go deeply into that solemn question of moral philosophy, whether the man, that knowingly contributes to the ruin of another, even by that other's fault, will not be held guilty at the bar of God. The man, that had an ox which was

known to gore, and

let the ox go loose for his pleasure

man,

or profit-God said let him answer even to his life for the life of any that may be killed. The that had a flat roof, an oriental roof, without any battlement, God held him accountable if any fell down, because he had neglected to put up a parapet, and the blood was required at his door. Take care you are not found accessary to drunkard-making in a guilty sense.

I ask you to look at this fact; your success is the ruin of the public and of families. Every bottle and every glass you send out goes on a mission of misery and of death. The drunkard is on the outer circle of the vast whirlpool, and you are tempting him carelessly to float along, and each succeeding circle turns shorter and shorter, and you just turn away when the poor creature with one ineffectual struggle sinks to rise no more. Oh!it is a dreadful trade, to be making drunkards. It is a dreadful thing, to sell out the large mass in pipes and hogsheads and barrels, that you know goes forth like scorching streams of lava through the community. You know it will curse that poor family; you know it will make that man prodigal of his property, and careless of the wants of his children and his wife; you know it will produce poverty and disease and misery, and death and hell to men. Perhaps this bottle will not, but that bottle may; perhaps this pipe will not, but that pipe may. It is certain that somebody is doing the work of death. Six hundred thousand drunkards in England! who makes them? who sustains them? Nobody? Does nobody make money out of these six hundred thousand drunkards? These six hundred thousand rob their families, rob themselves,

rob the public (for they become paupers); who gets the ? See if it is not in your hands.

money

My brother, I do not charge you; I only ask you to look at the matter. I ask you to go home and pray over your trade. But how will you frame your prayer? Will you ask God to send you more customers and more drunkards to your brew-house or to your shop? why, then you ask to have more of his creatures ruined in body and in soul! Oh! it is a dreadful place to hold a prayer-meeting a distillery or a spirit-cellar. I should think a man could hardly ask God to bless such a trade. I should like to see how he would pray over it. Would he say— O Lord! do not let this bottle do any harm; counteract the poisonous and soul-hardening effects of this alcohol; I do not want to hurt any one, I only want to get the profit of tempting them to their ruin; I do not want to do the harm that this must do in the natural course of things?' Dare he speak so to his Maker ?

Let me state one other fact; there are widows praying against you; there are widows in this city lodging a suit in Heaven's chancery against you. They are weak; you may not be afraid of them. But God hears them ; and when the wife says, 'May God restrain the arm, that is taking away my husband!'-and when the widow sometimes says, in the agony of her soul, 'God blight the arm, that administers that poison!'-oh! it may be heard, it may be heard. I would not stand with you; I would not live, ministering out the poison to my fellow-men.

I say (to close the whole) to the vender, to the trafficer, to the manufacturer :—You may ruin one soul by it; one man may die a drunkard, by that which you make and that which you sell-one man, one immortal soul, just one! And as God has said no drunkard shall enter the kingdom of heaven, what will be your gain if you make one—if that one at the judgment day shall lift up

his voice, and say, You, you were the author of my guilt, my wretchedness, my damnation?

My hearers, I close; but my heart-my heart feels for man. My heart prays, that God would incline his church to come out, (to a man to come out,) and rid themselves of the whole machinery of drunkenness, and all its connections, and all its ramifications, and all its work of death.

"PREPARE YE, PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD."

SERMON IX.

ON THE TRAFFIC IN INTOXICATING LIQUORS.

"Thou shalt not kill."-Exodus xx. 13.

THIS is a part of the law of God which is given to every human being. And whether heeded, or disregarded, it forms a part of the great standard by which, in the day of final judgment, every man's actions will be tried. Its design is obvious. Like every other divine command or prohibition, it states the rights either of God, or of his creatures; and demands a regard to these rights on the penalty of eternal death. One command guards one precious interest; another presents and defends another. The prohibition before us, brings to view one of man's dearest earthly interests—his life. It is a gift of God, a precious boon. Most tenderly has he guarded it; most sternly does he threaten, and most dreadfully will he execute every ruthless invader who lifts his hand; yea, who harbours in his heart a desire against it. Here the laws of man in every civilized society have imitated the law of God. And as nations advance in civilization; while they are continually mitigating the punishment of other crimes; they still hold out the severest of all their penalties against this:-" Thou shalt not kill."

If this is a command of God, binding us all to avoid a certain course of action; all are bound to understand its meaning and extent; and it must be the solemn duty of every interpreter of the divine law to explain it faithfully. I shall resort to two sources of explanation. One is the

statute book of God's moral kingdom, the other is the criminal law of civilized nations; which is the result of the combined wisdom and maturest reflections of successive ages. And we will first consult the laws of men, and carry out their principles to their legitimate results, considering them as sound expositors of the divine law. For it is a very interesting observation, that the wisdom and mercy of God's laws have been discovered by the very necessities of society, just as far as it advances in the attainment of happiness. The first thing we find, is the division of murder into two degrees. The difference between them appears to be this. It is murder in the first degree to kill another intentionally-in the second degree, to kill unintentionally. And the second degree is deemed guilty, just in proportion as there is manifested a selfish indifference to human life. We notice again, that the length of time between doing the act which causes death and the death itself, does not alter the criminality, provided the testimony of medical men will only show that the act was the cause of the death. We notice again, that a distinction is made between two classes of murderers, without any difference in their guilt or punishment. They are principals and accessories. A principal does the fatal deed. An accessory makes, or gives, or sells the fatal instrument, or in some way, knowingly sustains the principal. With regard to the second degree of murder, they define it an act which produces death under circumstances manifesting not intention to kill, but a wicked recklessness of human life.-For example: the suffering a beast to run at large, when it is known to be mad, or in any way dangerous. You will notice it is the suffering the beast to run at large. But if a man should turn out such a beast, suppose a lion or a tiger, whether for sport or profit, and it takes away life; this is pronounced murder in the second degree. We may cite