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for endless misery. Let them ask, What is the profit of my business, compared with the loss of the immortal souls which I am fitting for destruction? And let them ask further, Am I not willing to sacrifice the profit of my business, and abandon it forever, for the consideration of being instrumental in saving the soul of a single drunkard from endless death?

Let each hearer ask again, What shall I wish I had done to promote the cause of temperance, when languishing on a dying bed? When the world is passing from my vision, eternity visibly approaching, my soul fluttering at the solemn adieu of the tenement of clay, and trembling to appear at the bar of eternal justice, O, then, what shall I wish that I had done to prevent the increase of drunkards, and the ruin of immortal souls!

Should I be saved, and mount upward in eternal ages, to sing the wonders of redeeming love, and from those immeasurable heights of the celestial paradise, be permitted to look down to this little spot of world where I received such an immortal existence, and be able, with celestial accuracy, to compute the worth of an immortal soul, and the glories of its salvation, what then shall I wish I had done to promote the cause of temperance, the salvation of dying sinners, and the consequent glory of God?

But should I be damned, and sink down in eternal torment with the enemies of God and religion; and, fom the unfathomable deeps of that dread lake of horror, "where hope never comes," should I be permitted to lift up my baleful eyes to this spot of earth, where my sins were committed, my guilt contracted, and my condemnation

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sealed in view of the Saviour's

open arms of mercy; and while gazing, and reflecting with increased horror upon the door of mercy, once open, but now forever closed, should I still further be permitted to glance a tormenting look to Abraham's bosom, and see my Christian friends safe there in glory, and I lost, forever lost, ingulfed in endless perdition, ridiculed by devils, tormented by the reproaches of former associates in wickedness, doomed forever to be a companion of drunkards, whose intolerable thirst can be quenched only by sulphureous flames, raging to desperation, and never extinguished; thus, ingulfed in overwhelming billows of despair, what, then, shall I wish that I had done to seek deliverance for myself and others from that dreadful condemnation !

CHAPTER X.

King Alcohol's Portrait delineated from Head to Foot, Length, Breadth, Weight, and Height; comprising the History of his Parentage, Birth, Life, Exploits, most wonderful Deeds, and the Prospects of his declining Years. ADDRESS, delivered before the Malta Town Temperance Society, Jan. 1, 1841.

MR. PRESIDENT-LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :

Alluding to Satan, an apostle declared to the Corinthian Church, "We are not ignorant of his devices."— 2 Cor. ii. 11.

We propose to apply this apostolic declaration to the present enlightened state of community, in relation to the devices of the same adversary for the promotion of intemperance, which holds a rank in the first class, as a stratagem for the destruction of mankind.

The whole systematic artifice of intemperance (so far as intoxicating liquors are concerned) comprises but three points, viz., The manufacture, sale, and consumption of strong drinks. These will be considered in order.

The manufacture of strong drink combines the arts of fermentation and distillation together. The first process is to ferment liquid substances, derived from the fruits of the earth, by which process alcohol is formed, which alone contains the intoxicating principle. Alcohol consists of a compound of deadly poisonous gases, which can be produced in no other way than by the chemical process of fermentation. The intoxicating principle exists as really in the juice of apples, after fermentation, as it does in rum,

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MANUFACTURE OF ALCOHOL.

brandy, or gin. The alcohol is as perfect in the one as in the others, and the difference between them is only this, that pure brandy is alcohol separated from all extraneous substances to weaken it, while alcohol in cider is mixed with such a quantity of other fluids as to render it less noxious, unless a sufficient quantity of the mixture is taken to produce intoxication. When this is done, the effect of the alcohol is as virulent from cider as it is when the same quantity is taken from brandy or any other ardent spirits. The same facts exist in relation to beer, ale, and all kinds of fermented wines.

Distillation is the art of separating the pure alcohol from its weakening appendages, with which it is always connected after a state of fermentation. The art of distilling spirits, we are told, was discovered several hundred years ago, by a company of Arabian apothecaries and chemists. Distilled spirits were first used as medicine, and sold by weight, eight drachms to an ounce, and hence the origin of the term dram. Soon, however, distilled spirits passed from the medicinal use to the purposes of sensuality as a common beverage, and the art of distilling ardent spirits has become almost universally prevalent.

Such are the arts employed in the manufacture of alcohol, and all the intoxicating liquors that have ever existed have been thus manufactured. By this combination of arts, intoxicating liquors of various flavors, various prices, and various powers to intoxicate, are accommodated to all the different appetites and circumstances of mankind. Young beginners are favored with weak, pleasant, fermented liquors, such as cider, beer, and wine: and when

MANY LABORERS REQUIRED.

191

an appetite is formed for more powerful stimulants, alcohol, divested of its weakening appendages by the distillery, fosters the insatiable appetite to intoxication.

A vast amount of manual labor and a great number of workmen are required to carry into effect the manufacture of alcohol. If the various processes necessary to make fifty barrels of cider would require the labor of a number of men and beasts during several days (as the fact would be), what an almost innumerable host of laborers must be required to manufacture all the various kinds of intoxicating liquors with which this world has been and is constantly flooded! Thousands and tens of thousands, yea, millions, are engaged in this work. Some are employed in building cider-mills, breweries, and distilleries, with their appurtenances. Others, in tilling the land, sowing, planting, harvesting, thrashing, and transporting the fruits of the earth to breweries and distilleries, to be manufactured into alcohol. Others are engaged in making vessels of various descriptions to hold the precious beverage when manufactured. Others are employed. in chopping wood, making fires, drawing water, filling vats, and other manual exercises in the various processes of the work, too numerous to mention.

All these different classes of laborers are engaged in a business which tends to promote the kingdom of Satan; in conformity with his device, under his infernal superintendence, and "each one looking for his gain from his quarter." Hence, the love of money (which is the root of all evil) is evidently the alluring incitement, the enchanting wile, and the predominant motive which influ