The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-09-27

The man who worked with him on the
same Sabbath is still living, but a heip-
men were talking about the Bible and
less invalid under the same flash.
Years ago in a Pittsburg prison TWO
men were talking about the Bloie anu
Christianity. and one of them. Thomp-
son by name. applied to Jesus CHRIST
a very low and villainous epithet, and,
as he was uttering IL he fell A phy-
stefan was called. but no help could De
given. After a day lying with distend-
ed pupils and palsied tongue he passed
out OF this world. In a cemetery IN
Sullivan county. in New YORK state.
are eight headstones in a line n all
alike. and these are the facts: In 1861
diphtheria ragged in the village. and a
physician was remarkably successful In
curing his patients. So confident did
he become that he boasted that no case
of diphtheria could stand before him
and finally defied Almighty God 10 pro-
duce a ease OF d~iphtheria h a he could
not cure. His youngest child soon
after took the disease and died and
one child after another until all eight
had died of ~diphtheria. The blasphem-
er challenged Almighty God, and God
accepted the challenge. Do not think
that because God has been silent in
your case, o profane a that He
is dead. Is there nothing now in the
peculiar feeling OF your tongu or
nothing in the numbness or your brain
that indicates that God may come 10
ayenge your blasphemies or is already
~avenging them? But these cases ] have
noticed, believe, are only a few cases
where there are hundreds. Families
keep them quiet TO avoid the horrible
conspicuity. Physicians suppress them
though professional confidence. II Is
a very. very, very long roll that con-
tains the names of those who died with
~blasphemies on their lips.
Still the crime rolls on, up through
parlors. up through chandeliers with
lights all ablaZ II through the pic
tured corridors OF clubrooms, out
through busy exchanges, where oath
meets oath, and down through all the
haunts of sin, mingling with the rat
Ting and cracking billiard balls. and
the laughter of her who hath forgotten
the covenant of her God, and round
the city and oun the continent and
round the earth a seething, boiling
surge filings its hot spray into the face
of a long suffering God, and the ship
captain curses his crew, and the mas
ter builder his men. and the hack driv-
er his horse, and the traveller the stone
that bruises his foot or the mud that
soils his shoes, or the defective time
piece that gets him too late to the
rail train. | arraign profane swearing
and blasphemy, two names for the
same thing, as being one of the gigan-
tic crimes of this land, and for its TX
tiroation it does seem as if it were
about time for God to rise.
THE DAY OF DRINK.
Then look for a moment at the evil
of drunkenness. Whether you live in
Washington or New York or Chicago
or Cincinnati or Savannah ~ Dot.
or in any of the cities of his land,
count up the saloons on that street as
compared with the saloons five wears
ago, and see they are growing far out
of proportion to the increase of the
population. You people who are so pre-
else and particular lest there should
be some imprudence and rashness i'm
attacking the rum traffic will have your
son some night pitched into your front
door dead drunk, or your daughter
Will come home with her children be-
cause her husband has by strong drink
Deen turned into a demoniac. The drink
hend has despoiled whole streets of
good homes in all our cities. Fathers
~prothers, sons on the funeral pyre of
strong drink. Fasten tighter the vic
TINS! Stir up the flames! Pile on the
corpSes! More men, women and chill
dren for the sacrifice. Let us have
whole generations on fire of evil habit.
and at the sound of the cornet. flute.
narp, sackbut psaltery and dulcimer
let all the people fall down and Worship
King Alcohol, or you shall be cast into
the fiery furnace under some political
platform!
l indict this evil as the regicide. the
fratricide, the patricide, the matricide.
the uxoricide, of the century. Yet I'm,
DER what innocent and delusive and
mlrthful names alcoholism deceives
the people! 1t is a cordial" 1t is
'b1tters." 1t is an eye opener" 1t is
an appetizer" 1t is a "digester." 1t
is an "invigorator." 1t is a settler"
1t is a 'nightcap." Why don't they
put on the right labels-"Essence Of
rerdltion.' Conscience Stupefier,"
Five DRAINS of Heartache." Tears Of
~Orphanage,' Blood of Souls" scans
Of an Eternal Leprosy," "Venom oe
the Worm That Never Dies?' ONLY
once in a while is there anything in
the utle OF liquors to even hint their
atroclty, as in the case Of Sour
mash." That | see advertised all over.
1t is an honest name any any one can
understand it. Sour mash!" That is.
1t makes a mans disposition sour. and
MS associations sour, and his prospect
sour and Their it is gooG to mash his
n mash his business. and mash
MS family. Sour NASH" One honest
name at last for an intoxicant, But
through lying labels of many of the
apothecaries' shops, good people who
are only little under tone in health and
wanting some ~invigoration, have un-
Willingly got on their tongue the fangs
OF tnls cobra that stings to death so
large a ratio of the human race.
THE DEADLY CUP.
Others are ruined by the common and
all destructive habit of treating Gus
toners. And it is a treat on their
coming to town, and a treat while the
argalning progresses, and treat
when the purchase is made, and a treat
as he leaves town. Others, to drown
their troubles, submerge themselves
with this worse trouble. Oh, the world
Is battered and bruised and blasted
with this growing evil. 1t is more and
more ~lntrenched and fortified. They
nave millions or dollars subscribed to
marshal and advance the alcoholic
forces. They nominate and elect and
govern the vest majority Of the ofbce-