must be no concord between Christ and Belial; "Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Days of expectation, when the Christian is on the look out for him who saith, "Behold, I come quickly." "Watch and pray; lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping."

The world ever has been, and ever will be, that world which knows nothing, and desires to know nothing, of Christ.—Luther.

ADDRESS BY A MEMBER OF THE BLACKFORD
TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

To the President.

SIR,-In compliance with your request at the last Meeting, I now come forward to state a few things respecting Drunkenness, and to help my memory I have committed them to writing. I am fully aware that there are many now present, who have come on purpose to have a laugh at what the once drunken

would say; part of these, no doubt, my old bowl companions. If it be asked how I feel myself, since I gave over drinking ardent spirits, I can from the heart say, I am happy. I am now a free man, after nearly thirty years of slavery-the most abject and degrading; and I now feel happy at this moment, to have it in my power to state to you, and to every one in the Meeting, that I now stand here a free man, after nearly thirty years of cruel, selfinflicted bondage. It was in ardent spirits alone, that I had pleasure; and how to procure these, occupied my whole thoughts. How often have I toiled from Monday morning until Saturday night, with these thoughts, that on that night I would get my heart's desire fulfilled. These nights came, and awfully well did I improve them,-Yes, at the expence of every domestic comfort, and at the dreadful risk of the loss of my everlasting happiness. I was going in rags, my bosom companion with scarcely rags to cover her nakedness,-not only in want of clothes, but in want of many of the necessaries of life, and my family going about unclothed and uneducated; and it is part of my grief at this moment, that some of them are, (by my intemperate example,) far advanced on the broad way to destruction. What else could I expect from the course I pursued; coming in drunk on Saturday, and staggering to bed? Could it be expected that I was to rise upon Sunday morning to give religious instruction to my family? To my shame, I have to say, that if I rose, it was only to go and see if any of the retailers of the baneful liquid were up, that I might begin the Sabbath morning as I had ended the Saturday night.

It may very naturally be asked, why I did not sooner stop in

this course of dissipation? Often, very often, have I resolved, and re-resolved to give it over; but, alas! the poisonous drug had too powerful a charm for me alone to break. I was like one spellbound to the fatal draught; more I might take, but for me to give it over at that time was impossible. Many gave me good advice, but it had no effect upon me. Companions no doubt I had, but what were they? They, like myself, were considered by all sober men, as ruined beings, for whom there was no hope! This was a state more wretched than the African slave is subject to a bondage worse than Egyptian-with this difference, that the drunkard is his own oppressor, his own severe task-master; and every draught he takes only rivets his chains more firmly; while the African slave will strive, by every means in his power, to regain his freedom. But I rejoice that the Sun of Temperance, which had nearly set, has arisen in the West, and is now diffusing its rays over the wide continent of America, in full meridian splendour; not only is it pervading that wide continent, but its rays, darting over the boundless ocean, are illuminating the ships of free and happy America; and, crossing the proud waves of the Atlantic, are breaking in upon our island like a flood of light, diffusing blessings where they shine. I trust in a short time to be able to enter the house of God, and be re-admitted to society, in which I have long been a stranger by means of my own intemperate habits. I begin to see my domestic peace returning. I already begin to see men, who before held me in derision, and shunned my company, coming forward and kindly encouraging me to persevere in the course I have adopted; in one word, I have peace with God, I have peace with my family, and I have peace with myself. I would say a few words to the friends or advocates of moderate drinking, and a number of them laugh at our Society. I would say to them, I stand here as one who was once a moderate drinker. Where they stand, I once stood, and where I fell, they likewise may fall. Intemperance, like the whirlpools in the sea, moves in the first round by an easy and almost imperceptible motion. You go at first but slowly, but in every succeeding round the impulse becomes more irresistible, until at last you are swallowed up in the dreadful vortex. Mount Etna appears lovely and majestic, even while it is hatching in its bosom the elements of destruction; which, issuing in streams of fire, overwhelm towns and villages, and spread ruin and desolation around. Moderate drinking is another Etna,equally alluring, and still more treacherous. In its bosom are fostered the germs of almost every vice, and from it flow innumerable streams of crime and misery. Suicides, murders, robberies, Sabbath profanation, swearing, lying, idleness, loss of domestic peace, loss of health, wealth, and honour; and, last and worst, the loss of the favour of God.

These are only a few of the streams that issue from the volcano of Intemperance; and they run on in their dreadful course, until they empty themselves into the ocean of eternity. Their end is in

that awful night that is divided by no watches,-in that night that knows no break of day, in which no stars give their light, nor moon walks forth in brightness. Intemperance is the ruin of youth, and the reproach of old age. Intemperance, like objects besmeared with filthiness, pollutes all who come near or touch it. Intemperance is to be shunned as a deadly poison, or a snare laid for your safety and welfare. Innumerable and unavoidable mischiefs and misfortunes are always to be seen in its train.

ers,

That moderate drinkers do not consider how far they have gone in the way of the drunkard, is to me evident; for as far advanced as I was, I did not think of it until I had made a full stop:-then it came to me from places where I thought I was hardly known, that I was become a temperate man. It is evident that it is from moderate drinkers that drunkards spring up; and yet there is no man ashamed, although you call him a moderate drinker. Now, there is only one step between him and the drunkard; and already is his foot lifted to take that last, that fatal step. Look at the Gilmerton Carters-look at their fate! Look at them, ye advocates for moderate drinking, and say, was it not intemperance that brought them to their end; and no doubt to the last they considered themselves moderate drinkers. But if the stones of their dungeons could have echoed their wailings into the ears of moderate drinkthey would have made its ablest advocates stand and tremble; or, if every wound the dissecting knife made in the bodies of these unfortunate men, had been able to speak, they would have made the advocates of moderate drinking hide their heads; they would have told them, in a voice like thunder, that it was moderate drinking that brought them to this. Hear it, ye fathers of families! think of it, when you indulge in it yourselves, and give it as a legacy to your rising families! You, I am sure, would not wish to see any of your offspring upon the scaffold; and are you not paving, nay, even smoothing the way, by your drinking moderately, and giving them to drink moderately? But I say stop-although it should be only for a moment-stop and think upon the moderate drinking Mofats of Kilsyth. The father was a moderate drinker; the son followed his footsteps, and dreadful were the consequences. In a fit of moderate drinking, the moderate drinking son plunged the paracidal knife into the bosom of his moderate drinking father, and in a short time finished his guilty career upon the scaffold.

There is no man, if he heard of his neighbour's house being on fire, but would make all the haste he could to arrest the progress of the flames; or if he heard of him falling into the water, or attempting suicide, would he not do every thing in his power to put a stop to these? Yet how is it with the moderate drinker? He sees his moderate drinking friend setting fire to his property, by taking the other glass; and to help him to do so, he takes one with him. He helps him into the water, by giving him another glass; and by this moderate drinking way, and the example he gives, he is handing to him a dagger to plunge into his own bosom.

To him who has joined a Temperance Society, I would say, he has, in every sense of the word, found a city of refuge. He has a harbour where there is no whirlpool near; and although the volcano of intemperance be scattering its streams around, he has found a shelter-he has found a city of refuge. Let him only keep on the armour of abstinence, and the eruptions of intemperance will fall harmless at his feet. And to you, Sir, I would say, persevere; let nothing discourage you; no doubt you have enemies. Yes, the cause in which we have embarked has many enemies, either from ignorance or from interest; but by your perseverance you will undoubtedly triumph over every difficulty. You have many half friends, who wish well to the cause, but will not yet give their names. But be not discouraged; keep the standard of abstinence unfurled, and the wise and the prudent will see it their duty, as well as interest, to rally around it. By doing so, you will prevent many a youthful hope from being blasted, and many a grey head from going with sorrow to the grave. It is the cause of humanity-it is the cause of religion—and it is undoubtedly the cause of God. Be firm, then, at your post; the arrows of calumny and malevolence will, no doubt, assail you, but keep on your armour and these will have no effect upon you,; and if by the means you use, along with the blessing of God, you reclaim a drunken husband, will not the prayers of his wife be for your success. If you reclaim a drunken son, or prevent one from becoming so, will not the prayers of the parents be for the success of your undertaking: and always keep in mind that he who saves a soul from death, covers a multitude of sins.

No doubt, Sir, some of the members of our Society may give way, but it is only to their own shame if they do so, and not to the reproach of our Society. Let every member be upon his guard. There are beings in the shape of men, who go about like the master whom they serve, seeking whom they may devour: by what name ought they to be called, who, after they know of a man joining a Temperance Society, do all that is in their power to make that man swerve from his duty to his God, and to himself? They are demons of discord-fiends and servants of the devil. Yet such beings there are, who make it their unhallowed boast that they will do so; but ought we not, in the spirit of Christian charity, rather to pity than censure such miserable, such wicked, such unhappy beings, who will neither walk in the path of duty themselves, nor suffer others to do so; but are hastening on to destruction, and awful to say, dragging along with them all that come within their grasp.

EARTH AND HEAVEN, OR HERE AND THERE. (H. MORE.)

Here, bliss is short, imperfect, insecure,
But total, absolute, and perfect there.

Here, time's a moment, short our happiest state;
There, infinite duration is our date.

Here, Satan tempts, and troubles e'en the best;
There, Satan's power extends not to the blest..
In a weak simple body, here I dwell;

But there I drop this frail and sickly shell.

Here, my best thoughts are stained with guilt and fear,
But love and pardon shall be perfect there.
Here, my best duties are defiled with sin;
There, all is ease without and peace within.
Here, feeble faith supplies my only light;

There, faith and hope are swallowed up in sight.
Here, love of self my fairest works destroys;
There, love of God shall perfect all my joys.
Here, things as in a glass are darkly shown;
There, I shall know as clearly as I'm known.
Frail are the fairest flowers which blocm below,
There, freshest palms on roots immortal grow.
Here, wants and cares perplex my anxious mind;
But spirits, there, a calm fruition find.

Here, disappointments my best schemes destroy;
There, those that sowed in tears shall reap in joy.
Here, vanity is stamped on all below;
Perfection, there, on every good shall grow.
Here, my fond heart is fastened on some friend,
Whose kindness may, whose life must have an end:
But there, no failure can I ever prove-

God cannot disappoint, for God is love.

Here, Christ for sinners suffered, groaned and bled;
But there, he reigns the great triumphant head.

Here, marked and scourged, he wore a crown of thorns;

A crown of glory there, his brow adorns.

Here, error clouds the will and dims the sight;
There, all is knowledge, purity and light.

Here, if I lean, the world shall pierce my heart;
But there, that broken reed and I shall part.
Here, on no promised good can I depend ;
But there, the Rock of Ages my friend.
Here, if some sudden joy delight inspire,
The dread to lose it damps the rising fire:
But there, whatever good the soul employ,
The thought, that 'tis eternal, crowns the joy.

A. FOSTER, PRINTER, KIRKBY LONSDALE.

R.