The Monitor-register., 1897-01-15
Total given during u mos. 1897, $40, 10000

you is too old to learn. You can begin
at 80 or go, under prescription of doc
tor for aids to digestion or breaking up
OF infirmities and close life by render
ing the song of the drunkards SO we'll
that all pandemonium will encore the
performance and want it again and
again.
Furthermore, the last characteristic
of the drunkards' song is go tremendous
that I can hardly bring myself to men,
tion it. The drunkards' song is a con-
tinuous song. Once start that tune and
you keep it up. You have known hum
dred men destroyed of strong drink.
You cannot mention five who got fully
started on that road and stopped. The
grace Of God can do anything, but it
does not do everything. Religion saves
some. Temperance societies save some,
The Bowery mission saves some. The
Central mission saves some. But a
hundred thousand who are annually
slain by strong drink are not saved at
all.
Prolonged Song.
IL have been at concert which went
on for two hours and half, and many
people got up and left because it was
too long, but 95 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 render
ing it, and the galleries of earth and
heaven and hell will stay filled with
astounded spectators. 1t is such con-
tinuous and prolonged song that one
feels like making the prayer which a
reformed inebriate once made: cal
mighty God If it be thy will that man
should suffer, whatever seemeth good
in thy sight impose upon me. Let the
bread of atfiiction be given me to eat.
Take from me the friends of my conf
dence. Let the cold hut of poverty be
my dwelling place and the wasting
hand of disease infiict its painful tor
ments. Let me SOW in the whirlwind
and reap in the storm. Let those have
me in derision who are younger than L
Let the passing away of my welfare be
like the feeting of cloud and the
shouts of my enemies like the rushing
of waters When I anticipate good, let
evil annoy me. When look for light,
let darkness come upon me. Let the
terrors of death be ever before me. Do
| all this, but. save me, merciful God,
save me from the fate of a drunkard !
Amen"
You see, this sermon is not SO much
for cure as for prevention. Stop before
you start, IL you will forgive the sole
oism. The clock of st. Paul's cathedral
struck 13 one midnight and so saved
| the life of a sentinel. The soldier was
arrested and tried for falling asleep at
his post one midnight, but he declared
that he was awake at midnight, and in
proof that he was awake he said that
| he had heard the unusual occurrence of
| the clock striking Is instead of 10. He
| was laughed to scorn and sentenced to
death, but three or four persons, hear
ing. of the case, came up in time to
swear that they, too, heard the clock
| strike IS that sarHe midnight, and SO
the mans life was spared. My hearers,
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 perhaps. :" It is exceptional. Go
ahead on that wrong road and the
clock will more probably strike the ~
that closes your day of opportunity
than that it will strike 13, the sound of
your deliveranee.
A few Sabbaths ago, on the steps of
| this church, man whom l had known