The Ohio organ, of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, [Ohio]) 1853-1854, 1853-06-03

Town and village. The records of the
prison, Of the poof-house and mad
house, give but the facts that float on
the surface Of the sea Of sin and mise.
ry, which Intemperanee has filed
with its fiery food. And where is the
fountain.head, where the sluice-gate
Of this bottomless gulf? Where is
the beetling crag from which all these
millions Of every Christian land have
plunged into the abyss at one leap?
Not on the precipitate edge, Not one
that ever perished on its depths ever
reached it atone bound. Higher up,
far higher up, among the gfeenest
fields Of life, where the stream flowed
winsome and slow among the flowers,
every human soul that ever sank in
this sea took its first step to ruin. The
custom Of n1oderate drinking was the
gateway to the gulf. No drunkafd of
any cline or country or age, ever
reached it by any other passage. CAS-
Toni not any innate or instructive
thirst for inebriating drinks in the
victims themselves at the beginning,
but custOnsS the example Of others.
looking at tthe wine when it is red%
in GaOther's hand; looking at it long,
ingly when it is quaffed by a neigh
boris lips, by a near friend, by "a brother,
a father; custom, garlanded with the
graces Of hospitality, set all around
with the brilliant refinement of social
enjoyment; custos, consecrated by
bishops and Christian ministers Of
all denominations, by philanthropists,
statesmen, and divines; custom. hid
den by the food, "but seen on either
side" continuous all the way to Adam
in one direction, all the way to this
mornings dawn, in the other; custOns,
set to music in palace and parlor; set
to smiles in eyes flashing with the
fascination of female beauty; set to
Joy in. songs Ofthe select circle; set to
literature in the first works of human
genius; set to painting by artists half
worshipped as divine; set to statuary
by sculptofs that have chiselled out
heatheRgOds from stone that seemed
to breathe a claim for reverence; set
to poetry in the greatest epics in all
times and languages; the rosy, win
ming custom Of moderate drinking is
the wicket-gate through which all the
myriads shat have been drowned in
this dead sea of destruction, first set
their souls onthe swilt-rushing stream.
Go, search all the records Of human
experience, and see if you can find a
single case ola human being that ever
took shorter cut to this gulf of ruin
than this; that ever climbed up some
other way, and leaped sheer over into
the abyss at bound. Ask the most
experienced in the statistics Of crime
and misery, ifhe ever heard or read
Of man or woman who ever engulled
a human soul in the drunkard's fate
through any other postern than this
custom of moderate drinking. You.
have never read, we have never read
ofsuch case. i #a1 .--
Now, then, will "the simple circu-
lation of the Bible" abolish this GUS
toml Will the simple preaching of
the Gospel abohshthis custom? Will
the simple conversion and regenera-
ton, by the Spirit of God, of the ma
jority of the community abolish this
custom3 Will llievery person, in be-
coming a sincere and devout Christian,
/ abandon this custom, and totally cease
to be moderate drinker? In what
country in the world has the Bible
\ 1Greer or latger circulation than in
Scotland? In what country is it more
/ widely and devoutly read, and more
persons able to read it? In what coun-
\ try is the simple Gospel of Christ
preached with OrepuTity and power.