become diseased in body-depraved in heart, and injured in their worldly condition.

If human laws can justly hold that man criminal, who carelessly furnishes another with some poisonous drug, or can justly punish the quackery by which the bodies of men are sometimes injured, can it be supposed that, in the sight of the Almighty, no criminality attaches to the sellers. of those strong drinks, which, like the burning blast of the desert, are pregnant with desolation, agonies, and death!*

* In one of the Western counties is a Baptist minister, who is engaged in the spirit trade. How can such a man preach from," Lead us not into tempation," on the Sabbath-day, and during the week be engaged in his spiritselling vocation, without exciting the suspicion, that his serving God is as much a pecuniary affair as his selling gin. Not far from the residence of this individual, is a dissenting society, one of the chief men of which is a wine and spirit merchant, in one part of the town, and a gin-shop keeper in another. The consequence is, that Temperance Societies are quite monstrous and heretical, in the estimation of his pastor, and the great majority of his brethren.

In the county town, of one of the Eastern counties, is a deacon of an independent church; who not content with the profits of a large brewery, must also become spirit merchant, and the only gin-shop in the town has the honour of being under his superintendence. A few weeks ago he was fitting up another in a neighbouring place. By

Of the distiller but little need be said. By the light which has revealed the true nature of his occupation, he can only be viewed as the wholesale destroyer of his species. True, he may, at times, be found filling the highest seat in the sanctuary, next to the minister himself; but the Christian society which can gloat upon his ill-gotten riches, pride itself upon his friendship, and complacently share in the wealth he has obtained, by the destruction of all that is dear to his fellow-men, in time and eternity, would require but little training to connive, for the sake of money, at the ferocious cruelties, and impure abominations of Juggernaut. If there be any power in the wailings of the countless multitude of widows and orphans, who have been left destitute, by the ruinous influence of strong drink-if there be anything, in the sighs and groans of the thousands of parents,

some this may be considered going a little too far; but then, he occasionally presents a hundred pounds to the London Missionary Society; and we know, that such charity "covereth a multitude of sins." This individual acknowledges that he has made a fortune; but pleads, that, by keeping in business, he has more to give away to the cause of God. That is, he gets rich by making beggars, and by rendering the wicked, ten-fold more depraved; and then turns God's almoner, taking care to pay himself liberally for the service he performs.

who have been heart-broken, through the follies and crimes of intemperate children, to move the Almighty to indignation, against the authors of such evil, it is certain, that a tremendous responsibility must rest upon the distiller, who shall persist in his destructive engagements, amidst the light which has been so fully cast upon them, and in despite of the warnings, by which, he has, at length, been roused from the stupor, in which he had too long been left by the past ignorance, or unfaithfulness of the church.*

Finally. That the church is deeply infected with the Idolatry of Intemperance is proved, by the comparative apathy, with which she regards the movements of those Societies which are formed for the promotion of Temperance.

To the principle of attempting to accomplish any desirable object, by means of Societies, formed expressly for such a purpose, no rational

*What but extreme ignorance, or unfaithfulness, can account for a wealthy dissenting minister, now deceased, giving £40,000 to have his son taken into a large distilling concern, in one of the Eastern counties. The writer has good reasons for believing that this was the case; and from the distillery alluded to, the country, for many miles round, is now supplied with the liquid poison, which is, every year, destroying the bodies of men by wholesale, and sending innumerable souls to hell! See appendix M.

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objection can be made, since the Christian church has, of late, acted on this principle, in reference to the circulation of the Sacred Scriptures-the conversion of the heathen-the emancipation of slaves-the education of the children of the poor, and a variety of other benevolent and useful projects. Temperance Societies, considered apart from their peculiar modes of operation, are, therefore, a perfectly appropriate means for promoting the object at which they aim. Their work is a work of faith, and a labour of love," as much as any of those enterprises which are receiving the cordial and liberal support of the most zealous and benevolent portion of the church. But how have such Societies been regarded, hitherto, by the mass of religious professors? With whatever degree of favour some such individuals were disposed to regard the Old British and Foreign Temperance Society,* in its origin, it is certain, if we may judge from what it is, at present doing, that it is anything but high in estimation. With the exception of its issuing but one small monthly periodical, and the occasional delivery of a sermon, or a lecture, by one of its secretaries, it is scarcely giving any signs of existence. That its principles are sufficiently moderate must be acknowledged. They merely attack practices

* See appendix P.

which can find but few public advocates amongst the truly sober, not to say the religious; and, yet, so indifferent are professors, in general, to the important object, for which this Society was formed, that they are unwilling to follow out its very moderate principles, with anything like zeal and consistency.

It is true, that this Society has always totally disallowed the use of pure distilled spirit, as a beverage; but, surely, this ought not to have lowered it, in the estimation of the pious and humane; since the most eminent physicians of the present age, have, as with one voice, declared, that ardent spirit has all the characteristics of a poison; and cannot possibly be used, as a beverage, without the greatest injury to health, to say nothing of morality and religion. It left the church, as well as the world, in quiet possession not only of its beer, and ale, and porter, and cider, but of all the wines which human ingenuity can manufacture, from the mildest productions of France, to the fiery compounds of Spain and Portugal! It did as much as it could do, as a Society formed for the suppression of Intemperance, to conciliate prejudice, and to combine the energies of the church against a national evil; and if a long array of the names of honourable men, as its * See Appendix Q.