Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP JOHN B. GOUGH.
for my great sorrow is beyond the help of man. My heart
(is sick. I have a boy—a fine little fellow. How I have
trembled for him, lest he should follow his father’s
footsteps! He is quick and impulsive; is fond of his
father; and has asked: ‘Can’t I drink beer if father does?’
1 took him—the little fellow—to hear you. When he
came home, he said: ‘ Mother, I’ll be temperance, and I’ll
sign the pledge.’ I had no pledge, so I wrote what I
thought would answer, and he has signed it; and now he
{says: ‘ I’ll never drink, and I shall tell Mr. Gough that I
have not drank cider since I first saw him.’ Oh! if you
could help my husband. Forgive me for troubling you.
If you cannot help us, pray for us. I have many times,
in agony of spirit, ofiered up the prayer I found in your
book.1 My Father knows I would rather all this should
come upon me, than my husband should die a drunkard.”
One lady, after relating her sufferings, writes: “ I will
stand up for the temperance cause, I will pray for the
temperance cause, I will work for the temperance cause,
I will do all I can by example for the temperance cause.
‘“Tell me I hate the bowl—
Hate is a feeble word:
I loathe—abhor—my very soul
With strong disgust is stirred,
Whene’er I see, or hear, or tell,
Of the dark beverage of hell.’”
In some of these cases I obtained interviews, and did
what I could; but oh! it is hard—very hard. “How long,
O Lord, bow long?”
I will copy no more.
My heart aches at such revelations, and I gather the
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