Part 7 (1/2)
One word in reference to making and observing a _pledge_ for abstinence.
As it respects yourself, it will show a resolute, independent mind, and be deciding the question once for all, and thus supersede the necessity of deciding it a thousand times, when the temptation is offered. It will, moreover, supersede the inconvenience of perpetual warfare with appet.i.te and temptation. And as it respects others, of feebler minds, or stronger appet.i.tes, your _example_ may be immeasurably important.
Mult.i.tudes may thus be secured to a life of sobriety, who, but for this pledge, would never have had the requisite firmness. Your influence may thus extend on the right hand and on the left, and down to future ages; and by such united pledges and efforts, countless mult.i.tudes may be saved from a life of wretchedness, a death of infamy, and an eternity of woe.
But does any one still say, ”I will unite in no pledge, because in no danger?” Suppose _you are safe_; have you then no _benevolence_? Are you utterly _selfish_? Think of the bosom now wrung with agony and shame, over a drunken husband, or father, or brother. And have you no _pity_?
Think of the millions of hopes, for both worlds, suspended on the success of the temperance cause. And will you do nothing to speed its triumph?
Do you say, your influence is of no account? It was one ”poor man” that saved a ”little city,” when a ”great king besieged it.” Another saved a ”great city,” when the anger of Jehovah was provoked against it. Small as your influence may be, you are accountable to G.o.d and your country; and your finger may touch some string that shall vibrate through the nation.
But are you conscious of possessing talent? Then rally the circle of your acquaintance, and enlist them in the sacred cause. And do you save a little by abstinence? Then _give_ a little to extend the benign influence. What youth cannot, at least, circulate a few Tracts, and perhaps enlist as many individuals? And who can estimate the endless influence of those individuals, or their capacity for rising with you in celestial splendor?
But have you wealth, or power with the pen? Then speak by ten thousand tongues: send winged messengers through the city, the country, the town, the village, the harbor; and thus may you enjoy _now_ the highest of all luxuries--the luxury of _doing good_. And, at the same time, trusting in HIM who came from the abodes of light, ”to seek and save the lost,” you may secure _durable riches_ in that world, where, saith the Scripture, neither _covetous_, nor _drunkards_, nor extortioners, nor revilers, nor the _slothful_, nor mere _lovers of pleasure_, nor _any thing that defileth_, shall ever enter; but where THEY THAT BE WISE shall s.h.i.+ne forth as the brightness of the firmament for ever and ever.
When these opposite characters and their changeless destinies are _seriously_ weighed, none, surely, can hesitate which to prefer. But, ”what thou doest, do quickly.”
NOTE.--A premium of fifty dollars, offered by a friend, was awarded to the author of this Tract.
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.
ALARM TO DISTILLERS.
BY REV. BAXTER d.i.c.kINSON, D. D.
The art of turning the products of the earth into a fiery spirit was discovered by an _Arab_, about nine hundred years ago. The effects of this abuse of nature's gifts were soon viewed with alarm. Efforts were made, even by a heathen people, to arrest the evil; and it shows the mighty agency and cunning of Satan, that Christian nations should ever have been induced to adopt and encourage this deadliest of man's inventions. In the guilt of encouraging the destructive art, our own free country has largely partic.i.p.ated. In the year 1815, as appears from well-authenticated statistics, our number of distilleries had risen to nearly _forty thousand_; and, until within a few years past, the progress of intemperance threatened all that was fair and glorious in our prospects. The reformation recently commenced is one of the grandest movements of our world; and to secure its speedy triumph, the concurrence of distillers is obviously indispensable. They must cease to provide the destroying element. This they are urged to do by the following considerations:
1. The business of distilling _confers no benefits on your fellow-men_.
Ardent spirit is not needed as an article of living. In the first ages of the world, when human life was protracted to hundreds of years, it was unknown. By the first settlers of this country it was not used. It was scarcely used for a whole century. And those temperate generations were remarkably robust, cheerful, and enterprising. To this we may add, that several hundred thousand persons, accustomed to use it, have given it up entirely within a few years past; and their united testimony is, that they have made no sacrifice either of health, or strength, or any real comfort. Indeed few, if any, except such as have the intemperate appet.i.te, will now seriously contend that distilled liquor is necessary or useful. The little that may perhaps be desirable as medicine, might be made by the apothecary, or the physician.
The talents G.o.d has given you _might_ be applied to advance the welfare of your fellow-men. It is your duty--your highest _honor_--thus to apply them. And on the bed of death, in near prospect of the judgment, it will surely be a melancholy reflection that, as regards the happiness of mankind, your life has been an utter _blank_.
2. The business of distilling is not only useless, but _is the occasion of many and great evils_. Recent examination has developed a number of appalling facts, which few, if any, pretend to question. It is admitted that the use of ardent spirit has been a tax on the population of our country, of from _fifty to a hundred millions of dollars_ annually. It is admitted that three-fourths of all the _crimes_ of the land result from the use of intoxicating liquor. It is admitted that at least three-fourths of all the sufferings of _poverty_ arise from the same source. It is admitted that upwards of _thirty thousand_ of our citizens have annually descended to the _drunkard's grave_. It is admitted, by those who believe the Bible, that _drunkards shall not inherit eternal life_, but must _have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone_. In a word, it is admitted that health, fortune, social happiness, intellect, conscience, heaven, are all swept away by the tide of intemperance.
And now, what you are specially bound to ponder is, that this burning tide, with all its desolations, flows from those very fountains _you_ have opened--the boiling flood can be perpetuated only by those fires which _your_ hands kindle, and which it is your daily task to tend.
The position you occupy, then, is one of most fearful responsibility.
You are directly and peculiarly accessary to a degree of guilt and misery which none but the infinite mind can comprehend. I hear for you a loud remonstrance from every court of justice, from every prison of collected crime, from every chamber of debas.e.m.e.nt, and from every graveyard, as well as from the dark world of despair. I hear the cries of unnumbered mothers, and widows, and orphans, all with one voice imploring you to extinguish those fires, to dry up those fountains, and to abandon an occupation pregnant with infamy, and death, and perdition.
3. The business of distilling _destroys, to a great extent, the bounties of Providence_. Many of the substances converted into ardent spirit are indispensable to the comfort of man--some of them the very staff of life. But the work of distillation not only destroys them as articles of food, but actually converts them to poison. An incalculable amount of grain, and tens of thousands of hogsheads of sugar and mola.s.ses, besides enormous quant.i.ties of other useful articles, are every year thus wickedly perverted in this Christian land. Who does not know the odious fact that, in many places, the _distillery_ has regulated the price of bread? Who does not know that this engine of iniquity has at times so consumed the products of industry as to make it difficult for the poorer cla.s.ses to get a supply? ”The poor we have always with us;” and cries of the suffering are often heard from other lands. Such facts, it would seem, might reach the conscience of all who are wantonly destroying Heaven's gifts. Can you, for a little selfish gain, persist in converting the bread of mult.i.tudes into pestilential fire? How utterly unlike the example of Him who, while feeding thousands by miracle, could still say, ”Gather up the fragments which remain, that nothing be lost.”
4. By continuing this destructive business, _you greatly offend the virtuous and respectable part of the community_. The temperance reformation has been commenced and prosecuted by enlightened men. It is not the enterprise of any political party or religious sect. It has the general support of ministers and Christians of different denominations, of statesmen, judges, lawyers, physicians, and hundreds of thousands in the walks of private life. They regard the enterprise as one, on the success of which hang the liberties of our republic and the happiness of future millions.
You cannot be surprised, then, that they look with pain on operations directly adapted to defeat their plans, and perpetuate the dread evil they deplore. You cannot suppose that their eye will light on the _fountains_ of this mighty evil but with inexpressible grief, disgust, and indignation. And if you have the common magnanimity of our nature, you will surely cease to outrage the feelings of the virtuous throughout the nation.
5. You pursue a pernicious calling, _in opposition to great light_. The time was when good men extensively engaged in the distilling business, and when few seemed to be aware of its fearfully mischievous tendency.
The matter had not been a subject of solemn and extensive discussion.