The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-10-15

III OicSt1lul StIcct, 1lldOtipnid, WILLIE
/ was living in tnat city, an incident oc-
! CURED which was familiar to us there.
In Chestnut street a young man went
into a gambling saloon, lost all his prop
erty, then blew his brains out, and before
the blood was washed from the floor By
the maid the comrades were shutting
cards again. You see there is more
mercy in the highwayman for the be-
lated traveller on whose body he heaps
the stones, there is more mercy In the
frost for the flower that it kills, there is
more mercy in the hurricane that shivers
the steamer on the Atlantic coast, than
there is mercy in the heart OF a gambler
for his victim.
When Drunkenness Most
In the third watch of the night also
drunkenness does its worst. The drink
ing will be respectable at 8 o'clock in
the evening, a little flushed at o, talk
alive and garrulous at 10, at i bias
phemous, at u the hat falls of, at
1 the man falls to the floor asking
for more drink. Strewn through the
drinking saloons of the city, fathers,
husbands, sons as good as you are by
nature, perhaps better. In the high cir
Giles of society it is hushed up. A mer-
chant prince, If he gets noisy and uncon-
trollable, is taken by his fellow jewellers,
who try to get him to bed or take him
home, where he falls fat in the entry.
Do not wake up the children. They nave
had disgrace enough. Do not let them
know it. Hush it up. But sometimes it
cannot be hushed up when the rum
touches the brain and the man becomes
thoroughly frenzied. Such a one came
home, having been absent for some time.
and during his absence his wife died, and
| cha 1ov IN III 80 ,oayo -.oN.-A f4- <h@
obsequies, and he went in and dragged
her by the locks and shook her out of
the shroud and pitched her out of the
window. Oh, when rum touches the
brain you cannot hush it upi
My friends, you see all around about
you the need that something radical be
done. You do not see the worst. In the
midnight meetings in London q great
multitude have been saved. We want
a few hundred Christian men and women
to come down from the highest circles
of society to toll amid these wandering
and destitute ones and kindle up a light
in the dark alley, even the gladness of
heaven. Do not go wrapped in your fine
furs and from your we'll filed tables with
the idea that pious talk is going to stop
the gnawing of an empty stomach or to
warm stockingless feet. Take bread,
SolhS olll4Chl, IohS 90 "S&A 90
take prayer. There is a great deal OF
common sense in what the poor woman
said to the city missionary when he was
telling her how she ought to love God
and serve him. ooh" she said, eff you
were as poor and cold as I am and as
hungry you could think of nothing else"
A great deal of what is called Chris
tan work goes for nothing for the simple
reason that it was not practical, as after
the battle of Antietam a man got out
Of an ambulance with a bag Of tracts,
and he went distributing the tracts, and
George Stuart, one of the best Christian
men in this country, said to him: "Wha
are you distributing tracts for now?
| There are three thousand men bleeding
to death. Bind up their wounds and
, then distribute the tracts" We want
more common sense in Christian work,
taking the bread Of this life in one hand
and the bread of the next life in the
other hand. No such inapt work as that
lone by the Christian man who during
our civil war went to a hospital with
tracts and. coming to the bed of a man
whose legs had been amputated, gave
him a tract on the sin Of dancing! l re-
joice before God that never are sympa-
thetic words uttered, never a prayer Of
fered, never q Christian ~almsgiving in
| uulSGu Ill, DuL II Is DleSScu. lutlc ID q
place in Switzerland, / am told, where
! the utterance of one word will bring back
q score of echoes, and / have to tell you
that a sympathetic word, a kind word,
a generous word, a helpful word, uttered
in the dark places of the town will bring
back ten thousand echoes from heaven.
Are there in this assemblage those who
know by experience the tragedies in the
third watch of the night? l am not
here to thrust you back with one hard
word. Take the bandage from your
bruised soul and put on it the soothing
salve of Christ's gospel and of Gods
compassion. l tell you there is more de-
light in heaven over one man that gets
reformed by the grace of God than over
ninety and nine that never got off the
track.
. Attacking the Weak Point.
I could give you the history in a minute
of one of the best friends / ever had.
Outside of my own family I never had a
better friend. he welcomed me to my
home at the west. He was of splendid
personal appearance, but he had an ardor
of soul n a warmth Of affection that
made me love him like a brother. I
saw men coming out of the saloons and
gambling bells, and they surrounded my
friend, and they took him at the weak
point-his social nature-and 1 saw him
going down, and I had a fair talk with
him, for I never yet saw a man you
could not talk with on the subject Of his
habits if you talked with him in the
right way. l said to him, "Why don't
you give up your bad habits and become
a Christian?" l remember now just how
he looked. leaning over his counter, as he
replied: 81 wish l could. Oh. sir, /
should like to be a Christian, but 1 have
gone so far astray I can't get back" So
the time went on. After awhile the day
of sickness came. / was summoned to
his sickbed. / fastened. 1t took but a
few moments to get there. l was sur
prised as / went in. / saw him in his
ordinary dress, fully dressed, lying on
top Of the bed. / gave him my hand, and
he seized it convulsively and said: "Oh,
/ how rlad L ann To 600 rnni Sit daurn