the Christian carry on this traffic? Can he supply the lava which scorches the land, and be innocent? Does he find nothing in that benign religion which he professes, to forbid it? Can he be the agent of intemperance, the commissary of the drunkard, and feel no remorse? Sir, I know the vender tells you he is not answerable for the consequences-that he frowns on intemperance, and withholds the cup from the drunkard. But this is not so. Does not the vender know the effects of ardent spirits? Does he not know the consequences which they will assuredly produce? Does he not know that of those who drink many will be drunken? And can he supply the cause and detach himself from the effect? Can he hurl firebrands through your city, and witness the conflagration, and claim exemption from blame? Can he spread the contagion among your families; and when he hears the dying groan and sees the funeral, tell you that he is innocent? Yet the vender of ardent spirits does all this. He spreads the intoxicating cause; he sees the drunken effect; he hears the drunken curse; he witnesses the drunken revel; he is surrounded with it; he is producing it; and yet tells you that he is innocent! Wonderful fatuity. But, Sir, he knows the responsibility is so great that he shrinks from acknowl. edging it. He sees the guilt and the wo, and shudders at the thought of being its cause. And well he may; but he cannot escape. As long as he furnishes the means of drunkenness to others, he is a partaker of the crime. And, Sir, he should be so held in public opinion. He should be held directly responsible for the consequences of his acts, and the same odium which attaches to the principal should attach to all accessaries. But, Sir, he tells you he frowns on intemperance. So perhaps he does. After producing it, he frowns on the wretch that he has made drunken, and abhors his own offspring.-But every retailer should remember that the drunkards with whom he is surrounded are his own children and apprentices, and that they afford a living exhibition of the character of his own deeds. When he looks upon them, ragged, filthy and debased-when he hears the noon day curse and the midnight broil, he should say, here is my work; this is what I have done. It is my trade to make such men. I have spent my life in it. And if he is a christian, and duly appreciates his guilt, he will raise his hands to Heaven, and before God declare that he will make no more such.

But, Sir, the vender tells you again that he withholds the cup 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, Sir, 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, Sir, this traffic should be abandoned by the christian public. Conscience should be allowed a triumph over interest and custom, and the merchandize of spirits should be classed with the merchandize of blood. No christian should contaminate his hands and his soul with this most destructive and demoralizing commerce. And, Sir, 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. Sir, 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, Sir, 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. Sir, if all the distilleries were forever closed, and this business were to cease, the intemperance of the land would be at an end. And who would not rejoice to see that day? What benevolent, what christian heart would not exult? And shall it not be done? Let public sentiment be arrayed against it; let the traffic be reprobated by the christian world, and in a short time, it will assume its proper character. None will engage in it but the vile and abandoned. No man would furnish his fellow with the means of drunkenness but such as would steal or rob. And this is its true character. Public opinion has hitherto rendered it a respectable employment.—But public opinion must be changed, and I rejoice that it is changing, and that the future prospects of this Society promise a glorious triumph over the monster Intemperance. But it is not intemperance alone, that should be condemned. All agency whatever in the procuring and use of ardent spirits should be laid under the ban of public sentiment. What has been done should be forgiven; but for the future ardent spirits should receive no quarter in any shape from the christian community. They should be laid under a curse as they issue from the distillery; they should be cursed in their transportation; they should be cursed in the store, in the house, and in the field; and wherever found they should be marked as the thing accursed of God and man. This land, that has so long been defiled with the use of ardent spirits, should undergo a general lustration, and be purified from the plague. It will take years to wash away the stain and restore it to its original purity. But, Sir, it can be done, and I believe it will be done. It is at this moment in the power of the temperate part of the community to put an end to the intemperance of the day. Within one year this may be accomplished; and is it not desirable that it should be? Would any one refuse to lend his aid in this sacred cause? From this moment let every temperate man abandon the distilling, sale, and use of spirits, and intemperance will cease. Let the temperate but forsake the use of such liquors, and the trade will be discontinued. It is the temperate that support the intemperance of the land, and on them rests the responsibility of this cause. It is the countenance which they give to the trader that upholds him in respectability, and enables him to sell to the drunkard. It is the temperate that supply the intemperate. Let them therefore abandon it, and the trade ceases.-No man would carry rum into the country for the drunkard alone. No man would engage in a trade that none but drunkards would support. No man could maintain a business for which they were the only customers. It would end in the ruin of his character and fortune. Let then the temperate cease buying, and the intemperate will become reformed from necessity.--On them therefore rests this awful responsibility. For them it remains to decide whether this land shall continue to suffer all the wretchedness and woe which this vice has caused, or whether it shall be relieved from the horrors and the guilt of intemperance. For them it remains to say whether intemperance shall end with the present generation of drunkards, or whether it shall survive to sweep away their children and their children's children, to the end of time. And will they not decide this question? Will they not save themselves and their offspring from the horrors as it were of the second death? Let this age be distinguished as the age of a reformation from the use of ardent spirits, and we shall have acquired, for our children, a triumph as important and glorious as was the triumph of our fathers in their struggle for independence.

But, Sir, public sentiment is not changed in a moment. The interets, ha

bits and pleasures of a large part of the community are concerned in the continuance of the use of strong drink. It is a reformation too important to be accomplished without labour. The discontinuance of the slave trade was

a work of time; and the reformation which we seek must be a work of time. But, Sir, there is a part of the community who ought to be enlisted in this holy work, and the very profession which they make should have found them prepared for this sacred enterprise. But from the church arises one of the most formidable obstacles to the success of this cause. In the church are found at this moment some of the strong holds of opposition. They cling to their bottles with all the perseverance of martyrs, and they seem never to have learned the doctrine of the cross. They cannot imagine that it is their duty to deny themselves a gratification for the sake of accomplishing the reformation of the world.-They seem to have overlooked the very spirit of that religion which they profess to venerate. Sir, I believe if the Church were engaged as a body in this cause, the present generation would live to see its final triumph. But the church sleeps on this subject, as if it would never awake. I know not how far this is true, but so far as my acquaintance extends, a large proportion of professing christians have lent us but little aid, and large numbers are the decided and open advocates of ardent spirits. They seem willing to entail upon their children all the evils of intemperance, for the gratification which spirituous liquors afford them. But they must awake and come forward as a body, and lend the power of religion to arrest the progress of this mighty evil.

We need Luthers to accomplish this, and God will give us Luthers in this cause. He will,--he has raised up men who will preach temperance and abstiLence too; "though devils are combined against them, thick as the tiles on the houses." 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 labours 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?

Sir, 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 connexion 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 connexion between rum and religion.

Sir, 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,

On motion by the Rev. Daniel O. Morton,-"Resolved, That the success which has followed the efforts of the friends of Temperance, and the approbation bestowed on the measures of this Society by wise and benevolent men in every part of the country, call for the adoption of a more extended system of operations, than has hitherto been pursued."

In supporting his motion, Mr. Morton spoke as follows:

Accustomed in common with others to plead the cause of temperance on the hills and in the vallies of Vermont, I thought the field large enough for our utmost efforts. For whatever our desires might be, we could not do much beyond the circle of parochial labour. Thus situated and employed, I did not expect to have been called in Providence to plead the same cause in this city. But, Sir, I consider it no small honour to be numbered among the temperate of our land, and I rejoice in the opportunity now afforded of uniting my feeble efforts, with others, in the support of a cause inseparably connected with the dearest interests of our country and our Zion. The promotion of temperance does not at first sight seem so directly a religious undertaking as some others. If in the progress of our work we do not aim directly at the spiritual renovation of the sinner, still we do endeavour to prevent his ruin, and to place him in a situation where other efforts of christian charity may meet him with fair prospects of success. If the thorns and briers of worldly care in many instances choke the word, so that it becometh unfruitful, much more is this result to be expected in that intellectual and moral field, which is daily heated and scorched with liquid fire.

Indeed it is among the temperate, exclusively, that Divine truth finds a willing reception. If then in our work of reformation we do not directly sow the good seed of eternal life, we are doing a work equally indispensable, preparing the soil for its reception, gathering out the stones, breaking up the ground.

Suppose, Sir, that all special efforts for the promotion of temperance should now cease, that philanthropists and christians should fold their arms to sleep; that with the exception of here and there a solitary warning from the pulpit, all things should continue as they were; that the respectable and the pious should drink temperately, till one and another of their number were overcome and ruined; and that the lower classes should wax worse and worse, glorying in their shame; what, think you would become of our great benevolent institutions? The temperate would ere long become a feeble and dejected minority. Who then would come up to the work of evangelizing the world? Surely not the intemperate, not the lovers of strong drink. Few among them would have the ability, and none the disposition. In proportion as men become fond of intoxicating liquors, a chilling, deadly apathy or bitter dislike prevails, in relation to all benevolent efforts. With no aid but theirs, Bible and Missionary Societies, and all kindred associations would languish and die. Such men do not and will not give their money to send the Bible through the world, and the heralds of the cross to every nation; they will not assist in training up young men to minister at the altar, nor in sending tracts, those silent preachers of righteousness, to the destitute and the perishing. They will not aid in propagating a religion which condemns them, which requires universal sobriety and self denial. The grand enemy of truth and righteousness will not thus commence hostilities against himself.

It, after the novelty of the enterprise shall have passed away, the friends of temperance should become listless in their work, and intemperance should increare as in former years; if inns are to be a place of rendevous for vicious townsmen and idle villagers; if distilleries are to rise up in every corner of the land, and all the surplus grain and fruit are to be converted into liquid fire,

then without a prophet's inspiration, we may safely predict that all our benevolent Institutions will die. Then, not only will the heathen perish, but a long starless night of infidelity and barbarism will settle down upon the land. Intemperance squanders away by thousands and millions, that property, and destroys utterly that vigour of mind and friendly feeling, which are necessary to carry forward the great enterprises of religion. The promotion of temperance then is infinitely important, and indispensable to the successful prosecution of those great designs of benevolence, which are the glory of the present age.

As benevolent Institutions, whose object is to pour the light of heaven upon the dark corners of the earth, cannot be long sustained, unless vigorous efforts be made for the promotion of temperance, so neither can the gospel be supported at home. We have no religious establishment, sitting in the sunshine of government favour, and drawing its revenues from the treasury of the state. The gospel, if supported at all, must be supported by the serious and friendly feelings of individuals. The lovers of strong drink lose their attachment to the institutions of the gospel; and generally forsake the house of God. Numbers of this description become too poor to support, and too abandoned to hear the Gospel. Look abroad over the waste places, the moral desolations of our country. What exiled the Gospel from among them? In some cases, heresybut in a far greater number, the love of strong drink. Survey these places, and what do you see? The triumphs, and ravages, the horrors and woes of intemperance. You find no Sabbath, you hear no sound of " the church going bell;" you see no joyful company going up to Zion to keep holy day. Order and peace and virtue are exiled, and domestic felicity is sacrificed at the shrine of beastly indulgence.-The cause of temperance must be vigorously aided and sustained; otherwise, not a few of our religious Societies will ere long become barren wastes.

Not only is intemperance ruinous to the general interests of religion abroad and at home, but it sends a moral pestilence over the mind and the heart. Contemplate a single case. I ask you not to look at the poor creature, who has made utter shipwreck of character and conscience; but take a moderate drinker, and let him belong to a christian church. And what reliance can you place upon him for building up the kingdom of the Redeemer? Either his religion, such as it is, is cold and torpid; or else it is loquacious, fitful and fiery; and in either case he is a moral gangrene upon the body to which he belongs. Besides, he is keeping in countenance all the drunkards around him.

The drinking of ardent spirits, even moderately, produces the same disastrous consequences within and without the church. It renders the mind callous to the influence of sacred truth. Every faithful minister of the gospel has found moderate drinking to be one of the most deadly obstacles in the way of his success. Besides, the habitual drinkers of ardent spirits, above all men under heaven, are most liable to be deceived in the great concerns of salvation.

Whatever view we may take of the subject, it must appear evident, as the light of a cloudless sun, that vigorous efforts for the promotion of temperance are indispensable to the prosperity of religion.

Now, Sir, permit me to congratulate you and this Society, that the work of reformation is most auspiciously begun. Would time permit I might state many interesting facts which have occurred in the state to which I belong ; but I will content myself with mentioning only one.

In a town in Vermont the military companies, at their training in June last, voted unanimously to dispense with ardent spirits. Heaven smiled upon this novel but blessed enterprise,-a revival of religion commenced that very day, -they had a prayer meeting at noon and another at 4 o'clock. The good work thus begun, resulted in the hopeful conversion of about 100 souls.