Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-22 00:00:00

ILIIIKDALE

DEDICATED TO THE •
REV. C. E. TiT FERTON, 8.A., PRE2IDENT,

I A
LIVERPOOL WORKING MAN.

" Woe unt) h'm that givath his nalghboar drink. that putte3t thy
bottle to him and makat. him drunken."—Liabak. ii. 15.

[Continued from 21st October]

To the watchmen of Zinn I woe d, in all humility and In all
res; ect, ray, your security and infl lance demand an imme•ilate
and total abstinmee fro., intoxicating grin% ; moderation leads
int s labyrinths, intricate soundings, deep woods, dark frresta,
dead y jangles, restat.rons swamps, barcen deserts, or to some
scanty be ch at the font of a perpendicular cliti, w th the ragtag
and foaming tide coTlag in. It is a nu,s,hievious fall .cy, as ti ere
is no other name whereby we c.n be saved ; than His, whom
the Bible proclaims, amidst B b3l voices, crying "lo here " and
"lo tl ere ;" so the benign, elevating, anti enobling principles of
total a'staMence are the only sots foothold and shriter from
t even, power of alcoholic drinks. Total abstinence, I admit,
is not reni4i ,n ; outward reformatio i is not religion ; but by this
reform a great obstacle is rem 'veil, and thousands of miserable
drunkards may be brought into the Kingdom of Goi. The strong
c`m:n that has bees thrown around them by t'm prig to of the
pow3r of the air is brAteal they may be approachod as they never
coald lo.fo e ; convictim of six is fastened upon th. ir consciences,
G atitnde inspired their bosoms; good men are cf choice their
companims; the dram atm.) is exchanged for the House of God;
a 131b'e is purchased ; their little ones are prepared for the S ibhath
school ; they flee in fact affeig'ited from the pit of drunkenness
and sin, and through gr..ce lift up t e'r hands imploringly to
Heaven—the only refuge for the out ast, the home for the weary;
in that way 3.:,030 drunkards are annually reclaimed by the erioblit.g
princidles of total abstinence, and have become members of Christian
Churches; having hope in God and joy in the Ho'y Ghost, by
the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Con'd I but wield the pencil with the ski:l alerria`o to the subject
I would delineate and fill up the b!ackest licture ever seen by
human eye; no: from dark shadows, tin: from workings revealed—
from the lognence of facts, as exhibi eI is the folly, the revelry,
the beastleness and the slaggering of drunkards; the innocence
clothe I in rags, the filth of vice it creates, its eghtless dim and
hopeless children as they grope on is ignorance and darkness,
the flaunting robes of gnat, with hr arts on fire of Hall, as they go
shrieking and mocking onwards to the flawing pit of perdition.
I a k, where is the Christian who after reading the array of awful
details I have brought forward, who can fur another moment retain
a desire for that liquor vri i h is the sole cause of the appalling eel s
I have enumerated—where is that follower of the meat and Holy
Jesus who laid down his life for sinners, who professes to do so
for the glory of His Divine Lord and Master, who can any longer
give is s support to the mainiainance of the cue ores by which these
sal effects are produced and perpetrated. Oat of reqrct fur the
reputat on of the religion we profess I hope and am inclined to
think that few can long refuse to abandon the use of stroog drinks,
who are filly impressed with the extant of the evils resulting from
drunkenness.

It is indeed a matter of wonder to me that an universal indignation
is not raised against this destructive p u,t, for how is it possible I
ask for men that have any sense of humanity any heart of pity, but
especially for those who profess and call themselves christhns, to stand
by and see unconcerned the (lestroying angel as a fire raging among
there fellow craatn•es without exerting themselves to the very
utmost to arrest its progress, and if possible to extinguish it. Of all
the miseries and plagues that unha. py man has bean incident to,
none wa. ever so enctirally destructive of sonic as the evil spirit of
alcoholic thinks, alcohol is an ua cleating Ins ciless eaemy, that
threatens the temporal and eternal destructlon of generation after
generation.

As wa can convey no a lequsto ides of sound to the dee', of colour
to the blind, or of life to the dead, neither can we by the most
e'aborate reasoning, or eloquont descript'oa impart to
the drunk ir I in his drunkenness any proper conception
of the evils of drunkenness, and the happiness of total
abstinence, the afore, drankards hoar whit the word of God eeelares :
" Awake ye dru ikarls an 1 weep," Joel I. 5. Who heth woe ? who
bath sorrow ? who bath contentions ? who bath wo roes without
cease ? They that tiry long it the wino, they that go to seek mixed
wine. Look not thou upon the who° at last it biteth like a serpent,
and sti-geth like an adder," Pcov. xxiii. ill —3 " Strong drink
shall be bitter to them that drill( it," Isa. xxiv 9. ",The works of
the flash are maiifeat, which are these: uncleanness, murder-,
drunkenness, reveilings, and sia:h like; of the which I tell yon, that
they wh'c'a do such things, shall not inherit the kingdo a of God,"
Gal. v 19 21. "11 ye live after the flash, yo shall die ; but if ye,
throigh the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye sh ill live ."
Zona. viii. 13. "Bo not deceived ; God is not moeke I; for what-
so:ser a man soweth, that shall he cur. ly rea Far he that soweth
to his flash, shall of Coe flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth
to the Spirit, shi'l of the Spirit reap life everlasting," Ga'. vi. 7, B.
Drunkards, there is yet hope for you. God has said in his word,
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts, and lit him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy
up,' and to oar Gol, for he will abundantly pardon," Isa. Iv. 7.
This is a faiLlita! !Ming, and worthy of all ex.:eptatlon, that Chris;
Jesus eame 1- to the weed to save sinners; of who:n I am chief,"
1 Tim. i. 15. "For Gad so laveth the world, that Fla gave Ilia only
begotten Son, that whosoever believe h !n Him, should not perish but
have everlasting life," John iii. 16.

Men of England and of every grad., re ottti 2e the gin palace and
• the evils of dr.mkenness. Be slaves no longer. Be determined to
be f an I, above all things, remember that the cause of total abs:in-
• ce is the cause of Go I.

Oh, that all mloirers of Christ would aid in this reat and good
work ; enforce the truths an I clams o! total abstinence from the
pulAt, in their visits from house-to-house. Some ministers object to
the movement, becanse a ivocites have appelre.d substitute it for
religion. Is it not so? The e,n,bling principles o: total a. stinence
take the poor drunkar i from his poison, th 1 mad oan from his dir
ease, anl, by the blessing of4id, iring him clothe] in hid right
mind to the ministe-, whose oftles it is to direct him to the feet of
Jesus.