I Will Stop | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 13, 1878

I Will Stop.

"I SHALL never become like him," a young man said to me as he pointed to a poor reeling drunkard across the street. I had been trying to warn him of the danger of touching alcohol in any form, for alas! he sometimes drank cider, beer, and wine.

"I shall never become like him," he reiterated again, earnestly.

"Do not be too sure, Charlie," I answered, "for you have taken the first few steps in the path that poor L. is now traveling. Unless you now stop at once, you will become the same wretched thing that he is—a drunkard."

"No, you are mistaken," the young man said, "for whenever I discover danger ahead I will stop; I know that I can."

"You will never discover it till it is too late to turn about, Charlie. Poor L. yonder, was lost before he knew it," I answered.

"Do not borrow trouble about me," he replied with a laugh, as he turned away.

Five years have elapsed since the above conversation took place between Charlie S. and myself, and to-night he sleeps in a drunkard's

grave. Poor Charlie did not see the danger until it was too late, and so he went to ruin. He did not possess the moral courage that he was sure he could call into command at any moment, and his frail constitution gave way in a little while, and Charlie was lost in darkness.

"I was mistaken," were the last words he ever said to me, "for I have become just such a wretch like poor L."

Boys, look at the poor, bloated wrecks of humanity all about you, and be saved while it is possible. You will become just such a poor object of pity, unless you leave the paths of intemperance. Leave it now, for if you wait until to-morrow, you may be bound in chains that can never be broken. — Cross and Crown.