• Author: B-7401
• Editor: B-8266
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume V
• Page Number:
• Date: 8 14 1918
• Tags:
• advice

LEST WE FORGET

Do you recollect the time when the drum and tambourines and the smart attired lassies of the Salvation Army would draw you to the edge of the crowd that encircled their little band, as they held their nightly outdoor meeting at some corner in your neighborhood?

Do you remember how at times ‘‘some’’ of that which was said and sung made you feel a bit ashamed of yourself, though you yet was to proud to admit it, even to your own conscience?

Among the fourteen hundred inmates of this institution, many have walked away from such a street gathering with a peculiar feeling of self-accusation, though they yet possessed sufficent self-confidence to walk to the nearest saloon and drown the embarrassing sensation.

Many again felt touched by the sincerity and logical eloquence of the many ‘‘had been’s’’ testimonies, and walked away with determination to do better, and even went to bed that night a little earlier than usual. Many of course, just passed the time and walked away —no better and no worse.

But, do you recollect how the blood of your manhood and good bringing up boiled when some "drunken fool” would force his way to the front of the ring and selfishly monopolize the attention of the crowd and throw out of adjustment the harmony that existed a few minutes before? Many of you remember such a fellow; many of you felt the desire to grab him and to throw him out into the street, was it not for the commotion you was afraid it might cause:—

Such little bands of men and women come here every Sunday to visit us—to speak and sing that we might be cheered; the same classes of character I have described come and go to these gatherings also, drawn by that mysterious Sunday morning sentiment; but it is the ‘‘drunken fool” that my argument is aimed at today, who is drawn out of his cell for no other motive than to sit outside his door and by his irreverent manrers and ‘‘chinning’’ throw out of adjustment the harmonious touch of fellowship that fills the block by the mere presence of these men and women who have left the comforts of their homes to be with us for a while, that the monotony of our long Sundays may be broken, and also that there might be some whom the service would benefit.

The ‘‘drunken fool’’ that this cap fits, should remember that he only shows forth his own ignorance, and that he is drawing very plainly to the rest of us the picture of the cradle in which he was rocked.

—7401