sauces excite the appetite, if no compound pastry, cake, or, other article of dessert, appear upon the table, how disappointed and churlish the guests? And all this, not because such simple food is not abundantly sufficient for health, strength, and happiness; but because the appetite is perverted, and excess has become a habit.

Apply the third rule, or that relating to variety in food, to the habits of living among all classes in this land; and you will see how wide spread is intemperance. For not even the poorest among us are content with a single dish, however excellent and few in this country are so poor as not to have the means of gratifying their palate. As you ascend through the different classes of society, on the pecuniary scale, the evil rises in magnitude, until you reach the formal city feast. The really temperate man, however, will find it frightful enough among the middle classes in society. The sober industrious farmer, or mechanic, who is complaining grievously of the difficulty of obtaining a subsistence, will yet look upon you as beside yourself, if you suggest to him that he might profitably substitute a single dish, for the two, three, or four that are usually on his board. Even the man of letters will smile incredulous, when you tell him that a single dish would give him far greater ability for intellectual labor, than a succession of courses. And the conscientious devoted Christian, nay the holy minister of the meek and lowly Jesus, would sooner part with a right hand, or a right eye, than the unnecessary and injurious second and third courses and desserts, that now often make his afternoons seasons of yawning, sleeping, and stupidity, instead of cheerfulness and vigorous effort.

Our boarding houses and hotels furnish another exhibition of the demand in the community for variety. That establishment would instantly be abandoned, which should spread a table on the true principles of temperance; and generally an eating house is regarded as excellent, in proportion to the variety and richness of the food which it furnishes.

The dietetic excesses of social visits, all over the land, present another form of this crying evil. To crowd upon our friends, as is done every where, a great variety of the richest and most indigestible kinds of food and fruit, is a monstrous perversion of the design of social entertainments: turns them into mere scenes of banqueting; unfits those invited for profitable intercourse; excites a spirit of unholy emulation to excel in the splendor and variety of entertainments, and induces multitudes to live beyond their income. And these effects, to say nothing of injured health, are abundantly realized in the community. Social visits, instead of "the feast of reason and the flow of soul," are becoming epicurean revels and instead of promoting health, and giving new vigor for labors of body and mind, they are followed by the prostration of both. Is it not astonishing that Christians should ever tolerate such glaring abuse of a most beneficial custom, without feeling a single reproof of conscience! Can they, in this day of light, continue to do it ignorantly?

The fourth rule as to diet, which we have considered, if compared with prevailing customs, would compel us to write intemperance on almost every door, especially in our cities and large towns. How many have so changed the hours of eating, as to impose the principal task upon the stomach in the evening, when it ought to be at rest! How many are not content with even three meals per day; but with luncheons and collations make out four or five, and the last one often late at night! What havoc of flesh do we witness among the sedentary and even invalids; not once merely, but twice, or even thrice a day; and that too, during the heats of summer! With what canine fury do we see multitudes seize their food, and hurry it into the stomach half masticated, as if the teeth were intended only for scizing, and not at all for grinding the food! "Eating too fast," says a medical traveler, "may be set down as one of our national peculiarities, as every foreigner on first coming among us is forcibly struck with the rapid manner in which we devour our food."

Thus widely, thus universally, I had almost said, does intemperance in food prevail: thus deep are the delusions by which even the best of men are held in this ignominious bondage. What hope, then, that the feeble note of remonstrance which I raise, will be heeded by the cold ear of unbelief, amid the deafening clamors of appetite! What hope that such a public opinion against this species of intemperance can ever be formed, as is now spreading its healthful current over the land, and putting out the wild fire which ardent spirit has kindled! True the prospect is dark; but a few beams of hope penetrate the gloom. The great change that has taken place in respect to ardent spirit, among Christians and patriots, may be regarded as the precursor of a similar change in respect to food. For to produce it, there needs only an application to diet, of the same sober and rational principles which have convinced so many that total abstinence from ardent spirit is a duty. And men, who have a high sense of moral obligation, will make this application, so soon as they see their inconsistency, and hear the remonstrances of conscience. Indeed, not a few, here and there, are already making the application, and have commenced earnestly and successfully the glorious and happy reformation. But, after all, faint indeed would be the prospect of its advancement, did we believe that human strength and resolution only would be employed. Yet may we confidently trust, that this is a cause which lies near the heart of Him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. He, therefore, will make it triumphant. For we may rest assured, that his designs respecting human happiness and millenial glory can never be accomplished, TILL UNIVERSAL TEMPERANCE PREVAIL.

[The subject to be continued.]

NATIONAL PREACHER.

No. 11. VOL. 8.] NEW-YORK, APRIL, 1834. [WHOLE NO. 95.

SERMON CLXV.

BY REV. HENRY R. WEED,
WHEELING, VIRGINIA.

THE MURDER OF A FAITHFUL MINISTER; OR THE DOWNWARD COURSE OF SIN.

MARK VI. 26-28. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes who sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought; and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel; and the damsel gave it to her mother.

was

THUS ended the life, labors and sufferings of John the Baptist. He born six months before our blessed Lord, and, according to the common computation, was executed about a year before him. He was eminently distinguished for his piety, his talents and his office. Filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb," he drank neither wine nor strong drink, but spent his life in the most ardent and exemplary discharge of duty. Raised up of God to be a great public reformer, in an age of pride and profligacy, he was furnished with the most bold and commanding talents. Appointed from heaven to be the harbinger of the Messiah, and to call the attention of the nation to his advent, he sustained an office superior to that of all preceding prophets. "For this is he of whom it is written, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist."

Vol. VIII. No. 11.

He lived an example of humble boldness in the ministry of the truth, and died a martyr to his unflinching fidelity. He fell a victim to a merciless resentiment which his official duty had excited.

It appears from the text, that John was in prison, when he was beheaded. In a preceding verse we learn how he came there : "For Herod himself had laid hold upon John and bound him in prison."

Prisons, though designed for the confinement of malefactors and the prevention of crime, have often been made, by perversion, the abode of the excellent of the earth-the dwelling place of those of whom the world was not worthy.

It is not certain how long John had been in prison; but it is generally supposed to have been about a year and a half. His confinement closed his public labors and his extensive usefulness, in the prime of life; and thus a burning and shining light was extinguished in the moral heavens, by a despot, who loved darkness rather than light, because his deeds were evil.

But what was the cause of John's imprisonment? Did Herod find in him any crime, worthy of this punishment? The exercise of the civil arm is always a public benefit, when, according to the ordinance of God, it is made a terror to evil doers. But in the case before us it was far otherwise. Herod "knew that John was a just man and an holy." He had witnessed his unexceptionable life; his unimpeachable sanctity. IIe knew that he was engaged in a righteous cause, and had reformed the manners and lives of many. Nay, he himself had heard him preach, and was for a season affected favorably, and in a manner reformed, by his ministry. His own experience was a remarkable testimony in John's favor. When he heard him," says the sacred historian," he did many things, and heard him gladly."

These were Herod's best days. There was then hope in his case. However bad a man may be, we cannot wholly give him up for lost, so long as he attends on the preaching of the word, and especially if the word preached has any effect on his conscience, and holds any restraints on his life. Had Herod continued to hear John, and to regard the doctrines that he taught, he might, humanly speaking, have been led to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world," and become a happy follower of the Redeemer. But ah! his attention was diverted;

and his serious impressions--a thing by no means uncommon--were soon effaced. The love of sinful indulgence gained the ascendancy in his heart. His sentiments were changed. And, on pretence of being insulted by an instance of the Baptist's fidelity in telling him the truth, he is now ready to persecute with imprisonment and death the man of God, whom he formerly heard with reverence and pleasure.

It is an old remark, often confirmed by observation, that when a sinner becomes attentive to the word preached, he must soon quarrel either with himself or with the faithful minister. It sometimes happens, as in the present instance, that he is first displeased with himself, and afterwards with the preacher; and when this occurs, the resentment in the latter case is often lasting, and sometimes utterly irreconcilable. How precarious, I had almost said, how hopeless is the condition of those, who "for a season heard the word gladly, and did many things"-whose consciences were awakened-whose minds were enlightened-whose hearts were impressed-whose feelings were excited-whose suppliant souls were bowed before the mercy-seat—and whose doings towards God and men were reformed; but who have since relapsed into their former state of fancied security, lost their religious interest, become neglecters of the word, haters of those from whom they were once glad to hear it, and are now more closely wedded to the world, if not to vice, than ever before, How fearfully improbable is the recovery of such from the snare of the devil! Beware, ye whom the admonition may concern, beware of this dangerous, perhaps fatal, relapse. The case is nearly assimilated to that of those, who, an apostle declares, "are nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned."

Herod's character, excepting the temporary and partial reform under the ministry of John, appears to have been generally wicked and profligate. John, as the minister of God, and doubtless sincerely desirous of Herod's welfare, and probably encouraged by the attention he had received from him, was faithful and bold enough to " reprove him for all the evils which he did." As there can be no genuine repentance without the knowledge of sin, it surely becomes the minister of religion to endeavor to set every man's iniquity fully before him, and that too with the directness and faithfulness of the prophet to the king of Israel," Thou art the man." Some may, indeed, be angry; but shall the man of God, in fear of that, be unfaithful?

But there was one thing in the life of Herod, on the sinfulness of which