p. 311 | She Answered "No"

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 22, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 20.

SHE ANSWERED "NO."

THEY stood at the altar; the one at his side All blushing and trembling would soon be his bride; Kind friends gathered 'round them, the young and the fair, A priest in the robes of his office was there.

How holy, how solemn, the vows to be given; An angel was waiting to hear them to Heaven; The priest bade her answer for weal or for woe— In faltering accents she answered him, "No!"

She spoke to her lover in tones fraught with pain— "Your promise is broken, to trust you is vain; When breathing your vows on this altar divine Was wafted to me a strong odor of wine.

To-day we were plighted; you promised me then Your honor you never would taste it again; All vainly they pleaded, she still answered "No! Wedding a tippler brings misery and woe.

"You may lay all the wealth of worlds at my feet, And seek untold pleasures my joy to complete, Bring earth's rarest jewels encircling my brow, All fail in a balance with one broken vow."

Let those who would censure her, look all around, See victims of rum everywhere to be found; See wives broken-hearted, hear widows' sad wail, And thousands of orphans repeat their sad tale.

Oh rum! sad destroyer, thy withering breath Fills our beautiful world with shadows of death, Far worse than the night when on Midian's plain, The pride of the nation in anger was slain. —Sel.