what can be more impious than to incapacitate ourselves for the service of God, by voluntarily subjecting our rational and spiritual nature to a worse than beastly appetite. It is also murder of the very foulest kind, for it is not content with poisoning the body, but aims at annihilating every attribute of the soul! While the guilt which mere intemperance involves is of so dark, so unmitigated, and complex a character, can it be doubted that any other doom awaits the drunkard hereafter, than the deepest shades of the eternal prison-house, and the most scorching flames of that “lake, which burneth with unquenchable fire.”

Were we to proceed no further in our enquiry into the evils of intemperance, enough has surely been said to demonstrate, that if there be an enterprise in which the christian is capable, by the exercise of holy zeal and benevolence, of winning unfading laurels, such an enterprise is the sacred endeavour to reclaim the drunkard, and to place around the temperate the most effectual safeguards against those temptations by which so many have been conquered and destroyed.

THUS far the sin of intemperance has been seen to have the most unhappy influence on the rational and moral nature of such as have become addicted to it, and to involve them in penalties hereafter, too appalling to be contemplated without emotions of the deepest horror.

But intemperance, unlike many of the forms of guilt, against which the law of God has hurled its most vehement thunders, is the parent of a prolific brood of evils; each differing from its fellows, but all alike hostile to human happiness. Covetousness, under whatever guise it may appear, is stamped with broad and indelible marks of the divine displeasure. Of the idolater it is said, "he shall not inherit the kingdom of God:" but between these sins and the sin of the drunkard there is this important difference, namely, that covetousness and idolatry do not necessarily extend their baneful influence, beyond the

moral condition of the covetous and idolatrous themselves; while intemperance can do no otherwise than give existence to a numerous and monstrous progeny of ills, and spread them through the earth, to fill it, like Ezekiel's roll, "with lamentations, and mourning, and woe."

The Creator has justly and benevolently annexed some kind and degree of suffering, to every violation of his laws, in the present world; and as the irregular, or excessive indulgence of our animal appetites, is as much a violation of his laws, as if it were a breach of a positive command, such indulgence cannot exist, without some injury being inflicted on our animal nature-but there is no sort of sinful sensuality so destructive to human health as that of drunkenness. What has long been considered even the moderate and necessary use of intoxicating liquors, is now declared, by hundreds of the most eminent of the medical profession, to be injurious, rather than beneficial to the human constitution; unless such liquors are taken with all the care which is necessary in the employment of the most active medicines. The novelty of this opinion is startling to many; and its interference with our prevailing habits and inclinations, has already obtained for it a host of determined opponents. Its truth, however, has been brought to the test of experiment; and tens of thousands, in every grade of society, are giving their unbought testimony in its favour.

With respect to ardent spirits, of every description, there is scarcely to be found an individual, from the justly distinguished Sir Astley Cooper, down to a village apothecary, who will venture to affirm that the

habitual, though moderate use of them, is not productive of numerous diseases, and, frequently, of the most formidable character. But whatever may be the liquor, in which the drunkard indulges, he sacrifices his health, on the altar of the sensual god, whose votary he has become. The stomach, the liver, and the brain, with the entire nervous system, are as necessarily injured by the improper use of intoxicating liquors, as they would be by the application to them of coals of fire; or if subjected to any other powerful engine of external violence.

Dr. Trotter has given the following list of diseases occasioned by alcohol; which, it is well known is the inebriating principle in every species of distilled, or fermented liquor.

During the drunken paroxism, he says are produced Apoplexy, Epilepsy, Hysterics and Convulsions.

He divides the permanent diseases produced by this baneful poison into two classes; those which are bodily, and those which are mental.

Of the first class, such as are internal, are Inflammation of the liver, schirrous of the bowels, indigestion, diabetes, impotency. Such as are apparent, are Inflammation of the eyes, Carbuncles, Ulcers, Dropsy, Jaundice, Palsy, Fainting, Gout, and Premature old age.

Of the second class are Insanity, and Melancholy. "Half the diseases," says Dr. Rush, "which are said to be produced by warm weather, I am persuaded are produced by the spirits, which are swallowed to lesson its effects upon the system."

"The effects of spiritous liquors upon the human system," says the same respectable authority, "are

sometimes gradual, and in general they produce the following diseases :-1st, A sickness in the stomach, and vomiting in the morning.-2nd, An universal Dropsy.-3rd, Obstruction of the liver.-4th, Madness.-5th, Palsy.-6th, Apoplexy."

"Under the names of rum, brandy, gin, whiskey, usquebaugh, wine, cider, beer, and porter, alcohol," says Dr. Darwin, "is become the bane of the Christian world, as opium of the Mahometan." Speaking of the distilleries, this eminent physician declares, that they take the bread from the people, and convert it into a poison."

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Lord Lonsdale, in a speech delivered before the House of Peers, in 1742, when alluding to ardent spirits in particular, observed," they not only infatuate the mind, but poison the body; nor do they produce only momentary fury, but incurable debility, and lingering diseases.-They not only fill our streets with madmen, and our prisons with criminals, but our hospitals with cripples."

Dr. Willan has calculated that one-eighth of all the deaths, that take place in the Metropolis, in persons above twenty years of age, are caused, prematurely, by drinking spirits.

In the estimation of Sir Astley Cooper, "spirits and poisons are synonymous terms;" and, happily for future generations, there are now not a few of the medical profession, and men who occupy the very highest grades of it, who are bearing their constant, and decided testimony against the destructive nature of these powerfully intoxicating liquors.

But while ardent spirits are performing their work of destruction, and especially in Ireland, and Scot