The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-04-02

| otherwise have had no conception. 1t is
bad enough to have destroyed ourselves,
thnt it is mani old worse to have thrust, or
have dragged others down to the depths
of temporal ruin, and the woes Of eternal
perdition.
\ ow in this very serious and solemn
view Of human responsibility, look at the
weight of guilt, under which he who uses
intoxicating drinks, fairly staggers.
Drunkards are made by somebody. The
10000 who die annually are replaced by
new recruits, who come to fill the ranks
of that miserable array, which the King
of Tcrrors SO rapidly depletes. Where
do they come from? From the young
men, whom somebody corrupted and lur-
ed to ruin. Where influence began, and
fms heal their destruction? Not that
surely of the drunken wretch. rceling in
the streets, and besmeared with the filth
of the ditch belching forth insane jab.
behring's, and fearful oaths, until decent
man would scorn to set him with the dogs
of his flock.
His example allures no one, mis- inHu-
ence corrupts no one. 1t is the respecta-
BILE man, the man of property, of social
position, of political influence, who drinks
his wine or his brandy, and yet holds his
head aloft in society, whose pernicious
example lures men down to the pit. IF
there is a moderate drinker here to day,
let him take this fact home to his heart,
that he is running men all around him ;
that his example is the real drunkard
maker, and that how great is the desoa-
tion he has wrought, he can never tell,
until that day of solemn assize when God
makes inquisition for blood. To corrupt
others, is terrible sin. To do it design
edly, is the lowest depth to which guilt
and meanress can by any possibility de-
scend. To do it beedlessly, at the call
of appetite and pleasure and passion, is
to incur fearful catalogue of sin, to be
enrolled in that day,when man arises to the
realities of the final judgment. Temper.
ate drinker, let me bring you face to face
with the expectation of that dread hour,
and tell me, arc you ready, then and
there to take the responsibility of the 6D.
al perdtion Of those by whom you are
surrounded?
Let those who use intoxicating liquors,
in what they deem moderation, remember
that many of them are husbands and
fathers. Their children are around them,
their sons grown up as plants in their
YOUTH" their daughters " as corner stones
polished after the similitude of palace"
You love them, and your greatest earthly
anxiety is rightly to rear and educate
them, and provide a competency for their
use. You regard them the joy of your
manly strength and you hope they are
destined to be the staff of your declining
age. But father drinks, and they know
it. Rcvering you, and loving you, and
the more as they revere and love you,
and as you are worthy of that reverence
and affection, they decide that what faith
er does, they may safely initiate. So
they drink the appetite is formed. and
in time RACES beyond control, and are
they or you aware they are drunkards
If that boy that is taken in your arms, or
climbs upon your knee, or prattles by
your side, or sets at your table as you 60
home to night. lives drunkard, and dies
sot, who made bin so? Who gave the
example, and kindled the appetite, and
aroused the passions, that led him to pres
ent ruin, and eternal despair? Will you
do it? Will you hear him say when he
dies in agony Father you made me
drunkard, and thrust me down to hell and
| curse you for it."