ligion. But where ardent spirit is received as a daily auxiliary to labor, it is commonly taken ac stated times; the habit soon creates a vacancy in the stomach, which indicates at length the hour of the day with as much accuracy as a clock. It will be taken, besides, frequently at other times, which will accelerate the destruction of nature's healthful tone, create artificial debility, and the necessity of artificial excitement to remove it; and when so much has been consumed as the economy of the employer can allow, the growing demand will be supplied by the evening and morning dram from the wages of labor, until the appetite has become insatiable, and the habit of intemperance nearly universal—until the nervous excitability has obliterated the social sensibilities, and turned the family into a scene of babbling and woe—until voracious appetite has eaten up the children's bread, and abandoned them to ignorance and crime—until conscience has become callous, and fidelity and industry have disappeared, except as the result of eye-service; and wanton wastefulness and contention and reckless wretchedness characterize the establishment.

SERMON II.

THE SIGNS OF INTEMPERANCE.

"Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

"Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color 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, and thy heart shall utter 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: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again." PROVERBS 23: 29-35.

In the preceding discourse I considered the nature and occasions of intemperance. In this I shall disclose some of the symptoms of this fearful malady, as they affect both the body and the mind, that every one who is in any degree addicted to the sin may be apprized of his danger, and save himself before it be too late.

In the early stages of intemperance, reformation is practicable. The calamity is, that intemperance is a sin so deceitful that most men go on to irretrievable ruin, warned indeed by many indications, but unavailingly, because they understand not their voice.

It is of vast importance, therefore, that the symptoms of intemperance should be universally and

familiarly known; the effects of the sin upon the body and upon the mind should be so described in all its stages, from the beginning to the end, that every one may see and feel and recognize these harbingers of death, as soon as they begin to show themselves upon him.

1. One of the early indications of intemperance may be found in the associations of time and place.

In the commencement of this evil habit, there are many who drink to excess only on particular days, such as days for military exhibition, the anniversary of our independence, the birthday of Washington, Christmas, new-year's day, election, and others of the like nature. When any of these holidays arrive and they come as often almost as saints' days in the calendar-they bring with them, to many, the insatiable desire of drinking, as well as a dispensation from the sin as efficacious and quieting to the conscience as papal indulgences.

There are some, I am aware, that have recommended the multiplication of holidays and public amusements, as a remedy for intemperance: about as wise a prescription as the multiplying gambling houses to supersede gambling, or the building of theatres to correct the evils of the stage.

There are others who feel the desire of drinking stirred up within them by the associations of place. They could go from end to end of a day's journey

without ardent spirits, were there no taverns on the road. But the very sight of these receptacles of pilgrims awakens the desire "just to step in and take something." And so powerful does this association become, that many will no more pass the tavern, than they would pass a fortified place with all the engines of death directed against them. There are in every city, town, and village, places of resort which, in like manner, as soon as the eye falls upon them, awake the thirst of drinking, and many, who in coming to market or on business pass near them, pay toll there as regularly as they do at the gates; and sometimes both when they come in and when they go out. In cities and their suburbs, there are hundreds of shops at which a large proportion of those who bring in produce, stop regularly to receive the customary beverage.

In every community you may observe particular persons also who can never meet without feeling the simultaneous desire of strong drink. What can be the reason of this? All men when they meet are not affected thus. It is not uncommon for men of similar employments to be drawn by association, when they meet, to the same topics of conversation: physicians, upon the concerns of their profession; politicians, upon the events of the day; and Christians, when they meet, are drawn by a common interest to speak of the things of the kingdom of

God But this is upon the principle of a common interest in these subjects, which have no slight hold upon the thoughts and affections. Whoever then' finds himself tempted on meeting his companion or friend to say, 'Come, let us go and take something,* or to make it his first business to set out his decanter and glasses, ought to understand that he discloses his own inordinate attachment to ardent spirits, and accuses his friend of intemperance.

2. A disposition to multiply the circumstances which furnish the occasions and opportunities for drinking, may justly create alarm that the habit is begun. When you find occasions for drinking, in all the variations of the weather-because it is so hot or so cold, so wet or so dry--and in all the different states of the system, when you are vigorous that you need not tire, and when tired that your vigor may be restored-you have approached near to that state of intemperance in which you will drink in all states of the weather and conditions of the body, and will drink with these pretexts, and drink without them whenever their frequency may not suffice. In like manner, if on your farm, or in your store or workshop, or on board your vessel, you love to multiply the catches and occasions of drinking, i the forms of treats for new comers, for mistakes, for new articles of dress or furniture, until in some places a man can scarcely wear an article of dress.