The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1899-06-30

, 80 Gnu uuiuer ana ueathl DRINK
Drink"
Oh, my young friends, want to te
you that there is point in inebriatio
beyond which If man go he canno
stop But sometimes a man will b
more frank than that. A victim q
strong drink said to reformer: ut
impossible for me to stop. / realize Il
But II you should tell me couldn't hav
drink until tomorrow night unless
had all my fingers cut of, would saw
Bring the hatchet and cut them off,
had a very dear friend in Philadelphi;
whose nephew came to him and wa,
talking about his trouble and confessed
It, lie confessed he could not stop. NJ,
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 IL of
II approached, would start TO get
that glass of wine. | must have it. |
can't get rid Of this habit. can't get
away from it," Oh, il is awful for a
man to wake up and feel that he is a
captive! l 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 nv 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 rom 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 reformatorv insti-
tutions? Do you know they once knelt
at the family altar and once carried
the chalice Of the holy communion on
saeramental 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
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 q
mighty minister of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ in a sister denomination, had |
often preached in this very city. What
slew him? Strong drink Oh, what
must be the feeling OF a 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 Pyrenees 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-
iience can remember DIR. Sewell going
through this country electrifying great
audiences by demonstrating to them
he effect of strong drink upon the hui
nan stomach. l am told he had eight
II ten diagrams which he presented to
he people. showing the different stages
n the progress of the disease, and am
old tens OF thousands of people turned
Jack from that ulcerous sketch and
wore eternal abstinence from all intox-
cants. God only knows what the
suffers. Pain files on every
erve and travels every muscle and
naws on every bone and stings with y
very poison and pulls with every tor d,
ure. What reptiles crawl over his shiv-
ring limbsl What specters stand by 3
is midnightpillowsl What groans tear .
he airl Talk of the rack, talk of the
neral pyre, talk of the Juggernaut- n
e suffers all at once. u
See the attendants stand back from a
lat ward in the hospital where the in y
)riates are dying. They cannot stand =
. The keepers come through il and 81
~: "Hush up, now! Stop making this Il
Oise! BE still! You are disturbing all o.
le other patients. Keep still now!" o'
hen the keepers pass on, and after M
ey get past then the poor creatures --
ring their hands and say; 30 God kl
clip, help! Give me rum, give me ki
mi o Godl o Godl" And they ca
rick and they blaspheme and they cry OF
r help and then they ask the keepers st
slay them, saying: Stab me, stran- yc
e me, smother mel o Godl Help, to
lpl RUM Give me ruml o Godl tn
.lpl" They tear out their hair by the yC
ndful, and they bite their nails into dr.
e quick. This is no fancy picture. 1t mt
in hospital at this mo- dr.
mt. 1t went on last'night while you sa
pt, and, more than that, that is the I'M
ith some of you will die unless you BE
'p. | see it coming. God help you to Of
p before you go so far that you can fla
stop wa
But it plaques a man also in the loss let
home. do not care how much he wo
es his wife and children, if this habit Go
S the mastery over him he will do lioi
most outrageous things. If need be, the
order to get strong drink he would thi
them all into everlasting captivity. fea
ere are hundreds and thousands of gar
mes that have been utterly blasted bee
{. am speaking Of no abstraction. son
there anything so disastrous to a bla
n for this life and for the life to G
le? Do you tell me that man can anc
happy when he knows he is breaking on
wife's heart and clothing his chill Maj