The Litchfield County post., 1827-05-10

cions of danger are awakened, he is bound in spell which he cannot resist, his des- tiny is sealed and his ruin begun. Once he was temperate and by letting spirits entirely alone, he might have so remained; but like rock tumbled, from the brow of a mountain, he can easily begin the down. ward progress, but to stop it is not in his power; every thing is destroyed in his fearful descent till at length his immortal soul, which might have been polished stone in the heavenly editice, makes the last, awful, irrevocable plunge. Itren,ble lest such be the fate of my country; lest it has already lapsed so far as to have lost the power of self command, unwilling to be reforIned by others and morally una- ble to reform himself Where is it most needed A temparate man who has been a drunkard is almost a miracle.
 Will our General Government erect a. round us dykes and barriers of defence a. gainst this deluge of liquid fire? That government can in reality do nothing to which the will of the people is opposed and if it could,it lacks the disposition to re- form. Let the crowd of altars*" infamous ly erect to Bacchus in the very temple of our national liberty say, what hope or rath- CT what despair arises to us from that quar- ter.
 Will the State Legislatures stay the rav- ages of this desolating plague Let the steady progress of intemperance in every State of the Union, cerlupting and demor- alizing the people, whose breath the Le- gislatures are, reply. Let executive com munications answer, which rank distilleries en massc among our greatest public bles- sings,tt or recommended repeal of ex- isting taxes with the avowed purpose of holding out inducements for their enlarge ment & mdltiplication.H
 Will the ministers of religion interpose the sacredness of their services between their country and this horrible dissolution? Our hope from them if we look at facts, is. extinguished in darkness. Exertions to stand against this fry flood resembling per- sonal resistance to the burning torrents of Etna and Vesuviis. There appears much hazard with nothing certain but defeat. Their duty and their interest seem to mili-
  compatible with fidelity to God and their country. Bnt since the welfare of this land demands it, let them be clothed with divine panoply and with seli-devotion like the patriotism of the ancient Roman, leap fearlessly into the gulf. This might prove the salvation of their country. It would revive diminished confidence, and if it ex- cited against them the hostility of the bad, it would secure them the friendship of the good. If they could be pursuaded to uni- tedly engage in this service, and infexibly pertinacious with their whole soul combat this heaven detying, crime producing, hell peopling, tyrant, we might hope that such of conflict would terminate in their favor. If they should be faithful the con- dict would of course be obstinate, and num- bers would fall before it, who might con- 'ole themselves with the thought that they were in the act of obedience to great ;aptain, that they were suffering in the ield of Christian duty and fell in defence if their country. Of such union of cler- y we can indulge no hope.-For vast mul- itudes of our citizens are employed in inn orting, distilling, vending and retailing his sonl-destroying article, whose eyes re open to the miseries and crimes it cau- es, who are quite willing to appease their onsciences by extending in hand stain- d with "blood of the poor innocents,
 portion of their accursed gains to the ser ice of that religion which declares drunk- 'rds shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. Hundred of thousands more are so in love with this delicious poison that they would !ismiss a minister who acclaimed against [. Their hostility must of course be a. reused against him who should persevere- lngly use his utmost exertions to keep from them an iudulgece, which, be the conse- 4uence what it may, they are bent to en- joy. A large proportion of our whole eff icient population are thus invincibly att tached to this pernicious bane by thirst of gold or love of pleasure. He must be pos- sessed of a martyrs faith who can step out in defiance of public opinion and pertina- ! ciously resist monster whom no one vet has resisted successfully and who by SO doing will render those his enemies on whom both himself and his family are de- pendent for an adlibitam maintainance. The clergy do not, because they dare not attack this Moloch of power, of pollution. and blood. We indeed act in character like the Priest and the Levite, ,d1 " pass bv