The Columbian fountain., 1846-06-18


at MIR. SToTT's Drug Store.
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Brother KENT, of the Boston Sun, holds
" the pen Of ready writer" and advocates
the Temperance cause as he should. We pre-
sent our readers with his editorial OF Monday
last :
USE AND EFFICIENCY OF TEMPERANCE
Aul s8 ASSOCIATIONS.
Individual effort, il is admitted, may accom-
plish neutrality-suspicious. much-ln the
Temperance enterprise but in union is
strength-in well regulated temperance So
cietes is our greatest hope. 1t is said that
such associations are not necessary-that men
can be temperate without them, and that they
are an Infringement upon natural liberty. They
are necessary. Men can, it is true, but very
many ,olll not be temperate without them
and they are no infringement upon any liberty
that is worth possessing or preserving. Their
object is not coercion. 1t is by persuasion
alone, acting upon consciences made tender,
and hearts made susceptible, and judgments
convinced by the light Of truth beaming
around them, that they aim to operate. Facts
brought to light through their insrumentality,
convince the understanding, while that charity,
which !" seeketh not her own," moves and an
imates the heart.
Why, then, should any oppose temperance
societies, and the progress of the temperance
reformation Some do it because they will
not come TO the light lest their deeds should
be reproved. Others do it on the ground that
they themselves are temperate, and see no
need of joining society to keep them So
forgetting the insidious nature Of the vice of
intemperance, and not considering that :" in
crease Of appetite doth grow by what it feeds
on'-that every indulgence, however temper
ately begun, increases the desire for more, and
diminishes the probability Of successful ress-
tance in after liie-forgetting, also, that their
duty extends any farther than themselves, and
not considering that " to do good and to com
nunicate to others is an important part of
the object for which they were placed and are
continued in the world. Others stand aloof, on
the ground that they have so little influence
that their names to such pledge will do lit
tie or no good. But the truth is they hare an
infuence--and the very persons who use this
plea would be highly provoked at its applica-
tion to them by others. Some think the tenn
perance pledge an unreasonable abridgment
Of liberty. We cannot answer such an argu-
ment better than in the words of an old En- |
glsh divine:
" 1t is privilege to be prescribed to in
things about which our minds would other
wise be ,ost with various apprehensions.
Were there not true bounds of magistrates
OF laws, Of piety, of reason in the heart, every
man would have fool, nay mad tyrant to
his master, that would multiply him more
sorrows than the briars and thorns did to Ad-
am, when he was freed from the bliss, at once.
and the restraints of Paradise, and became
greater slave in the wilderness than in the in
closure"
The truth is, we are such slaves to our ap-
petites and passions, that we need, if not the
lash Of the task master, the cords of love, the
cords Of voluntary association often, 10
bring US back and bind US to our duty.
4 -,a~~~-~s~~--~~~-----~-~--A-
RATHER AMUSING.