Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-05-04
TIE BURLINGTON FREE PRESS THURSDAY MAY 4 1899

daysp DO you know they once stood in
the pulpit and preached the gospel OF the
son of GodY We will not forget the scene
witnessed some years ago in my Brooklyn
church when man rose in the midst OF
tho audience stepped into the aisle and
walked up and down. Everybody saw
that he was intoxicated. Tho ushers led
him out, and his poor wife took his hat
and ovcrcoat and followed him to the door.
Who was hep He had once been 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 q
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 Pyrenecs and the Andes and tho
Alps on him. DO not try to persuade him
that there Is no future punishment. Do
not go into any argument to prove to him
that there is no hell, He knows there is
He is there nowl u
But he suffers also in the loss of physical
health. The older people in this audience
can remember DIR. Sewell going through
this country electrfying great audiences
by demonstrating to them the effect of
strong drink upon the human stomach. 1
am told ho had eight or ten diagrams
which he presented to the people, showing
the different stages in tho progress of the
disease and l am told tens of thousands
Of people turned back from that ulcerous
sketch and swore eternal abstinence from
all intoxicants. God only knows what tho
drunkard suffers. Pain files on every
nerve anI travels every muscle and gnaws
on every bone and stings with every poison
aud pulls with every torture. What rep
tiles c.nwl over his shvering limbs What
Spccters stand by his midnight pillowsl
What groans tear the air Talk of the
rack, talk of the funeral pyrc, talk of tho
Juggernaut He suffers them all at once.
The Inebriate's Death.
Sec the attendants stand back from that
ward in the hospital where the incbriatcs
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 all the other
patients. Keep still now Then the
keepers pass on, and after they get past
then the poor creatures wiring their hands
and say: "Oh, God! Help, help! Give
me rum, give me rum Oh, Cod Help!
Godl And they shrek, and they BIAS
phcme, and they cry for help, and then
they ask the keepers to slay them, saying:
"Stab me, strangle me- smother me. Oh,
God! Help, help! Rum! Give me ruml
Oh, Cod Hclp!' They tear out their
hair by the handful and they bite their
nails into the quick This is no fancy pic
turo. 1t is tranSpiring in hospital at
this moment. 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 be-
fore you go so far that you cannot stop
But it plaques man also in the loss of
home. l do not care how much he loves
his wife and children, if this habit gets
tho 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 hum
dreds and thousands of homes that have
been utterly blasted of it. l am speaking
of no abstraction. Is there anything so
disastrous to man for this life and for
the life to come? Do you tell me that u
man can be happy when he knows he is
break ing his wfe'S heart and clothing his
children with rags? There are little chill
dren in the streets today barcfoOtcd, UNI
kempt, uncombed, want written on every
patch of their faded dress and on every
wrinkle of their prematurely old counte-
nance, 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. Oh, rum, rum,
thou despoilcr of homes, thou foe of God,
thou recruiting officer of the pit, / hate
thee!
But my subject takes n deeper tone
when it tells you that the incbriatc suffers
the loss of the soul The Bible intimate,
that if we go into the future world unfor-
given the appetitcs and passions which
were regnant here will torment us there
suppose when the inebriatc wakes up in
the lost world there will be an infinite
thirst clawing upon him. In this world
he could get strong drink However pool
he was in this world. he could beg or he
could steal cents to get II drink that
would for little while slako his thirst
but in eternity where will the rum come
from? Dives wanted one drop of water
but could not get it. Where will the inc
briate get the draft he so much requires
so much demands? No one to brew it, NJ
one to mix it. No one to pour it. NJ
one to fetch it. Millions of worlds now
for the drcgs that were thrown on tn,
sawdustcd floor of the restaurant. Mil
lions of worlds now for the rind flung on
from the punch bowl Of an earthly ban
quot. Dives called for water The inc
briate calls for rum.
1t Biteth Like n Serpent.
II fiend from the lost world SHOULD
come up on a mission to u grogshop and
having finished the mission in the grog
shop, should como back, taking on the til
of his wing one drop of alcoholic bever
age, what excitement it would make al
through the world Of the lost, and, if tina
one drop of alcoholic beverage should drol
from the wing of the hend upon tn
tongue of the inebriate, how he woul,
spring up and cry: "That's it, That's it
, Rum! Rum! That's itu' And all tn
caverns of the lost would echo with tn
cry: "Give it to mel Rum! Rum" All
, my friends, the inebrates sorrow in tn
next world will not be the absence of Go,
or holiness or light. 1t will be the alb
sence of rum. Look not upon the win
when it is red, when it moyeth itsel
Alright in tho cup, for at the last it bitetl
like serpent, and it stingeth like al
adder"
When see this plague in the land an,
when see this destroying angel sweeping
across our great cities l am sometime
, indignant and sometimes Inundated
When "a man asks me, what are you il
favor of for the subjugation of this ovil?'