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the accounts from the east, of widows burnt upon the funeral piles of their departed husbands. But what if those devotees of superstition, the Brahmins, had discovered a mode of prolonging the lives of the victims for years amid the flames, and by these protracted burnings were accustomed to torture life away? We might almost rouse up a crusade to cross the deep, to stop by force such inhumanity. But alas! we should leave behind us on our own shores, more wives in the fire, than we should find of widows thus sacrificed in all the east; a fire too, which, besides its action upon the body, tortures the soul by lost affections, and ruined hopes, and prospective wretchedness. pp. 70, 71,

We execrate the cruelties of the slave trade—the husband torn from the bosom of his wife-the son from his father-brothers and sisters separated forever-whole families in a moment ruined! But are there no similar enormities to be witnessed in the United States? None indeed perpetrated by the bayonet-but many, very many, perpetrated by intemperance.

Every year thousands of families are robbed of fathers, brothers, husbands, friends. Every year widows and orphans are multiplied, and grey hairs are brought with sorrow to the grave no disease makes such inroads upon families, blasts so many hopes, destroys so many lives, and causes so many mourners to go about the streets, because man goeth to his long home.

We have heard of the horrors of the middle passage-the transportation of slaves the chains-the darkness--the stench-the mortality and living madness of woe-and it is dreadful. But bring together the victims of intemperance, and crowd them into one vast lazar-house, and sights of woe quite as appalling would meet your eyes.

Yes in this nation there is a middle passage of slavery, and darkness, and chains, and disease, and death. But it is a middle passage, not from Africa to America, but from time to eternity, and not of slaves whom death will release from suffering, but of those whose sufferings at death do but just begin. Could all the sighs of these captives be wafted on one breeze, it would be loud as thunder. Could all their tears be assembled, they would be like the sea. pp. 71, 72.

Vol. I.-No. XII.

82

This dreadful work is going on, and yet the nation sleeps. Say not that all these evils result from the abuse of ardent spirits; for as human nature is constituted, the abuse is as certain as any of the laws of nature. The commerce, therefore, in ardent spirits, which produces no good, and produces a certain and an immense amount of evil, must be regarded as an unlawful commerce, and ought, upon every principle of humanity, and patriotism, and conscience, and religion, to be abandoned and proscribed. p. 73.

A third consideration adduced to show the unlawfulness of the commerce is, that

"It seems to be a manifest violation of the command, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; and of various other evangelical precepts."

No man can act in the spirit of impartial love to his neighbour, who for his own personal emolument, inflicts on him great and irreparable evil, for love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Love will not burr. a neighbour's house, or poison his food, or blast his reputation, or destroy his soul. But the commerce in ardent spirits does all this inevitably and often. Property, reputation, health, life, and salvation fall before it. pp. 75, 76.

It is scarcely a palliation of this evil that no man is destroyed maliciously-or with any direct intent to kill--for the certainty of evil is as great as if waters were poisoned which some persons would surely drink, or as if a man should fire in the dark upon masses of human beings where it must be certain that death would be the consequence to some. p. 76.

The consideration, that those, to whose injury we are accessary by the sale of ardent spirits, are destroyed also by the perversion of their own free agency-and that the evil is silent, and slow-paced in its march-doubtless subtracts in no small degree, from the keen sense of accountability and crime, which would attend the administration of arsenic, or the taking of life by the pistol, or the dagger-as does also the consideration that although we may withold the cup, yet,

from some other source the deleterious potion will be obtained.

But all this alters not the case. He who deliberately assists his neighbour to destroy his life, is not guiltless because his neighbour is a free agent and is also guilty-and he is accessary to the crime, though twenty other persons might have been ready to commit the same sin if he had not done it. pp. 79, 80.

The ungodliness in time, and the everlasting ruin in eternity, inseparable from the commerce in ardent spirits, proscribe it as an unlawful article of traffic.

Who can estimate the hatred of

God, of his word and worship, and of his people, which it occasions; or number the oaths and blasphemies it causes to be uttered-or the violations of the Sabbath--the impurities and indecencies-violence and wrong-doing-which it originates? How many thousands does it detain every Sabbathday from the house of God-cutting them off from the means of grace and hardening them against their efficacy? How broad is the road which intemperance alone opens to hell, and how thronged with travellers! p. 80.

Oh! were the sky over our heads one great whispering gallery, bring ing down upon us all the lamentation and woe which intemperance creates,

and the firm earth one sonorous medium of sound, bringing up around us from beneath, the wailings of the damned, whom the commerce in ardent spirits had sent thither;-these tremendous realities assailing our sense, would invigorate our conscience, and give decision to our purpose of reformation. But these evils are as real, as if the stone did cry out of the wall, and the beam answered it--as real, as if day and night, wailings were heard in every part of the dwelling-and blood and skeletons were seen upon every wall as real, as if the ghostly forms of departed victims, flitted about the ship as she passed o'er the billows, and showed themselves nightly about stores and distilleries, and with unearthly voices screamed in our ears their loud lament. They are as real as if the sky over our heads collected and brought down about us all the notes of sorrow in the land-and the

firm earth should open a passage for the wailings of despair, to come up from beneath. pp. 82, 83.

In this position the author has taken high ground, and will be met by much opposing interest, if not with valid argument. That great evils flow from the sale of ardent spirits we have a most unhappy amount of evidence That these evils are inseparable from the traf fic, and will exist as long as the traffic itself exists, is almost equally obvious. But how large a share of the blame the public sentiment may eventually be brought to lay at the door of the dealer, or in what proportion justice herself may weigh out the guilt to the various parties concerned in the case-the distiller, and the vender, and the temperate and intemperate abusers, of ter to settle. ardent spirits, it is a difficult mat

It is not our design to discuss particular measures. We cannot approve of all the measures, or all the doctrine of which we have heard from some places abroad. There is now a healthful excitement which is spreading itself through the community, to a degree we believe unprecedented, and which we trust will gradually work a full conviction in the public mind respecting this great evil, and prepare the way for a general co-operation in its removal ; and we should deprecate any proceedings which should contribute to prevent such an issue. Proscription, and censure, and enthusiastic measures which outstrip the public feeling, and lose sight of long established prejudices and hereditary habits of thinking, cannot subserve the cause.

There is one general aim in which the friends of temperance, we trust, are prepared to unite the doing away of drinking as a custom. Ă more definite union is not, perhaps, at present to be expected. Men may differ in their views of subordinate means, though they may labor

faithfully for the main result, according to their own convictions. One may think it inexpedient to sign a written paper, though he will resolve on total abstinence; another may deem it needless to submit himself to a physician, though he will banish ardent spirits from his family; another may refuse to label his decanters, though he will remove them from his sight and abjure their contents. But in respect to the great end in view we trust there is but one sentiment among the friends of reform-one common and irrevocable resolve, that ardent spirits must be banished from common use in society.

For the attainment of this end, all the channels of information, and all the sources of influence in our land. need to be put in requisition.

The ministers of the gospel must make this a more frequent topic of their public instructions. Probably there are few of them, who do not touch on it occasionally, and perhaps declaim vehemently against the folly. guilt, and mischiefs of intemperance. But if a reformation is to be effected, they must take wider views, and show the dangers attending the common and temperate use of spirits. They must expose the causes of the prevalence of this evil, and exhibit its fearful extent and the jeopardy in which it places our social, civil, and religious privileges. They must pursue the subject perseveringly, give line upon line, and precept upon precept, and make "the pulp.t, in the sober use of its legitimate powers, the great defence, support, and ornament of virtue's cause."

The officers of our colleges may be important auxiliaries in this great work. Let them make the evils of 'intemperance, and the dangerous path that leads to it-the occasional and convivial use of spirits—a subject of remark on every proper occasion; and let all the intelligent love of country, and the future in

fluence of our young men at these institutions, be enlisted on the side of temperance and sobriety.

Our judges, on the bench, have a peculiar opportunity for illustrating the nature, effects, and dangers of intemperance. A vast proportion of all the trials for crimes, which come before them, have their origin in this sin. Their weight of character, and their station, give them vast influence; and their independence enables them to exercise it without danger. Were all our judges to follow the examples of Sir Matthew Hale and Judge Rush, they would be among the most effective promoters of temperance. We would most earnestly appeal to them, in this pressing exigency, to send down from their elevation a healing influence.

Our physicians can give most ef fectual help to the work of reformation. To their profession it pertains to explain scientifically the effects of ardent spirits upon the animal functions, and upon the mind as connected with them. From their skill, and their office as the guardians of our health, their opinions will have great weight, not only with the enlightened, but with the ignorant also. The tract of Dr. Rush has probably had more influence to repress intemperance, than any other publication in this country. It is a subject of devout gratitude to God, that so many of the Faculty have expressed their opinion, and lent their influence to arrest the progress of intemperance. earnestly entreat them to pursue the course which they have commenced, and interpose their skill to purge away this miasma, to cleanse this fountain of evils.

We

Public addresses, well written tracts, and newspapers, are important auxiliaries in,this good cause. They diffuse information, and keep up attention and inquiry. They throw light upon this scene of darkness, and keep it visible.

The American Society for the promotion of Temperance will be a great agent in the work of reformation. We hail the existence of such an association as a great blessing to 1 our country. We trust it will receive the patronage of all good men, and that it will not be suffered to want the means of doing all that may be done, to awaken the public mind, and change the national habit.

We most seriously recommend to all heads of families, to instruct those under their care in the deceitfulness of this sin, and their danger of falling into it. Could all heads of families be made to understand this subject, and faithfully to use their exertions, we should have great hope that the rising generation might be preserved from contamination. The common use of ardent spirits in the family is one great cause of its prevalence abroad. Many respectable and many pious heads of families have not been sensible of the ease with which artificial appetites are acquired, and pernicious habits formed; their children have been almost nursed upon ardent spirits in their infancy, have been encouraged to drink in their childhood, and have had free access to the decanter in their youth. They have used spirits freely to cure slight indispositions, to prevent sickness, to relieve fatigue, and to promote cheerfulness. Thus the future ruin of many a child has I been laid in his minority. If the heads of families would exclude the common use of spirits in their houses, would watch over their households and warn them of their danger, they might be kept uncontaminated till they arrive at manhood; and be fortified against the temptations to which they would be exposed in riper years.

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Sabbath school instruction may be employed as a powerful auxiliary for the prevention of intempeThe superintendents and

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teachers may in this respect, remedy in some degree, the defects of parental instruction and care; and may strengthen the hands of faithful parents. It is their unquestionable duty to warn the children under their care, against the temptations and dangers to which they are or may be exposed. By repeated instruction and admonition they may do much to fortify them against the temptations to this vice. If sabbath schools had no other influence than this, they would deserve the patronage of every Christian and patriot, and every friend to our social institutions should use his exertions to bring all our children and youth under the influence of sabbath school instruction, were it but for this purpose alone.

The churches of our Lord Jesus Christ are loudly called upon to bear a conspicuous part in the work of reformation. They are bound, by the most sacred obligations, to bear testimony against every sin, and to be ready for every good work. As a city set on a hill their example is conspicuous. Their own experience may teach them the necessity of peculiar watchfulness in respect to the sin of intemperance. For as far as our knowledge extends, this sin is the cause of more cases of discipline, and more disturbance in the churches, than all other crimes together; and still these churches retain not a few members, who, by their too free use of spirits, cloud the light of their example, and prevent their own edification. Let the churches, wherever it is necessary, purge out this old leaven, and be more faithful in their watch and brotherly admonition. Though we do not believe that Christ has given them power to institute new laws, or to make new terms of communion, yet they may faithfully execute the laws of Christ's house. They may pass resolutions and recommendations which may have a salutary influ

ence upon their own members, and extend to all around them.

Christians in their individual capacity, if they will take up the cross and deal faithfully with their fellowmen, may do much by affectionate and prudent admonition, and by their own example. Let them not be backward in this great duty.

The sources of temptation, which are most extensive and dangerous in their influence, and which are in our view most difficult to manage, are social drinking in its various forms, and the use of ardent spirits as a stimulant to labor. Dry up these fountains and you cut off one half, if not a greater proportion of the streams, which communicate the poison and desolate our land.

To take a glass with our friends is considered an expression of social, generous feeling; to refuse to comply with the fashion, requires more resolution than many men possess. Especially is this temptation too powerful with the young and inconsiderate. They yield to the omnipotence of custom.-To offer spirits to guests is regarded as an expression of hospitality, and few are willing to hazard their reputation for this virtue, by resistance to the custom. This custom must be changed, or intemperance will be perpetuated and increased. It is possible to check, if not to change it. Let those who are impressed with the evil of it, refuse to partake of the social glass, and neither give nor receive ardent spirits as a token of hospitality we believe their numbers and respectability are such, that they will break the charm which now holds many in bondage, and that it will soon be considered reputable not only not to partake of this social cheer or to furnish it for others, but that to offer it will be regarded as disrespectful and ungenteel.

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If our most respectable young men can be persuaded to discountenance the introduction of ardent

spirits at their meetings for social intercourse and on public occasions, it would have a happy influence; others would imitate the example and break up this ruinous custom.

We do not despair of such a result in respect to social drinking; we believe the steps to it are already commenced. But how shall the laboring classes be persuaded to relinquish ardent spirits? The prejudice is deep rooted in their minds, that they are useful, and habit has made them almost as necessary as their food. Many of them feel that to refuse them the customary stimulus, is an act of unkindness; is depriving them of the chief solace of their toil.

We have no wish that they should deny themselves, or should be denied proper alleviation of their fatigues; but we do not despair of producing conviction in their minds, that the use of ardent spirits is ultimately not only no relief to their labor, but is injurious to their health, and dangerous to their morals.

It is contradicting the analogy of God's providence, to suppose that the necessary supports of that labor which he has imposed upon us, is to be sought in the refinements of art; that the grain which he has given us, must pass through the process of distillation to minister to our strength. But we have better evidence than mere analogy. Men of the best medical skill have decided, and their decision has never been disproved, that "there is not a particle of nourishment in ardent spirits." Their principal effect is to produce a temporary excitement, which is followed by indirect debility. Under this excitement, the powers of the body are capable of extraordinary effort, but on the reflux of the tide they sink further bclow the ordinary level, than they have been raised above it, and are left in a state of exhaustion which ardent spirits have no power to replenish: so that the labor perform

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