The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1884, Page 34

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“sf and actually believing in Him as your complete

34 ‘The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Drunkard Saved.

A pastor in one of our large cities relates
that one morning, whilst he was at work in his
study, 2 stranger was brought to him by an
officer of a Temperance Society. The stranger
being left alone with the pastor told him his
story which was as follows: Ten years before
he had sold his interest in a business in which
he was engaged for $250,000. He had lived
in great style with his wife and two children,
had owned a pew in a fashionable church and
had commanded the respect of the social circle
that gathered about him. Investing his means
in a new undertaking that promised greater
wealth, he was led into the daily habit of
drinking brandy and whiskey, until the habit
held him as with the grasp of a giant.

When intoxicated he was a fool, and by rash
ventures soon lost his property, being at last
obliged to send his wife to her father's house
for shelter, while he drifted to a distant city
in the hope of starting life anew. His craving
for strong drink was terrible, and finding it
impossible to resist any longer the demon of
thirst, he had fled that morning to a Temper-
ance Society and had signed the pledge.

Said the minister solemnly, ‘‘Your pledge
that you seem to lean upon for strength is not
worth a broken straw. Have you not promised
your wife that you would stop using intoxica-
ting liquors?”’ ‘‘Yes,’’ he answered with a
sob, ‘‘God knows how often I have pressed her

‘ to my heart, and told her with tears that she
should be grieved no more by my conduct.’’

‘And do you think that there will be a stronger
power in the mere fact of writing your name
on a piece of paper than you found in your
tlove for wife and children?’’ The miserable
‘man only groaned, ‘‘I fear I am as helpless as
before.”’

‘You are indeed altogether helpless, for let
me say to you kindly but plainly, that if you
were to fall upon your knees and, placing your
hand upon my Bible, take the most awful vow
the human mind can frame never again to
touch strong drink, I would not trust you out
of my sight. From the teachings of God’s
word as to the depravity of human nature, I
fully believe that you would be drunk again,
perhaps in a day.’’ “‘It is too true, too true,’””

+ he said, as his frame shook with the violence

of his emotions, ‘‘and I am lost.’”

«Yes, my friend, you are lost, and so utterly
Jost, there is but One who can save you, or do
you any good.” ‘‘Who is that?’’ he eagerly
inquired. ‘The Lord Jesus Christ,’’ replied
the minister; “and mark, you must go to Him
with the deep conviction that you are not only
lost as a drunkard, but lost as a sinner by nat-
ure.” Having then shown him his sinfulness
and condemnation by the law of God, the pas-

tor urged him to accept Jesus as his Saviour

from every sin and as his allin all. ‘You must
sincerely take Him in everything, committing to
Him your soul and body for time and eternity,

Saviour, or He will be nothing to you. Many
an ardent temperance man is as much a child
of the devil as the worst drunkard. Salvation
from sin is to be found only in Jesus.”

The Gospel was then preached to him in its
fulness and simplicity, and by the power of
God’s grace he was brought to faith in his Sav-
iour and left the pastor’s study with a heart
overflowing with joy.

Several years have passed since that inter-
view, and the last message received from the
happy man showed that he was cleaving with
ever-increasing love to the Lord, who had shat-
tered the chains of his degrading slavery.

Blessed be God, there is hope for the poor
drunkard, but that hope is not found. in telling
him to join Christ, as he would join a Temper-
ance Society, accepting Him merely as an ex-
periment to see whether He will help him to
conquer that one sin of drunkenness. He must
be taught that drunkenness is but a symptom
of a heart deceitful above all things, and des-
perately wicked; and that nothing will do him
any good until he is born again and receives
the Saviour as the one ‘‘who of God is made
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sancti-
fication, and redemption.’’

Are You the Clapper?

A clapper in an old church tower professed
to be greatly grieved because the bell it hung
in was cracked. It was ever and anon telling
of its grief in most dolorous tones, and excited
the sympathy of many unsophisticated people.
But the knell coming along said, ‘‘Cease your
whining, Master Clapper; remember in the
first place that you cracked the bell, and in the
second place nobody would know it was cracked
if you didn’t tell them.’”” When you meet a

man who is always complaining of the coldness
of the church and the want of harmony among
its members, tell him this fable. Those who
fmake the most complaint are often those who
fare most to blame. How is it with you, any
way—is there a cracked bell in your church,
and are you the clapper?—

—> ~<a o +

How he stopped Swearing.

‘While trudging along our mud-covered clay
road through a lonely region,”’ writes a mission-
ary in North Carolina, ‘‘I came to a narrow
strait where a loaded wagon, drawn by an ox
and a mule, obstructed the way, being stuck
in the mud. On the wagon sat a colored boy,
trying with his whip to make his team to ‘get
up heah.’ I said, ‘How is it you don’t use any
bad words while urging your team to pull?’
‘No, sah! I ain’t mad much, nohow; and a
lady what teach me in Sunday-school tole me,
when I got mad at de mule, jis’ to bite my
finger and say “‘Shovel and Tongs!”? as loud as
I can holler and it would be a heap better den
cussing; and I hauled big loads of wood all
las’ week and didn’t cuss nary time.’’’

Swearing Parrots.

A recent advertisement of a New York bird-
fancier offers to purchasers the opportunity of
buying some ‘swearing parrots.’’ There is one
advantage in thus candidly labeling the unfor-
tunate pupils of, accomplished teachers of pro-
fanity—they will not be likely to find changed
surroundings in the homes of their new owners,
for the proud possessor of a swearing parrot
will be pretty sure to be fond of the sort of
language which his bird will give him; nor
will all the wickedness in his house, nor the
worst wickedness, be behind the bird-cage bars.
Indeed, we are inclined to think that most of
the profanity in the world comes from swearing
parrots,—from boys and men who do not swear
because they really think swearing 1 commend-
able form of speech, or an aid to eloquence, or
a pleasure to society, but who use profane Jan-
guage merely because they have heard others
use it, and have had just brains enough to im-
itate other people’s vices.—S. S. 7.

—— -— + oem -

Theatres.

A correspondent of the New York Churchman,
writing on the compatibility of Christianity with
theatre-going, comes to the following conclusion:

The great majority of operas, plays and far-
ces are licentious, [pandering to the worst pas-.
sions of the idle and corrupt, setting a premium
on vice and sneering at virtue, abounding in
oaths and indecent jests. There are said to be
a few ‘pure plays, but to discern these, and
patronize these only, requires an amount of
“good taste’’ (not to say religious sentiment)
possessed by very few. The theatre in all ages
has been the first lesson learned hy the begin-
ners in vice. It stands at the entrance of a
way, stations on which are the race course; the
liquor saloon, the brothel, the gambling house,
and the end—death. When a young man sets
out to be a rake, he begins first of all with the
theatre. The theatre, by exacting large out-
lays of money and giving little in return, en-
courages extravagance. It also compels late
hours and waste of time. Its surroundings are
the resort of the idle and the vicious. Where
the theatre is, the bar room and the brothel
are usually not far off. Nor am I entirely
ignorant of what I'am talking of. I have been
considered a veteran theatre-goer. During ten
years of my life I rarely missed an opportunity
of attending the theatre. I have seen all sorts
of plays in all sorts of theatres, both ‘‘high-
toned’’ and cheap. I have seen every living
American actor and actress of note. A few
years ago I determined to live a Christian life.
Result: I do not go to theatres now, and I try
to keep every one else from going. Why? My:
observation teaches me that religion and the

theatre are two conflicting things.
—_s~+ o-oo > oe

THE way to forget our miseries is to remem-
ber our.mercies,