from the drunkard. So, perhaps, he may. He will furnish the cup till the wretch is made drunken, and then refuse him till he is sober again. But this is too late; this refusal comes when it can do little or no good. The crime is already perpetrated. The guilt is already incurred, and in vain does the vender attempt to escape. But it is not true, that he withholds the cup from the drunkard. Every retailer does sell to the drunkard, and, however well meaning he may be, he cannot carry on this trade without contributing to the support of intemperance. And this traffic should be abandoned by the Christian public. Conscience should be allowed a triumph over interest and custom, and the merchandise of spirits should be classed with the merchandise of blood. No Christian should contaminate his hands and his soul with this most destructive and demoralizing commerce. And I am happy to say, that many merchants have lately viewed this as they ought, and forsaken the trade, as being a curse revolting to the feelings of patriotism and Christianity. They have given a noble example of the triumph of principle, and one that deserves the universal approbation of the Christian public.

"But the retailer is not alone. He is but a subaltern in that mighty army of the agents of intemperance which is scattered through the land. He is the immediate instrument of the ruin which spirituous liquors occasion, but the wholesale dealer, although one grade above him, is equally a partaker of the guilt. He supplies the numerous streams which issue through the land, laying waste every thing in their course. Could the vender learn the history of a single hogshead of this liquid; could every drop return to him, and give a faithful account of the effects it had produced,— he would shudder at the narration. Could he collect before him, and be enabled to see, the crime, the disease and death, the poverty and distress, to count the tears and hear the groans, which every cask of spirits occasions, he would revolt with horror from the trade. But he may conceive it. Let him learn the history of intemperance, and then let him reflect that he is constantly engaged in spreading its horrors; that he is supplying from day to day the liquid fire that is scattered by an army of retailers through the land, scorching and destroying every thing within its reach, and he will be constrained to pronounce it an unchristian occupation. And let the distiller remember, that he stands at the head of the stream, and lets loose the flood-gates to deluge and destroy; that his occupation is to poison the land, and that the more he does, the more wretched is the world; and he will not find one single consolation to cheer and support him."

* * *

"Does the Christian pray for the spread of his religion, and is he at the same time engaged in the spread of intemperance? Does he pray for the reformation of the world, and, while his prayers are

ascending to heaven, is he spreading the plague, that poisons the heart, and renders mankind incapable of reformation? Is he supporting the missionary in foreign lands, from funds which he has collected as the wages of drunkenness? And does he believe the God of heaven will smile on the labors of him who is supported by food taken from the mouths of the children of the intemperate, for the drink that destroys them? While he is attempting to teach the heathen the way to heaven, is he binding his own countrymen in chains strong as the bands of death, and leading them in the road to hell? Is he training them to practices and habits which will as surely bar them from the realms of bliss as though no redemption had been provided for them?

"I venerate the Christian's character, and whenever I find him acting in consistency with the principles of the gospel, I do indeed regard him as the salt of the earth. But I fear on this subject there is an awful inconsistency in the conduct of some. I believe all connection with spirituous liquors, in the present state of society, to be sinful. Since the way, and the only way, to banish intemperance from the earth, has been pointed out, it is the Christian's duty to adopt that course, whatever may be the sacrifice, and to disclaim all connection between rum and religion.

"They cannot agree. Every feeling that the former inspires is hostile to the latter; and if there be any thing on earth that can eradicate piety from the heart, it is the use of ardent spirits. Its inspiration is unholy and impure; and I call upon the Christian to abstain, not only for his own sake, but for the sake of the world, for the sake of the example, as the means, and the only means, of effecting a reformation of mankind from intemperance. I believe the time is coming when not only the drunkard but the drinker will be excluded from the church of our God-when the gambler, the slave dealer, and the rum dealer, will be classed together. And I care not how soon that time arrives. I would pray for it as devoutly as for the millennium. And when it comes, as come it will, it should be celebrated by the united band of philanthropists, patriots, and Christians throughout the world, as a great and most glorious jubilee."

In several cases, the efforts for the promotion of temperance were followed by remarkable success of the gospel, and numbers were led hopefully to embrace the Savior; and the connection began strikingly to appear between these efforts and the salvation of men.

In 1829, the Committee established a weekly paper, called The Journal of Humanity, to be the organ of their communication with the public, and appointed Rev. Edward W. Hooker, The present Correspondeditor and associate general agent. ing Secretary was also reappointed as general agent, and the

following persons as local agents, viz. Rev. Asa Mead for Maine, Rev. Andrew Rankin for New Hampshire, Rev. Daniel O. Morton for Vermont, and Rev. Talcott Bates for Connecticut. Rev. Messrs. Coggin, Barbour, Mann, Shepherd, Clark, Bond, and Woodbury, were also appointed, each as an agent for a county in Massachusetts. Other agents were employed by State Societies; and benevolent individuals performed voluntary agencies in various parts of the country.

At the close of the year 1829, there had been formed, on the plan of abstinence, and reported, more than 1000 Societies, embracing more than 100,000 members. Eleven of them were State Societies. Of those known to the Committee, 62 were in Maine, 46 in New Hampshire, 56 in Vermont, 169 in Massachusetts, 3 in Rhode Island, 133 in Connecticut, 300 in New York, 21 in New Jersey, 53 in Pennsylvania, 1 in Delaware, 6 in Maryland, 52 in Virginia, 15 in North Carolina, 10 in South Carolina, 14 in Georgia, 8 in Alabama, 30 in Ohio, 9 in Kentucky, 5 in Tennessee, 4 in Mississippi, 13 in Indiana, 1 in Illinois, 3 in Michigan, and 1 in Missouri. Societies were also formed in Upper and Lower Canada, in Nova Scotia, and in New Brunswick.

More than 50 distilleries had been stopped, more than 400 merchants had renounced the traffic, and more than 1200 drunkards had ceased to use the drunkard's drink. Persons, who, a few years before, were vagabonds about the street, were now sober, respectable men, providing comfortably, by their labor, for their wives and their children.

In a number of towns, ardent spirit was not sold, and, in several cases, not even kept at the public houses. And in some places, no person who was acquainted with the subject, and yet continued to use distilled liquor, as an article of luxury or diet, or to traffic in it, was viewed as a proper person for admission to a Christian church. The business was viewed as an immorality, in which no person could continue, and yet give credible evidence of being a good man.

The guilt of aiding and abetting in this work of death, became more and more obvious; and the number rapidly increased, who saw that the effect of enlightened Christian principle would be, to banish this awful immorality from the globe. And the benefits which would result, from such a change, to the property, character, health, reason, lives and souls of men, became more and more apparent.

In one town in Vermont, individuals, by abstaining from ardent spirit, saved, in one year, more than $8000. In the state of New Hampshire, they saved, in the same way, more than $100,000. In Lyme, New Hampshire, in which had been sold annually about 6000 gallons, the quantity sold that year was only

600 gallons. The bill of mortality, which had, for six years, upon an average, been annually 241 was reduced, for two years, to 17. In 1826, the year before the formation of the Temperance Society, the number of deaths under 40 years of age was 15; in 1828, only 9.

Had every town in the United States pursued a similar course, that is, used but one tenth part the usual quantity of ardent spirits, and had it been followed by a similar result, the number of deaths, that year, would have been lessened more than 70,000.*

In a number of towns, the Holy Spirit followed, with his life-giving power, the efforts for the promotion of temperance, and hundreds, under his gracious influence, hopefully embraced the gospel.

In one town in Massachusetts, a temperance discourse was delivered near the close of 1827. Numbers renounced the use of ardent spirit, and conducted all their business without it. Many were anxious to form a Temperance Society; but some, among the aged and influential, thought that they could not do without a little, and no society was formed, till the young men, impatient at the delay of their fathers, called a meeting, and formed a Society among themselves. They resolved to have stated meetings, collect information, and spread it through the town. At the first meeting, many were solemn, and at the second, anxious for their salvation; a prayer was offered, and the Holy Spirit descended upon them: the anxiety increased, became general, and extended through the town; and more than 200, it is believed, have passed from death unto life. Ten of those young men are now preparing for the gospel ministry; and, should their lives be spared, and their talents consecrated to the Redeemer, they may be instrumental in preparing many for an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And, could we trace the influence of that single Temperance Society, in all its various connections, bearings, and consequences, upon the temporal and eternal interests of men, the vision would be transporting. And when the Committee saw these Societies rising, and extending their benign influences not merely over one, but over a thousand towns, and promising to extend them through the whole land, and to all future ages, they could not but thank God, and take courage.

This year was also rendered memorable, and will be marked as an era in the history of Europe, from its having been the commencement of the Temperance Reformation in the old world.

* In the Connecticut State Prison, with an average of 120 convicts, more than 90 of whom were notoriously intemperate before they came there, not one of whom vas permitted to take a drop of intoxicating liquor after he entered the walls of the prison, the was no death for 16 months, and but one death for about? ybare

A meeting was holden, in July, at Belfast, in Ireland, to devise ways and means for preventing the profanation of the Sabbath; and, in order to this, for preventing, on that day, the sale and use of spirituous liquors. It was found, as it ever will be, impossible to prevent the one, without first preventing the other. The use of ardent spirit will, in all countries, and all ages, cause the profanation of the Sabbath, and all its abominations. To remove the effect, therefore, they undertook to remove the cause. And this they attempted to do in the old way, by the force of civil law. But a certain individual (Rev. John Edgar, professor of divinity in the college at Belfast) expressed his dissent from that mode of attempting to accomplish the object, and his desire to employ moral means only, in attempting to effect moral reformation.

He was therefore appointed to prepare an appeal to the public on this subject. While engaged in this preparation, he learned, for the first time, by a friend from America (Rev. Mr. Penny, of Rochester, New York), the nature, means and success of the Temperance Reformation in the United States. Eagerly seizing on its grand principles, and the grand principle of all moral reformation, viz. Voluntary abstinence from doing evil, as an essential pre-requisite to doing well; and voluntary associations, exhibiting this principle in practice, as the grand means of effecting it; he embodied his thoughts, and published them in the Belfast papers, on the 14th of August, 1829. This was the first appeal on this subject to the Christians of Europe; and was followed by results similar to those which had been witnessed in the United States. The first Temperance Society in the old world, on the plan of abstinence, was formed by Rev. George Carre, of New Ross, in Ireland. Special pains were taken to furnish them with the Journal of Humanity and other temperance publications from this country, and before the close of the year, they had numerous Temperance Societies in Ireland and Scotland, embracing more than 14,000 members. The subject had been taken up in England, and bid fair to extend through the kingdom. More than 65,000 temperance publications had issued from the press, and were in a course of rapid and extensive circulation. Persons were employed to go from house to house, and distribute them, and make known to the people the benefits that would result to them and their children, for both worlds, from the Temperance Reformation.

Thus had the subject, at this period, taken deep root on two continents; and the prospect was increasing, that, should Providence continue to smile, and temperate men to do their duty, it would hold on its way, till there should not be a drunkard on the globe. In the early part of 1830, Rev. Mr. Hewit visited the Middle