Woodruff County news., 1901-11-16

l our bad habits we are sailing down stream, but the moment we try to turn we put our boat in the rapids just above Niagara and try to row up | stream.
 A physician tells his patient that he must quit the use of tobacco, as it is destroying his health. The man re- plies: T can stop that habit easy enough" He quits the use of the weed. He goes around not knowing what to do with himself. He cannot add up column of figures; he cannot sleep nights. It seems as if the world had turned upside down. He feels his busi- ness is going to ruin. Where he was kind and obliging he is scolding and fretful. The composure that charac- terized him has given way to a fret ful restlessness, and he has become complete fidget. What power is it that has rolled a wave of woe over the earth and shaken portent in the heavens? He has quit tobacco. After awhile he says: q am going to do as I please. The doctor does not under stand my case. I am going back to my old habits" And he returns. Every thing assumes it's usual composure. His business seems to brighten. The world becomes an attractive place to live in. His children, seeing the diff ference, hail the return of their fa ther's genial disposition. What wave of color has dashed blue into the sky, | 4o l, f11s age, and the glow of sapphire into the sunset? What enchantment has lift ed world of beauty and joy on his soul? He has resumed tobacco.
 The fact is, we all know in our own experience that habit is a taskmaster. As long as we obey it it does not chas- tise us; but let us resist, and we find that we are lashed with scorpion whips and bound with ship cable and thrown into the track of bone-breaking Jug gernauts.
 Suppose man of five or ten or twenty years of evildoing resolves to do right, why are all the forces of dark ness allied against him? He gets down on his knees in the midnight and cries: "God help mel" He bites his lip. He grinds his teeth. He cinches his fist in a determination to keep to his pur pose. He dare not look at the bottles in the window of wine store. It is one long, bitter, exhaustive, hand-to- hand fight with infamed, tantalizing, merciless habit. When he thinks he is entirely free, the old inclination pounces upon him like a pack of hounds, all their muzzles tearing away at the Hanks of one poor reindeer.
 In Paris there is sculptured rep resentation of Bacchus, the god of revelry He is riding on a panther at full leap. Oh, how suggestive! Let every one who is speeding on bad ways understand he is not rid ing a docile and well-broken steed, but that he is riding a monster wild and bloodthirsty and going at a death leap.
 have also to say if a man wants to return from evil practices society repulses him. The prodigal, wishing 1 to return, tries to take some profess sor of religion by the hand. The professor of religion looks at him, l looks at the faded apparel and the marks of dissipation, and instead of giving him a firm grip of the hand offers him the tip end of the longer fingers of the left hand, which is equal to striking man in the face. Oh, how few Christian people under stand how much gospel there is in a good, honest handshaking! Some times when you have felt the need of encouragement and some Chris tian man has taken you heartily by the hand, have you not felt thrilling i through every fiber of your body, mind and soul an encouragement that was just what you needed?
 The prodigal, wishing to get into good society, enters a prayer meet ing. Some good man without much sense greets him by saying: "Why, are you here? You are about the last person that I expected to see in prayer meeting. We'll, the dying thief was saved, and there is hope for you" You do not know anything that when a man tries to return from evil courses of conduct he runs against repulsions innumerable.
 I think, also, that men are often hindered from returning by the fact l that churches are anxious about their membership, too anxious about their denomination, and they rush out when they see a man about to give up sin and return to God and |
 tized-whether by sprinkling or inn mersion-and what kind of church he is going to join. It is poor time