The Golden age. [volume], February 18, 1909, Page 8, Image 8

About The Golden age. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1920

Image provided by: Digital Library of Georgia, a project of GALILEO located at the University of Georgia Libraries

                
8
The Drunkard’s Woe.
As the darkness shuts out the last rays of even
ing light, an old drunkard totters homeward. He
passes down the long avenue where homes are filled
with laughter and music. He hears the sweet sound
of a woman’s voice. 1 ‘How dear to my heart are
the scenes of my childhood,” came ringing out on
the cold air. His heart is touched. For the first
time in his life he realizes his awful condition.
“Oh, the blessing my life could have been if I had
resisted strong drink.”
Watch the old man as he turns the corner and'
hobbles down the back street where the lights are
burning low. Soon he lingers at his little narrow
gate. Does he hear the merry laughter of happy
childhood? No, indeed. He hears them crying for
bread. He hears the shivering sobs of their sick
mother. He has nothing with which to buy them
food. No doubt the sympathetic lines of Tennyson,
“Break, break, break,
At the feet of thy crags, 0 sea —”
run through his mind, as the humiliated character
bow’s beneath the yoke of “vanity and vexation of
spirit,” in the altered words:
l
Broke, broke, broke,
On a cold, wintry sea of sin,
And I would that my character was sheltered
From the thoughts that arise in men.
All’s well W’iK the sober man's boy
.wild has’a clear mind to think,
But who has felled the drunkard's son
Whose brain is racked with strong drink.
To think I am passing the evening of life
With a horror of a judgment from above,
Bui, oh for the grasp of a hand of mercy!
For the sound of a voice of love!
Broke, broke broke,
With nothing to support a family,
But the days of grace I have sinned away
Will never come back to me.
Did you ever take this man by the hand and give
him a word of love and good cheer? Oh, friends
in Christ Jesus, his soul is just as valuable as yours.
If you neglect your duty toward him, the spirit of
Christ will be neglected. Let us have compassion
on him, lift him up, and bring him to Jesus that
he might be saved from a drunkard's woe.
0. S. BURKETT.
Prohibition In West Virginia.
The Baptist Banner says: “But what about West
Virginia? The fight is on right now, and unless all
signs fail, ere another issue of the Banner reaches
its readers, the legislative bodies of the State v, ill
have, either passed a prohibition amendment out
right, or will have provided for a constitutional
amendment to be submitted to a vote of the people.
How can it be otherwise? The dominant political
party has pledged itself, the governor has spoken,
and the people have constituted themselves into a
vigilance committee of the whole, to see that the
work is done. Petitions with 60,000 signatures have
been sent to the representatives, the Anti-Saloon
League is on hand, the Daily Trumpet, with our own
invincible Dr. T. C. Johnson as editor, is doing its
work, and the country is being flooded with litera
ture. Last, but not least, the noble women of Char
leston and the surrounding country are in evidence,
and their prayers are ascending to the ‘Lord of
hosts’ in behalf of their homes and their loved ones.
“ With all of this array on the side of civic righte
ousness the victory is well nigh assured. Besides the
secular papers are before us at this time stating
that at the Capitol the forces are four to one in
favor of the amendment. We rejoice that the gov
ernor-elect has spoken out, and we rejoice further
to believe that our representatives are not traitors,
THINGS THAT ETTEL HAPPENING
Netos Gleanings and Thoughts They ‘Bring
The Golden Age for February 18, 1909.
neither can they be hired to betray their trusts.
What a glorious triumph it will be. The good people
of the State will breathe more freely when it is
done, and afterwards, every good cause will go for
ward by leaps and bounds.
“P. S. —Since writing the above, we rejoice to
say that the amendment has passed the lower house
by a vote of 62 to 13.”
Truly the Lord is bringing things to pass.
S’ *
Fleetwood Ball, in The Baptist and Reflector, says:
J. L. D. Hilly er, in the Golden Age, declares that
congregations should not be encumbered with the
hats of the women any more than the men. Amen!
J. L. D. Hillyer thanks Mr. Ball for that “amen.”
There has been a great waste of wisdom, unwisdom
and tears, over the transgressions of what have been
alleged to be the teachings of Paul. It is very clear
that Paul was discussing a fashion which was local
and temporary. We now have no fashion like it.
*
Parental Honesty.
By Sylvanus Stall, D.D.
If you want your children to be honest with you,
why should you not be honest with them? If you
would not have them deceive you, why should you
attempt to deceive them? If you would teach them
by precept, why should you not teach them also by
example? Is it any wonder that your child should
shut you out of its confidence in similar matters and
in the same manner in which you have yourself
taught it to deceive? Why should you strike and slay
the very confidence which the Creator has so wisely
placed in the heart of every child in the integrity
and honesty of its parents?
Rest assured that the deceptions you attempt to
practice upon your children do not deceive, but they
do destroy their confidence and sometimes even their
faith in their own parents. Let me name a single
illustration.
One bright May morning, a little boy, about four
years old, with no companion, was playing ring
around-a-rosy by himself around a young apple tree
that grew near the garden wall. While he was play
ing a very young “baby bunny” came out of a rab
bit-hole near by. The little rabbit was too young to
escape the child’s grasp. Delighted with his new
found treasure he naturally ran to his mother in
the house. His happiness during the day with the
baby rabbit was complete. When evening came his
father suggested that he should take the rabbit back
to the hole and leave it with its parents for the
night, and then when he would go again early the
next morning the little rabbit would come out of the
hole, and he could bring it again into the house and
play with it another day.
To the confiding little child this seemed reasonable
enough. But imagine the disappointment of the child
the next morning after he had waited an hour or
more and the idea began to dawn upon his mind
that he had been wickedly deceived by his own fa
ther! He is now a grown man and when relating this
incident to me a few days ago, he said that the bit
terness he felt in that moment against his father
could never be described, and he resolved then and
there in his infancy never again to accept his fa
ther’s word or to trust him in anything.
It would have been just as easy for the father and
equally influential with the child, as well as far
more satisfactory in its result, if he had pictured
to the mind of the child the sorrow of the parents of
the little rabbit as they went all day up and down
the field hunting for their baby bunny, and how that
they would not be able to sleep at night unless their
little baby was returned to them, as the bunny was
too young to sleep anywhere else except right by its
mamma, and that it ought on that account to be re
turned to its own little home. Such a course as this
would have taught the child tenderness and thought
fulness for all forms of animal life, and would have
been truthful, and would have inspired in the mind
of the child love and confidence in his father. Par
ents may ask how early they ought to teach their
children upon the subjects of life and being, and the
proper care of their bodies. Whenever the sacred
questions ace asked they ought always to be answer
ed honestly, but with the greatest intelligence and
wisdom. It matters not how young the child might
be. Children always know more than their parents
ever imagine they do.
A Nelv Attempt to Legislate Against
Interstate Liquor Shipments.
There is what seems to be a genuine effort to re
strict, at least, the shipments of liquor into dry ter
ritory. The latest suggestion is to make it unlawful
to ship liquor to any place, in any state that forbids
the shipment of liquor from one place to another
within the state. That is an admirable suggestion.
It ought to be a misdemeanor for any common car
rier to haul any commodity within the state that th,e
law has condemned as unsalable for food or drink,
unless it shall have first been denaturized, so as
render it unfit for use as food or drink. If we had
a law like that, it would head off Uncle Sam in his
liquor auctions at the federal court house. Every
body that bought at that sale would then have to tote
his own purchase, or haul it away in his own wagon.
This evil, however, would be more directly met by
a law offered by our Congressman Griggs. His bill
proposes to destroy all captured liquor. That would
leave nothing to sell and would put the liquor where
it would do the least harm.
Burglary of Residence Hade Capital
Offense.
Austin, Texas, Feb. 2. —The house of representa
tives has passed a bill making burglary of residences
at night a capital offense. It is said that the senate
will pass the measure and that it will be approved
by the governor.—'From The Georgian.
This item of news from Texas reminds us of an
other thing done by Texas several years ago. It,
had been impossible to suppress gambling in Texas.
The legislature made gambling a felony. The gam
blers could not risk that, so they gave up gambling
in Texas. The Texas house has passed this bill to
drive out the burglars. The senate will do wisely
if it passes the bill immediately, and Georgia would
do well to do the same thing. And more of the same
kind.
Aspiration.
The Divine Ideal,
The eternal real,
Shall ever lead the way,
And upward swing
To realms of endless day.
On heavenly wing
—Gustave H. Zastrow.
* *
Mr. W. D. Upshaw, Atlanta, Ga.:
Dear Brother Willie: Enclosed please find M. O.
for SI.OO for The Golden Age six months, sent to
J. W. Pulliam, Houlka, Miss.
Papa so much enjoys the paper that he says he
doesn’t ever want to be without it again. Kindest
regards for you and The Golden Age.
Blue Mountain, Miss. MARY PULLIAM.
Evolution seems to have well nigh run its course.
Only a remnant now worship at its shrine. For a
while it held the center of the stage and had an
audience. Now only a few of the belated and be
nighted remain to do it honor. And Genesis, and
the Genesis story of man’s creation, are still with
us. Why do the heathen rage and the people im
agine a vain thing?—Word and Way.
1 he best qualification for doing things beyond our
reach is to do well the things within our reach.
To talk truth and believe what you say, is the
best eloquence ia man can have.
Take Christ as your guide. He will lead you
into a new haven —the haven of rest.