stone. This is the true picture of the two states of the drunkard, and well represents the effects of drinking and carousing in a family.

Therefore, even as relating to the management and the happiness of a household, an abstinence from drinking strong drink, or any thing which intoxicates, is a duty. And, when the effect upon children is taken into view, how sacred is their duty!

Many are the parents, who, under afflictions occasioned by a son addicted to drunkenness; many are such parents, who, after fruitless attempts at reclaiming him, after vain endeavours to disguise the cause of their trouble from the world, confess, in the bitterness of their sorrow, that it would have been better had they followed him to the grave at a moment when perhaps they were shedding tears of joy at his recovery from some dangerous disease. And, if such parents have well and truly discharged their duty towards him, unfeeling indeed must be the heart that can refrain from participating in their sorrow. But, if his boyish days have been spent amidst scenes of drinking; if the parents have made him a hearer of glees and songs in praise of the heroes of the bottle; if the decanter have been the companion of the daily domestic repasts of his youth; if, by his own parents, his natural appetite have thus been perverted; if, by them, he have been initiated in the school of drinking, their sorrows are the natural consequence and the just punishment of their own disregard of duty towards him.

There are few crimes, few offences against morals, which do not, in the end, bring their own punishment, even in this world. The thief, the robber, the murderer, the corrupt legislator, the unjust judge, the perjured juror, the tyrant king: each usually receives his due, in one way or another, before he be called to commune with the worms. But the punishment of the drunkard is not only certain to follow the offence, but it follows immediately. That which he swallows for what he calls his pleasure brings the pain as surely as the night brings the morning. Poverty and misery are

in the train; a disgraceful and loathsome state of existence closes the scene; and when the besotted and bloated body is at last committed to the earth, not a tear, not a sigh is drawn forth even from parents or children. It has been deemed subject of deep lamentation when death is unaccompanied with the solicitudes of friends and relations. There is scarcely a human being so unfortunate as not to leave some one to regret that he is no more. But the drunkard makes no void in society, except that of a nuisance, the removal of which is calculated to excite no other feeling than that of satisfaction

Let us remember, therefore, that, while it is the duty of Kings and of Priests to abstain from wine and from strong drink, it is also a duty which belongs to ourselves; that if they set an evil example, we have reason, nature, and the word of God for our guide; and, that, if we, as neighbours, friends, relations, masters or parents, neglect our duty in this respect, we merit all the reproach, and all the punishment, that are so justly due to drunkard Kings and Priests. We are called upon, in this case, to do nothing. Abstinence requires no aid to accomplish it. Our own will is all that is requisite; and, if we have not the will to avoid contempt, disgrace and misery, we deserve neither relief ner compassion.

FALL OF JUDAS;

OR,

GOD'S VENGEANCE AGAINST BRIBERY

"Now, this man purchased a field with the reward of "Iniquity; and, falling headlong, he burst asunder in the "midst, and all his bowels gushed out."

Acts, Ch. 1, V. 18.

BRIBERY is the giving, or the taking, of money, or some other thing of value, real or imaginary, as an inducement, or reward, to do, or to cause to be done, some act which the parties know to be wicked; and, while there are few things more detestable than this in their nature, there are still fewer which have, in the affairs of mankind, effects so extensively mischievous. Yet, as in the case of drinking and gaming, the frequency of the crime renders it less generally and strongly reprobated than it ought to be; though, if we duly consider it, either in its nature or in its conse quences, we shall find that we are criminal, not only if we, directly or indirectly, give it our countenance, but if we neglect any means within our power to expose it to hatred and to bring down upon it some portion, at least, of that vengeance which the Scriptures teach us its due.

1

Bribery must always be a deliberate act, a wilful sin, a deed committed against the loudly and distinctly expressed admonitions of conscience. Various are the particular motives by which the wretches who give bribes are actuated; but, he who receives a bribe is actuated, and always must be actuated by the base motive of lucre. Here are, indeed, the tempter and the tempted; but, so foul is the crime, that it is diffi cult to say, that the former is more criminal than the latter. In many cases the tempter is by far the most criminal; the deluder or instigator more wicked than he who yields to the temptation, because there are many cases, where the tempted party is taken by surprize: taken at a moment when he is off his guard; urged by hasty passion; misled by feelings in themselves amiable; deceived by false appearances. In these cases common charity finds an excuse for those who yield to temptation; but, he who takes a bribe, does it deliberater des it with his eyes open; coolly calculates the money's worth of his crime; makes up his mind as to the price of his intended iniquity; determines to sell his soul, and carries it to market. In such a traffic it is impossible to make a distinction between the parties: the wretch who buys is, indeed, as worthy of detestation as the wretch who sells'; but, as the latter is worthy of the deepest, the former can be worthy of no more; and, at the hands of a God of justice, they must receive the same measure of punish

ment.

The conduct of the Chief Priests, in the case of the traitor Judas, was inexpressibly base; but, it was not more base than that of Judas, who, like many, many others, offered his soul for sale. One or the other of

he parties must make the offer; but, as to the magnitude of the crime, it signifies little which of them it is. To be sure, in this case of Iscariot, the circumstances were singularly shocking The follower, the professed disciple, one of the chosen and honoured twelve, goes to the known deadly enemies of his gentle, kind, benevolent, unoffending Master, and asks them how much they will give him to betray that Master into their hands. They offer him a bribe of thirty pieces of silver. He takes the bribe; becomes the spy of these hypocritical pretenders to piety; and the sign, by which he points his Master out to the low and hardened myrmidons of the persecutors, is a kiss, the token of fidelity and affection! The spy and traitor knows, that the death, the ignominious death, of his innocent and generous Master is to be the consequence; but, still he coolly perseveres: he has taken a bribe; and, having been capable of that, remorse could find no place in his bosom. But, God's justice' was not tardy in overtaking him. He purchased a field with the wages of his perfidy; and, upon that very spot " he "fell headlong, and all his bowels gushed out ;" a lesson to spies and traitors to the end of the world. His accomplices in guilt, his employers and payers, were divested of their power; and the nation who were so base as to wink at the crime, were scattered over the face of the earth; destined to be in every country and to be owned by no country; doomed to be accumulators of wealth, and to be, at the same time, the scorn even of the beggar.

But, though this particular act of bribery was completely horrible in all its circumstances, we must take care not to suppose, that precisely such circum