The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-07-01
NO. 1S.

Rrlnd In the mill OF a great horror.
lie can not stop. | will prove 1t. He
knows that his course is bringing ruin
upon himself He loves himself. If
he could stop he .would. He knows
his course is bringing ruin upon his
family. He loves them. He would
stop is he could. He can not. Perhaps
he could three months or a year ago,
but not now. just ask him to stop for
a month. He can not; he knows he
can not, SO he does not try.
But my subject takes a 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 unforgiven
here, our bad passions and appetites,
unrestrained, will go along with us
and make our torment there. So that,
| suppose, when an inebriate wakes up
in that world, he will feel 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 slake his thirst
for little while; but in eternity where
is the rum to come from?
Oh, the deep, eXhausting, cxasperat-
ing. everlasting thirst OF the drunkard
in hell. Why, if a tiend came up to
earth for some Internal work in grog-
shop, and should 60 back taking on his
wing just one drop of that for which
the ncbriate in the lost world longs,
what excitement it would make there.
Put that one drop from off the tiend's
wing on the tip of the tongue of the
destroyed inebriatc; let the liquid
brightness just touch it; let the drop
be very small, if it only have in it the
smack of alcoholic drink; let that
drop just touch the lost inebriate in
the lost world, and he would spring
to his feet and cry: THAT is rum, aha!
That is rum And it would wake up
the echoes of the damned-'tfive me
rum. Give me rum! Give me rum In
the future world | do not believe that
it will be the absence of God that will
make the drunliard's sorrow. | do not
believe that it will be the absence of
light. lido not believe that it will be
the absence of holiness. | think it will
be the absence of rum. Oh: Look not
upon the wine when it is red, when it
moveth itself Alright in the cup, for at
the last it hiteth like a serpent, and il
stingeth like an adder"
While | declared some time ago that
there was a point beyond which a man
could not stop, | want to tell you
that, while man can not stop in his
own strength, the Lord God, by His
grace, can help him to stop at any
time. was in a room in New York
where there were many happy men
who had been reclaimed from drunken
ness. | heard their testimony, and
| for the first time in my life there
| flashed out truth | never under
stood. They said: We were victims
of strong drink. We tried to give it
up. but always failed; but somehow
since we gave our hearts to Christ He
| has taken care of us. | believe that
the time will soon come when the
grace of God will show its power not
only to save mans soul, but his body,
and reconstruct, purify, elevate and re-
| deem it.
| verify believe that, although you
feel graphing at the roots of your
tongues an almost Omnipotent thirst. if
you will give your heart to God He will
help you by His grace to conquer. Try
it. 1t is your last chance. have
looked off upon the desolation. Sitting
next to you in our religious assemblages
there are good many people in awful
peril; and, Judging from ordinary cir
cumstances, there is not one chance in
5000 that they will get clear of it.
| There are men in every congregation
from Sabbath to Sabbath of whom
must make the remark, that if they do
not change their course, within ten
years they will as to their bodies, lie
down in drunkards' graves and as to
their souls, lie down in a drunkard's
perdition. | know that is an awful
thing to say, but | can not help say
ing it.
Oh, beware. You have not yet been
captured. Beware. Whether the
beverage be poured in golden chalice
or pewter mug. in the foam at the top.
in white letters, let there be spelled
out to your soul: ''Bewarew When
the books of Judgment are open, and
10, 900, 900 drunkards come up to get
their doom, | want you to bear wit
ness that |, in the fear of God and in
the love for your soul, told you, with
all affection and with all kindness, to
beware of that which has already ex-
erted its influence upon your family,
blowing out some of its lights-a pre-
monition of the blackness of darkness
forever.
Oh. if you could only hear intem-
perance with drunkards bones drum
ming on the head of the liquor cask
the dead march of immortal souls,
methinks the very glance of wine cup
would make you shudder, and the color
of the liquor would make you think
cf 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 kneel down and pray
/ God, that, rather than your children
5 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