mon says we must do with contention :-"Leave it off before it be meddled with." Say to God in earnest prayer,-Suffer me not to be led into such temptation; but deliver me from the evil lurking there. Jesus, save me!

BIBLE TEETOTALISM.

"Where stands Paradise, after the fall?
Alas! it has withered away--
The slime of the Serpent is over us all,
And Nature has veil'd, with a funereal pall,
Her beautiful face in decay."

OH! how sin has darkened the fair, bright, and beautiful face of nature. Instead of all being good, very good, wearing a joyous smile, and filling the world with transporting melody, all is gloomy with lamentation and woe. You may see the effects of sin every where in the sorrows, sufferings, tears, afflictions, and the bereavements of humanity. The only bright and happy spots in universal creation are those where grace has achieved her triumphs. Thank heaven! there are a few such places, and they are also multiplying. Gladsome melody is made by thousands of regenerated hearts singing

"I'm glad I ever saw the day

When Jesus washed my sins away.

Thousands more of drink-liberated captives also echo a beautiful chorus

I'm happy all the day

Since I threw the drink away."

And experience has now fully convinced us that there needs not be so much suffering, strife and sorrow, if persons would only be guided in their life-habits by the teaching of God. What meaneth this cry which has rung through the ages:- -"Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babblings? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine."

Unquestionably the most of humanity's troubles are thus self-caused. The Lord would gratituously bless us with health, joy, beauty, and life, but we prefer to purchase sickness, sorrow, deformity, and death. There cannot be trouble without transgression, nor can there be happiness without obedience. Infinite wisdom and love have therefore kindly informed us how to escape many evils. "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women; thine heart uttereth perverse things. Yea thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast; they have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me and I felt it not."

Science, philosophy, physiology, and experience all corroborate the correctness of the above

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facts. I confess that after careful reading, I cannot find any sanction given to the common or habitual use of intoxicating drinks. The Bible teems with solemn warnings against their use." Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. "The drunkard shall come to poverty; rags shall be his clothing." "Awake now, ye drunkards, weep and howl, all ye drinkers of wine." "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night till wine inflame them! And the harp, and the viol, and tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore

Oh!

my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge; and their honourable men have famished, and their multitude have dried up with thirst: therefore hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure, and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it." my Bible reading, Bible loving brother, does not that awful Scripture melt your heart to tenderness? Can you still take the drink which is causing hell to be enlarged, and the precious immortal souls of your fellows to descend into it? Can you still say "Amen" to their neverending torments? Oh! think of that loving look of Jesus, which broke poor Peter's heart! Then think of thy poor brethren that are perishing-for whom Jesus died—and resolve for their

sake and for thy own, never more to touch, taste, nor handle the unclean thing!

"Spurn the quicksands which surround you,

Decked in moral speciousness,
Hell's devices to confound you,

Mocking Jesu's righteousness."

Priests and ministers must be abstainers. "And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. It shall be a statute for ever throughout all generations; and that ye may put a difference between holy and unholy, and clean and unclean." Lev. x. 8, 9, 10. Kings and Princes must be abstainers "It is not for kings, O Lemuel! It is not for kings to drink wine or Princes strong drink, lest they forget the law, or pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted." The people must be abstainers. -"Look not thou upon the wine, &c." Evangelists must be abstainers-"For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink."

I should like all persons to take the Bible for their rule on this question, and not be led by either priest or people. The priest may be a faithful expositor of many scripture truths, but I should not trust him in this. No class of men have been more deceived, and suffered more, and grieved God so much, as themselves, through intemperance. "They also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of

the way-the priests and the prophets have erred through drink they are swallowed up of winethey err in vision, they stumble in judgment. From my own convictions, formed by the prayerful reading of God's word, the priests are the last men that I should accept as authorities on the temperance question. "His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are shepherds that cannot understand, they look to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter.-"Come," say they, "I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as to-day, and much more abundant."

No one can read the Bible, with a desire only to be rightly informed, without being convinced that abstinence is the only right, wise, and safe principle. Health, wealth, strength, wisdom, blessing, honour, long-life, and glory are her heaven-bestowed rewards. While on the other hand they must also be as clearly convinced that drinking darkens the understanding, brings Divine judgments, enfeebles the body, paralyses the intellect, increases thirst, deforms beauty, diminishes strength, disregards God, shuts the gates of Heaven against millions of precious blood-bought souls, postpones millenium glory, ignores Divine teaching-causes woes, sorrows, stripes, wounds, babblings, and deaths. It empties chapels and churches, and fills gaols and graveyards; it disappoints the expectations of sabbath school and ministerial efforts; it corrupts with its pestilential breath the body,