the harbor of Heaven.
But now 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 is your wife?" II do not
know" Where are your children?"
Il do not know" Where is your
God?" 81 do not know" That man is
coming to the last verse of that long
cantata, that prQtracted threnody, that
terrific song of the DIR unkards.
But if these words should came-for
you know the largest audience Ireach
L never see at ALL say if these words
should come, though at the ends of the
earth, to any fallen man, let me say to
him: Be the exception to the general
rule, and turn and live, while / re-
call to you scene in England,
where some one said to an in
ebriate as he was going ont of
church where there was a great |
awakening. "Why don't you sign the
pledge?" He answered.: "Ihave signed |
it 20 times, and will never sign it
again." "Why, then" said the gentle
man talking to him, don't you go up
and kneel at that altar, amid those
other patients?" He took the advice |
and went and knelt After awhile lit
tie girl, in rags and soaked with the |
rain, looked in the church door and |
some one said, "What are you doing |
here, little girl?" She aid, please. sir, |
l heard as my father is here. Why, |
that is my father up there, kneeling |
now" She went up aud put her arms
around her fathers neck and said, |
Father, what are you doing here?"
and he said, ~ am asking God |
to forgive me-" Said she, "If
He forgives you will we be happy |
again?" Eyes, my dear" 'Will we
have enough to eat again. Eyes, my |
dear" ''And will you never strike us
ms 1l,11 ~
she said. It'll l go aud call mother"
And soon the child came with the |
and the mother, kneeling be-
side her husband, said: Save me,
tool Save me, toor' And the Lord |
- oil