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LIFE OF GEORGE L. HERR

By EDWARD De ALMA

A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING.

"As we sow so shall we reap."

Born in the city of Louisville, of an old Kentucky family, whose escutcheon had never been shadowed by smirch or breath of shame or ignominy, it might truthfully be said of George L. Herr that he had been ushered into this world with the proverbial "gold spoon in his mouth," his father, the late Richard S. Herr, being a prominent and highly esteemed and wealthy citizen of the grand old state of Kentucky. Though surrounded by the luxuries of life, by environments unusually favorable for the development of a strong, healthy, vigorous and clean life, yet Brother Herr's life from his youth up to the period of this writing, presents an aspect checkered with the lights and shadows of temptation, sin, remorse, repentance, redemption and restful peace of heart in salvation through Jesus.

Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.—Ps. 108:12.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.—Ps. 46:1.

At the age of three months, the death of his precious mother caused him to be given into the keeping of his aunt, a noble Christian woman, and it was due to her teachings that the seeds of reverence for God, belief in his dearly beloved Son and faith in the promise of a life of everlasting happiness were planted deep in the recesses of George Herr's heart, while his father, a Christian gentleman, spared no efforts in his endeavor to bring up his son in the way he should go.

At the age of eighteen years, through the death of his father, he came into the possession of a large estate, but lacking the experience which usually comes with maturity, he developed a spirit of independence which soon brought in its train of attendant evils.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak; O Lord, heal me.—Ps. 6:2.

My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.—2 Cor. 12:9.

The story of George Herr's experience is the recital of a man's gradual surrender to the power of drink, until the enormity of his fall can but be depicted by contrasting his condition with that as it was a few years before. Then he was a well known young man of Louisville's elite society, wealthy, respected, esteemed and sought after. Friends without number, well wishers innumerable, the door of any refined home in the city would have swung wide open in welcome at his knock. Now the other picture: A drunken outcast, a prey to the buffetings of every chance wind of fate, deprived of friends, stripped of wealth, position and reputation; exposed to every form of evil, subject to the cruelty of every character of temptation that assails human nature. Ostracized from society, barred from contact with any self-respecting acquaintance of former days, can you imagine a more potent example of the victory of Satan through the agency of his chief field marshal, Drink? God grant that this may come as a warning to some one of the thousands of young men who, with prospects as bright or even more flattering than were those of George Herr at the age of eighteen, are at this moment entering upon the path which will lead them, as it has countless thousands, into the abyss of eternal destruction! God grant that the moral to be drawn from this picture will burn itself in indelible letters of fire upon the very soul of each young man who reads this.