The Sad Fate Of
Rumsellers
"The Rumseller," says T. P. Hunt, "is wont to die a bankrupt--his sons and clerks to die drunkards--his daughters to marry drunkards--and his family to waste away by the ravages of vice." Says a merchant, "I have been engaged in trade and commerce in this city upward of twenty-two years, and occupied the store I am now in during the whole time. Not an individual originally near me is now to be found, save three flour merchants. In casting my eyes around the old neighborhood, and looking back to the period above mentioned, I ask, Where are they now? On my left were a father and his two sons, grocers, in prosperous business. The sons went down to the grave several years since in poverty, confirmed drunkards. On my right was a firm of long and respectable standing, engaged in foreign commerce, the junior partner of which some years since died, confirmed in this habit. Five of six doors above, was one holding a highly responsible position under our State Government. At first, he was seen to stop and take a little gin and water; and soon he was seen staggering in the street; presently he was laid in the grave, a victim to intemperance. On the corner immediately opposite my store, was a grocer, doing a moderate business. Being addicted to drink, in a state of intoxication he went into the upper loft of his store at noon-day, put fire into an open keg having powder in it, blew the root off his store, and himself into eternity. One door beyond this corner was a father, an officer in one of our churches, a grocer, and his two sons. Both sons have long since been numbered with the dead through the effects of drink; a son-in-law of the above father, pursuing the same business, following the practice of the sons, has come to the same end; a young man, clerk and successor in the same store, has also gone down to the grave from the same cause. On the other side of the Slip, a wealthy grocer died, leaving a family of several young men, three of whom, together with a sister and her husband, have since died in poverty, confirmed drunkards. Next door to this, a junior partner of one of the most respectable grocers in this city, has long since followed the above from the same cause, leaving behind him two brothers, comparatively young in years, but old in this vice, now living on the charity of friends."
Tobacco
The man who is a slave to tobacco makes it his idol. And has not God said in thunder tones, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me?" And are we not informed in the Bible that whoever breaks the least of God's commandments is guilty of the whole? Why will a man hazard his soul for that which is fast making a wreck of his body? When the starving man is fed, his soul is for the time satisfied. When the appetite craving for tobacco is gratified, then the soul is also satisfied. Yes, satisfied to lie down in the jaws of death--in the whirlpool of destruction! But when death approaches where is your surety; where is your guide to the pearly gates? You have made tobacco your god, but it does not grow in Heaven, so you do not want to go there. You have allowed it to lull your conscience all through the journey, and now your consolation forsakes you at the portal of the other world. You have been idle in regard to spiritual things in this life, and now an eternity of idleness awaits you. This morning, while conversing with a tobacco devotee, he said, "I must have my tobacco. It is more company to me when alone than any person could be. When I try to break off using it I want something all the time, and then I have to begin again." If then, it is such a cruel master, let me implore you, young men, to beware of the fetters. Do not think because others use it that this is any excuse for you. You are individually responsible to God your Maker, for the sins you commit. Heed a timely warning and studiously avoid an evil so destructive to soul and body.
November 28, 1865 UrSe, ARSH 203