Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN
time. Yes, now I can fight,—and I did fight, six days
and six nights,—encouraged and helped by a few words
of sympathy: “He said, Come in and see me; I will. He
said he would be pleased to make my acquaintance; he
shall. He said, Keep up a brave heart; by God’s help
(I will.” And so encouraged, I fought on, with not one
hour of healthy sleep, not one particle of food passing my
lips, for six days and nights. What a lesson of love should
not this teach us! How know we but some trifling sac¬
rifice, some little act of kindness, some, it may be, uucon-
sidered word, may heal a bruised heart, or cheer a droop¬
ing spirit. Never shall I forget the exquisite delight
which I felt when first asked to call and see Mr. Good¬
rich; and how did I love him from my very heart for the
pleasure he afforded me in the knowledge that some one
on the broad face of the earth cared for me,—for me, who
had given myself up as a castaway; who, two days before,
had been friendless in the widest signification of the word,
aud willing—nay, wishing—to die. Any man who has
suddenly broken off a habit, such as mine was, may ima¬
gine what my sufferings were during the week which fol¬
lowed my abandoning the use of alcohol.
On the evening of the day following that on which I
signed the pledge, I went straight home from my work¬
shop with a dreadful feeling of some impending calamity
haunting me. In spite of the encouragement I had re¬
ceived, the presentiment of coming evil was so strong, that
it bowed me almost to the dust with apprehension. The
slakeless thirst still clung to me; and water, instead of
allaying it, seemed only to increase its intensity.
I was fated to encounter one struggle more with my
enemy before I became free. Fearful was that struggle.
God in his mercy forbid that any young man should en¬
dure but a tenth part of the torture which racked my