From all contamination, the rising generation.
And may each indication of such regeneration
And moral renovation, sustained by legislation.
Be cause of exultation, by all of every nation.
Till Joyful acclamation re-echo consummation!
Our Country; Ua Dangers and DesHnp*
Mt native land I amid thy cabin homes,
Amid thy palaces, a demon roams ;
Frenzied with rage, yet subtle in his wrath.
He crnshes thousands in his flery path ;
Stalks through our cities unabashed and throws
Into the cup of sorrow bitterer woes 5
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Gives to the pangs of grief an added smart;
With keenest anguish wrings the breaking heart;
Drags the proud spirit from its envied height, .
And breathes on fondest hopes a killing blight;
Heralds the shroud, the coffin i and the pall, '
And the graves thicken where his footsteps fall I
Ho, for the rescue I ye whose eyes have seen
The ruin wrought where Drunkenness hath been, —
re who have gazed upon the speechless grief
Of early widowhood, that mocked relief, —
Ye who have heard the orphan's struggling sigh,
"When, mad with agony, he prayed to die, —
Ye who have marked the crimes and shames that throng,
Like sateless fiends, the drunkard's way along, —
Ye who can tell his everlasting doom
When darkly over him shall close the tomb.
Up for the conflict I ~ let your battle-peal
Ring on the air as rings the clash of steel,
When rank to rank, contending armies meet.
Trampling the dead beneath their bloody fbetl
Up I ye are bidden to a nobler strife, —
Not to destroy, but rescue human life ;
No added drop in misery's cup to press,
But minister relief to wretchedness ;
To give the long-lost father to his boy, — ,
To cause the widow's heart to sing for joy, —
Bid Plenty laugh where hungry Famine howls,
And pour the sunlight o'er the tempest's scowls, —
Bring to the soul that to despair is given
A new-found joy — a holy hope of heaven I
WM. n. BUSLBIOH.
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The Beginning and Ending.
Characters,^ William, and Edwabd.
William. I say, Ned, what harm is there in a social,
jQoderate glass of wine? It is certainly a very agree-
able way of passing a leisnre hour.
Edvoard, Undoubtedly young men find the exhilara-
tion of wine and Jovial intercourse very agreeable; it is
upon this admitted fact that the counsel <' Look not upon
the wine " is based. It is its very pleasantness that makes
it so dangerous. However delightful at first, remember
that <* at last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like
an adder."
W> Not at the first?
E, No, not at first. Did it bite at first, who would
tamper with it? Did the sting come at the beginning
of the indulgence, who would be led astray? The
pleasure is first, the sting afterwards I Herein Is the
danger of looking on wine.
W. But at the first it sparkles and cheers.
E. At the last it poisons and maddens.
W. At the first it excites mirth and song.
E, It produces sorrow and curses at the last.
IF. It kindles np the eye, and animates the face, yea,
the whole frame of man.
E, True, it does at first, yet it is but temporary;
at the last it gives sadness of eyes, bloats the body, and
deforms the visage.
IF. It is a thing of good feeling and fellowship.
E, In the beginning; but it is an affair of fiends,
fighting, and murder at the end.
IF. It quickens the brain, and gives brilliancy to the
conversation.
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E, But at the last it robs the mind of its strength,
thickens the tongue, and degrades conversation by idiot-
ic gibberish.
W, You pitch it strong, — you are blinded so as to see
no good in it. You look only on the dark side of the
matter.
E. You are right in all but the blindness. There is
need of being strong, to resist the seductive wiles of
the tempter. There is only a dark side to intemperance ;
it has no bright side ; it is a cloud, — a dark, black cloud,
without any silver lining.
W. \^Aside.'] 1*11 try him again, — I may vanquish him
yet. Say, Ned, is not wine the agreeable excitement
of an evening?
E. At first it may be so ; but at last it is the long-
drawn agony of an endless perdition. It brings, at the
end, the ** wine of the wrath of Almighty God, poured
out without mixture."
W* Ned, you almost convince me of the soundness
of your position.
E, Will you wait till you feel the serpent's bite, the
adder's sting, before you take alarm? Pause now, and
take a determined stand against the tempter. Pledge
yourself to lifelong total abstinence. Nothing short of
this is safe. Do this, in the fear of God, and no power
can hurt you.
W» I will do it, for I hate to show myself a coward,
and be ruled by so tyrannical and deceptive a master. I
am bound t% be free, even if I have to take a pledge,
and give up a life of so-called pleasure. I shall be the
gainer by the bargain ; for, in exchange for inglorious
and transient pleasure, I shall have, all my life, a clear
conscience, cool head, warm heart, steady hand, and
strong constitution. fetbb fikdab.
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The Great Water JPawer.
Niagara Falls. ^
I WONDER how long youVe been a^roarin
At this tremendoas rate !
I wonder if all you've been pourin'
Could be ciphered on a slate I
I wonder how such a thunderin* sounded
When all New York was woods !
'Spose likely some Indians hav» been drownded
When rains had raised your floocis I
I wonder if wild stags and buffaloes
Haven't stood where now I stand I
Well *spose (being scared at lirst) they'd stubbed their
toes,
I wonder where thej*d land I
I wonder if that rainbow has been shinln*
Since sunrise at creation,
And this waterfall been undermlnin*
With constant spatteration !
That Moses never mentioned ye, Pve wondered, .
While other thihgs describin' I
Jerusha! how ye must have foamed and thundered
When the deluge was subsidiu' !
** My thoughts are strange," magnificent, and deep,
** When 1 look down to thee : "
Oh ! what a glorious place for washing sheep
Niagara will be ! '
And oh I what a tremendous water-power
Is wasted o'er its edge !
One man might furnish all the world with flour
With a single privilege I
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I wbnder how many times the lakes have all
Been emptied over here I
Why Clinton didn't fill the Sreat Canal
Up here, I think is queer.
The thoughts are ** very strange" which croy^d my htiin
" While I look up to thee ; "
Such thoughts I never expect to have again
To all eternity!
-♦-♦-
The Cold Water Battle Hymn.
Stand up for the cold-water flght,
'Gainst doctor and lawyer and priest;
Stand up and do battle for right,
'Gainst foes ftom the West or the East;
'Gainst foes from the North or the South;
'Gainst foes from above or beneath ;
Speak out, every man with a mouth.
The watchword of ** Freedom or Death \ *•
Away with your " moderate " drink!
Your Infamous pleading for wine I
The tempter that lures to the brink
Of perdition I The demon malign !
The treacherous, venomous thing
That blushes and laughs in the bowl '
The mocker I The adder whose sting
Strikes mortal though body and soUil
No quarters to Alcohol I None
To its alders, abettors, or friends 1
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Who pleads for a fiend so well known^
His voice to the devil he lends I
And no man, whatever his name,
Whatever his place or his power,
Who leagues with this horror and shame,
Shall stand in the charge for an hoar I
The breath of Jehovah the Lord
Goes forth with the temperance host.
Who move in the might of his word
To save and to succor the lost I
God's Son gave his life for them all, —
The harlot, the drunkard, the sot ;
The. thief on the cross, though accurst,
Believed, and was saved on the spot I
Fling out the old flag to the sky !
Let it flash in the sun and the breeze,
While the temperance legions march by I
Down 1 Down the whole host on your knees I
Swear I Swear by the Fountain and Ckoss,
By duty to God and to man.
Despising derision or loss.
To conquer or die in tlie van.
REV. GEORGE LANSING TAYLOB.
The Temperance Enterprise*
An enterprise that has fed the hungry, and clothed
th9 naked, and healed the sick, and taught the ignorant,
ana elevated the degraded, and gladdened the sorrowftil,
and led to the cross multitudes that had been wander-
ing far away ; an enterprise that has gathered again the
'fortune that had been scattered, and buUt again the
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home that had been ruined, and raised again the char-
acter that had been blasted, and bound up the heart that
had been broken; an enterprise that has given peace
where there was discord, and gladness where there had
been woe, — that has broken open many a prison door,
and restored to his right mind many a maniac ; an enter-
prise that has prevented many a suicide, and that has
robbed the gallows of many a victim that would other-
wise have been there ; an enterprise that has thinned the
workhouse, and the hospital, and the jail, but that has
helped to fill the school, and the lecture- room, and the
industrial exhibition ; an enterprise that has turned into
useful citizens those that were the pests of society, —
one of the best educators of the masses, one of the chief
pioneers of the Gospel; an enterprise which is not
Christ, but which is as one of the holy angels that go
upon his mission. Like some fair spirit from another
world, our great enterprise has trodden the wilderness,
and flowers of beauty have sprung up upon her track.
She has looked around, gladdening all on whom her
smiles have fallen ; she has touched the captive, and his
fetters have fallen oflT; she has spoken, and the counte-
nance of despair has been lighted up with hope ; she has
waved her magic wand, and the wilderness has rejoiced
and blossomed as the rose. Like the fabled Orpheus,
she has warbled her song of mercy, and wild beasts,
losing their ferocity, have followed gladly and gratefully
In her train. She has raised up those that have been
worse than dead, sepulchred in sin, and she has led
multitudes to the living waters of salvation.
NBWMAN HALL.
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The Drunkard to his Bottle,
[Place a bottle upon a table or floor.]
Touch thee ? Ko ; I'll break thy villanous neck.
Thou promisest to make me wise ;
But if I*v« a goose in all my flock
Half so silly, I'll split her through to-morrow.
Wise I My brains are addled, and
The bird that hides her head beneath the sand
To escape her fate is wise as Solomon,
Compared with me. ILiJts and puts the bottle doum.j
Taste thee ? Where are thy promised riches, —
The houses, lands, the stocks and bags of gold?
Where a shilling even to buy a loaf of bread,
Or pillow for my unsheltered head ?
lAttempta to breakJ]
Break I I'll dash to fragments
Thine accursed life, and in thy death
Let glass cut tempters' hearts as diamonds
Cut the flinty glass.
Touch thee ? There's lightning in thy eye,
Ay, lightning in my soul I
Didst thou not promise to make me strong, —
Strong as the ** rough disciple '* in " the camp of Dan,
And healthy as the tree of life,
. And happy as a sceptral king?
Bah I if there's another half so wretched,
The Lord have mercy on him !
Or kitten half so sick and weak,
Some good Samaritan have compassion I
Thy promise to make me good !
Ah I Where is that?
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Infernal cheat. It's nambered with thy other lies.
Good I — a drunkard good f What corner
In heaven.or earth or hell
Is fit for him, orhe for it? —
There ! Take thy fate ! the color in the cup
\_Break8 the hoUle.l
Shall tempt no more.
Thy very redness wakes my wrath ;
Thy falsehoods stir my soul ;
Thy deeds of villany with vengeance
Enforce the blow that drives thee
Beyond a resurrection !
Avoid the Fiend.
From the graves of murdered thoasandSy
From the cities of the dead,
Comes a silent, awful warning,
Like a spectre, dark and dread,
Bidding us who yet are living,
By the fate of those below,
To avoid the fiend incarnate,
Which too early laid them low.
Widows' tears and orphans' wailing,—
Seen and heard on every hand, —
Deeds of dark and cruel carnage.
Stain with crimson this our land;
Wretched victims fill our prisons,
Others beg from door to door;
While the homes we build for paupers
Scarce can hold a beggar more.
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This will last, o'er-burdened people,
Till you crush the leading cause,
Till you save the tempted drunkard
By the aid of Christian laws ;
Till you check the sale of " poison,".
Under every tempting name,
And redeem the sinking millions
From the rum-flend*8 grasp of shame.
E. Z. C. JUDSOM.
• The Qiant Curse of the World.
I HAVE selected for this evening's discourse, character-
istics of the evil of intemperance, or those features
which distinguish it ftom other evils afflicting commu-
nity, and which may claim for it the appellation of the
giant curse of the civilized world !
The curse of intemperance was peculiar in its origin.
After God had cleansed the earth from its pollution by
the deluge, drunkenness was the first sin committed of
which we have account in the sacred record. The part
which Satan had acted before the flood, the intoxicating
cup re-enacted afterward ; which very naturally suggests
a relationship between those two agencies. For myself
I believe they are much nearer related than second
cousins. They are both insidious in their attacks,
obtain their influence over men by large promises of
good, while they bestow evils incalculable. They have
both promised to make men like gods, by large acces-
sions to their wisdom; and yet both have taught us
only evil.
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If T were disposed to run the parallel further, T might
suggest that the animal into whom Satan originallv
entered, for the purpose of accomplishing his work or
death, bears, in some of his attitudes, a striking resem-
blance to the worm of the still. With my view of the
subject, I would as soon plant my acres with nice cut-
tings of the Upas-tree, as with the vine, if the product
of my vineyard were to be employed in the production
of fermented wines. May God, in great mercy, send
blasting and mildew on the products of every acre of
American soil, which shall be devoted to the production
of intoxicating wines, to be employed as a beverage by
our countrymen. Oh ! let them cultivate, at great expense
if they will, thorns and thistles, briers and brambles ;
and let the thick growth of these, with all noxious and
hurtful weeds, be the chosen home of asps and scorpions,
of vipers, and the deadly rattlesnake, and then send your
children to it as a play-ground, rather than train them
to the habit of lifting to their lips the intoxicating cup
which has cursed the earth with drunkenness and its
woes since the days of Noah, and which will continue to
curse it while the fiery products of the still, or fermented
and intoxicating wines, shall be used as a beverage by
our fellow-men.
Another striking peculiarity of the evil of intemperance
is its universality.
Visit any portion of the civilized world, and inquire
after the causes of poverty, degradation, and crime, and
you will find the employment of unnatural stimulants to
be among the earliest and most fruitful. Opium, arrack,
and vile drugs, with the names of which I am not famil-
iar, constitute the giant curse of China, whose civiliza-
tion is of rather a questionable character. The various
kin Is of distilled spirits, and that vile compound, ale, or
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BtroDg beer, is a heavier cnrse to England than her
national debt ; and whiskey has proved a worse poison to
Ireland than English rule. Not a nation in Europe but
is groaning under the curse imposed by the fermenting
vat and the still. If we withdraw our gaze from the Old
World, and fix it on the New, we see in every part of our
continent the ravages of this terrible destroyer.
As no civilized land escapes this plague, so no part of
any land escapes. Other evils, which at times afllict us
sorely, are confined to particular portions of the country.
While pestilence or storms, drought or frost, or such a
failure of the crops from any cause as shall threaten
famine, are generally confined to particular sections or
portions of the land, the curse of intemperance claims
every acre as its owni East, west, north, and south,
must each contribute to swell the catalogue of its vic-
tims and the history of its woes. Storms may baffle the
skill or defy the power of our seamen, and make sad
havoc with our commerce ; but while the noble ship is
going to pieces on the rocks of our hard New England
coast, and men and merchandise are by every surge con-
signed to destruction, the good people ten miles in the
interior are, it may be, sleeping in safety in their beds,
or pursuing, without interruption, their ordinary avoca-
tions. The storm does not assail their immediate
interests, or threaten their lives. But this curse of in-
temperance scatters its wrecks as well over .the interior
as on the coast. The dreaded cholera may spread con-
sternation and death over one i art of our land, while
other portions are permitted to escape ; but the curse
of strong drink, more fatal and terrible than cholera,
leaves no nook or comer uncursed by its visitations.
The curse is abroad, and none of us are secure. Our
children are of the same flesh and blood as the children
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of those who have thus been made to suffer from this
Bcourge ; they partake of the same depraved nature, and,
if exposed to the same temptations, they may fall, as
have others. Let us, therefore, not only out of regard
to the general welfare of society, but for the security of
our own families, labor to put an end to the trafllc and
ase of intoxicating drinks. Let no one presume to
declare that he has a just and proper regard for the
children God has given him, if he be unwilling to assist
in removing the snares which are spread, on every hand,
for their inexperienced feet.
CHABLES JBWBTT.
• Social Degradation*
As in the waters of some inland lake
The grosser particles, by Nature's law,
Toward the centre slowly gravitate,
Where they accumulate, grow rank, and breed
Those pestilential vapors that, unseen.
Steal o*er the world like grim assassins armedy
And muffled in the darkness of the night :
So in society's strong ebb and flow
There is a constant, ever-tending down
Of grosser human elements — of souls
Made rank by vice, or poverty, or worse I
By crime, that, like a millstone round the neck.
Drags the doomed victim to the lowest depths.
Slowly, yet unresistingly, thus men
Are drawn, as if by strong converging chains;
For such is degradation's constant law.
All cities have those seething vortices —
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Their labyrinths of rookeries, courts, and lanes —
Bank cesspools — morally, I speak — where sin.
Disease, p&»e want, ant! dark-browed crime
Feed ravenous on poor humanity.
In haunts like these,
Children are born to beg, to starve, or steal I
Thriving, like maggots, *mid putridity,
Or fungus growths festooning the dead street*
Thus we permit a deadly social sore
Within our midst to prey upon our life.
Which, like the carcass in the passing ship,
Attracts the ravenous monsters of the deep;
Or, as the taint of bloody battle-field
Invites the wheeling vultures from afar;
So here, the more rapacious of our kind
Swoop down to feed on guilt's foul carrion.
First on the scene, the bloated publican,
Like wary spider, carefully selects
The corner for his splendid drunkery I
Next door, the harlot plies her fearful trade,
An outcast from the heaven of purity,
Her very name polluting to the lips ;
A deadly Upas-tree within our midst,
Beneath whose baneful shadow virtue dies, *
Whose blighted sod gleams white with dead men's bonefc
Next door another human vampire spreads
His deadly wing, while from his talons hang
The golden balls, the curst insignia
That tempts the inebriate mother oft to strip
Her home — or worse, her weeping innocents —
To qnench her thirst for fiery alcohol.
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Men thrive on infamy, grow rich, retire,
Build princely dwellings with their ill-got gains.
Vainly imagining that bliss consists
In the possession of earth's sordid dross.
Too late they find they have believed a lie ;
That with a life of labor they've but heaped
Hot coals of fire on their devoted heads I
JAMES NI0HOL8OV.
Boys, leVa Stand Firm.
Boys, let's stand firm I
Whate'er betide us
Toiling up life's rugged height ;
Let no power on earth divide us
From the way of truth and right.
Boys, let's stand firm !
This be our motto,
Now, while In the dawn of life, —
^ We will drink not, swear not, smoke not^
And e'er keep from angry strife.**
Boys, let's stand firm I
We can conquer
*"'' Aught which in our path appears;
Let us trust, and not be faithless.
Cast away all -doubts and fears.
Boys, let's stand firm !
And God will help us
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When temptations jsjatlier round ; —
Look not on the sparkling wine-cup;
Dash it, dash it to the ground 1
Boys, let's stand firm !
Now in our boyhood,
Let us clasp each other's iiand,
Pray to God that he will guide us,
Make us good and upright men.
TFhich will you Choose?
Young men, we wage war against the drinking cus-
toms of society, and appeal to you to give up the intox-
icating liquor as a beverage, because it is useless. 'Can
you find me one man that is benefited by it? What
good is there in it? It is filling our almshouses and
Jails. Its influence is hanging yon trembling wretch
upon the gallows. What good is there in it? How
many men are dethroning their reason and hiding its
bright beams in the mystic clouds that roll round the
shattered temple of the soul, curtained in midnight?
What good is there in it? Bring me a man that is ben-
efited morally, physically, or intellectually .by its use.
N5 good in it? There is good in that which we would
give you instead of it, — pure, life-giving water, — watei^
that God gives to his children. Where docs he* brew it?
Not in the simmering still, over smoky fires, choked
with poisonous gases, and surrounded with the stench
of sickening odors and rank corruption, doth your Father
in heaven prepare the precious essence of life, — the
pure, cold water; but in the green glade and grassy
dell, where the red dour wanders and the child loves to
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play, there God brews it ; and down low in the deepest
valleys, where the fountains murmur and the rills sing;
and high on the tall mountain-tops, where the paked
granite glitters like gold in the sun, where the storm-
cloud broods, and the thunder-tones crash ; and away
far out on the wide, wide sea, where the hurricanes howl
music and big waves roar the chorus, " sweeping the
march of God,"-— there he brews it, that beverage of life,
health-giving water.
No poison bubbles on its brink ; its foam brings not
madness and murder; no blood ever stains its liquid
glass; pale widows and starving orphans weep nol
burning tears in its beautiful, clear depths ; no drunk-
ard's shrieking ghost curses it in words of eternal de-
spair.
Water 1 Blessed water! Everywhere it Is a thing of
beauty,— glistening in the dew-drop, dancing in the hail-
storm, singing in the summer rain, hanging in ice-drops
like jewels on the trees, sporting in the cataract, sleep-
ing in the glacier— pp re, bright, blessed, life-giving
strengthetfiug water. Which will you choose ? Young
man, speak out to-night, which will you choose? Pure,
life-giving water, or the demon's drink, — alcohol?
PAUL I>BNTON.
The Drunkard^s Dream.
.The drunkard dreamed of his old retreat, —
Of his cosey place in the tap-room seat;
And the liquor gleamed on his gloating eye.
Till his lips to the sparkling glass drew nigh.
He lifted it up with an eager glance,
And sang, as he saw the bubbles daQce^
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