Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1856-09-17
TO BE CONTINUED.
For the Spirit of the Age,

"Wine is q mocker, strong drink is ra-
ging." "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow?
who hath contentious who hath babbling ?
who hath wounds without a cause ? who
hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long
at the wine."
How often do men meet in good humor,
then drink to excess, talk nonsense, fancy
themselves insulted, take fire within, rave,
threaten and then come to blows ! AA
long thnvHagy, pgpves
let in a thief at the mouth to steal a@ay
the brains" In such a case; the stupidity
of a brute is often united with the fury Of
a demon. Nay, the man among the tombs
was comparatively harmless he only in
! jured himself but how often does the
drunken revel end in the cry Of murder {!
How often is the hand of the intoxicated
man lifted against his dearest friend, per-
haps the wife of his bosom, and in one
rash hour causes him to perform a deed
that haunts him to the grave! Could
call around me, in one vast assembly, the
young men of this nation, | would say =
Hope Of my country, blessed be ye Of the
Lord, now in the dew of your youth. Blu
lOOh MCh " 1Oul IOOCoOCpc, 1OI N1pSlO1 oeiS
scorpions, and adders surround your way
Look at the generation who have just pre-
coded you. The morning of their life wa
cloudless, and it dawned as brightly a
your own but behold them now-smitten
enfeebled, infamed, debauched, idle, poor
irreligious, and vicious, with hating step
dragging onward to meet an early grave
Their bright prospects are clouded, an
their sun is set, never to rise. No hous
of their W receives them while frol
poorer to poorer tenements they descend
as improvidence dries up their resources
Aud, now, who are those that wait on the.
footsteps, with muffled faces and sable ga
ments. That is a father, and that is
mother, whose gray hairs are coming wit
sorrow to the grave. That is a sist'
weeping over evils which she can not aver
and there is the broken hearted wife al
these are the children-hapless innocent
dishonor, and nakedness, and woe
\ And is this, beloved youth, the histo
of your course ? In this scene of desol
ton do you see the image of your futu
selves? Is this the poverty, and the d
2 CdSGg Nh1Chg 40 al III ulSO d ODo11 Il
hold on you; and are your relatives a
9 friends to succeed those who now move
t in this mournful procession, weeping
they go? Yes bright as your morni
: now opens, and high as your hopes be
6 this is your noon and your night, uni
you shun those habits of intemperaI
which have thus early made theirs a
n Of clouds and thick darkness. If you
n quent places of evening resort for soC
h drinking, if you set out with drinking q
1T ly, a little prudently, temperately, it
B. yourselves, which, as in a glass, you behc
lie Gone of the greatest consultations affo
i'd ed to my mind by the success of the tt
id perance cause, is the reflection that
en- child will not be a ~drunkard." Such
the language of a distinguished philantl
IN pist, as he held a listening assembly chat
Ill by the voice Of his eloquence. To this
at mark the heart of every parent assentt
us for that by the period when the oh
g which is now an infant, shall come u
the theatre of life, the use Of ardent spi
NC as a drink will be disreputable, can sea
To- ly be questioned. If the father and m
tly er could lift the veil of futurity, and
ng on the page of coming years, that the
oh now so loved, so idolized, would becor
lu- bloated, polluted and polluting Great
fly reeling under the influence of ardent
ip- Its, the remainder of their lives, would
lis wretched. The temperance cause doe
tn fact lift the veil of years. and disclos
the parents of the present generation t
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