tion with comparative safety, for us to do so is to trifle knowingly with health and life. It is, in many instances, not only the sure precursor of ultimate disease; it is not only rushing through the paths that lead to mental and moral deliruim, but to partake habitually and deliberately of those adulterated and baleful drugs, is insanity itself. This is a fatal rock, therefore, against which, for every reason, as among their sincerest friends, we warn our young men.

Let us here point out the special scenes and occasions of their peril. They are not so liable as others to secret indulgence in the cup; their chief danger is from social drinking. A pleasant companion, some "good-hearted fellow"-a name which not seldom covers, in connection with generous and laudable qualities, tendencies to sensuality and a lack of stern moral principle—such a one invites you to take a friendly glass. He asks you in a small company, or on some public occasion, to taste the wine cup. And why should you not do it? "Others are drinking, and why be so singular as to decline ?". If it is right, then do it; but if it is wrong, then be a man, and say no. So long as you can pronounce that little word, you are safe. With sufficient moral courage, we can always resist the strongest tempters.

But why should you do this? Why not "do as the rest do?" Ah, that is the very point and peril of the moment. This tame, yielding spirit, has been the ruin of thousands. A young man is invited, by a circle of vicious companions, to visit a dram shop or saloon; he hesitates; “shall I go, or not?” is the question. Re

luctantly he accepts the invitation. He goes again and again; wastes his time; squanders his property; becomes at last an inebriate; and sinks soon into an untimely grave. What destroyed him? "Doing as

the rest did."

"But the author is too fast; I am not going to drink to excess. Can I not stop when I please? Do you think I have no control over my appetite ?" Friend, if you are so strong as you boast, why not refuse to touch the deadly thing; show your power in that way. Benton, a celebrated American, explaining how it came that, at his advanced age, he was blessed with the absence of those infirmities which are supposed to belong to it, said, he owed it to the course of his early life. Franklin was once called "The American Aquatic," because he drank nothing but water. In that respect Benton imitated Franklin. He totally abstained for the first half of his life, and was temperate the other half. He had, he said, not only abstained from spirituous liquors, vinous liquors, fermented liquors, and everything of the sort, but he had kept himself free from every kind of dissipation. He knew no game whatever; and to that moment, could not tell, when looking at a party playing cards, which was the loser and which the winner. He had often sat up all night watching the sick, or on military duty; and a book had often kept him awake; but he had never spent one night in dissipation.

Unless you, young friends, go and do likewise you may soon take the first step in that long procession, every one of whom in the outset said, like you

"I can drink as little as I please, and stop when I please." And yet, see the consequences. The habit once upon them, day by day its spell grew stronger; by little and little they went on and down; until property, health, mind, morals, soul, and life were whirled into that vortex of despair and death-the drunkard's grave.

If we saw a young man standing in the street and listening to one who would decoy him to take the tempting death-glass, we would beseech him to pause. Do you care, we would ask, for God, man, mind, morals, or even health? When the cholera raged in New York, they who had debauched themselves with alcohol were its first and surest victims. And if you would derive good from those stimulants in sickness and age, abstain from them in health and youth. If you would not run the risk of dying amid the horrors of delirium tremens, then "touch not, taste not," now. Does the future life affect you at all? "No drunkard," says the Bible," can inherit the kingdom of heaven."

Consider, finally, that, if you live on, the polluted joys of youth cannot be the joys of old age; though its guilt and the sting left behind will endure. I know well that the path of strict virtue is steep and rugged. But for the stern discipline of temperance, the hardship of self-denial, the crushing of appetite and passion, there will be the blessed recompense of a cheerful, healthful manhood, and an honourable old age! Yes, higher and better than all temporal returns, live for purity of speech and thought; live for an incorruptible character; have the courage to begin the great race,

and the energy to pursue the glorious prize; foresee your danger, arm against it, trust in God, and you will have nothing to fear. If, at any moment, your faith in God and the right is failing, then lay your ear to the earth; for the ground is trembling beneath your feet; and you know not how soon it may yawn and swallow you up. If, when on the wild waters of temptation, the wind grows boisterous, the storm begins to howl, and you find your trusted resolutions falter before the tempter, and you are beginning to sink, cry out on the instant, "Lord, save me;" and immediately the same all-potent, ever-gracious One who caught up Peter in his peril, will stretch forth His hand and save you.

CHAPTER VI.

MORAL PREVENTIVES.

N looking over the great world of men and

affairs, it sometimes strikes one like a vast

penitentiary, a gathering of persons who have all gone out of the way of moral health and spiritual life and peace. Our schools and institutions for the reform of offenders are full to overflowing. And hence, in another aspect, we are living amid a grand array of remedial agencies and restoratives; the earth is a mighty hospital, in which the sick, the lame, and the impotent are lying by a moral pool, waiting for some angel to stir the waters and heal their maladies.

But the friends of humanity ought, instead of standing by this sad spectacle idle observers, or spending all their thoughts and efforts to restore the guilty and cure the diseased, to be doing more to prevent the increase and perpetuity of moral evil. That is the point and purpose of this chapter. Its motto is, Prevention better than cure. It was said of Fisher Ames, that "he needed not the smart of folly to make him wise." The true way of life's moral husbandry is not to wait