Milford chronicle., 1907-07-26

! ing. / am going 10 Try 10 dhdlNLe the
power Of this one of the greatest
temperance workers of our time, so
that we may be encouraged in our
work for the same Master and be
/ stimulated to more vigorous effort by
the example Of this strenuous leader.
A Noble Man.
In the first place. l would place my
/ finger upon the greatest source Of
/ Francis Murphys power and tell you
/ that the chief reason why this success
/ ful temperance worker won so many
trophies for the abstinence cause was
/ because he believed in the nobility of
man. He believed that. no matter how
fragrant the sins of the social outcast,
no matter how low or vile a human
being had become, deep down in that
human heart were some remains of the
image of God. Murphy never despair
ed of any human being, however
drunken or degraded he might be.
Here was a man-one Of the race
Christ came to save-and he believed
that Christ could save him. The de-
grading obstacle Of his thirst for liquor
stood in the way and therefore Muir
ply tried to remove that, so that the
power and influence Of Christ could
reach the poor. helpless creature.
1t does not require very much genius
to find flaws in a mans nature. 1t
does not require wonderful eruditiOn
to magnify the faults Of mankind
Any herd Of swine can root out flow
er garden, if it is possible for them
to squeeze through a gap in the fence.
1t does not take much of a frost to kill
all the fair apple blossoms in the
springtime; neither does it take much
labor to develop a field Of Canada
thistles in the place where wheat and
corn and barley ought to grow But
it does take the genius of a horticul-
turist to find latent buds and develop
them. II does take agricultural acu-
men to put the right kind Of fertilizer
on the ground after the spring plow
ing And it does take the marvellous
grace of God to find the latent buds Of
purity and truth and love and honor In
the corrupt heart Of man and to de-
velop them Alright for God. And this
is always the work of a successful
evangelist of Christ. This was the Sc
cret of Murphy's success. He believed
in Christ and he believed in men Did
not Fanny Crosby. the Christian hym-
nologist. have such a worker as this in
her mind when she wrote these i'm
pressive words:
Down in the human heart, crushed by the
tempter.
Feelings lie buried that grace can re-
store:
Touched by a loving heart. Weakened by
kindness,
once more.
And parallel to this same line of
thought was another fact which in
spired Francis Murphy to seek the |
most depraved of men. He knew that /
the victim of the intoxicating cup was /
in many cases man worth saving
The very characteristics of the man .
that had led to his degradation-his
geniality. his good fellowship. his /
friendliness were the characteristics
that would make him a successful
worker if he was delivered from his
rhraldom. The intensity and zeal that
made Saul prosecutor were traits
which made him a successful apostle
when he was converted. And Francis
Murphy had arrived at this belief by
looking at the history of his own life.
Have you ever heard him describe the
tragedy of his wrecked home? When
the civil war broke out. he like other
Irishmen. was eager to take part in It,
At the bugle call to arms he shoul-
dered the musket and went to the
front. He was not struck by the en-
emy's bullets. but like Alexander the
Great. be was overthrown by the temp
tations Of the camp.
Murphy's Temptation.
Then after the war was ended in or
der to make a living for his little fam
iIv he took charge of a hotel in Maine.
In other words, the devil knew the
mans weakness and led him into the
that would develop It. He
nut a whisky bottle into his hand and
said to him: Drink until your man.
hood is gone. Drink until you come
home to your wife and babies with the
fierce passion of a brute. Drink until
the vilest sot in the gutter is no viler
than YOU" And with that strong per-
sonality of his. he never did anything
halfway. He drank until he went
down, down, down into the lowest
DEPTHS OF degradation. When the
ceme and Murphy came to
himself" like the prodigal. be could not
forget the pit from which he had been
lifted. AS he looked on the sodden, de-