The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-01-27

EoCu ou0 QIdQk uOC only Wutu ut lcll llko
| 1t, 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 hell. Together are they
mnnacled Of evil habit, together they travel
toward their doom, together they make mer-
| ry over the cowardice and Puritanical senti-
ment OF those who never indulge, together
they join their voices In the song OF tho
drunkards. If the one proposes to stop, the
getting down themselves, they do not want
their associates to turn back. Those who
turn back will be the scoff and caricature OF
those who keep on, and there will be con-
spiracy to bring them back to the old places
and their old environment. and so have them
renew the song Of the orunkards.
Again, the song Of the drunkards Is easily
learned. Through what long and difficult
drill one must 90 to succeed as an elevated
and inspiring singer! Emma Abbott, among
the most eminent cantatrlces that ever en-
chanted academies OF music, told me on
ocean ships deck, in answer to my question,
"Whither are YOU bound?" "I am going to
Berlin and Paris to study music" What"
I said. "After all your world renowned sue.
cesses In music, going to study"
Then she told me through what hardships,
through what self denials, through what
almost killing fatigues, she had gone In
order to be singer, and that when In her
earlier days 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 new oratorio,
entered room where group OF musicians
had assembled and said, "Gentlemen, you
all read musics" They said, "Yes, we play
in church" Very WE'LL said the great
composer. "play this: But Il the e.e perform m.
and ssi a0H play IN Va g
we'll, for we read the Lord Is lorg suffering,
OF great kindness and forgiving Of inlquity,
transgression and sin. But you shall not
play for me-" Puremusic. whether fingered
on instrument or trilled from human lips, Is
most difficult. But one OF the easiest
songs to learn Is the song OF
the drunkards. Anybody can learn
1t. In little while you can touch the
highest note Of convivislitY or the lowest
note Of besottedness. Begin moderately,
20 on with ale and wind up with cognac.
First take the stimulant at a wedding, then
take 1t at meals, then takeit between meals,
then all the time keep your pulse under its
stealthy touch. In six months the dullest
scholar in this Apollyonic music may become
IN expert. First II will besounded in hic-
cough. After awhile It will be heard II q
silly ha, hal Further on 1t will become
wild whoop. Then It will enable you to run
up and down the five lines Of the musical
scale internal. Then you will have mastered
1.-THE song Of the drunkards-
I have been at concert which went on
for two hours and half, and many people
got up and left because 1t was too long. But
ninety-ave 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 filed with
the astounded spectators. 1t is such con-
tinuous and prolonged song that one feels
like making the prayer which 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-
Fiction be gwen me to eat. Take from
me the friends OF my confidence. Let the
cold hut OF poverty be my dwelling place
and the wasting hand OF disease inflict its
painful torments. Let me SOW In the whirl.
wind and reap in the storm. Let those have
me in derlson 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 GOO! save
me from the fate Of a drunkard. Amen"
You SEQ this sermon Is not so much for
cure as for prevention. Stop before you
clock Of st. Paul's cathedral struck thirteen
one midnight, an so saved the life OF sem
tiuel. The soldier was arrested and tried
for falling asleep At his post one midnight,
But he declared that he was awake at mid.
night, and in proof that he was awake he /
said that he had heard the unusual occur 4
renee OF the clock striking IS 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
mans life was spared. My hearer, II you go
on and thoroughly learn the drunkards'
song, perhaps in the deep midnight OF your
soul there may sound something thafwill
yet effect your moral and eternal rescue.
But it Is a risky "perhaps." 1t Is excep-
tional. Go ahead on that wrong road. and
the clock will more probably strike the II
that closes your day Of opportunity than
that it will strike 13, the sound Of your de-
liverance.
A few Sabbaths ago on the steps OF this
church q man whom had known in other
years confronted me. At the first glance I
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 wreck. I had seen that craft
when 1t plowed the waters, all sails set and
running by true compass; wife and chill
dren and friends on board, himself COM
manding in voyage that he expected
would be glorious, putting into prosperous
harbors Of earth ana at last putting into the
harbor OF heaven. But now wreck, toWed
along by low appetites, that ever and anon
run him into the breakers-a wreck of body,
is your wife2'' ''I do not know" where
are YOUR children?" II do not know"
"Where is your God2" II do not know"
That man is coming to the last verse Of that
long cantata, that protracted threnody, that
terrific sonS of the drunkards
But il these words should come-for you
know the largest au Hence I reach I never
see at ALL say If these words should come.
though at the ends OF the earth. to any fall
len man, let me sayto him: Be the excep-
ton to the general rule and turn and live,
while / recall to you scene in England,
where some one said to an inebrlate as he
was going out Of church where there was
great awakening, "Whv don't you sign the
pledSe?" He answered. 81 have signed It
twenty times IN will never sign it again.
"Why. then" said the gentleman ralkingto
him. "don't you go upana kneel attha altar.
amid those other penitentS| He
took the advice and went and knelt. |
After awhile 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" Sae said: |
:sPlease, sir. heard rs my father is here. |
Why. that is my father up there kneelinS |