Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-02-29
Experience has decided that any stimu-T

raises its muscular tone above the point at
which it can be sustained by food aud sleep,
produces, when it has passed away, debility
IA relaxation of the oyerworkcd organ
proportioned to its preternatural excitement.
If the experiment be repeated often, it pro
duces an artificial tone of stomach, essential
to cheerfulness and muscular vigor, entirely
above the power Of the regular sustenance
of nature to sustain, and creates a vacuum
which nothing can fill but the destructive
/ power which made it; and when protraeted
use has made the difference great, between
the natural and artificial tone, and habit
has made it a second nature, the man is a
! drunkard, and, in ninety-nine instances in a
hundred, is irretrievably undone. Whether
his tongue faltcr, or his feet fail him or moi,
/ he will die of incompetence. By whatever
name his disease may be called, it will be
one of the legion which lie in wait about
the path ofintemperance, and which abused
! heaven employs to execute wrath upon the
guilty.
But of all the ways to he'll which the feet
of deluded mortals tread, that of the intem-
perate is the most dreary and terrific, The
/ demand for artificial stimulus to supply the
deficiencies of healthful aliment, is ike the
rage of thirst, and the rayonous demand of
famine. 1t is famine; for the artificial ex-
citement has become as essential now to
strength and cheerfulness assimple nutrition
once was; nature, taught by habit to re-
quire what once she did not need, demands
qualification now with decision as inexor-
able as death, and to most men as irresista-
i bic. The denial is a living death; all the
, members of the body feel the exhaustion,
and the restless, unutterable wretchedness,
which puts out the light of life, and curtains
: the heavens and carpets the earth with sack
5 cloth. AT length the excitability of nature
/ flags, and stimulants of higher power and il
: greater quantity are required to rouse the
| impaired energies of life, until the whole
t process of dilatory murder, and worse thar
purgatorial suffering, having been passed
E over, the silver cord is loosed, the COLDER
: bowl is broken, the wheel at the cister1
t stops, and the dust returns to the earth as il
: was, and the spirit to God who gave it.
t These suferings, however, are not to b
: compared with the moral agonies which
g convulse the soul. The man feels his cap
c tivity and in anguish of spirit clanks hi
S chains and cries for help. Conscience thun
ders, remorse goads, and as the gulf open
: before him, he eaecoils and trembles, weep
d and prays, resolves and promises reform
). and seeks it yet again; again resolves anc
|, weeps and prays, and seeks it again
e Wretched man, he has placed himselfin tn
It hands of giant, who never pities, and nev
Il er relaxes his iron grpe. He may struggle
it but he is in chains. He may cry for release
+ but it comes not; and lost, lost may be in
/ scribed upon the door posts of his dwelling
e A sin so terrific should be detected in it
!, origin and strangled in the cradle; but OF
/ dinarily, instead of this, the habit is fixed
r and the hope of reformation is gone befor
n the subject has any suspicion of danger.
o is Of vast importance, therefore, that thos
it whose condition is not irretrievable,may pei
e ceive their danger and escape; and that al
t, who are free may be warned of the place
o of temptation and ruin.
is To the temperate young men of our Ian
$ I would say-hope of the nation, blesse
L be ye of the Lord in the dew of your yout
L look well to your footsteps, for viper'
t, scorpions and adders surround your way
Look at the generation who have just pre-
of ceded you-the morning of their life wa
e cloudless, and dawned as brightly as you
S own-but behold them, bitten, swollen, er
le feebled, inhamed, debauehed, idle, poor, il
n religious and vicious,with hating steps drag
h ging onward to meet an early grave! Thei
d bright prospects are clouded, and their SUI
is set never to rise. No house of their ow
D receives them, while from poorer to poore
:, tenements they descend, and to harder an
i harder fare, as improvidence dries up the
h resources. And now, who are those tha
10 wait on their footsteps with muffled face
at and sable garments? That is father, an
n that is a mother, whose grey hairs are con
r ing in sorrow to tho grave. That is 81:
s ter weeping over evils which she cannot al
b, rest; and there is the broken-hearted wifi
r, there the chiIdren-hapless innocents-fc
e, whom their father has proved the inherit
p ance only of dishonor, nakedness and We
ty And is this, beloved young men, the histc
r ry of your course; in this scene of desolatio
is do you behold the image of your futur
er selves? is this the poverty and disease, whic
D. as an armed man, shall take hold on you
he and are your fathers, mothers, sisters, wive
,r and children, to succeed to those who no
ar move on in this mournful procession, weeI