See there a Byron-of whom his eulogist has said

"He touched his harp, and nations heard, entranced-
As some vast river of unfailing source,

Rapid, exhaustless, deep, his numbers flowed,
And opened new fountains in the human heart.

"As some fierce comet of tremendous size,
To which the stars did reverence as it passed,
So he through learning and through fancy took
His flight sublime, and on the loftiest top
Of fame's dread mountain sat."

Yet to that sublime and fearful eminence, did intemperance dare to lift up its impious arm-dragged down England's gifted bard to the disgrace of a drunkard's grave.

Cowley, Burns, Dryden, Moore, and others, who rank as stars of the first magnitude, in the firmament of literary fame, were all stricken down from the meridian heights of their glory, by the same destructive arm.

And what an amount of lunacy and idiocy, are produced by this poison!

Of 781 maniacs in different insane hospitals, 392, according to the testimony of their own friends, and the physicians who had the care of them, were brought to this condition by intemperance.

The report of a committee, appointed to inquire in regard to the idiots of Massachusetts, showed that eleven-twelfths of this pitiable class were born of intemperate parents!

Dr. Waters, of the Pennsylvania Hospital, years ago, assured Dr. Rush that one-third of the patients

confined in the asylum, on account of madness, had brought upon themselves that terrible disease by the use of ardent spirits.

These facts speak volumes in reference to the desolating effect of this poison, on the mental

powers.

6. Finally, I remark, on the ravages of this destroyer, that it operates most destructively on the interests of religion. And this it does in three ways, among others. First, in preventing its impressions; secondly, as a hinderance to its progress; and thirdly, as a cause of declension.

(1.) Alcohol acts as a preventive to religious impressions.

When intemperance has taken possession of a person, the heart loses its tone and vigor. The religious susceptibilities are blunted, if not lost. The sensual spirit, like a strong man armed, keeps the house. Lying under the bondage of the tyrant alcohol, the soul cannot be redeemed. These chains must be broken; this moral besotment must be removed, before the principle of purity, and the love of God, can enter the heart. Hence, where the temperance enterprise has been triumphant, it has wrought great changes, and prepared the way for the diffusion of pure religion.

Besides this, the intemperate neglect the religious and mental education of their children. Their depravity renders them careless of their welfare.

"Do you go to the Sunday school, Tommy?" inquired a person the other day, of a boy who was playing before the door. "No, ma'am," was the

reply. "Why don't you go? you're getting a big lad," he was again asked. "Because I have no Sunday clothes. These," he said, laying hold of his ragged trowsers, and looking over his no better jacket and waistcoat, "are all I have." He had a drunken father, who was afraid that the expense of procuring decent clothing for his children, would diminish his own indulgence.

"Drink makes us an unhappy family," once said a poor woman; "my husband is a drunkard, and spends all the money he can get. We cannot keep a bible, nor afford to send our children to school. Instead of attending a place of worship on the sabbath, we have nothing but drunken quarrels and fighting all day."

(2.) Alcohol acts as a hinderance to the progress of religion.

Unquestionably it has been the most potent of all the emissaries of Satan, to check the progress of true religion in the world. It obliterates the fear of the Most High-turns men away from the sanctuary, or steels their hearts against the truth, if they go there, and renders them unimpressible by the means of grace-stirs up the vilest passions of the human heart, and fills the regions of eternal woe, with precious immortal souls.

If, on the holy sabbath, the minister of religion rises at an earlier hour than usual, to prepare for the services of the day, the vender of intoxicating drinks, and maker of drunkards, is up as soon, preparing to counteract the efforts of his rival-"the priest of the Most High." The public services of the latter

extend over three or four hours in the day; but the counteracting efforts of the former, extend over the whole of the remainder.

Says a clergyman, who had been officiating eighteen years in an agricultural parish-a meeting of ministers was called to consult about the expediency of introducing total abstinence societies, to check the ravages of intemperance :

"It fell to my lot to open the discussion. I did só, by asking them, severally, 'What is the sin in your parish, which you feel to be the greatest obstruction to your ministry?' The answer from them all was- Drunkenness.” ”

Intemperance is the greatest obstacle to the spread of religion in heathen and Mahomedan countries.

An unfortunate Mussulman at Constantinople, who under the influence of wine had become intoxicated, was tied upon a lame mule, with his face towards the tail of the animal. Upon his head was placed a European (Christian's) hat, and behind him was tied a dog, back to back. After having paraded him through the streets, stopping at every fountain to sprinkle him with water and mud, he was taken by the populace to the banks of the Bosphorus, and plunged into the water with his innocent companion. The hair of the dog was then cut off in the form of a cross, and the beard of the Mussulman was shaved off with the same razor. He was subsequently plunged twice into the Bosphorus, to effect his purification. Thus was Christianity ridiculed, because nominal Christians had introduced intemperance.

Says a missionary in the Evangelical Magazine—

"From my knowledge of Europeans in New Zealand, I do not hesitate to say, that their example in encouraging drunkenness and fornication, tends more than any thing else to counteract our missionary operations. When European and other shipping touch at the harbors, their crews are like a pestilence among the natives."

The conversion of Tahiti took place about the year 1813; but as early as 1803, habits of drunkenness had been spread among them by European and American ships. Trading vessels often took scarcely any thing at all to barter with the natives, but muskets, ammunition, and ardent spirits chiefly "New England Rum." This was sold in large quantities, at exceedingly low prices. Even king Pomare, who was instrumental in effecting the mighty change in the religion of the country, was not free from the vice of drunkenness. His mother

hastened her death by the use of ardent spirits. In consequence of the large quantities of liquor introduced, (in the words of the missionary in 1833,) "at one station, upwards of a hundred individuals were excluded from the church."

(3.) But further, Alcohol is a powerful agent in religious declension. It has plucked down many of the brightest stars of the Christian church. It has found its way into the pulpit, and made a Judas of the minister of Christ. Says a Methodist minister, in the Ipswich Tracts, No. 48:

"About twenty-seven years ago, fifteen young men started in the world, of whom I am one: they also at this time set out on a profession of religion.