The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-12

dllu II WV
with every torture. What reptiles
crawl over his shivering limbs! What
specters stand by his midnight pill
lows! 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
noise! Be still! You are disturbing ali
the other patients. Keep Stin, now!
Then the keepers pass on, and after
they get past then the poor creatures
wiring their hands and say: 20 God!
rum! o God! Help! Take the devils off
of me! o God! o Cod" And they
shrek and they blaspheme and they
cry for help and then they ask the
keepers to slay them, saying: "Stao
me, strange men, smother me!
God! Help, help! RUM! Give me rum!
o God! Help" They tear u their
hair by the handful, and they bite
their nails into the quick. This is no
fancy picture. It is transpiring in a
hospital at this moment. 1t went on
last night while o slept, and, more
than that, that is the death some OF
you will die unless you stop. I see it
COMING. dOu IcIp you W sup pO1Olc
you go so far that you cannot stop.
DESPOILER OF HOMES.
But it plaques a man also in the loss
of home. I do not care how much he
loves mis- wife and children, if this habi
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 n thousands of
homes hat have been utterly blasted
of it. I am speaking of no abstraction.
Is there anything so disastrous to a
man for this life and for the IFS to
come? Do you tell me that a man can
be happy when he knows he is breaking
his wife's hear and clothing his chill
dren with rags? There are little chill
dren in the streets today, barefOOted,
unkempt, uncombed, want written on
every patch of their faded dress and on
every wrinkle of their prematurely old
countenance, who would have been in
the house of God this morning as we'll
clad as you had it not 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, I hate thee!
But my subject takes a 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 apetites and pas
sions which were regnant here will tor
rnent US there. I suppose when the inc
briate 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 5
cents to get a drink that would for a
little while Stake his thirst, bu in eter-
nifty where will the rum come from?
Dives wanted n drop of water, u
could not get it. Where will the inebri-
ate get the draft he so much r~euuies,
so much demands? No one to brew it,
No one ITO mix it. No one to pour it.
No n to fetch it. Millions Of worlds
now for the dregs hat were thrown on
the sawdust floor Of the restaurant.
Millions of worlds now for the rind
flung out from the punch bowl of an
earthly banquet. Dives called for wa
ter. The inebriate calls for rum.
LOOK NOT UPON THE VINE.
If a fiend from the lost world should
come up o. q mission to a grogshop
and, having finished the mission in the
| g~rogShop, should come back. taking on
the tip of his wing n drop of alcohol
&c beverage, what excitement it would
make all through the world of the lost,
and, if that one drop Of alcoholic bever-
age should drop from the wing of the
[ lend upon the tongue of the inebriate,
how he would spring up and cryi
That's it! That's it! Rum. Rum!
| That's it," And all the caverns of 6e
| lost would echo with the cry: "Giva il
to me! Rum! Rum!" All, my friends,
| the inebriate's sorrow in the lex
world will not be the absence of f3od
| or holiness or light; it will be thetas-
sence of rum. Look not upon the kine
when it is red, when it moveth Aselt
Alright in the cup, for at the Iakt it
blteth like a serpent, and it stiHgeth
like an adder"
When I see this plague in the land
and when I see this destroying tngel
sweeping across our great cities. n am
sometimes indignant and SOMETIMES
inundated. When a man askS me
What are you in favor of for the sub
jugation Of this evil?" I answer. Fl an
ready for anything that is reason a bile"
You ask me, Are you in favor Of Sons
Of temperance" Yes. "Are You In IA
vor of good Samaritans?" Yes. Are
you in favor of Good Templars?- Yes,
Are you in favor of prohibitory law? PSI
Yes. care you in favor of the pledge?'
Yes. Combine all he influences. O