and the impulse of their charity. And the people, weary of political collision, are disposed at length to build again those institutions, which, in times of contention, they had either neglected or trodden down. Such an array of moral influence as is now comprehended in the great plan of charitable operations was never before brought to bear upon any nation. It moves onward, attended by fervent supplications, and followed by glorious and unceasing effusions of the Holy Spirit. god of this world feels the shock of the onset, and has commenced his retreat; and Jesus Christ is pressing onward from conquering to conquer; nor will he turn from his purpose, or cease from his work, until he hath made all things new! The LECTURE I.* NATURE AND OCCASIONS OF INTEMPERANCE. "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? “They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not; when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again." PROVERBS 23: 29-35. THIS is a glowing description of the sin of intemperance. No pencil but that of inspiration could have thrown upon the canvas so many and such vivid traits of this complicated evil, in so short a compass. It exhibits its woes and sorrows, contentions and babblings, and wounds and redness of eyes; its smiling deceptions in the beginning, and serpent-bite in the end; the helplessness of its victims, like one cast out upon the deep; the danger of destruction, like that of one who *When the following discourses were written, alcohol, in the form of ardent spirits, so called at that day, was the most common intoxicating beverage in use. But as the poison in every form is the same, and the effect the same, the argument against this form applies alike to every form. I have, therefore, made no change in the language. |