Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-05-05

side and beats against the wires of my
cage ON the other side until there i
blood on the wires and blood ON the
soul, but | can get ont 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
institutions! Do you know they once
knelt at the family altar and once car
ried the chalice of the holy communion
on sacramental days! Do vou know
they once stood in the pulpit and preach
ed the gospel of tine Son of God? We
will not forget the scene witnessed some
years ago in my Brooklyn church when
a man rose in the midst of the audience,
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 ever
coat and followed him 10 the door. Who
was he: He had once been Il mighty
minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ
in sister denomination. had often
preached in this very city. What slew
him! Strong drink Oh, what must be
the feeling of Il 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 lie
SAYS strange things and gets irritated
easily in the family He has the Pyre-
nees and the Andes and the Alps on him.
Do not try to persuade him that there
is no future punishment. Do not 90 in
10 any argument to prove to him that
there is no hell He knows there is He
is there nowl
Horrors Of alcoholism.
But he suffers also in the loss of phys
ical health. The older people in this aJ
dience can remember DIR. Sewelf going
through this country elecTifying great
audiences by demonstrating TO them
the effect Of strong drink upon the hu
man stomach. l am told he had eight
or ten diagrams which he presented to
the people, showing the different stages
il the progress of the disease, and | am
told tens of thousands Of people turned
back from that nicerous 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
every poison and pulls with every tor
ture. What reptiles crawl over his shiv
ering limbs What specters stand by
his midnight pillows! What groans tear
the air Talk of the rack, talk of the
funeral pyre, talk of the Juggernaut-
he suffers them all at once.
See the attendants stand back from
that ward in the hospital where the in
ebriates are dying. They cannot stand
it. The keepers come through it and
say ''Hush up, now! Stop making this
noisel Be still! You are disturbing all
the other patients Keep still nowI'
Then the keepers pass on, and after
they get past then the poor creatures
wiring theiE hands and say: 80 God
Help, help! Give me rum, give me
ruml o Godl Help Take the devils off
of me! 0 God @ God!' And they
shrek and they blaspheme and they cry
for help and then they ask the keepers
to slay them, saying: Stab me, stran
gle me, smother mel Q God! Help,
helpl Rum! Give me rum! O God
Help" They tear out their hair by the
handful, and they bite their nails into
the quick. This is no fancy picture, It
is transpiring in ii hospital at this mo-
ment. 1t went on last night while you
slept, and, more than that, that is the
death some of you will die unless you
stop. | see it coming. God help you to
stop before you go SO far that you can
not stop.
Despoiler of Homes.
But it plaques man also in the loss
of home. | do not care how much he
loves his wife and children, if this habit
gets the mastery over him he will do
the most outrageous things. If 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. l am speaking of no abstraction.
Is there anything SO disastrous to a
man for this life and for the life to
come? Do you tell Inc that man can
be happy when he knows he is breaking
his wife's heart and clothing his chill
dren with rags? There are little chill
dren in the streets today, barefooted,
uncombed, want written on
every patch of their faded dress and ON
every wrinkle of their prematurely old
who would have been in
the house of God this morning AS well
clad as you had it net been that strong
drink drove their parents down into
penury and then down into the grave.
Oh, rum, rum, thou despoiler of homes,
thou foe of God, thou recruiting officer
of the pit, hate thee
But my subject takes deeper tone
when it tells you that the inebriate suf-
fers the loss of the soul. The Bible in
Inmates that if we go into the future
world unforgiven the appetites and pas
sions which were regnant here will tor
ment us there. | suppose when the inc
hriate wakes mp in the lost world there
will be an infinite thirst clawing upon
him. Ia this world he could get strong
drink. However poor he was in this |