Deliverance from drink

A few years ago I was going west on a campaign. A gentleman in Michigan saw the announcement in the papers, and he wrote to me at New York: "You are coming west; can not you stop in our town, and have some meetings?" I looked over my railroad directory, and found that I could stop over one day. So I wrote him that I would be there on a certain day. He met me at the depot, took my wife to the house; then he took me in his carriage around the town a little, and came to a place where they were building a large school house, and stopped and shouted, "Mr. A__ , come here a minute, will you?" A gentleman came hurrying along to the carriage. "Mr. a__, this is Mr. graves." "Oh, Mr. Graves," said he, "I am glad to see you, glad to see you!" He put out his hands and seemed very much interested, though I had never seen his face. Said he, "I want to tell you my experience." "What is it?"

He said, "I was a drunkard (he was a man, I should say, more than forty), and I had got so low that one morning when I went down to the market, and got some beefsteak for breakfast (I got trusted for that), on my way home my appetite was so strong that I went into a saloon, and pawned the meat for a glass of liquor, and the saloon keeper was wicked enough to take the meat right out of my family's mouths, to let me have some liquor. I got home. My family saw that something must be done. I was a wreck. So they had me put under arrest, and took me down to the House of Reform. I stayed there several weeks, in despair, hopelessly, as I supposed, with no idea that I was ever going to get over that fearful mania for drink."

"By and by, a young man, a Christian, came up and said, 'I have a remedy for you.' 'Have you?' Hope began to spring up in my heart. 'What is it?' 'It is Jesus Christ. He is able to kill out that burning appetite within you. He breaks the power of reigning sin. He set the prisoner free.' He then took his Bible and opened it and pointed out the pure Gospel of Christ. I accepted it. I believed it, that it was able to save me from the dreadful sin into which I had fallen. I stayed there a few weeks after that, but had the appetite no more. I came home, and today I am a happy man, because I have the Gospel, and it has taken away all my appetite for strong drink." -- Albert P. Graves

From: 2700-PLUS SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS By Duane V. Maxey

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