Connecticut western news., 1899-05-04
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| eDridteS are uylng. Iney 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 nowl"
 Then the keepers pass on, and after
 they get past then the poor creatures
 wiring their hands and say: 70 God l
 Help, helpl Give me rum, give me
 ruml O Godi Helpl Take the devils off
 of mel O Godl O God" And they
 shriek 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 O Godl Help,
 helpi Ruml Give me rum O God |
 Helpl" 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 a hospital at this mo- | ment. It went on last night while you 1 slept, and, more than that, that is the | death some of you will die unless you | stop. I see it coming God help you fo stop before you go so far that you can- | not stop.
 Despoiler of Homes.
 But it plagues man also in the loss
 
 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. am speaking of no abstraction. Is there anything so disastrous to a | man for this life and for the life to l come2 Do you tell me that man can be happy when he knows he is breaking his wife's heart and clothing his chil- dren with ragsf There are little chil- 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 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 despoiler of homes, thou foe of God, thou recruiting officer of the pit, I hate theel
 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 l 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 cents to get drink that would for little while slake his thirst, but in eter- nifty where will the rum come from Dives wanted one drop of water, but could not get it. Where will the inebri- ate get the draft he so much requires, so much demandsf No one to brew it. No one to mix it. No one to pour it. No one to fetch it. Millions of worlds now for the dregs that were thrown on the sawdusted floor of the restaurant. Millions of worlds now for the rind flung out from the punch bowl of an earthly banquet. Dives called for water. The inebriate calls for rum.
 Look Not Upon the Wine.
 If fiend from the lost world should come up on mission to a grogshop and, having finished the mission in the grogshop, should come back, taking on the tip of his wing one drop of alcoholic 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 fiend upon the tongue of the inebriate, how he would spring up and cry That's 1t That's it Rum Rum That's itl'' And all the caverns of the lost would echo with the cry: "Giye it to mel Rum Rum" An, my friends, the inebriate's sorrow in the next world will not be the absence of God or holi- ness or light; it will be the absence of rum. ''Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it moveth itself alright in the cup, for at the last it biteth like a serpent, and it stingeth like an ad- der''
 When see this plague in the land, and when I see this destroying angel sweeping across our great cities, am sometimes indignant and sometimes hu- initiated. When man asks me, What are you in favor of for the subjugation of this evilf" I answer, "I am ready for anything that is reasonable You ask me, "Are you in favor of Sons of Temperance 2" Yes. "Are you in favor of good SamaritansP Yes. "Are you in favor of Good Templars f' Yes. "Are you in favor of prohibitory lawf" Yes. ''Are you in favor of the pledgef" Yes. Combine all the influences, O Christian reformers and philanthropistsl Com bine them all for the extirpation of this evil.
 Thirst May Be Quenched.
 Thirty women in one of the western states banded together and with an especial ordination from God they went forth to the work and shut up all the grogshops of large village Thirty women, with their song and with their prayer, and if l, 1000 or 2.000 Christian men and women with an especial ordi- nation from God should go forth feeling I the responsibility of their work and discharging their mission, they could in any city shut up all the grogshops.
 But must not dwell on generalities; I must come to specifies. Are you astrayf If there is any sermon I dis like, It Is sermon on generalities. l want personalities. Are you astrayf Have you gone so far you think you can- not get backf Did say few moments ago that a man might go to a point in inebriation where he could not stopf Yes, I said it, and reiterate it. But want you also to understand that while the man himself, of his own strength, cannot stop, God can stop any man. You have only to lay hold of the strong arm of the Lord God Almighty. He can stop you. Many summers ago went over to New York one Sabbath even ing-our church not yet being open for the autumnal services. I went into a room in the Fourth ward, New York, where religious service was being held for reformed drunkards, and I heard revelation that night that I had