Part 4 (2/2)

”He had been a victim in the toils of the monster for fifteen years; had endured all the horrors it inflicted upon its votaries during that ti ht way and walk therein He pictured the inevitable result in new and convincing argu

His description of deliriuhtful, was not overdrawn He told the sih the horrible ordeal can testify

”We have not space to follow Mr Benson through his lecture, which was truly original in language, style and delivery He is a lawyer by profession, about twenty-eight years, and is wonderfully gifted with a pleasing way, rapidly flowing and eloquent language, that carries to the audience the conviction that he is in earnest in the work of total abstinence; that in the effort to reclai undone to save those who may have started out in life impressed with the belief that there is pleasure and enjoyment under the influence of intoxication That he will accooes into the work under the influence of the Holy Spirit; h reforh lecture, but maintain that the eloquent, forcible, hue of Mr Benson is of a better and higher order, and will provethe hearts of those who stand upon the verge of ruin

”Mr Benson will lecture this (Tuesday) evening, in the Presbyterian church Doors open at 6:30; lecture co will be on a different subject, and no part of the lecture of last evening will be repeated

”As a result of the lecture Monday evening, one hundred and sixty-two persons signed the pledge”

With reference to the lecture delivered at Faneuil Hall, the Boston Te synopsis:

”Mr Benson, on being introduced, paid the following eloquent tribute to the Hall:

”Ladies and gentlemen: It is with emotions such as I have never experienced upon any forht in this, the birthplace of Aurated the grand e of the history of our tilorious achievements of the patriot that the world has ever had to adurated those immortal principles that caused revolution to rise in fire, and go down in freedom, amid the ruins and relics of oppression It was here that the beacon of liberty first blazed, and the rainbow of freedom rose on the cloud of war; and as a result, of the patriotism and heroism of our forefathers, liberty has erected her altars here in the very garden of the globe, and the genius of the earth worshi+p at her feet And here in this garden of the West, here in this land of aspiring hope, where innocence is equity, and talent is triumph, the exile from every land finds a home where his youth o doith the unlorious i an A erect and secure under the Stars and Stripes?

”If there be a place on earth where the human mind, unfettered by tyrannical institutions, randeur, it is here If there be a country where the human heart, in public and in private, may burst forth in unrestrained adulation to the God that made it, it is here, where the io succeeded in establishi+ng these United States, as the 'land of the free and the home of the brave' Here, then, hulory Mind constitutes the majesty of man, virtue his true nobility The tide of ih the land, is destined to flow on down to the latest posterity, and it will bear on its lory, or our shame, or whatever else we may transmit as an inheritance Thus it depends upon ourselves whether the moth of immortality and the vampire of luxury shall prove the overthrow of this country, or whether knowledge and virtue, like pillars, shall support her against the inds of war, ambition, corruption, and the remorseless tooth of tiht, in this, the very cradle of liberty, let us not forget that there are evils to be shunned and avoided by us as individuals and as a common people

”It is about one of these evils that is threatening the stability, prosperity, and happiness of this whole country that I would talk to you to-night Let us approach near to each other and talk, if possible, soul to soul, and heart to heart, I would talk to you to-night of liberty, that liberty that frees us, body, soul, and spirit, fro bowl; a slavery e Why, it is but a few years ago that this whole continent rocked to its very center on the question as to whether human slavery should endure upon its soil! That was but the slavery of the body, a slavery for this life; and that was bad enough, but the slavery about which I talk to you is a slavery not only of the body, but of the soul, and of the spirit; a slavery not only for this life, but a slavery that goes beyond the gates of the tomb, and reaches out into an infinite eternity

The slavery of intoxication, unlike human slavery, is confined to no particular section, climate, or society; for it wars on all mankind It has for its home this whole world It has the flesh for its mother and the devil for its father It stands out a headless, heartless, eyeless, earless, soulless antic and fabulous proportions”

As a _very few_ persons have said my labors in the cause of Teive just very short extracts from a nuht to know:

FRANKFORT, IND, October 18, 1875

LUTHER BENSON, ESQ--_My Dear Sir_--Yours of the 14th is before ed in court, I can not refrain froth First, I will say, ”I have kept the faith” Though ”the fight” is not yet over, my emancipation from the terrible thralldoes of appetite yet ad with one of these that your letter cathen me Not a day passes but that I think of you, and to your wise counsel and affectionate ad and continuance in this well-doingMay the Lord spare you to ”open the lips of truth” to those who, like er With high esteem and sincere affection, I am, ever your friend, ----

SALEM, Mass, October 29, 1875

BRO BENSON--I write you these few lines to cheer your heart, and assure you that your labor in Salem has not been in vain in the Lord's cause (the Temperance Reform) Our friend and brother, ----, fro last, and it would do your heart good to see the change in hiet Luther Benson, for it was your first speech in Salem that saved him ----

I desire now to come down to the very near present, as some claiuished ood:

MEMPHIS, MO, Feb 14, 1878

DEAR BENSON--I know of rand work here Bro B, you re you what a persecutor of churches he was, and how hard he drank He in two nights after you were here signed the pledge, and in telling his experience, said that you saved him--that no other person had ever been able to impress him as you did

Truly, ----

----, Jan 1, 1878

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND--I wish I could be with you and knee with you as in the past, and hear your faith in God Here is my hand forever You have done more for me than all the shepherds on the bleak hillsides of this black world