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Show 40 moment, and you will call to your recollection cases, perlwps among yom near and dear connections in life, of a more aggravated character than it is possible for the tongue to describe; and tell me, ye moderate dt inkers, what has the pleasures of the flowing bowl to givc,-what the joys of hilarity and mirth,-what the scenes of revelry ami riot-to compensate for the forfeited enjoyment of sobriety and virtue? E\•Cn should you feel strong enough in resolution, in virtue, or in religion, to continue to indulge an occasional glass without danger to yourselves, consider, I entreat you, the powerful influence of your example upon those around you, and especially such of you as are parents, upon your own children. Everywhere we see the sons of moderate drinkers become intemperate ; the father took a little because it was good, and because a little would do him no harm ; the sons, being more early initiated into the baneful habit, it grew upon them with their growth, and strengthened with their strength, until they have fallen miserable victims to this ruthless destroyer. . Ev~n the wives and the daughters of moderate drinkers are exposed to an mfect10us atmosphere , which not \mfrcquently proves fatal to the fairest portion of the creation of God. She who was made 10 comfort and cheer the l~nely condition o~ man, and with the hand of afrection to wipe from his brow h1s sorrows and his cares, through the baneful example of a loved husband or father, falls a victim to i~toxicatioi.l, and, from a smiling angel of love, becomes a demon of_ confus iol.t, of w1ckedness, and shame. Oh! ye fair d~u~htcrs .or Columbia, :shall 11 ever be told th~t ye too have become the vJct•ms of n~temperance'! 1Will ye part with all that is amiable and loHly for the maddenmg bowl_?. No, we hope better things of you, and on you we rely a~ the most cfl•c1ent ?nd entllll·ing promoters of the temperance re· form_atJon; you fo.rm the ~1nds. of our children in helpless infancy, anti on you 1t devolves to unpl aat 111 the1r bosoms an abhorrence of evil and a love of virtue. llu_t let not your efl'orts in this good work be confined exclusively to your ciHI_dren; per.haps, some of you have a husband, a father, a bro~ her~ or a ~ncnd who indulges himself with just a little when he thinks It w1ll do hun no harm. When you return to your respective homes, such ?f ~ou ~s h~vc some dear.friend who is in this dangerous practice, tenderly J~vJtc h11~, m the endea~mg language of love, to ::dlow you to plead with h1m ~o~ h1s ~wn safe~y; _If he be a Christian, call upon him in the name of rellgwn i 1f .a patriOt, 111 the name of his country; if a philanthropist, in the name of h1s fellow men, to set an example such as he would wish the world to follow. If he be a father, call upon him in the name of his children; gather them around his knees; hang them upon the sk irts of his gar~1ent~; .call forth al.l the sensibilities of his soul, and implore him, with t~e u·resJ~hble persuasiOn of nature's language, to set a good example before h1s offspnng, that he mar: leave ~o the.m the inheritance of virtue, infinitely more valuable than the n chest mhentance of gold and silver. Entwine your e~dear~n ents around his heart, if he have nny sensibility lefl, and plead with hun, for the_ love he bears you, to fly from 1his all-conquering enemy, before whom kmgs and emperors have fallen, stripped of all their glory. . ~few there are among the professed friends of morality, virtue, andreligiOn, who strenuously maintain that they have no occasion to unite with a temperance ~ociety,-they can take c3.re of themselves without being bound by a wntten pledge,-they can take a little when it will do them good, or they can let it alone. To such, I must say, you are the chief ob· stacle t~ the ~omplete ~riumph of this blessed cause; the example of one such drmker IS product1ve of more evil, than that of a hundred drunkards: you give respectability to a custom which is spreading death and desolation ADDRESS 0}' AHNOLD BUJ<'FUM. 41 all around you; you uphold the manufacturers and the venders of the souldestroying poison; you alone are answerable for the continuance of the lieensing system; the disease of intemperance is already making its ravages upon you; it has weakened your re!!!olution, and closed your eyes to your own dange r, and is conducting you on to the brink of a precipice, from which thousands as wisP-, as virtuous, and as loved, have miserably fallen before you. Were the friends of temperance to follow your example, 1he temperance reformation would be arrested in its course; the streams of moral pollution, of wretchedness and wo, would continue uninterruptedly to roll on, and in ten years the d isease of intemperance would hurl ftve hundred thousand of our countrymen down to the drunkard's grave; and five hundred thousand more, by actiug on your principle, would be transformed into confirmed drunkards, and many of yourselves would be found among them . There is yet another class who, though strictly temperate themselves, and wishing well to the temperance cause, think it would be degrading for them to sign a wriuen pledge to abstain. Many of these think themselves too good to associate with such men as are most acti ve in the temperance reformation, and therefore they stand aloof from all co-operation in that great moral revolution, which God, by the hands of his servants, is now carrying forward for the renovation of the world. To such J can only say: you are acting the part of the priest and the Levite, who passed by a fellow creature in distress, on the other side. You behold thousands around you whose families are made wretched, and who themselves are going down to end les:-3 wo, for want of the healthful influence of your active and persevering efforts to reclaim them ; you hold, under God, their destiny for time and for eternity in your hands; you have talents committed to you to improve for their good, but you bury them in the earth; you are like the fruitless fig tree, which only encumbered the ground; you arc of those that know to do good and do it not, and to yon it is s in ; and when the glorious day shall arrive in which there shall be joy in heaven for those who, by the instrumentality of others, have been plucked as brands from the burning, and they shall be united in singing the p raises of Him who has redeemed them by his blood from the pit of pollution, where then will be those feelings of arrogance and pride which are now exhibited in thanking God that you are not as other men are. He whom you profess to serve, has manifestly put forth his hand in this great work ; his truth is pledged that it shall prosper, and shall not fail; it is one link in the great chnin of events which is to prepare the world for the universal reign of the Prince of peace; and will not you be persuaded to contribute your share to the promotion of this glorious cause? Reverently should we send. up our orisons of thanksgiving and praise, that the Father of mercies has been gracious ly pleased to open our eyes to the necessity of one great and 11nited effort in opposing that torrent of ruin, which, as a mighty deluge, was threatening to sweep all that was fair and lovely from this chosen land of hiR heritage. Reverently shou ld we bow in humble adoration of his goodness, that he has been pleased to put forth his own Almighty arm to stay the flood; and that in the thick and dark cloud which has so long overshadowed our land, he has permitted us to see the dawning of a bow which gives the promise of a brighter and a better day. 6 |