Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-05-10

stop? Becau-e he cannot stop. will prove
it by going still further. He loves his
wife and children. He sees that his
habits are bringing disgrace upon his home.
The probabilities are they will ruin his wife
and disgrace his children. He sees all this,
and he loves them. Why does he not stop2
He cannot stop.
Oh, my young friends. want to tell you
that there is point in inebriation beyond
which IL man go he cannot stopl But
sometimes man will be more frank than
that. A victim OF strong drink said to a
reformer: "It is impossible for me to
stop. Irealizeit. But II you should tell
me couldn't have drink until to-mor-
row night unless had all my fingers cut
of. would say, Bring on tine hatchet and
cut them on" l had n very dear friend
In Philadelphia whose nephew came to him
and was talking about his trouble and con-
fe-sed it. He confessed he could not stop.
My friend said. You must stop" He said:
Il can't stop. II there stool cannon,
and it WAS loaded, and there was glass
Of wine In the rsouth of the cannon. and
knew you would fire 1t OH Ii
1 approached. 1 would start to get that
glass OF wine. l must have 1t. I can't
get rid Of this habit. l can't get away
wake up and feel that he is a captive! 1
hear him soliloquizing, saying: Il might
have stopped three months ago, but can't
stop now. Dead, but not buried; 1 am
walking corpse. I am an apparition OF
what l once was. am IL Gagged immortal
and my soul beats against the wires of my
cage on this side and beats against the
wires OF my cage on the other side until
there Is blood on the wires and blood on
the soul, but l can't get out. Destroyed
without remedy"
See the attendants stand back from that
ward in the hospital where the inebriates
are dying. They cannot stand 1t, The
keepers come through it and say: Hush
up. now! Stop making this noise! Be
stilll You are disturbing all the other pa
pass on. and after they get past then the
poor creatures wiring their hands and say:
10 Godi Help. helpl Give me rum, give
me rum! God! Help! Take the devils
of Of mel o Godl o God!'' And they
shrek and they blaspheme and they cry
slay them, saying: "Stab me, strangle me,
smother mel Godl Help, helpl Ruml
Give me ruml o God! Help" They tear
out their hair by the handful, and they
ihite their nails into the quick. This is no
fancy picture. 1t Il TRANSPORTING in a hos
night while you slept, and more than that,
that is the death some of you will die un-
lees you stop. see 1t coming. God help
you to stop before yeu go so far that you
cannot stop.
But 1t plaques a man also In the loss o.
home. do not care how much he loves
his wife and children, II this habit gets the
mastery over him he will do the most out
rageous things. II need be, in order to get
strong drink, he would sell them all into
everlasting captivity. There are hundreds
and thousands OF homes that have been
utterly blasted OF it, am speaking of nc
abstraction. Is there anything so disas.
trous to man for this life and for the life
to conner Do you tell me that man can
be happy when he knows he is breaking
his wife's heart and clothing his children
with rags? There are little children in the
streets to-day, barefooted, unkempt. un-
combed, want written on every patch oil
their faded dress and on every wrinkle oil
their prematursly old codntenance, who
| would have been in the house of God this
morning as well clad as you had it not
| been that strong drink drove their parents
down into penury and then down into the
grave. On, rum, rum, thou despoiIer OF
! homes, thou foe of God, thou recruiting
I officer of the pit, hate theel
| But my subject takes a deeper tone when
| Il tells you that tho inebriate suffers the
| loss Of the soul. The Bible intimates that
If we go into the future world unforgiven
| the appetites and passions which were
regnant here will torment us, there. sup
| pose when the inebriate wakes up in the
| lost world there will be an infinite thirst
clawing upon him. In this world he could
get strong drink. However poor he was
| In this world, he could beg or he could
! steal five cents to get drink that would
for a little while slake his thirst, but In
| eternity where will the rum come 'FRONT.'
Dives wanted one drop OF water, but could
not get 1t. Where will the inebriate get
the draft he so much requires, so much de-
mnnds? No one to brew it. No one to
mix 1t. No one to pour it. No one to
fetch 1t. Millions of worlds now for the
dregs that were thrown on the sawdusted
floor of the restaurant. Millions of worlds
now for the rind flung out from the punch
hon, l<NRo n ban AZ irap lad
for water. The inebriate calls for rum.
II flend from the lost world should come
up on mission to a grogshop and, having
finished the mission In the grogshop, should
come back, taking on the tip Of his wing
one drop OF alcoholic beverage, what ex-
citement 1t would make all through the
world of the lost, and, il that one drop OF
alcoholic beverage should drop from the
wing Of the f1end upon the tongue of the
inebriate, how he would spring up and cry:
That's 1t! That's it! Rum! Ruml That's
itl' And all the caverns Of the lost would
echo with the cry: "Give 1t to me! Ruml
Ruml" All, my friends, the inebriates sor.
row in the next world will not be the alb
sence Of God or holiness or light; 1t will be
the absence OF rum. "Look not upon the
wine when 1t is red, when 1t moveth itself
Alright In the cup, for at the last 1t biteth
like serpent and it stingeth like an ad-
DER"
But 1 must not dwell on generaIities; /
must come to specifics. Are you astrayf
II there Is any sermon l dislike, 1t is a SER
mon on genelalities. l want personalities.
Are you astray2 Have you gone so far you
think you cannot get back2 Did 1 say a
few moments ago that a man might go to
a point In inebriation where he could not
stop? Yes, l said 1t, and l reiterate 1t.
But l want you also to understand that
while the man himself Of his own strength,
cannot stop, God can stop any man.
You have only to lay hold of the strong
arm of the Lord God Almighty. He can
stop you. Many summers ago 1 went
ing-our church not yet being open for
the autumnal services. 1 went into a
room in the Fourth Ward, New York,
where religious service was being
held for reformed drunkards. and 1
heard a revelation that night that had
never heard before-nfteen or;twenty men
standing up and giving testimony such as
had never heard given. They not only
testified that their hearts had been changed
by the grace OF God, but that the grace OF
God had extinguished their thirs'. They
went on to say that they had reformed at
different times before, but Immediately
fallen, because they were doing the whole
work In their own strength. But as soon
as we gave our hearts to God, they said,
land the love Of the Lord Jesus Christ has
come into our soul the thirst has all gone.
We have no more disposition for strong
] drink
Oh, II you could only hear intemperance
| with drunkards bones drumming on the
top OF the wine cask the Dead March" OF
immortal souls, you would go home and
| kneel down and pray God that rather than
your children should ever become the
victims OF this evil habit you might carry
them out to the cemetery and put them
| down In the last slumber, waiting for the
flowers OF spring to come over the grave
| sweet prophecies OF the resurrection. God
hath II balm for such wound, but what
| flower OF comfort ever grew on the blasted
heath Of a drunkarl's sepulcher'
| He is not rich that hath much, bu
he that hath enough; nor is he in
| digent that hath little. but he tina
| Graves. For we are not rich or poor
happy or unhappy, honorable or mean
| so much according to the promotion