hopes, till their anguish must be openly revealed. What multitudes of such still live and weep; and what multitudes have fallen under the pressure of their grief into the grave! See this destroyer yearly reducing to wretchedness multitudes of families-quenching the light of many thousand homes in despair. Could the social condition of our nation be made evident, so as to reveal the burdens of grief that are hidden in desolate homes—the bursting hearts of parents for their ruined sons; of wives from whose life all joy and hope have departed; of children reduced to want and disgracewe should ask no further evidence of the wide-spread ruin occasioned by intemperance.

3. Again, Alcohol is an enemy to man's physical powers and interests.

Consider this important fact in connection with this subject. The use of ardent spirits creates a burning appetite for more; and almost uniformly, he who indulges in them, creates a passionate thirst for them, which ultimately overcomes the will of its victim, and drags him down to a drunkard's grave. After a while, a deep-wrought physical effect will be produced; a delirious appetite of the nature of a physical necessity will seize the man, and crush from his heart both the power and the wish of selfcontrol. The raging thirst must be quenched with a draught which only adds fuel to the flame. This is a physical infliction.

Think of the unnatural excitement of body and mind, in the poor inebriate-the derangement of all his powers, palsied faculties, and some wrought up

to a pitch of action bordering on delirium. In this state, he is ready for almost any act which a depraved heart may suggest.

Alcohol destroys health and life. There is no form of disease, that is not fostered and aggravated by intemperance, while there is a long list of maladies peculiar to itself.

Shall we point you to ten thousand shadows of human existence in the last stages of wasting diseases, brought on by the use of liquor? Shall we go to the grave-yard, and ask tombstones how many of its victims lie beneath them? Ah! if they might tell the truth, how affecting, how alarming would be their testimony! How often is the drunkard found, stretched by the wayside, on the cold and damp earth, dead drunk; exposed to the wheels of the traveller; drenched by rains; wet with the dew of heaven; shivering under the piercing blasts of winter, or perhaps lying stiff, in the iron slumbers of death. One out of sixty, or 300,000 of our population, are drunkards; and 30,000 die annually the drunkard's death. The ravages of war, famine, and pestilence, do not equal those of this destroyer. The yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793, felt to be a dreadful curse, destroyed but 4000. In the war of 1812, the sword devoured but 500 a year. Intemperance destroys more than 500 a week. From estimates recently made, we may safely conclude that 80,000 in Great Britain, and 300,000 in France, perish annually by the use of this poison. The Duke of Orleans recently declared to a distinguished American gentleman, that more than one-third of the population

of France were engaged either in the production or sale of intoxicating drinks. Thus we have in these three most enlightened countries on earth, nearly a half a million of human beings-an army more numerous than that of Napoleon in his glory-every year slain by this great destroyer. What a terrible carnage is here! Where is the heart that does not bleed, because of the loss of some dear relative, friend, or companion? We may indeed say with the prophet, "The land mourneth because of drunk

enness.

4. Besides, Alcohol is an invader of the moral interests of society.

Every where it is the prolific parent of vice and crime. The use of this article is a central vice, a radiating point for all crime. This poison hardens the heart, breaks down the conscience, quickens the circulation, goads up every passion to a high pitch of excitement, makes men disregard law and right, and prepares them for the commission of any crime. A few years since, a husband, having murdered his wife, with his own hand butchered his six motherless children, and placed one of them to broil on the fire!

The following is a striking case of the effect of this poison in preparing men for crime :—

The late Mr. Southwell, of the Liverpool Custom House, having dismissed one of the workmen on account of drunkenness, the man determined on revenge; and as Mr. Southwell had to pass through a certain gateway every morning on his way to the office, the man posted himself in the way, with &

loaded pistol, and there awaited the approach of his victim. But as the time drew near, misgivings began to arise in his mind, and he shuddered at the enormity of the murder he meditated. In order to prepare himself, he purchased and drank off a glass of rum. This, however, was insufficient. He was not yet ready to become Satan's instrument for the perpetration of one of the foulest crimes; and the effect of a second glass was tried. Still this was insufficient; and before humanity was subdued, a third glass was drank. This prepared him. The helm was now put into the hands of the fiend; and when Southwell had come within proper distance, he executed his nefarious deed—and his victim lay a corpse before him!

"By one fatal act," said Judge Edwards, in pronouncing sentence of death on James Ransom, "your wife has been sent to the cold and silent mansions of the dead, your children were deprived of all the endearments and fostering care of their mother, and you are fated to expiate your offence upon a gallows. What could have so perverted your nature? What could have so steeled your heart? The answer is, intoxicating liquor. (It has had the effect to estrange you from the most endearing relation, from the ties of blood, from your obligations to your fellow-beings, and to your Creator." What other poison in the universe could prepare men for the perpetration of such heaven-daring crimes?

5. More than this, Alcohol destroys the human intellect.

This poison attacks the citadel of the soul, enfeebling and wasting every faculty. By it, the noblest intellect is prostrated and laid in ruins. My friends, I appeal to your own observation.--Have you not seen the masculine and discriminating understanding, dwindle into premature old age, and second childhood, by the use of strong drink? Have you not seen the promising youth of the finest genius, and most acute mind, prostrated by the touch of this withering demon?

Says Mr. Notter, of New Haven, in a temperance address:" My heart bleeds, as I remember the fate of three of my early companions, who started in life with myself. One of them possessed the finest mathematical mind I ever knew. He would take the ledger, and go up with three columns at a time, with perfect ease. He was the first man in America that beat the automaton chess-player; and he told me he had every move in his head before he entered the room. That man filled a drunkard's grave. Another, who was an excellent accountant, and could command almost any salary, met the same melancholy fate. Another, possessing the same brilliant capabilities, has gone down-not to the grave perhaps, but is sunk clear out of sight, by the mire and filth of intemperance."

Notice the dreadful havoc of this destroyer among Briton's gifted sons:

You see there a Shakspeare, the glory of the British drama-whose fame is destined to go down to the end of time, as the great master of his art--perishing in the infernal embrace of this idol.