prevent the effects of heat and cold; if they do not add to our
strengths, and enable us to perform more labor; when are they
necessary? Why, people in health say, they want to drink them now and
then--they do them good. What good? If they are well, why do they need
them? For nothing but to gratify the taste, and to produce a feeling of
intoxication and derangement, slight in its degree when moderately used,
as they are by such people, but the character of the feeling is no less
certain. It is the same feeling that induces the drunkard to drink. One
man takes a glass to do him good, to make him feel better; another wants
two; another three; another six; and by this time he is intoxicated, and
he never feels well till he is so. He has the same feeling with the man
who drinks a single glass, but more of it; and that man who, in health,
drinks one glass to make him feel better, is just so much of a drunkard;
one-sixth, if it takes six glasses to intoxicate him. He has one-sixth
of the materials of a drunkard in his constitution.
But it is this _moderate use_ of ardent spirits that produces all the
excess. It is this which paves the way to downright and brutal
intoxication. Abolish the ordinary and temperate use of ardent spirits,
and there would not be a drunkard in the country. He who advises men not
to drink to excess, may lop off the branches; he who advises them to
drink only on certain occasions, may fell the trunk; but he who tells
them not to drink at all, strikes and digs deep for the root of the
hideous vice of intemperance; and this is the only course to pursue. It
is this temperate use of ardent spirits that must be discontinued. They
must be no longer necessary when friends call, when we go to the store
to trade, to the tavern to transact business, when we travel the road on
public days--in fact, they must cease to be fashionable and customary
drinks. Do away the fashion and custom that attend their use, and change
the tone of public feeling, so that it will be thought disgraceful to
use them as they are now used by the most temperate and respectable
men, and an end is for ever put to the prevalence of the beastly disease
of intoxication. Let those who cannot be reclaimed from intemperance go
to ruin, and the quicker the better, if you regard only the public good;
but save the rest of our population; save yourselves; save your
children! Raise not up an army of drunkards to supply their places.
Purify your houses. They contain the plague of death; the poison that,
in a few years, will render some of your little ones what the miserable
wretches that you see staggering the streets are now. And who, I ask,
would not do it? What father, who knew that one of his sons that he
loves was, in a few years, to be what hundreds you can name are now,
would hesitate, that he might save him, to banish intoxicating drinks
from his premises for ever?
But if all will do it, he is saved; and he who contributes but a mite in
this work of God, deserves the everlasting gratitude of the republic. If
the names of a Brainerd, of a Swartz, of a Buchanan, have been rendered
immortal by their efforts to convert the heathen to Christianity, the
names of those men who shall succeed in converting Christians to
temperance and sobriety, should be written in letters of ever-during
gold, and appended by angels in the temple of the living God. The sum of
their benevolence would be exceeded only by His, who came down from
heaven for man's redemption. Then banish it; this is the only way to
save your children. As long as you keep ardent spirits in your houses,
as long as you drink it yourselves, as long as it is polite and genteel
to sip the intoxicating bowl, so long society will remain just what it
is now, and so long drunkards will spring from your loins, and so long
drunkards will wear your names to future generations. And there is no
other way given under heaven, whereby man can be saved from the vice of
intemperance, but that of _total abstinence_.
And, if ardent spirits are the parent of all the poverty, and disease,
and crime, and madness, that I have named, and if they produce no good,
what rational man will use them? If he loves himself, he will not; if he
loves his children, he will not; and as Hamilcar brought Hannibal to the
altar, at eight years of age, and made him swear eternal hatred to the
Romans, so every parent should bring his children to the altar, and make
them swear, if I may so speak, eternal hatred to ardent spirits. He
should teach them by precept and example. He should instil into his
children a hatred of ardent spirits, as much as he does of falsehood and
of theft. He should no more suffer his children to drink a little, than
he does to lie a little, and to steal a little.
And what other security have you for your children, or for yourselves?
Yes, for yourselves. I knew a man who, a few years ago, was as temperate
as any of you; was as respectable as any of you, as learned as any of
you, and as useful in life as any of you; I have heard him from the
sacred desk again and again; but by the same use of ardent spirits that
most men justify and advocate, under the mistaken notion that they were
beneficial to him, he has at last fallen the victim of intemperance. And
this is not a solitary example. I had almost said, it is a common
example. I could easily add to the number.
And now, what security have you for yourselves? You have none but in the
course I have recommended. If it is necessary for the intemperate man to
write on every vessel containing ardent spirits, "Taste not, touch not,
handle not," and to brand them as full of the very wrath of God, it is
also necessary for the temperate man to do so, to save himself from
intemperance.
But the difficulty on this subject is to convince men of their
individual danger; that intemperance stands at their own doors, and is
knocking for an entrance into their own houses; that they and their
children are the victims that he seeks.
But if the places of the present generation of drunkards are to be
supplied, whence will the victims come but from your own children? And
who knows but that the infant the mother is now dandling upon her knee,
and pressing to her bosom, however lovely he may appear, however
respectable and elevated she is, will be selected to be one of that
degraded, and squalid, and filthy class that, in her old age, will walk
the streets as houseless, hopeless, and abandoned drunkards? You have no
security, no assurance.
But we are apt to think that the wretches whom we see and have described
were always so; that they were out of miserable and degraded families;
and that they are walking in the road in which they were born. But this
is not so. Among the number may be found a large proportion who were as
lovely in their infancy, as promising in their youth, and as useful in
early life, as your own children, and have become drunkards--I repeat
it, and never let it be forgotten--_have become drunkards by the
temperate, moderate, and habitual use of ardent spirits, just as you use
them now_. Were it not for this use of ardent spirits, we should not now
hear of drunken senators and drunken magistrates; of drunken lawyers and
drunken doctors; churches would not now be mourning over drunken
ministers and drunken members; parents would not be weeping over drunken
children, wives over drunken husbands, husbands over drunken wives, and
angels over a drunken world.
Then cease. No longer use that which is the source of infinite mischief,
without one redeeming benefit; which has entailed upon you, upon your
children, and upon society, woes unnumbered and unutterable. Banish it
from your houses: it can be done. You have only to will, and it is
effected. Use it not at home. Let it never be found to pollute your
dwellings. Give it not to your friends or to your workmen. Touch it not
yourselves, and suffer not your children to touch it; and let it be a
part of your morning and evening prayer, that you and your children may
be saved from intemperance, as much as from famine, from sickness, and
from death.
* * * * *
Reader, have you perused this pamphlet; and are you still willing to
drink, use, or sell this soul-destroying poison? If so--if you are
willing to risk your own soul, disgrace your friends, and ruin your
children by this fell destroyer, then go on; but remember, that to the
drunkard is allotted the "blackness of darkness and despair for ever."
But if not--if you feel the magnitude of the evil; if you are willing to
do something to correct it, sit not down in hopeless silence, but arouse
to action; "resist the devil, and he will flee from you;" not only
banish it from your houses, but from your stores, your shops, your
farms; give it not to your workmen; refuse to employ those who use it;
invite, entreat, conjure your friends and neighbors to refrain wholly
from the use of it; never forgetting that the day of final account is at
hand; that what we do for Christ, and for the good of our fellow-men,
must be done soon; and that those who sacrifice interest for the sake of
conscience, and who are instrumental in turning men from their errors,
shall not lose their reward.
* * * * *
This address was originally delivered before a large public meeting in
Lyme, New Hampshire, Jan. 8, 1827.
APPEAL TO YOUTH.
A TRACT FOR THE TIMES.
BY REV. AUSTIN DICKINSON.
To arrest a great moral evil, and elevate the general standard of
character in a community, the influence of the young is all-important.
_They_ can, if they please, put an end to the most demoralizing scourge
that has ever invaded our country, and introduce a state of society far
more pure and elevated than the world has yet seen.
Consider then, beloved youth, some of the numerous motives for
abstaining from intoxicating liquor and other hurtful indulgences, and
employing your time and faculties with a view to the highest improvement
and usefulness.
The use of such liquor, as a beverage, _will do you no good_. It will
not increase your property or credit: no merchant would deem a relish
for it any recommendation for a clerk or partner in business. It will
not invigorate your body or mind; for chemistry shows, that alcohol
contains no more nutriment than fire or lightning. It will not increase
the number of your respectable friends: no one, in his right mind,
would esteem a brother or neighbor the more, or think his prospects the
better, on account of his occasional use of intoxicating liquor. Nor
will it in the least purify or elevate your affections, or help to fit
you for the endearments of domestic life, or social intercourse; but on
the contrary, Scripture and observation alike testify, that wine and its
kindred indulgences "_take away the heart_." Why, then, should a
rational being, capable of the purest happiness, and capable of blessing
others by an example of temperance, indulge in a beverage in no respect
useful to those in health, but the occasion of countless miseries!
But strict temperance has a direct influence on _the health and vigor of
both mind and body_. The most eminent physicians bear uniform testimony
to its propitious effect. And the Spirit of inspiration has recorded,
_He that striveth for the mastery, is temperate in all things_. Many
striking examples might be adduced. The mother of Samson, that prodigy
of human strength, was instructed by an angel of God to preserve him
from the slightest touch of "wine, or strong drink, or any unclean
thing." And Luther, who burst the chains of half Europe, was as
remarkable for temperance, as for great bodily and intellectual vigor.
Sir Isaac Newton, also, while composing his Treatise on Light, a work
requiring the greatest clearness of intellect, it is said, very
scrupulously abstained from all stimulants. The immortal Edwards, too,
repeatedly records his conviction and experience of the happy effect of
strict temperance, both on mind and body. And recent reformations from
moderate drinking have revealed numerous examples of renovated health
and spirits in consequence of the change.
But not to multiply instances, let any youth, oppressed with heaviness
of brain or dulness of intellect, judiciously try the experiment of
_temperance in all things_, united with habitual activity, and he will
be surprised at the happy effect.
Consider, again, that _in the purest state of morals, and the most
elevated and refined circles, the use of intoxicating drink is now
discountenanced, and regarded as unseemly_. Inspiration has declared,
"It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink." And
who would not regard any of the truly noble, as lowering themselves by
disparaging this sentiment? What clerical association, or what
convention of philanthropists, would now be found "mingling strong
drink?" What select band of students, hoping soon to officiate honorably
at the altar of God, before the bench of justice, or in the chamber of
affliction, would now call for brandy or wine? What circle of refined
females would not feel themselves about as much degraded by familiarity
with such indulgences, as by smoking, or profane language? Or what
parent, inquiring for an eligible boarding-school, would think of
asking, whether his son or daughter might there have the aid of such
stimulus, or the example of its use? If, then, intoxicating liquor is
thus disparaged in the most moral and intelligent circles, why should it
not be universally abjured by individuals? Why should not the young,
especially, of both sexes, keep themselves unspotted, and worthy of the
most elevated society?
Consider, moreover, that if the habit of drinking be indulged, _it may
be difficult, if not impossible, should you live, to break off in more
advanced life_. Thus, even in this day of reform, there are individuals,
calling themselves respectable, so accustomed to drink, or traffic in
the poison, that all the remonstrances of philanthropists and friends,
the wailings of the lost, the authority of Heaven, and the anathema of
public sentiment combined, cannot now restrain them. Let the youth,
then, who turns with shame from such examples of inconsistency, beware
of a habit so hardening to the conscience, so deadening to the soul.
But, to increase your contempt for the habit of drinking, think how it
especially prevails _among the most degraded portions of the community_.
Inquire through the city, or village, for those who are so polluted as
to be shut out from all decent society--so inured to vice that they
cannot be looked upon but with utter disgust; learn their history, and
you invariably find that the insidious glass has been their companion,
their solace, and their counsellor. And should not dark suspicion and
decided reprobation be stamped upon that which is thus associated with
the lowest debasement and crime?
Such drink, in its very nature, has a perverting and debasing
tendency--leading to foul speeches, foolish contracts, and every sensual
indulgence. Those under its influence will say and do, what, in other
circumstances, they would abhor: they will slander, reveal secrets,
throw away property, offend modesty, profane sacred things, indulge the
vilest passions, and cover themselves and friends with infamy. Hence the
solemn caution, "Look not thou on the wine, when it giveth its color in
the cup: at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an
adder: thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart utter
perverse things." Those who, by gaming or intrigue, rob others of their
property, and those who allure "the simple" to ruin, it is said, fully
understand its perverting influence. "Is it not a little one?" say they;
and so the unwise are "caused to fall, by little and little."
"She urged him still to _fill another cup_;
* * * and in the dark, still night,
When God's unsleeping eye alone can see,
He went to her adulterous bed. At morn
I looked, and saw him not among the youths;
I heard his father mourn, his mother weep;
For none returned that went with her. The dead
Were in her house; her guests in depths of hell:
She wove the winding-sheet of souls, and laid
Them in the urn of everlasting death."
Such is ever the tendency of the insidious cup. For the unerring word
declares, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is
deceived thereby _is not wise_." "They are out of the way through strong
drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment."
Indeed, _the whole spirit of the Bible_, as well as uncorrupted taste,
is in direct hostility to this indulgence. Its language in regard to all
such stimulants to evil is, _Touch not, taste not, handle not_. And to
such as glory in being above danger, it says, with emphasis, "We, then,
that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and _not to
please ourselves_."
He who hath declared, _Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God_,
cannot, surely, be expected to adopt, as heirs of his glory, any who,
under all the light that has been shed on this subject, perseveringly
resolve to sip the exhilarating glass for mere selfish pleasure, when
they know that their example may probably lead others to endless ruin.
Common sense, as well as humanity, revolts at the thought.
On the other hand, strict temperance is pleasing to the Most High.
Hence, it is said of him who was honored to announce the Saviour's
advent, "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink
neither wine nor strong drink."
Moreover, the habit of strict temperance, being allied to other virtues,
will secure for you the _respect and confidence of the best portions of
the community_, as well as the approbation of God, and thus lead to your
more extensive usefulness. The youth who promptly comes up to the pledge
and practice of total abstinence, and persuades others to do so, gives
evidence of decision and moral courage--gives evidence of an intellect
predominating over selfish indulgence, and superior to the laugh of
fools; and such is the man whom an intelligent community will delight to
honor.
But you are to live, not merely for self-advancement, or happiness:
consider, then, that _true patriotism and philanthropy rightfully
demand_ your cordial support of the Temperance cause. A thick, fiery
vapor, coming up from the pit, has been overspreading our whole land and
blighting half its glory. Thousands, through the noxious influence of
this vapor, have yearly sunk to that pit, to weep and lament for ever.
Thousands more are groping their miserable way thither, who, but for
this pestilence, might be among our happiest citizens. Still greater
numbers, of near connections, are in consequence, covered with shame.
Ah, who can say, he has had no relative infected by this plague? But
Providence, in great mercy, has revealed the only effectual course for
exterminating the plague--_total abstinence from all that can
intoxicate_. And the adoption of this course, instead of involving any
real sacrifice, might be an annual saving to the nation of _many
millions of dollars_. What youth, then, who loves his country, will not
cheerfully cooperate with the most respected of every profession in
encouraging this course? Who does not see its certain efficacy, and the
grandeur of the result?
Were a foreign despot, with his armies, now invading our country, every
youthful bosom would swell with indignation. And will you not combine to
arrest the more cruel despot, Intemperance, whose vessels are daily
entering our ports, whose magazines of death are planted at the corners
of our streets, and whose manufactories are like "the worm that dieth
not, and the fire that is not quenched?"
Were all who have, in the compass of a year, been found drunk in the
land, assembled in one place, they would make a greater army than ever
Bonaparte commanded. And yet, unless patriot hearts and hands interpose,
myriads more, from generation to generation, coming on in the same
track, will go down like these to the drunkard's grave.
Were all the thousands that annually descend to the drunkard's grave,
cast out at once into an open field, their loathsome carcases would
cover many acres of ground. And yet the _source_ of all this pollution
and death is moderate drinking.
Were the thousands of distilleries and breweries, still at work day and
night in the land, placed in one city or county, they would blacken all
the surrounding heavens with their smoke. And could all the oaths,
obscenities, and blasphemies they occasion every hour, be uttered in one
voice, it would be more terrific than "seven thunders."
And are those armies of drunkards, that liquid fire, those carcases of
the slain, those ever-burning manufactories, and those blasphemies in
the ear of Heaven, less appalling, less stirring to patriotism, because
scattered throughout the land? Shall there be no burst of indignation
against this monster of despotism and wickedness, because he has
_insidiously_ entered the country, instead of coming in by bold
invasion? Shall he still deceive the nation, and pursue his ravages? Or
shall he not, at once, be arrested, when it can be done without cost,
and with infinite gain?
It must not be forgotten, that, in this country, every drunkard has
equal power in the elective franchise with the most virtuous citizen.
Nor must it be forgotten, that should the reform now cease, and
intemperance again increase for the fifty years to come, in only the
same ratio that it did for twenty years previous to the commencement of
general reform in 1826, about one-third of our voters would be
drunkards. What, then, would be the character of our beloved republic?
But should intemperance increase in that ratio for _eighty_ years, a
_majority_ of our voters would be drunkards, and our population amount
to several hundred millions. Who then could turn back the burning tide;
or who could govern the maddening multitudes?
It is not a vain thing, then, that patriots have waked up to this
subject. Their trumpet should now thrill through the land, and urge all
the young to enlist, at once, on the side of virtue. These can, if they
will, cause the river of abominations to be dried up.
But the subject of temperance has still another aspect, far more
serious. It must be a solemn consideration to such as realize, in any
measure, the worth of the soul and the necessity of its regeneration,
that indulgence in the use of intoxicating drink, in this day of light,
_may grieve the Holy Spirit_, whose presence alone can insure salvation.
Indeed, to say nothing of the deadening influence of such liquor on the
conscience, unless heaven and hell can mingle together, we cannot,
surely, expect God to send _his_ Spirit to cooperate _with that_ which
is peculiarly offensive to the most devoted and self-denying of his
friends, and which Satan employs, more than any other agent, in fitting
men for his service. For, "what communion hath light with
darkness?"--"what concord hath Christ with Belial?" Beware, then, of the
arch-deceiver, in this matter. "It is not a vain thing for you, because
it is your life."
It is obvious that if such stimulants were wholly done away, _the Gospel
would have far mightier sway_, and human nature generally assume a
higher character. Pure moral stimulus would take the place of what is
low, sensual, and selfish. Better health, better temper, higher
intellect, and more generous benevolence would everywhere appear.
It is obvious, likewise, that Providence has great designs to be
accomplished by the younger portions of this generation. Unto us are
committed those oracles which declare, "Instead of thy fathers shall be
thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth." And
already do I see, in the silent kindling of unnumbered minds, in our
Sabbath-schools and other institutions, the presage of unexampled good
to the nations. Who, then, of the rising race, is so dead to generous
feeling, so deaf to the voice of Providence, so blind to the beauty of
moral excellence, that he will not now aspire to some course of worthy
action? Let this motto, then, stand out like the sun in the firmament:
HE THAT STRIVETH FOR THE MASTERY, IS TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS.
One word in reference to making and observing a _pledge_ for abstinence.
As it respects yourself, it will show a resolute, independent mind, and
be deciding the question once for all, and thus supersede the necessity
of deciding it a thousand times, when the temptation is offered. It
will, moreover, supersede the inconvenience of perpetual warfare with
appetite and temptation. And as it respects others, of feebler minds, or
stronger appetites, your _example_ may be immeasurably important.
Multitudes may thus be secured to a life of sobriety, who, but for this
pledge, would never have had the requisite firmness. Your influence may
thus extend on the right hand and on the left, and down to future ages;
and by such united pledges and efforts, countless multitudes may be
saved from a life of wretchedness, a death of infamy, and an eternity of
woe.