The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-12

l 1a94lf WhtcH can ana QO uestos hoRf.. ness the other side of the grave as well as that of the life which Is on this slider
 The Drunkard's Curse.
 The solomonie evil cannot only destroy 8 fathers or a mothers temporal and eternal life, but 1t ruins their children also, because the drunkardss evil habit ls inheritable. The drunkards curse. which rests upon the parents life can be trans mitted by the law of blood into the veins l or the fathers children and his children 1 children. Every physician is ready to testify thac1t is far easier for a drunk ards son to become a drunkard than for child whose parents have never been cursed by the sting of the fatal adder l Of intoxication. So. my brother, as the Mohammedan mothers look upon the ser pent as sacred and allow the venomous l cobra to crawl into their cradles and sting their little ones 10 death, you, if you are addicted to the curse of drink, are only destroying your own souls, but you are also destroying the immortal lives of the unborn generation. By look l ing upon the wine cup when it is red you are preparing the way to look into the bloodshot eyes and to listen to the l blaspheming tongues of your childrens children, who shall meet you at the judg- ment seat of Christ to arraign you as the cause of their evil inheritance and to curse you and to curse the day you were born
 But my subject is vast must forego much of what I would like to say in ar i raisnins this ser pentlne monster and pass on to briefly discuss the means with l which by the grace of God. we can de- stroy it. And in this discussion I shall not touch on the power of the ballot box l That Is a theme in itself
 The sure antidote for the poison Of the l adder of intoxication must be found for 1 Christians, first and last and all the time In the blood of Jesus Christ. It is right to use human agencies for the cure or l inebriety, but I believe human agencies will always fail unless they are blessed by the divine power-by the power of the l Holy Ghost. As a pastor and preacher | and temperance worker I have personally tried to aid in the rescue of many drunk- ards. l have helped send some to the reformatory institutions. I have taken them medicines from the drug stores. am free to confess that all these human agencies failed except when those vic- tlms of strong drink have thrown them selves into the arms of God and clung to Jesus Christ as their only Saviour.
 Oh. ye victims of the wine cup Oh, ye helpless men and women who have long struggled in the relentless coils of the I satanic serpent, which are stronger and more merciless than those of the great serpent. l20 feet long, of which Pliny once wrote! beg and plead with you to seek rescue from your besetting sin in the blood of Jesus Christ. Divine re-en- | forcements saved John B. Cough Divine re-enforcement saved Francis Murphy Divine re-enforcement saved Captain Barbour of Pittsburg. Divine re-enforce- ment can save you If you will live so close to Christ that Christ can and will live close to you. Divine re-enforcement alone can save the drunkard who Is head ing toward drunkards grave
 The Only Sure Antdote.
 This premise being true, that Jesus l Christ alone is the only sure antidote for the suicidal thirst of strong drink, the next step in our temperance reform ation should be to open all the churches In our Christian land for great temper ance meetings. Every minister of the gos- pei should preach and continue to preach l the gospel of teetotalism Every pulpit of every church should be a broad, white desk before which the victims of strong | drink could bow at the throne of grace Tor mercy and then arise and with trem- bling hand sign the temperance pledge and blot 1t then and there with their falling tears of penitence. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ must and shall lead in this successful temperance re- form. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ can destroy the saloon If she does | her full dutys as the prayer meetings of the country meeting destroyed the poli- tical candidacy of Robert c. Ingersoll for the governorship of Illinois, The temper ance movement will fail, and surely faiI 1T II IS carried on purely as a secular movement. It will win, and surely win. II It is carried on as a divine movement in which Is enlisted the strong arm of a church inspired of the Holy Spirit It is by you that the call for gospel charge against the grogshops must first be | sounded.
 Lastly. and most important of all with the help of the church of God, we should l try to kill the adder of strong drink by making our civil laws so stringent that 1 the young should find it almost impos- sible to get at the wine cup even if they would It is easier to keep 100 young men from acquiring the evil habit of strong drink than it is to reform one debauch- ed drunkard. It Is easier to prevent than | to reform sin. I suppose the chronic | drunkards who have been drinking for | twenty or thirty years will find their poisonous serpent of the wine cup no matter where they may be. But 1t is possible by law to protect the young. It is possible by law to keep liquor away from the young men ana the young wo- men. It Is possible to protect the rising | generation so that they may not be able to find this adder's liar and to feel his foul breath or his poisonous fangs. And not only by stringent laws should I I the young, but the young should also be taught why the debauching influence of l strong drink Is kept out of their reach The evil results of indulgence in the | wine cup should be taught in our Sab bath schools. They should be taught up- on the public platforms as well as in the | private home. The evils of strong drink should be presented so clearly and ve- hemently to the young that the rising generation should some day by the grace | Of God be able to stand up in their might | and declare that America must and shall | forever be free from the evils of strong l drink They shall be able to declare if 1 With our help at the church altar. thev shall be able to declare it in the nomin
 atlng blanks of our great political per- ties; they shall be able to declare if at the American ballot box; they shall ba able to declare it by telegraphic commun- lcations before a sin cursed, alcohol poisoned world.
 Christian men and women, north. east south and west, let us one and all rally 10 the temperance cause. Let the min | fsters consecrate the pulpits to this wor, Let the laymen consecrate the pews May l we one and all be ready to die for the l temperance cause. but never to surrender. 1 never to cease fighting the saloon and it's entrenched power until we are snn,- moned before the great white throne of | heaven. Never, never, never let m in the struggle against this hemispherjc evil until the home and the church and tha | kingdom of God shall forever be free May God give us one and all sunerno