: "All but one. He couldn't help himself at all. We had
all we could carry. We couldn't save the last one." "Man the life-boat
again!" shouted Hardy. "I will go. What! leave one there to die alone?
A fellow-creature there, and we on shore? Man the life-boat now!
We'll save him yet." But who is this aged woman with worn garments and
disheveled hair, with agonized entreaty falling upon her knees beside
this brave, strong man? It is his mother! "O, my son! your father was
drowned in a storm like this. Your brother Will left me eight years ago,
and I have never seen his face since the day he sailed. No doubt he,
too, has found a watery grave. And now you will be lost, and I am old
and poor. O, stay with me!" "Mother," cried the man, "where one is in
peril, there is my place. If I am lost, God surely will care for you."
The plea of earnest faith prevailed. With a "God bless you, my boy!"
she released him, and speeded him on his way. Once more they watched and
prayed and waited--those on the shore--while every muscle was strained
toward the fast-sinking ship by those in the life-saving boat. At last
it reached the vessel. The clinging figure was lifted and helped to
its place. Back came the boat. How eagerly they looked and called in
encouragement, and cheered as it came nearer! "Did you get him?" was the
cry from the shore. Lifting his hands to his mouth to trumpet the words
on in advance of their landing, Hardy called back above the roar of the
storm, "Tell mother it is brother Will!"

My friend, simply talking and praying will not save our loved ones from
drunkards' graves. We must man the life-boat of municipal, State, and
National reform, and vote for principle and Christian temperance until
we save the last man. He may be "brother Will."

III. GAMBLING, CARD-PLAYING

GAMBLING has become a moral plague of modern society. In one form or
another it has entered the rank and file of every department of life--in
private parlor over cards; in hotel drawing-room over election reports;
in college athletic grounds over brains and brawn; in the counting-room
over the price of stocks; in the racing tournament over jockeying and
speed; in the Board of Trade hall over future prices of the necessaries
of life; in the den of iniquity at dice; in the drinking saloon at
the slot-machine; in the people's fair at the wheel of fortune; in the
gambling den itself at every conceivable form of swindling trick and
game. Gambling has com