UC-NRLF 
 
 B 2 627 SS2 
 
 HV 
 
 5295 
 
 W285 
 
 1832 
 
 MAIN 
 
THE COMBINATION AGAINST INTEMPERANCE 
 
 EXPLAINED AND JUSTIFIED. 
 
 AN 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE CAMBRIDGE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, 
 
 MARCH 27, 1832. 
 
 By henry ware, Jr., 
 
 Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and the Pastoral Care in Harvard University. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 HILLIARD AND BROWN. 
 
 1832. 
 
lOANSTAO: 
 
 cambribge: 
 e. w. metcalf and company. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 r>fr 
 
 I APPEAR before you this evening in the name of the 
 'Cambridge Temperance Society, which now makes its first 
 appeal to this community. I feel it a privilege to be its or- 
 gan. There is no cause I could more heartily advocate ; 
 and there is no place in which I could so cheerfully do it, 
 as in this, — the place where my early youth worshipped, 
 and amongst my early friends. In attempting to say what 
 may be most suitable to the occasion, I shall make it my 
 single object to state the considerations which lead us 
 to join in the general combination against intemperance, 
 which is forming throughout the land, — I may say, through- 
 out the world ; considerations which seem to make it 
 the duty of every good citizen, as well as every sincere 
 Christian, to lend his name and his influence to the cause. 
 To this end I shall endeavour to explain the necessity of 
 such a combination, to show its nature and character, and 
 to point out the results at which it aims. 
 
 I. That this combination is necessary will appear from a 
 slight glance at the nature and extent of the evil, the insuf- 
 ficiency of all previous measures for its removal, and the 
 success which has thus far attended the present operation. 
 
 Of the nature and extent of the evil in question it cannot 
 be needful to speak at large. They have been so fully and 
 frequently exposed, that no one can be ignorant of them. 
 It will be enough to refresh your minds by a rapid recapitu- 
 lation. 
 
 Recollect then what it is to be the subject of strong 
 drink. Contemplate the picture of some miserable man 
 
 421 
 
who lives in bondage to his bottle ; and observe what a 
 loathsome object he is; — squalid, bloated, diseased, — of- 
 fensive in his whole appearance, — incapable of communi- 
 cating happiness, — the derision of boys, — the terror and 
 shame of his weeping, impoverished wife, — the scorn and 
 ruin of his unhappy children, — the nuisance of his neigh- 
 bourhood. In a word, bring vividly before you the image 
 of some one of these degraded creatures, of whom, alas, you 
 have all known but too many. 
 
 Then recollect that to this beast-like condition have been 
 reduced multitudes of every class and rank in society ; — 
 not only the children of the dissolute and depraved, enticed 
 by early example ; — not only the sons of ignorance and in- 
 famy, brought up by vagabond parents to be like them- 
 selves ; — but sons and daughters of the virtuous and pure, 
 who began life in loveliness and hope, whose early promise 
 was the pride and joy of parental affection, have been se- 
 duced, they know not how, till their loveliness and honor 
 have faded, and their parents' hearts have been broken, and 
 they have died like the beasts that perish. 
 
 Consider that these victims, thus corrupted and destroyed, 
 of all ages and both sexes and every profession, — for even 
 the senate, the bench, and the pulpit, have not escaped ; 
 mothers and daughters have been snared ; the youngest 
 children and the hoariest old men have been drawn into the 
 fearful company ; the rich and the poor, who met no where 
 else, have met here ; and the learned and the illiterate, the 
 refined and the vulgar, who had no other common ground, 
 have found one here ; — consider, I say, that all these 
 have been beguiled into it involuntarily, unintentionally, 
 through the insidious, false pretence, that to drink a little 
 was either indispensable for health, labor, or good fellow- 
 ship, or at any rate was innocent and safe. 
 
 Recollect that the number of those, who die annually in 
 the United States in this dreadful ruin of body and soul, has 
 been estimated, on the most reasonable calculations, to be 
 at least thirty thousand, or, according to others, five hun- 
 dred^a week, and two murders ; that four fifths of all the 
 
paupers, that two thirds of all the imprisoned debtors, that 
 more than half of all the lunatics and maniacs, that three 
 fourths of all the criminals, are the direct, well ascertained 
 consequence of intemperance: — that therefore we may 
 say of the greater part of our prisons, almshouses, and 
 lunatic asylums, they are necessary only because of the 
 prevalent intemperance ; they serve to balance the distil- 
 leries and dram-shops ; and the whole burden of their 
 expense on public and private charity, is a tax on the sober 
 and industrious for the accommodation of the idle and 
 profligate. 
 
 Recollect what is the amount of the entire loss to the 
 country from this cause, as calculated from authentic data by 
 one of the judges of the United States' Court ; an annual 
 loss to the country, as he states it, of the enormous sum of 
 ninety-four millions of dollars ; " more than sufficient to 
 buy up all the houses, lands, and slaves in the United States 
 once in every twenty years." 
 
 Recollect that there is scarcely a village, in which the 
 cost of the ardent spirits annually used, has not been more 
 than enough to pay all the taxes, which go to support the 
 ministry and schools and highways. 
 
 Recollect that this state of things has been perpetuated 
 by the existence of a class of men, who thrive and grow 
 rich on this general ruin ; a class so numerous as to furnish 
 a grog-shop for every twenty-one inhabitants, and distille- 
 ries, which, in 1815, amounted to forty thousand. 
 
 Things being in this condition, was it not necessary that 
 something should be done? Was it possible that those, 
 who discerned the appalling extent of the evil, could be sat- 
 isfied to sit still and see the devastation move on, without 
 devising some means to stay its horrible progress ? When 
 they witnessed the debasement and woe of some miserable 
 wretch in their own vicinity, and reflected that there was 
 an army of such beings in the land, as numerous as that 
 which Napoleon led to Russia; when they thought of the 
 crowds of weeping, heart-broken friends who attended 
 them ] when they beheld the haggard company of the ma- 
 
6 
 
 niacs, the paupers, the idiots, and the criminals ; and con- 
 sidered that the property squandered to create all this mise- 
 ry, exceeded in amount all that was paid for all public pur- 
 poses ; could they do less than say, Something must he done ? 
 What should it be 1 The minds of observing and Chris- 
 tian men were long ago agitated on this question. In- 
 quiries were instituted, addresses were delivered, the press 
 was made eloquent, the law was made to operate. Gradu- 
 ally an impression was made. There were those who un- 
 derstood the needlessness and mischief of all use of intox- 
 icating liquors ; and many years since, families lived, and 
 farms were carried on, and ships were navigated without 
 them. But the public sentiment still pleaded for a little in- 
 dulgence, and for a long time the friends of temperance 
 thought it allowable. And even after the truth became 
 established, that there was no hope but in total abstinence, 
 the reform moved slowly for want of concert. At length 
 A COMBINATION was perccivcd to be the thing, and the only 
 thing necessary. Every step had been taken but this. Eve- 
 ry step seemed to prepare for this. This was called for ; 
 it came into action ; it gathered numbers ; it extended it- 
 self wide. 
 
 And what has been the result 1 A perceptible and almost 
 universal change in the customs of society meets us every 
 where; — in our own houses, in the social habits of our 
 neighbourhood, in the common opinion respecting what is 
 hospitable and kind. Rum and brandy are no longer a com- 
 mon refreshment for friends, nor indispensable to a training, 
 a committee meeting, or a law-suit. The traveller through 
 the country remarks the change every where ; and the phi- 
 lanthropist and patriot speak of it in almost unmeasured 
 terms of gratulation and joy. 
 
 It is nearly a year since it was ascertained, that through 
 these united bands, more than a million persons had given 
 up the use of ardent spirits; more than three thousand 
 dealers had abandoned the traffic ; more than three thou- 
 sand drunkards had been known to be reformed ; and more 
 
than a thousand distilleries had been stopped.* These 
 numbers have been increased since. 
 
 From these few facts, of whose truth we may judge 
 something from what we ourselves have witnessed, it may 
 be perceived what efficiency there is in the present move- 
 ment, what assurance that we are in the right course, and 
 what encouragement to persevere. 
 
 All this goes to prove incontestably my first position, that 
 this combination is necessary. Every thing else had been 
 tried. For twenty years, men of every class, — statesmen, 
 lawyers, laborers, physicians, and divines, — had been act- 
 ing on the subject, and individuals in every part of the land 
 had experimentally settled every important principle which 
 is now acted upon. But for want of concentration their ef- 
 forts and example were of limited effect. It was needful to 
 unite them. This has been partially done, and the conse- 
 quences prove it to be a wise measure. Let it be done com- 
 pletely ; let the sober friends of man join together in one 
 band, and act with one mind, and nothing can stand 
 against them. 
 
 II. But before they will do this, it is necessary that they 
 understand the nature of this combination. Are the terms 
 of it such as they can reasonably assent to ? 
 
 It is not to be concealed, that many excellent persons ob- 
 ject, in the outset, against the very principle of association, 
 as being of questionable propriety and expediency, to say 
 the least, and attended with hazards so momentous as to 
 make it their duty to withhold their countenance from them. 
 I do not mean to argue with such persons. I address only 
 those who think differently ; who think that in this, as in 
 many other cases of moral duty, some perils must be hazard- 
 ed for the sake of a great and unquestionable good. In the 
 present instance, the benefits are too vast, the efficacy too 
 certain, the operation too imperiously demanded, to allow a 
 moment's hesitation. All the attendant evil becomes theo- 
 
 * These statements, from the Report of the American Temperance So- 
 ciety, are made in round nurnbers, and are probably to be taken as only 
 an approximation to the truth. 
 
8 
 
 retical and trivial by the side of the palpable and inestimable 
 good. 
 
 What then are the terms of the present combination ? 
 
 The principle, on which this present action is grounded, 
 is that of total abstinence from the use of ardent spirits, to 
 which it requires that the members of the association bind 
 themselves by express agreement. Here then are two 
 things ; the principle and the pledge. Is there reasonable 
 objection to either 1 
 
 To the principle certainly there can be none. No one, 
 who knows any thing of the nature of the evil in question, 
 will dream of finding a remedy in any thing short of the ab- 
 solute prohibition of the intoxicating article. All experience 
 proves, that no man can be accounted safe who allows him- 
 self to drink moderately. Dr. Johnson once said, *' I know 
 what intemperance is, and I know what is abstinence ; but 
 I never yet could learn what is moderation." Thousands 
 may say the same. They can abstain ; but they cannot 
 drink moderately. In abstinence there is no difficulty, 
 comparatively no self-denial, and there is safety. But to 
 drink a little, and stop as soon as the appetite is provoked ; 
 to deny an increasing gratification to a growing thirst; 
 this is, for many men, too hard ; and to all it is fearfully 
 dangerous. There is no safety but in resolute abstinence. 
 What objection then can there be to the principle ? Es- 
 pecially since it is one of the demonstrated truths, that not 
 a drop is needed by any man in any circumstances, and 
 that in most cases it is actually deleterious. How indeed 
 should it be necessary, when the world went on till within 
 three hundred years without the invention of ardent spirit 1 
 and its use has been common in New England less than 
 ninety years. 
 
 But it is not only this personal consideration which justi- 
 fies the principle. Every man must recollect his relation to 
 others. However impossible that he should fall, he must 
 consider, that it may be essential to the very salvation of 
 some weaker neighbour that he altogether abstain. But he 
 sees you take a little. Why should not he ? It is as inno- 
 
9 
 
 cent in him as in you ; and he is ashamed to betray a great- 
 er distrust of his own virtue than you of yours. If you risk 
 it, he will ; if you brave the devil, he will not be so coward- 
 ly as to retreat. Shall he alone turn poltroon, and run away 
 from a seasonable glass ? Not he ; and so, for fear of being 
 thought to think himself in danger, he drinks on and dies. 
 Now, what right had you to countenance and abet the ruin 
 of that man ? What right had you, by a foolish and un- 
 necessary gratification, to tempt him to sin and destruction? 
 Remember the magnanimous declaration of Paul : " If 
 meat cause my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while 
 the world standeth, lest I cause my brother to offend." 
 This should be the maxim of every man ; and there can be 
 no doubt, that if the strong would all act on this principle, 
 they would confirm the moral courage and strengthen the 
 moral efforts of thousands, who would otherwise be lost. 
 For how many thousands are there, who have no strength 
 to run counter to example ! 
 
 Indeed it will not do to give up this principle of entire ab- 
 stinence. It is the corner-stone of the cause. On it rests 
 all the success in which we rejoice. Abandon it, — allow 
 men to drink moderately, and to judge for themselves, as 
 you must, what is moderate drinking, and you restore the 
 dominion of the demon at once. 
 
 But the pledge, — is that necessary? is that expedient ? 
 
 On this point, I am aware, there is greater difference of 
 opinion. Many of the true friends to the cause, advocates 
 of the great principle, hesitate about the pledge. I know 
 their objections, conscientiously and religiously entertained. 
 They are to be treated with all respect. But after the most 
 careful consideration I have been able to give the subject, 
 I am constrained to say, that I think them founded in error, 
 and such as offer no sufficient reason for refusing to join 
 the combination. 
 
 The error seems to me twofold : first, in supposing that 
 the pledge is always designed for his sake who takes it, 
 whereas it is often intended chiefly for the sake of others ; 
 and, secondly, in fancying that it contains a snare to his 
 conscience by inducing him to act from unworthy motives. 
 3 
 
10 
 
 First, these persons say, We do not use these injurious 
 articles. Why is not this enough ? Why pledge ourselves 
 to that restraint which we already practise ? 
 
 I answer, For the sake of others, for the sake of extend- 
 ing the knowledge and influence of your example. There 
 is a large class of men almost persuaded, who think on the 
 whole it would be better to abandon the cup altogether, 
 who yet continue to drink habitually, though soberly, and 
 who thus encourage the intemperate, because they are not 
 called to make an immediate decision. Your private ex- 
 ample does not urge them to it any more to-day than next 
 year ; and they think that next year will be more convenient. 
 But when you sign a paper, and pass it to them, they are 
 brought to a decision on the spot. And it is precisely in 
 this way, that thousands, without a moment's hesitation, 
 have been made practical advocates of the cause. They 
 were advocates at heart before ; yet they might never have 
 become such openly, so as to exert a wholesome influence, 
 except they had thus been called on for an immediate de- 
 cision. In this way, therefore, your written engagement 
 may make your practice known to many, and thus tend to 
 influence many, who never would otherwise have learned 
 what your practice is. 
 
 But again they say, We lay snares for conscience in thus 
 surrendering our liberty. We do not think a little occa- 
 sional indulgence injurious to us, though we do not desire 
 it ; and why should we tempt ourselves by the prohibition ? 
 
 It is not strange that some should be affected by this 
 mode of viewing the matter. They religiously dread to 
 tamper with conscience, and put its delicacy in jeopardy. 
 But, after all, are they not mistaken as to the amount of the 
 risk ? If they are accustomed to act on principle, is there 
 much danger that appetite or civility will get ascendency 
 over it, because they have told their neighbours that it shall 
 not? — for this is the amount of it. Or, suppose it amounted 
 to something more; yet should they not be ready to incur the 
 risk for the sake of the good which they may thus do to oth- 
 ers ? for this is the point to be considered. It is a ques- 
 
11 
 
 tion between a single regard to one's own good, and a be- 
 nevolent sacrifice to the good of others. On the one side is 
 a possible evil to one's self; on the other, an inevitable evil 
 to others. Which is to be chosen ? To a conscientious 
 man, who walks circumspectly, the personal danger is noth- 
 ing ; and he certainly cannot feel justified in refusing to do 
 what might prove an essential office of benevolence, on the 
 selfish plea that possibly he might thereby injure his own 
 mind. The duty then seems obvious. It is determined by 
 the maxim of holy writ, " Let no man seek his own, but 
 every man another's good ; " and by that already cited ; 
 " I will eat no meat while the world standeth, lest I cause 
 my brother to offend." 
 
 I would ask also, why this objection should be thought so 
 peculiarly strong in this case, when it is equally applicable 
 to many other occasions, on which it is never brought for- 
 ward ? " We are principled against making promises to 
 do our duty ; we choose to do it because it is our duty ; 
 otherwise we set snares for our consciences." But you do 
 not act on this principle in other cases. It is your duty to 
 speak the truth in a court of justice ; yet you make a sol- 
 emn engagement to do so. It is your duty to pay your 
 debts ; yet you do not hesitate to give a note of hand, 
 promising payment. It is your duty to be faithful to your 
 wife ; yet you did not refuse, when you took her for better 
 for worse, to engage to be so. And did you ever find your- 
 self less likely to speak the truth, pay your debts, and honor 
 your wife, because of these promises? Have you found 
 them snares to your conscience ? Certainly then there is no 
 force in the objection. It cannot stand before a candid ex- 
 amination. 
 
 It is to be said further, in defence of this requisition, that 
 experience has proved it essential to the prevalence of the 
 cause ; we can expect its complete triumph only through 
 the power, which is by this means imparted to its operations. 
 It is undoubtedly a fact, that the vigorous and rapid spread 
 of just sentiments on this subject has been mainly owing to 
 their having been pressed upon the notice of society by the 
 
steady and persevering pledge of temperate men. It is 
 through this means, that such multitudes have been led, not 
 only to reflect, but to act, to act promptly, decidedly, fear- 
 lessly, unitedly ; and if the former course of simply reason- 
 ing on the subject, and acting silently as insulated individu- 
 als, had been continued, nothing approaching the same 
 results could have been witnessed, nor could we now look 
 forward with so confident assurance to complete success. 
 Whatever objection, therefore, may seem to lie against this 
 part of the system, a little examination shows it to be un- 
 founded ; while to admit it in practice would be ruinous to 
 the enterprise. No ; so long as we require our magistrates 
 to bind themselves to fidelity in office, we must not think 
 it unreasonable to bind ourselves to this duty. If every 
 sober man would doit, not all the obligation, assumed, and 
 discharged by the officers of state, would effect so much for 
 the virtue and prosperity of the nation. We should then 
 speedily witness the results at which we aim. 
 
 III. JVJiat are these results ? This was the third point 
 I proposed to consider. 
 
 The result to which these operations tend is the extermi- 
 nation, — the absolute, perpetual extermination, — of ar- 
 dent spirits, as an article of drink. The cause is not gain- 
 ed until rum and brandy are as little used as opium, and 
 sold in the same way, for the same purposes, and in the 
 same places. There is no stopping short of this. Our prin- 
 ciples look forward to this result. The work is incomplete, 
 society is insecure, until it is reached. 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that the principles of this combi- 
 nation go to discourage the manufacture of spirits, and abol- 
 ish the traffic in them. He who holds them cannot consist- 
 ently supply to his fellow-men the temptations and facilities 
 to that indulgence, which he professes to esteem the source 
 of immeasurable calamities to them. He cannot consistently 
 labor to rid the land of intemperance, and yet make it for 
 his own interest that men should buy at his distillery, or 
 drink at his shop. 
 
13 
 
 I am aware of the delicacy of this part of the subject. 
 I know the risk I run of hurting the feelings of men engaged 
 in a business, which was, when they entered it, and always 
 hitherto has been, considered as reputable as any other ; and 
 who have not yet had the subject so presented to them, that 
 they perceive themselves to be occupied in spreading misery 
 and desolation around them. All their habits of education 
 and of life, their business, their interest, and their connex- 
 ions, concur to blind them, and they are not likely to dis- 
 cern, so readily as others, the inherent vice of their voca- 
 tion. Even John Newton, for some time after his character 
 became Christian, failed to see, that his employment in the 
 slave-trade was in contradiction to his religious principles ; 
 and it sounds harshly to the ears of our neighbours, when 
 it is said to them, for the first time, that the trade in rum is 
 no better than the trade in men. Yet if we judge impar- 
 tially, by the wretchedness and sin resulting from each, can 
 we doubt that it is so ? 
 
 I desire, therefore, to speak inoffensively, but I must 
 speak decidedly. No proposition seems to me susceptible 
 of more satisfactory demonstration than this, — and I am 
 sure that no person can give it one hour's serious thought 
 without assenting to it, — that, in the present state of in- 
 formation on this subject, no man can think to act on Chris- 
 tian principle, or do a patriot's duty to his country, and at 
 the same time make or sell the instrument of intoxication. 
 
 For let him consider what it amounts to. To no less 
 than this : employing his time, capital, and industry, to 
 prepare for use, and offer for use, that thing, which has 
 been proved to be the principal source of misery and crime 
 in modern society ; — providing for men the convenient and 
 tempting means of ruining their health and their business, 
 beggaring their families, becoming vagabonds and a nui- 
 sance while alive, sinking prematurely to a dishonorable 
 grave, and entering eternity, — oh, with what a prepara- 
 tion! Let him consider this, — and he will perceive, that, 
 however little he may have intended it, however little he may 
 have thought of it, the nature of his calling has rendered it 
 
14 
 
 inevitable. He cannot be a dealer in spirits without be- 
 coming accessory to all this vice and ruin. 
 
 He does not wish to create drunkards ; he does not take 
 pleasure in multiplying poverty, suffering, and sin ; he is 
 astonished that men can be such idiots and brutes ; he won- 
 ders that they do not drink with moderation. Alas ! he 
 does not reflect that the inevitable tendency of the shop and 
 the bar-room is to decoy men from themselves and their 
 self-command. He does not reflect how hopeless it is, — 
 as all experience has proved, — that such places should ex- 
 ist, and no men become intemperate. Their existence is 
 certainly the occasion, if not the cause, of a vast proportion 
 of the evil. If the poison were not freely offered for sale, it 
 would not be purchased. 
 
 This is easily tested. How happens it that in that vil- 
 lage there were so many neglected farms, and houses going 
 to decay ; that so many families lived in squalidness and 
 quarrelling, and that a general want of enterprise marked 
 its slovenly aspect ? There were four places in that vil- 
 lage, at which strong drink was retailed ; and it was the 
 custom of the villagers to assemble there and discuss the 
 times. As a natural consequence, they became idle, shift- 
 less, slovenly, and quarrelsome. Now suppose, that twenty 
 years ago the town had resolved, that no retailers should 
 be allowed there, — as has recently been done in Utica, 
 N. Y. ; — that, consequently, no spirits had, since that time, 
 been carried there for sale. Who can deny, that the whole 
 aspect of things would be other than it is ? Who does not 
 see, that the very persons who are now worthless sots, would 
 have grown up a thriving, industrious population ? This is 
 the result which we wish to see accomplished throughout 
 the community. It has already been witnessed in some 
 places, where words have hardly power enough to express 
 the gratitude and gladness of the people at the happy 
 change. What hinders that the change should take place 
 every where ? What hinders that every community should 
 be filled only with sober, thrifty, enterprising men, helping 
 forward, instead of keeping back the general good ? What 
 
15 
 
 hinders ? Every one must see the answer to be, the manu- 
 facture and the sale of ardent spirit. Let us turn the 
 matter as we will, it comes to this at last. And until those 
 who are most concerned in the fact see it in its true light, 
 and< become willing to sacrifice a brief present gain to the 
 welfare of the community, the day of universal temperance 
 with its train of blessings will be retarded in its coming. 
 They must first lock up, — for they hold the keys, — the 
 fountains of that desolating flood which now overflows and 
 stagnates upon the corrupted land. 
 
 Honored be they who have done this ! Honor to the 
 names of those, — the only persons in any sense sufferers 
 in this cause, — who have, with manly principle and con- 
 scientious self-denial, thrown away their gains, that their 
 fellow-men might be safe. They already form a numerous 
 host ; every day witnesses accessions to their ranks. They 
 are now, and from this time forth they must be, the most 
 eflicient promoters of the auspicious reformation ; since 
 each of them, not only, like the rest of us, refuses to touch 
 the poison as it flows, but absolutely annihilates one of its 
 streams. To these men it belongs to finish the work which 
 others have so propitiously begun. 
 
 I have thus executed my purpose of explaining the ne- 
 cessity, the character, and the results of the great combina- 
 tion against Intemperance, in which we have enlisted. 
 
 I have but a word more to say. I simply ask of you, 
 friends and fellow-citizens, to give the subject a fair con- 
 sideration ; and if, as reasonable men, as citizens, as pa- 
 triots, as Christians, you feel the evil and desire its extinc- 
 tion, lend the power of your names to the enterprise ; enlist 
 in this crusade against the general destroyer ; array your- 
 selves under the banner of your country and your God, in this 
 holy war of extermination against the chief public enemy. 
 The victory will be won, — the most important and blessed 
 victory since the Reformation of Luther, — only when every 
 individual shall have joined our ranks, and become a free, 
 voluntary, practical advocate of the duty of absolute absti- 
 
16 
 
 nence. Much has been done already ; enough to give en- 
 couragement to the most sanguine hopes ; but comparative- 
 ly nothing, if the effort is to be relaxed. Every thing de- 
 pends on perseverance. Come up, therefore, one and all, 
 " to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Come 
 up, and aid in the purification and salvation of your country. 
 The newly Christianized islands of the Pacific oc6an have 
 abolished the trade, and banished the venom from their 
 shores. Let not our older land of boasted religious light, 
 lag far behind. Let it rise in the power of its enlightened 
 faith, in the fervor of its Christian love, and sweep this 
 foul contamination from its borders. Formerly it was 
 thought we must rely on the law to effect the Augean 
 work. But it has been found, that there is something 
 stronger and more to be depended on than human law, -— 
 the spread of just sentiment and upright principle. No 
 law has a commanding power like that " written on the 
 heart." Where this is brought into operation, aided by 
 the authority and sanctions of the written word of God, 
 it creates a certainty, energy, and perseverance of action, to 
 which all other operation is feeble. Here then is our confi- 
 dence. The reformation which proceeds on principle, is a 
 reformation root and branch ; a willing, cheerful, thorough, 
 universal reformation ; and it never goes backward. Let 
 us therefore earnestly pray, and strenuously labor, for the 
 spread of that moral and religious principle, which shall 
 certainly effect, and alone is able to effect, this moral and 
 religious Reform. 
 
LOAN DEPT. 
 
 or on .he da.e .o «h| ,,2^,405 ^„ ,^., , 
 
 (N88378l0)476— A-32 
 
 General Libran' 
 Unne«ityofCaliforma 
 
 Berkeley