The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-05-27


liquor ira file! Here's to woe and dark
ness and murder and death! Drink!
Drink"
Oh, my young friends. | want to tell
you that there is "A point in incbriation
beyond which if man go he cannot
stop! But sometimes a man will be
more frank than that. victim of
strong drink said to a reformer: 1T is
impossible for me to stop. realize it.
But if you should tell me couldn't have
drink until tomorrow night unless
had all my fingers cut off, would say:
Bring the Ratchet and cut them off. "
had very dear friend in Philadelphia
whose nephew came to him and was
talking about his trouble and confessed
it. He confessed he could not stop. My
friend said: you must stop" He said:
Il can't stop. If there stood a cannon,
and it was loaded and there was a
glass Of wine on the mouth of the can
non, and knew you would fire it off
if | approached, | would start to get
that glass of wine. l must have it.
can't get rid of this habit can't get
away from it." Oh, it is awful for
man to wake up and feel that he is
captive. hear him soliloquizing, say
ing: Il might have stopped three
months ago, but ! can't stop now. Dead,
but not buried; am walking corpse.
am an apparition of what once was
am 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 | can't get out. Destroyed
without remedy"
! Again, the man suffers from the loss
of usefulness. Do you know some of the
men who have fallen into the ditch were
once in the front rank in churches and
in the front rank in reformatory insti
tutions? Do you know they once knelt
at the family altar and once carried
the chalice of the holy communion on
sacramental days? Do you know they
once stood in the pulpit and preached
the Gospel of the Son of God? We will
not forget the scene witnessed some
years ago in my Brooklyn church when
q man rose in the midst of the audi
ence, stepped into the aisle and walked
up and down. Everybody saw that he
was intoxicated. The ushers led him
out, and his poor wife took his hat and
overcoat and followed him to the door.
Who was he? He had once been a
mighty minister of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ in q sister denomination, had
often preached in this very city. What
slew him? Strong drink! Oh, what
must be the feeling of man who has
destroyed his capacity for usefulness.
Do not be angry with that man. Do not
lose your patience with him. Do not
wonder if he says strange things and
gets irritated easily in the family. He
has the Pyrcnees and the Andes and
the Alps on him. Do not try to per-
suade him that there is no future pun
ishment. Do not go into any argument
to prove to him that there is no hell He
knows there is. He is there now!
But he suffers also in the loss of phys
ical health. The older people in this au-
dience can remember DR.. Sewell going
through this country clectrifying great
audiences by demonstrating to them
the effect of strong drink upon the hui
man stomach. | am told he had eight
or ten diagrams which he presented to
the people, showing the different stages
in the progress of the disease, and l all
told tens of thousands of people turned
back from that ulcerous sketch and
swore eternal abstinence from all intoX'
icants. God only knows what the
drunkard suffers. Pain files on every
nerve and travels every muscle and
gnaws on every bone and stings with
every poison and pulls with every tor
ture. What reptiles crawl over his shiv
ering limbs! What specters stand by
his midnightp pillows! What groans teal
the air! Talk of the rack, talk of the
; funeral pyre, talk of the Juggernaut-
; he suffers all at once.
See the attendants stand back from
that ward in the hospital where the in
ebriates are dying. They cannot stant
it. The keepers come through it ant
say: Hush up, now! Stop making thi
noise! Be still. You are disturbing al
,, the other patients. Keep still now!
Then the keepers pass on, and afte
they get past then the poor creature
wiring their hands and say: 20 God
: Help, help! Give me rum, give m
rum! 0 God! 0 God!" And the
: shrek and they blaspheme and they or,
for help and then they ask the keeper
S to Stay them, saying: Stab me, stran
!, gle me, smother me! o God! HelI
d help! Rum! Give me rum! o God
) Help!" They tear out their hair by tn
: handful, and they bite their nails int
l., the quick. This is no fancy picture.
i is transpiring in hospital at this me
ment 1t went on last night while yo
e slept, and, more than that, that is tn
q death some of you will die unless yo
S stop. ] see it coming. God help you t
stop before you go so far that you car
e not stop.
u But it plaques man also in the los
of home. lido not care how much b
a loves his wife and children, if this hab
$ gets the mastery over him he will
re the most outrageous things If need b.