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TOTAL ABSTINENCE, CONSIDERED AS ONE OP THE GREATEST PROMOTERS OF DOMESTIC HAPPINESS, AND SOCIAL AND iCIVIL ORDER, IN AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE LECTURE HALL, ANNE ST., QUEBEC, AT THE REQUEST OF ^ THE KNIGHTS OF TEMPERANCE, ^ 5tH SEPTEMBER, 1854. ■!>:-. ■ ■• ' "": - i:: i - -'■ ,: ,^ .BY WILLIAM STEWART SMITH, ESQ., .^ RECTOR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL OF QUEBEC. QUEBEC : 'RINTED BY R MIDDLETON, No. 27, SAULT-AU-MATEI/)T STRP^ET. 1854. * TOTAL ABSTINENCE, V COJfSIDERED AS ONI OF THB GBEATBST PR0X0TBB8 Or Domestic Happiness, and Social and Civil Order, IN AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE LECTURE HALL, ANNE ST., QUEBEC, AT THE REQUEST OF TH£ KNIGHTS OF TEMPERANCE. ^■^^^^^^^^^^'^^W^P^^NT IN the untiring devotedness of man to whatever department of life his inclination has led him to pursue, no sphere of safety can be so impregnable as that of active usefulness. The knowledge, power, and influence which produce a beneficial effect on the morals of general society alone are valuable, because they are practical. Whatever improves society, embellishes life. Where moral conduct and moral order are improved, there, truth in thought, sentiment, and action, is the natural concomitant. Man is continually in search of happiness, and happiness is essentially progressive. To lead the thoughts into pleasing associations and substantial pleasures from listless inactivity and physical evil, thereby invigorating the rational faculties and extending the boundaries of intellectual and moral enjoyments, is not found to be inconsistent with the ordinary duties of active life. Such practical benevolence neither requires peculiar superiority of genius, nor involves intricate trains of abstract reasoning ; but as the most salutary food for the body is the most easily procured, so the ration- al and intellectual pursuits most congenial to the mind of man are most easily acquired. — To disseminate knowledge, — to direct the mind to intellectual enjoyments, — to aid in removing whatever debases the affections and perverts the moral powers, — ^to imbue it with an abhorrence of sensual pleasures, and with whatever is destructive of temperate and sober habits, — and to elevate the social condition by removing all that is subversive of domestic happiness ; — the man, or society of men exerting talents and influence to diffuse these substantial enjoyments, exercises an understanding corresponding to the truest dignity of a rational and immortal nature. Though the evil propensities of man have branded the lordly beauty of many a human face, and a darkening train of terror, torture and misery has cursed, and crushed, and cankered his holier feelings, yet there have always been men of high patriotic and artistic mental powers, who have contrived and built an ark of humanity and benevolence, to save from the deluge of intemperate habits. Every right-hearted man joins in the prayer that the Almighty may guard it from foundering, and may give it a national support for a sheet anchor, and another seven-peaked Ararat on which, while sun and moon endure, it may be securely moored. — Every friend of moral reform rejoices that there is still within the bosom of thousands a spirit akin to the spirit of Eden-^-willing to nurture and mature temporal weal and eternal destiny. That there is still an old world of love living in the heart and revealing the joy afforded in smoothing the channelled cheek of the suffering sister, wife, and mother. The flood — the thunderbolt — the catastrophe, startle by their violence and leave their memorials ia the awe they have inspired ; but there is a virtue in the unobserved acts of a persevering humble laborer in any field of christian usefulness, in the influence and effect of the warm and impulsive nature which struggles to promote the welfare of the degraded victim of vicious indulgence, which the deeds of the warrior, sounded by fame's loudest trumpet, possess not in the eye of Him who seeth not as man seeth. The magnificent achievements by which the reckless and neglected have been ransomed and snatched as brands from the burning, bind us to acknowledge that the most corrosive rusts of time cannot sever the golden chain of philanthropic en- terprise which binds man to his fellow-mortal, and prompts him to lighten up that inward glory which the darkened trace of dissipation had banished from the bosom. We are not assembled here this evening for the purpose of investigating the laws of nature, nor of determining the arrangement of distant worlds. We have met to promote moral renovation, to eradicate, by every rational exertion, indulgence in that baneful gratification, under whose maddening influence the passions obtain pre-eminence over reason ; to give liberty to the captive ; and to calm, by a cold and simple antidote, the ferocious and fiendlike dispositions which prompt men, otherwise humane, to commit deeds the most horrific and detestable. These introductory observations explain the views — the feelings — the all-pervading spirit of this association. Who is the sober, the temperate, the abstinent, and with whom to be always so, are principle, design and rule ? First, he is the self-possessed. In the second place, he is a man of benevolent and en- lightened mind. And, thirdly, he promotes the moral order, and preserves the blessings of peace, publicly and privately — among all ranks of his fellow-men — ^in compliance with the dictates of reason and conscience. First, he is the self-possessed — who, amid hurry and disorder, is accustomed to a regular train of rational thought ; to whom were even the guidance of national interests entrusted, the political relations of his country would never be endangered. With a mind — always vigorous and active, and free from the imaginary delusions of a morbid sensi- bility, the fancy never soars above the judgment ; — preserving an equilibrium, proof alike against con- tingencies from without and passions from within,* — bold in enterprise, — ^fruitful in resources, — ^patient un- der expectation, — he is less liable to be elated by success, — ^less to suffer under the depressions of dis- appointment. With reason thus always enthroned, he investigates every known and possible relation of ignorance, misery and crime. Knowing the thrilling import of the question — where is Abel thy brother ? — and that, in the eye of God, the inhabitants of earth are one great brollierhood, he holds himself respon- sible for the amount of influence he is bound to exert, within his circle, in restraining his fellow- beings from evil. He therefore advocates and advances a cause which he justly considers as one of the profoundest that can occupy the human mind. His sympathies and aid are extended to the generous attempts made to remove every barrier of vice, and arrest the incendiary torch surcharged with the fiery essences of delirium tremens. But of what value, may he justly exclaim, are intellectual institutions, mechanics' institutes, libra- ries and reading-rooms, — tea gardens for pleasant recreation, and all the issue of cheap publications — nay, churches in every street ; — while the blessings, which these could confer, and ought to confer, on every man, are counteracted by an engine of desola- tion ? Instead of institutes and lyceums being throng- ^ :: t T ^ t T t ed ; the prison, the lunatic asylum, the work-honse, every receptacle of crime and misery, is filled to over- flowing. But let us not despair. There is a specific remedy; and every other remedy, by whomsoever pro- pounded, is political quackery ; equalled only in amount of logic and intrinsic value \)y the desciiption of St. James, in regard to the destitute applicant ; when all that could be obtained to satisfy the cravings of hunger, and clothe the shivering form, was the frigid and unsatisfying reply — " Go in peace. Be ye warmed and clad." But we have said, we do not despair. The abstinent rational reformer is at this moment standing forward throughout the breadth and length of the land to give immediate form and pressure to this great and only remedy, by which peace shall take the place of discord — the church of God for the synagogue of Satan. That we, in this house this evening assembled, may not stand speechless when the question is put by the Great Judge as to what share we have taken in throwing a safeguard around society, let us, every one, unite in effecting, in our land, the greatest moral revolution that ever blessed a people ; that of deepening, extending, and giving power to the feeling of its necessity ; strengthening it till it be- comes a demand ; and ripening that demand into a PROHIBITORY LAW. 2ndly. He. is a man of benevolent and enlightened mind — whose moral sense and conscience are ever judiciously directed ; — who, amid high and higher argtimenls and motives, can determine the choice he ought to make between what is good and what is better ; — whose practical knowledge instructs him in his duty and in the principles of moral action, and all whose activities and enjoyments are ever unveiling to him the sublimities of nature and the lineaments of the great Creator's character. Aware }> 8 that knowledge seldom fails in introducing a powerful and beneficial effect on the ignorant and neglected, the enlightened abstainer gratifies his desires in removing the cause of evil, thereby preventing its effects. The ignorant and neglected ! Alas 1 this is a painful subject to every feeling mind. We may only cast our eyes over the society that is around us and ask — who are the disobedient to parents ; without understanding ; implacable ; unmerciful ? They are those whose wayward tempers ever ledd them to turn a deaf ear to the reproofs of wisdom ; whose affections are grovelling ; whose homes are the haunts of vicious indulgence ; who seldom se- riously reflect upon their own failings and defects, or of advancing to higher degrees .of improvement in knowledge and christian morality. What a combination is ignorance with human depravity ! No man can question the fact, that national evils, and specially intemperance, originate in individual practice. What is minute and solitary gradually multiplies and accumulates till it becomes gigantic in its pro- portions, and is extended over the land by the same individual influence and example. The causes of so much personal degradation may be so remote and im- perceptible as to escape observation, and, consequent- ly, the firm opposition to the first dawnings of a vicious propensity, always the most effectual means of reformation, may have been overlooked or neglected. But, is that which tends to increase the stability and happiness of nations and individuals not to be mitigated or averted, when all its varied forms of rags, wretchedness and ruin, become familiar to the enlightened christian philanthropist ? Himself escaped from the contaminating influence, he is convinced, from observation, that, to the desire to rise in the world — to the desire to improve our condition — to the desire to obtain a constantly in- t < i 9 creasing command over the conveniencies and luxuries of life, — to these desires society has always been indebted for improvement. Knowing this fundamental truth, and like some small body of snow which being rolled accumulates, till its volume is greatly increased, so the abstinent philanthropist presses onward, and will listen to no compromise of interest or of pleasure. Occupying, it may be, almost single-handed the great moral breach, but enveloped in the panoply of an almost divine mission, the shafts of ridicule hurled by modern degeneracy cannot reach him, far less wound and retard him. He reminds us, typically, of one of the old patriarchal pilgrim fathers standing amid hostile native tribes on the rocky shores of New England, cheering his little band of adherents with the assured hope that no longer shall an attempt be made despotically to entwine the chains of tyranny around both body and mind. His appearance and hia appeals are also suggestive of some crystal fountain, wreathed with unfading roses, welcoming every comer with the soothing spell of a mild and re- freshing donative — reflecting the azure arch of heaven, — and all the more brightly when the over- hanging boughs are barest, than when embowered by the veil of summer's profusest favors. The general scope of the argument by the enlight- ened friend of moral reform goes to show, that man is evidently intended to be both a benevolent and social being, — that his nature requires the endearing bonds of human sympathy and reciprocal aid, — that stimulating liquors are opposed to the truly rational and exquisite pleasures of social and domestic intercourse — and that the irritability of mind, formed by vicious indulgence, is an insuperable barrier to the endearments of home. Every one sees and deplores in words the demoralizing and impoverishing results of intemperate habits ; but 10 how few are willing to consecrate their influence to their removal. How few consider themselves bound conscientiously, i;s a duty incumbent, to unite themselves to this benevolent association, and put practically forward their efforts to discountenance the use of this insidious moral poison. A total abstinence association recommends itself 'to the benevolent, for much of the misery that afflicts society, as well as to the religious, from the powerful aid it affords, in advancing the spiritual welfare of the Christian Church. What pleasing and profitable emotions does the rest of the Sabbath excite I When observed with appropriate decency, how does it serve to alleviate the sorrows of life I How manifold are its advantages to the sober and industrious in the lower ranks of society ! Every good and benevolent disposition delights to behold on that holy day the rich and the poor meet together to worship Him, who is the Maker of them all, — the wealthy, by this unity of senti- ment, instructed in the duties of humanity ; and the poor receiving the anticipation of future conso- lation, and inspired by the hope of more enduring riches. How different is the Sabbath of the intemperate ! Listen to the following : a meagre statement of what is real and common. — On the one hand behold the hoary-headed, hobbling wretch, palsied in every limb, seemingly destitute of all joy, except what the delirium of alcohol gives him 1 See the hard- wrought artisan bartering the reward of his toil for the deadliest foe of soul and body. Look, as they pass along,, at the long train of bloated, haggard, wretched beings, men and women, whom strong drinks had deceived, and robbed, and ruined ; and, but hngering a few days more beneath the curse of the Destroyer ! Behold the youthful apprentices treading the same downward path as their more 11 lence to s bound 3 unite and put tenance ds itself ly that rem the spiritual pleasing Sabbath lecency, of life I e sober lociety ! delights lie poor I Maker )f senti- by ; and e couso- induring perate ! ment of :1 behold in every )t what le hard- his toil , as they laggard, strong d ; and, curse of )rentices eir more adyanced shop-mates, urged by the imaginary man- liness of their conduct, and proficient, prematurely proficient, in every species of profligacy, profaneness, and dissipation I — mere children, too, crowding to buy drink for their parents ; even ordering it for themselves ! — all this with a monotonous sameness, during every hour of the day of God, except when some explosive outburst of passion has caused a rush into the street from the den of the infamous groggery 1 — ^The yelling, blaspheming, and rushing to witness this Sabbath fighting every hour of the day — were I to describe every act, no sober man would believe but that I was exhibiting a symbol of the dark and terrible doings of the idolatrous heathen. No I no I These are not the savage scenes of barbarous lands. They are the outward symbols of the large cities and towns of the christian world. What, then, think you, are the inward symbols of this loathsome picture of Sabbath desecration ? Think of the homes of these wretched victims of this deplorable infatuation I Think of the miseries awaiting them in this world and in the world to come I Think what they might have been, and what they are I Think of lofty capacities perverted to the meanest vices, and generous affections de- based, and all that is sweet in life supplanted by brutal and abominable passions. Think of want and wretchedness and woe, here ; and hereafter, the accumulated curses of an angry God attending the soul that might have forever brightened and adored in his presence. Of what paramount im- portance, then, are Total Abstinence Associations ! They are the lightning rods that avert the bolts of Heaven's vengeance. Through them, and such as they, God saith, I will not destroy the city for the ten's sake 1 Those who are misled by an ignis fatuus, maintain that a moderate use of alcoholic stimulants increases 12 their comfort, produces an immediate and agreeable effect on the animal powers, and, with the illusive flattery of the poet, would cast a shade over the end- less misery of the opposite picture, and gibber sorrow- fully over the declining prosperity of the Village Alehouse, thus described : — " Low lies that house, where nut-brown draughts inspired ; " Where grey-beard mirth and smiling toil retired ; " Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound, " And news much older than their ale went round ; — " Obscure it sinks — nor shall it more impart " An hour's importance to the poor man's heart." The impartial mind of every advocate of moderate drinking will, however, on reflection, be convinced, that while the language of the poet is clear and beautiful, the most injurious tendencies are exhibited. That like his •* Broken tea-cups, merely kept for show," it is false in sentiment and in sympathy. That the sanction of superior talents has, in his case, as in the renowned bard of my own native land, been delusively lent to perpetuate a practice odious in its character and destructive in its effects. Notwith- standing the attractive imagery and glowing enco- miums of moderate supporters, it is maintained that every humane and religious man should forego the equivocal good which he claims, to the end that the entire destruction of the greater evil may be thereby accomplished. Common humanity craves that we cluster around every such hallowed association as the present. That on such a widely extended battle- field as Intemperance, we grapple, in fiercest strug- gle, with a foe that debases and enslaves every one of our brethren whom it fascinates and overpowers. Sincerely, earnestly, determinedly, does it become us to be instrumental in destroying every exciting medium that produces intensity ; every intensity that becomes a passion ; and every passion whose end is H' i w aelmain and death. Come then, let us unite in restoring the wanderer to the straight road. Let us stretch out the cup of water to cool the burning tongue, and throw the rainbow of hope over the gloomy gulf of inebriety. Who knows that we may not recall to strength, — to usefulness, — ^it may be — to happiness ? Suffer this principle to be hypothetically illustrated, to establish a conviction of our position. Of the families around us, say there is one of father, mother, and a numerous family of sons ; and all, more or less, moderately using intoxicating drinks. One of the young men is observed by the rest of the family, to shew an insidious and almost imperceptible ap- petite for the poisonous cup. Counsel is taken how the inebriate propensity is to be cured, and what plan ought to be adopted to rescue the youth from the dark doom of the drunkard. All, with his consent, unanimously agree to banish the stimulant from the family table. Moreover, to strengthen his resolution, and to preserve themselves from the pos- sibility of falling into his condition, they pledge themselves to abstain Irom it, and on every occasion to discountenance its use. But grant that this family saw no cause to fear danger to any member of the household, but, living in a community in which they saw many become victims to the common use of alcoholic stimulants, and witnessed the numberless streams of evil that flow from the same source, — how natural that they should be influenced by a generous compassion for their less fortunate fellow- creature, and, by a sincere regard for the interests of morality and religion, should adopt the same line of conduct as before, and persuade others to follow their example. In either illustration,* vhat man is there whose mind is expanded enough to enable him to take a clear and comprehensive view of the motives, bearings, tendencies, and consequences of %i moral actions, but wUl condemn their conduct, or re- fuse to follow their footsteps, if placed in the same cir- cumstances ? Had the father of the family been the unhappy victim, and that the wife of his bosom, or the son of his fondest affection, refused to rescue him from the threatened danger, — by making the proposed sacrifice, — would not the combined exe- crations of all possessed of natural affection fall upon the head of the monstrous ingrate ? And, when we carry the object of our compassion who claims our care, out of the family circle, into the community with which we are connected, do we change or weaken that principle for which we contend ? On the contrary, it stands out in the latter case with the greater purity of motive — ^more separate from the selfishness of our fallen nature, and more in. ac- cordance with the nature of him who commands us to "do good unto all men as we have opportunity." The friends of the abstinence movement are the friends of mankind. They seek to set the mind above the appetite. Their example is more than virtue ; it is the foundation of all that is virtuous. They make reason what it ought to be — the faithful and diligent handmaid of conscience. The peace of society is an embodiment of their fraternal organiza- tion. No blood marks their track ; no weeping and wailing follow in the train of their labors of love. They have attempted to shut the flood-gates which have long been widely opened, and through which has flowed a stream of sensual indulgence, until, with its accumulated energies, it threatens to inun- date the world with wretchedness and woe. Those who thus nerve the mind with resolution to shun the alluring path, which opens amid flowers, but con- ducts to the regions of a drunkard's woe, — and warn to flee from a gulf which is yawning to devour — pointing to the firm, the impregnable rock of Total Abstinence, — must be hailed as heaven-directing I , orre- ine cir- jen the om, or rescue ng the ;d exe- lU upou hen we ims our munity nge or [? On se with te from e in. ac- ands us tunity.*' are the e mind re than rtuous. faithful )eace of ganiza- ing and )f love. 3 which which until, to inun- Those hun the ut con- d warn vour — f Total ecting 15 messengers ; and in every home of our land ought to be awakened the responsive prayer—" that Infi- nite Benevolence would prosper a scheme at once so merciful and so glorious." As the candle loses none of its brightness by lighting a thousand — nay, rather, the splendour is extended, — so the enlightened abstinent Christian philanthropist is now employed in shedding a halo of light around those involved in the blackest dark- ness, — ^in which nothing can be realized but the most perfect misery and endless despair. He has before him the grand prototype of an incarnate Saviour, whose object was — saving men from sin and wretch- edness ; — struggling with temptations, hardships, penury and pain ; meekly bearing bitter calumny and insulting mockery ; and, at last, breathing out hip holy spirit amid the taunts of a blaspheming multitude : and, though now enthroned in glorious exaltation, he has committed to man the responsible duties of executing all the purposes of his grace and mercy. How does it become, then, every Christian man to put the question to himself, — as I said before, — "What have I yet done to remove from this laud in which my lot has been cast, that one gigantic form of temporal and spiritual evil," to which our attention tMs evening has been more par- ticularly directed ? Lastly. — He is a man of peace : one of those children of God, promoting, publicly and privately, the harmony of the whole human family. As strong drink brucmizes the feeling, and destroys the kindly affections, it thus forms the strongest inducement to the commission of crime, — hardens the heart, and renders it callbus to every humane and generous feeling. Every man who studies the lystematic order and regularity of the material world — and contemplates the arrangement, beauty, order, and harmony, ap- 16 parent in all its operations — is struck with the admirable display of wisdom, design, and subordinate adaptation, whether in the boundless regions of space, or in the curious organizations of the greatest or the least of the beings in our sublunary system. The benevolent design of beauty, order, and proportion, is marked and displayed, as it moves majestically on to accomplish the end for which it was intended. How painfully different is the aspect of the moral world 1 In all its extent — ^in every period of its history — how directly opposed to the harmony and admirable regularity of the material system ! Do we look back upon the past ages of the world, and what is presented to our view ? One nation ruined that another may be built upon its ruins I Fields drenched with the gore of slaughtered thousands I The homes of the industrious and happy converted into a wilderness ! The immolation of millions at the shrines of heathen idolatry I Man, ever the worst of himself and of his fellow-man, misnamed a hero, and surnamed the " Great," because, forsooth ! he had dashed in pieces the pillars of some flourishing empire opposed to him, and exercised the most horrid cruelties against the myriads of human beings with which it was peopled. The pages of history describe, in glowing language, the Macedonian warrior and his invincible phalanx, mowing down as grass the unoffending inhabitants of eastern regions, and razing their cities to the ground for the sake of gratifying his own frenzied ambition ; and, when maddened by intoxication, stabbing to the heart, at the banqueting table, his own and his father's venerable counsellor and friend, for no other reason than hesitating to pander to a fooPs vanity, in joining the sottish sycophants at- tempting to stand u^n their legs and babble forth — that the great exploits and sagacious legislation of Philip, the father, were not to be compared with 17 the renown and the prudence of the youthful Alexander I Turn to another page, and you see the son of Darius, inflamed with the same passion of mad ambition, heading upwards of five millions, and purposing to crush forever the free republics of Greece, — " The clime of the unforgotten brave I " Whose land, from plain to mountain cave, *' Was freedom's home or glory's grave," — Yet hardly a handful of this host, that had cumbered the earth with its numbers, returned to their native land, cursing the infatuation of a vain-glorious despot, whose disastrous and entire overthrow is, with equal point and brevity, thus described by the poet : — " A king sat on the rocky brow " That looks o'er sea-born Salamis, " And ships, by thousands, lay below, " And men, in nations ; all were his. " He counted them at break of day, " And when the sun set — where were they 7 " Further down in the stream of time we behold Alaric, with a multitudinous horde of barbarians, making havoc of the finest portions of southern Europe, and from mere wantonness, throwing down and destroying the monuments of art which adorned the metropolis of the Roman Empire, — causing its streets and palaces to be deluged with the blood and filled with the bodies of its massacred inhabitants. At a later epoch, you know how Gothic and Vandal races rolled like a torrent of boiling lava from East to West, overwhelming in their onward progress every vestige of civilization and the arts ; butchering, without regard to age or sex, all whom their violence could reach. In the 5th, 6th and tth centuries — emphatically styled the "Dark Ages"-— the whole earth seemed as one great battle-field, on which the entire race of man appeared to be threat- b2 18 > ened with utter extermination ; one theatre of ensanguined revolution. Such horrific scenes were at this period displayed, that the historian has wished to veil its unexampled inhumanities from every succeeding age. Gaunt famine, naturally, raged — and the living were constrained to subsist on their slaughtered fellow-citizens. Avarice, perfidy, treach- ery, reigned — ^moral principle was unknown I Behold next, under the designation of Crusades, six millions of infuriate and ignorant wretches, like a host let loose from the infernal regions, murdering by wholesale the peaceful inhabitants of the countries through which they passed,— despoiling, in the manner of Egyptian locusts, the products of the land, — and breathing against Jew and Gentile nought less than entire extirpation ; and sanctioning the progress of their blood-stained banners with the title of advancing the merciful and peace-speaking doc- trines of the cross of Christ. See Tamerlane and Zenghis Khan devastating the fertile regions of the East ; the one refining upon cruelty so far as, in sport, to pound in large mortars three or four thou- sand persons at a time, and then build their bodies with brick and mortar into a wall 1 — and the other, after ravaging 15 millions of square miles, beheading 100,000 persons at one time, and consigning 14 millions of human beings to a premature grave 1 In more modern times, the detail of despots trampling on the rights of mankind may, perhaps, be less gloomy, — the commotions less violent, — the features of its aspect less directly opposed to the Goltien Rule of doing unto others as ye wish then^ to do unto you. Yet still, with all the advantages the human soul has enjoyed in intellectual career, — notwithstanding the rapid progress of improvement and discovery, — notwithstanding the acquisition of knowledge* the assistai^ces of learned and benevolent associations, the opening of unexhausted, and, ap- lir } *. k- '^ .t 19 • ♦■ iw ? *■ >■ '^ •% r ap- .1 parently, inexhaustible capabilities, — ^how much political commotion I how much cold selfishness ! how much religious intolerance 1 and how little harmony, brotherly-kindness, and charity ! The personal, social, and moral enormities of these destroyers of mankind — most of whom were the very impersonation of gross dissipation — exhibit a remarkable similarity to the evils of intemperance ; and, therefore, uninfluenced by the favor of those who may be interested in perpetuating the evils and follies of mankind, the peaceful disciple of temper- ance confidently proclaims — that v/ere you to remove all the crimes, vices, and murderous conflicts, with which intemperance is more or less identified, the prevalence of social happiness and good order would be so great, that we would begin to doubt if the world were still laboring under the original curse. War is doubtless the concentration of every con- ceivable evil. Legalized murder, rapine, cruelty, and licentiousness, are a few of the train-bearers of this human scourge. But neither the earth strewed with smoking ruins and the fragments of human habitations, — with mangled human beings wandering in a state of wretchedness and despair, amid un- buried carcases of the slain; — ^nor all the Attilas and Alarics — the Tamerlanes and Bonapartes — that ever drove the ploughshare of devastation through the fields of earth resounding with the groans and shrieks of the dying victims of their proud and am- bitious despotism ;^can delineate one tithe of the desolation, horror, and agony, in their most appal- ling form ; — not one tithe of the lowest depths of ultra-human debasement caused by this soul and body destroying demon, gorged with the gore of thousands yearly — so fitly denominated in the Swe- dish language by the ^epithet of Hdl-Broth^ and which the learned, the pious, and the logical Robert 20 y Hall called by the horrible but truthful appellation of — ^Distilled Damnation ! Christian parents 1 advance to the rescue I Must it ever be, that no benevolent legislative veto shall proclaim, " Hitherto hast thou come, but no farther shalt thou go ; and now the time has arrived in which thy Stygian waves shall be staid ?" Must this insatiable idol be permitted to boast how numerous and how frequent are the sacrifices that are offered upon its altars, and that neither the beautiful nor the brave, the activities of youth, nor the vigor of riper years, can be secure from its grasp, when it has once stamped them as victims to be immolated ? Shall we longer arm the midnight assassin — inflame the breast of the husband to pierce the heart of her whom he has sworn to cherish, and blunt the hitherto adoring and confiding affection of wife and mother, — and fill sea and land with multitudes whom no man can number, — greater far than the lightning ever scathed or the earthquake ever entombed ? Christian men ! how priceless to every honorable mind is an unsullied good name I We instinctively draw near to pour the balm of consolation into the virtuous heart stricken by adversity. But what (Aild does not feel ashamed to pronounce the name of a drunken parent ? We read in the inspired volume the graphic delineation of the wife of the surly and sensual Nabal. With a heart filled with sorrow and despair she implored the youthful warrior to spare the members of her household' ; — depicting, doubtless, how her domestic happiness was becloud- ed ; — ^how her once bright prospects and hopes of enjoying all the advantages, which her union with one so wealthy enabled her reasonably to entertain, had one by one drifted into an ever-darkening sea. She petitioned against being considered an accessory to her husband's ingratitude and want of hospitality : Let not my lord regard this man of Belial. Nabal i 21 lame jired the ith 'rior Ahg, md- ;s of rith fain, I sea. jory fty: i.bal ■} is his name and folly is with him. How low he must have sunk in the estimation of his own household ! How acciEingly efifective such a lesson to every sub- sequent age ! Not only are we taught, in this portion of sacred writ, the lesson of a wife, young and beautiful, spurning from her bosom a besotted husband — a crater in which all her fading affections were smouldering in ruins ; — ^but we are further taught the fact, that the very dependants of such a man's household are incapable of venerating a debased and intemperate master : He is suck a son of Bdialf said the young man to his mistress, that no man CAN SPEAK to HIM. Rauk aud talent are no protection from the world's scorn and detestation, if humiliated by a vice so degrading. Nay, he who may have long and usefully ministered at the altar of the true God, having fallen from his steadfast- ness, fixes an indelible brand of infamy upon his forehead. Since no man is safe from this invincible and reckless passion, and since benevolence, without self-denial, is b it an empty name, every consideration calls upon you to join the ranks of those who are engftged in releasing the world from the grasp of intempera,nce, that all may unite in singing with the voice of gladness, that though No purple grape adorns our vales, No spice perfumes the air, — Yet, dearer to our happy hearts, .JVo drunkard^s breath is there. One word more, before we part. The young ! — the young ! — the olive plants around your tables I — the lambs of the flock 1 To me for thirty-five years the ob- jects of untiring regard ! How sensitive, Christian parents, are your feelings towards your beloved chil- dren ! How intensely anxious for the temporal and eternal welfare of your offspring 1 We call upon yon to employ every means of counteracting the blast and the mildew upon their happiness. Direct their eyes to the Brazen Serpent which Total Abstinence has raised, and the moral wilderness of this world, with all its corroding cares, shall blossom as the rose. I have already stated that individual example is the means by which the seeds of intemperance are sown. Forget not tliat each one of the 100,000 drunkards now created in tliese Provinces, if not counteracted by Maine force, bears an intimate relation to, and exerts an injurious influence upon, the whole body of the people, and particularly upon the young. Put forth a vigor proportionate to the inveteracy of this influence. Cut off, root and branch, from the face of the earth, a upas tree, whose deadly shade has destroyed so many heart-broken parents, who have only lost a sense of their forlorn condition when the tomb has covered them from the sight of those lost ones they nursed with such tender solicitude. Those of you who have already pledged yourselves as Sons and Daughters of Temperance,* how many future sorrows have you dried up ! How many sources of purest happiness, which are lost to thou- sands, who do not follow your example, have you now within your reach I Is any short-lived animal indulgence to be compared with the sweet serenity inseparable from the consciousness that you hav« shielded yourselves from the temptations to violate those laws of nature which can no more be infringed with impunity than can the moral precepts delivered from Mount Sinai. How many golden hours for intellectual enjoyment and mental improve ment have you created in your now happier homes ! Permit no time to pass away unimproved. The greater the number of faculties you call into action, the greater will be your enjoyment. As every organ is strengthened by exercise, the more you cultivate your minds, the greater will be the happiness derived ; and thus will you fit yourselves for still nobler efforts and- higher flights. During the eleven years I have had the honor to be connected with au i- educa for yc prove whol instit and { Bocie and i Y caus< nenc to e: ever Con stro at t miu tot eloc 23 ^ith I bhc educational institution in this city, I may mention, for your encouragement to persevere in mental im- provement, that, of the great number of young men who have received a full course of education in that institution, there is not one that is not a blessing and an honor to his friends, and an ornament to society. I hope other establishments of education and' instruction have been equally successful. You, my young friends, are the hope of this great cause. By persistance in a course of Total Absti- nence, from the narrowest means you will be enabled to extract a competence ; and in any station, how- ever humble, you can maintain genuine respectability. Continue to beware of any and every species of strong di inks, whose praises are so vociferously sung at the convivial board, and whose glowing enco- miums lend brilliant thoughts and ardent syllables to the song. O ! there needs not the tongue of the eloquent to sound the fame of this great destroyer ; while murder and all the grosser violations of the moral law bear melancholy testimony to its fatal potency. Is there a crime blacker than the Deca- logue includes? — name it, and drunkenness shall claim it for a child 1 Fellow-men 1 halt no longer between two opinions. Claiming to be benevolent, patriotic and humane, yet indifferent to the removal of this treacherous gratification, ye but act the part of Achan, who, while he apparently fought with heroic bravery against the enemies of his country, brought down the vengeance of Heaven upon the armies of Israel by concealing the goodly Babylonish spoils his deceitful heart coveted, but which he had been forewarned to destroy. As considerate men, will ye fold your arms and be satisfied ? To be indifferent upon such a subject argues either an amount of ignorance far far from creditable, or a want of genuine patriotism and Christian benevolence, almost akin to absolute . criminality. 24 Arise, ye men of Canada ! Be gallant as of yore, "When your sires, tlirough pathless, bosky sweimps, The Gallic banner bore. No more, 'gainst savage Indian Shall ye in battle glow, 'Midst the clang and the twang Of Tomahawk and Bow, — Ye rally for a nobler strife — 'Tis vice ye overthrow ! '■\l Arise, ye sons of Erin ! Adown the vale of time, Heroic fathers call on you In chorus, loud, sublime ! Leaping from deathless spirit lips. Their words immortal glow ; While their eyes, from the skies, Gaze like stars on you below ; Inspiring to the noble strife — 'Tis vice ye overthrow ! Arise, ye sous of Saxon race ! Oh ! shar it e'er be known, That fast by where your fathers fought, Slaves, rife as weeds, have grown ! As cowards will ye lay you down, Nor feel the patriot's glow, And ne'er think, as ye sink. Of your country's weal or woe ? No ! rally ye for noblest strife — 'Tis vice ye overthrow ! ^ i Arise, ye sons of Scotia ! Your mountain home revere ; It was your fathers' legacy To you, their children dear j The heathy hills, the grassy glens They lov'd with patriot glow, Every vein did they drain To guard them from the foe ; Our age demands a noble strife — 'Tis vice ye overthrow !