When
we were here last fall, I became interested in one of the men who lives
here. This man is a very talented fellow in many ways and has a nice little
mountain home and a very good Christian wife. However, he was one of the
worst slaves to drink that I have ever met in this community. He also had
a terrible temper, and had a very determined will of his own.
Sometime in the past, a preacher
had called him to account in no uncertain terms about the life he was living
and wanted him to use his talents for a better cause. This did not produce
the effect the minister had hoped for, but it seemed to direct his anger
toward this preacher and his work.
When I would visit with him
at his home or wherever we would meet in the little community, it was not
unusual to smell the odor of alcohol about him. However, he would always
try to hide it from me. Then when his drinking spree was over, he would
tell about it and ask me if I knew when he was drinking. I always told
that I did, and that I was sorry for him, as I understood only too well
how the devil could use alcohol to drag one down and down to the very bottom
of the gutter.
We have had a great burden
for this man and his good little wife, and have asked God many times to
take all desire of alcohol out of his life, and that he would surrender
fully to Him.
Whenever I would talk to
him about his drinking, it was always in the spirit of love and understanding.
I never used any method other than kindness and through it all I would
stress salvation through the blood that was shed on Calvary's Cross.
It almost makes me shudder
just to look bach over a short period of time, and get a vision of this
man reeling and staggering under the influence of moonshine liquor—with
his old hat pulled down over one side of his head, and part of his face
smeared with tobacco juice, slowly making his way up the little mountain
trail home, and a sad and broken-hearted wife.
But today—how wonderful,
how truly wonderful! He is a saved man, with a ringing testimony. Just
recently he told me that all desire for liquor had gone, and that many
times when his old drunken cronies would offer him a drink, it was a pleasure
to refuse in the name of the Lord.
Just last night he told me
that he wanted to do everything that was in his power for the Lord, and
that he wanted to be as close to Him as possible. |