XVI. Except as a Medicine.

Except as a medicine! Except as a medicine! I could almost wish that this phrase, so far as it relates to ardent spirits, was banished from the English language. Why use this poison of the soul for medicine? "What!" the physician will say, "must these cold-water-men take away our medicine? Will they, in their temperate phrenzy, ransack the very apothecary's shop and take away his drugs?" In their astonishment they will perhaps ask, "How can we cure the sick without alcohol? How can we dissolve our gums and resins without alcohol?" We would answer, do both just as your old prototype Esculapius did, long before alcohol was invented by wicked men. Every physician knows that there are many articles which, as diffusive stimulants, will supply the place of ardent spirits. And concentrated acetic acid, together with the other menstruums, especially the oils, acids, alkaline, lixiviate, &c. will dissolve every gum or resin, or any thing else that can be dissolved by alcohol, and is necessary in curing diseases. There is, therefore, no absolute necessity for retaining alcohol in the physician's study or in the apothecary's shop. It is not an essentially necessary, though a very convenient, and often a useful medicine, We might, therefore, live and be healthy and hap

py, if all the alcohol in existence were thrown into the sea, and not another drop of it ever again tortured from the "good creatures of God" to destroy the souls of men.

XVII. The Pledge.

The pledge which all who become members of temperance societies are required to subscribe, is not an oath, a solemn vow, or a covenant entered into with the sovereign of the universe, as we are sometimes told. It is simply an agreement which the sober part of the community enter into with each other, for the express purpose of discountenancing the ordinary, which they know is in any degree, an improper, an injurious use of ardent spirits. The substance of this pledge or agreement is as follows:

We the subscribers, residing in the town of

in the county of believing the ordinary use of ardent spirits, in any quantity, to be injurious, do therefore agree, that we will not use them ourselves or give or sell them to others, except for medical purposes, in cases of bodily infirmity.

Any person who subscribes a pledge by which he agrees to abstain entirely from the ordinary use of ardent spirits, has the privilege of erasing his name whenever he chooses. By this arrangement, every soldier in the army of tempe

rance is a volunteer, not merely when he first enlists, but during the whole time he continues in the ranks. Not a pressed man can be found in the whole body. Who will come forward, then, as a volunteer, to promote this glorious work? We would not use compulsory measures if we could. We desire volunteers; none but volunteers. Who feels it to be a privilege to unite with the sober part of the community, in throwing the blush of conscious shame on him who will venture to drink the drunkard's dram, and thus encourage drunkenness? Such are the persons we desire. Let all who feel thus come forward and join the cold-water society. We cheerfully extend to them our hand and give them a hearty welcome. Reader, will you come?

THE COLD-WATER-MAN.

PART FIFTH.

OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE TEMPERANCE

REFORMATION.

1. Objections of Distillers and Venders. That any person should object to the principle of entire abstinence from the ordinary use of ardent spirits, is one of those truths which can be accounted for, only from the fact that "the carnal mind is enmity against God."

1. The manufacturer and vender of distilled liquor, strive to quiet their consciences by saying, that "It is right and justifiable to make and vend what they choose, if they can find purchasers; that the evil consists in using, not in making and selling this article." It is possible that these men may be sincere in making such declarations as these. For their own sakes however, we doubt their sincerity. If they are truly in earnest when they make them, they must not be surprised if reflecting persons should think them bordering on idiotism or lunacy. What! no harm in making and selling li

quor on purpose to be drank, and an evil to drink it! Who but the man whose heart has been hardened by the indurating influence of rum, could maintain that there is no harm in making or vending, what it is an evil to use? Do such men really suppose that there is no harm in taking their neighbor's property, for what they know will injure him. Do they acknowledge that to defraud or rob their neighbor is an evil? How then can those men be innocent who take his money in exchange for what they know has a tendency to kill both soul and body? If they take it and give him nothing in exchange, it is, according to their notions of propriety, improper; but not so to give him for it what they know will injure him, and all over whom he has any influence, and all with whom he associates. This truly is a principle unknown in ethics, a principle which christianity abhors, which men of sense ought to blush to name. But if the evil, the whole evil consists in drinking, not in making and vending ardent spirits, why do they not with all their hearts, promote those societies whose object is to prevent men from drinking distilled liquor?

If to distil and vend ardent spirits be justifiable, then those who engage in the business certainly may pray that God would prosper them in it. Is there a distiller or vender of this poison