DRUNK AT FIVE by Flora B. Nelson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 12, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 24.

DRUNK AT FIVE.

By Flora B. Nelson

RECENTLY one of the workers while walking on the street where she was helping in a meeting, saw a little boy lying on the ground. She went to him, and tried to help him up and ascertain the cause of his being there, but he fell back again, swearing and cursing. He was drunk, tho only five years old. It was learned that his father had died a drunkard, and his mother took no care of the child, often going to bed without any knowledge of his whereabouts.

What a heritage that father left to his boy, and what an influence goes out from that mother's life, bringing swift destruction to her child thru neglect and carelessness.

The seeds of sin and drunkenness were sown in that child's nature before it ever saw the light of day. Evil tendencies of all kinds,—lust, pride, anger, bitterness, drunkenness, etc., are often the fruit of the parents' sin, manifest in the life of the offspring.

Our observation as a public worker has proved the awful fact that wicked men and seducers wax worse and worse. Our duty in the matter is to reach every erring one within the range of our abilities, and sow the gospel seed with tears for the lost, gathering in the jewels for the great crowning day. Let not one opportunity escape you unimproved. Follow up these lost ones to their homes and haunts of sin; and with love and pity expressed and demonstrated in your attitude toward them, tell them of a bleeding, compassionate Christ.—Flora B. Nelson.