Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1884-07-17
GOOD ADVICE.

BOYS, WHAT DRINK DOES. - Drink
causes loss of self-respect; it deadens
nerve sensibility: it makes the brain
perform its functions very imperfect
ly; it blunts the acuteneSs of the per-
ception; it impalrs the serenity of the
temper; it augments human woe; it
nightly dimlniShes the sum of human
happiness: it has filled life with most
of its most m0urnful tragedies; it de-
stroys the TEMPORAL welfare of many
young men and inperils that of many
more; its constant motion is toward
the disorganizaLion of society; it is the
cause of almost all the poverty and
ignorance which prevails: it is the
creator of crime, the leveler of lauda-
BILE ambition, the sailors syren, the
scholars snare, the ravager of the rich
and the purlOiner of the poor; it snaps
the ties of natural love which bind
man to man; it invades the family
circle, withers its peace, blasts its
hopes, quenches love. and too frequent
ly converts that which should have
been type of heaven into the reflec-
ton of hell. In view of the gravity
of this charge against a vice which
curses earth and diSpleases heaven, it
is the duty of young men to have
nothing to do with it, and the more
they recognize their individual re-
sponsibility, the more intense will be
their hatred of a system which has in
the past so terribly thlnned their num-
bers. Every young man who counten-
ances, or encourages the use of stimu-
lants who boasts that he can drink
when he pleases and abstain when he
likes; who laughs when his friends
demonstrate, and who sneers at young
men when they adopt total abstinence
principles, is retarding the arrival of
that day when this great evil which
Expresses humanity will be swept
away, and for the evil which his ex-
ample caused he Will be held account
able. This thought is appalling, but
neither logic nor sophistry can over
throw its stern and solemn truth.
How many men who, in the first flush
Of Young manhood contracted drinking
habits, and are plucked as "brands
from the burning" would pass along
the paths of life with lighter steps and
happier hearts if the influence of that
earlier life could be removed. But
their new life cannot destroy the eff
fects of their old one. and upon the
walls of their memories are traced the
scenes of hours misused, of talents
missapplied and influence misdirected.
You men who know anything expert
mentally of OF alcohol and who have
not experienced the trials and tempta-
tions which contact with it brings.
do no: touch the first glass, for in SO
doing you will run the risk of display
ing your ignorance and lOosing your
bliss. Have you tastep Drink has no
purity in it to refine you. Have you
inauguration 1t cannot assist, but
it will cause the poetry of life to be-
come one sad refrain of what might
have been. Have you desire to leave
society better than you find it? 1t will
prevent you from being of service to
your fellow men, one of the most
honored and exalted purposes to which
young mems lives can be consecrated.
Young men who are moderate drink
ers. adopt the great common-sense
doctrine Of teetotalism; a doctrine bas-
ed upon truth, simple, majestic, and
imperishable. j. l. G.