Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1880 — Poverty and Drunkenness. [ARTICLE]

Poverty and Drunkenness.

I would not say harsh words against poverty; wherever it comes it is a bitter ill; but you will mark, as you notice carefully that, while a few are poor because of unavoidable circumstances, a very large mass of the poverty of London is the sheer and clear result of profuseness, want of forethought, idleness, and, wont of all, drunkenness. Ah, that drunkenness! that is the master evil. If drink could be got rid of we might be sure of conquering the very devil himself. The drunkenness created by the infernal liquorxlens which plaguespot the whole of this huge city is appalling. No, Ido not speak in haste or let slip a hasty word; many of the drinkhouses are nothing leas than infernal; in some respects they are worse for hell has its uses as a drvine protest against sin, but as for the gin-palace, there is nothing to be said in its favor. The vices ot ths age cause three-fourths of the poverty. If you could look at the homes to-night, the wretched homes where women will tremble at the sound of their husband’s foot as he comes home, where little children will crouch down with fear upon their little heap of straw, because the human brale who calls himself “a man” will come reeling heme from the place where he has been indulging his appetite—if you could look at such a sight, and remember

it will be seen ten thousand times over tonight, 1 think you would say, “God help us by all means to save some.” Since the great axe to lay at the root of this deadly .upas tree is the Gospel of Christ, njay God help us to hold the axe there, and to work constantly with iu till the huge trunk of the poison tree begins to rock to and fro, and we get it down, and London is saved from the wretchedness and misery which now drips from every bough.— C. H. Spv rgeon •