THE HEARER TO HIS MINISTER.

REV. SIR, I take the liberty of calling your serious attention to a subject in which I feel deeply interested, and a proper understanding and advocacy of which I deem of vital importance in connection with the exemplification and spread of " pure and undefiled religion.' And in addressing you as my Minister, on a subject of this grave importance, and on which you differ from me in opinion, I desire, whilst I write with honest plainness, not to unnecessarily wound your feelings.

When, a short time since, I heard you preach from that passage in Holy Writ, in which occurs the exhortation, "BE SOBER," I observed that you explained it as referring to "the moderate use of the good things of this world," and knowing that you regard INTOXICATING LIQUORS as some of "the good things of this world," I felt grieved that you should thus countenance customs and practices, which are, I firmly believe, at variance alike with sound philosophy, and with the genius and spirit, as well as many positive precepts of christianity. Are you aware, Sir, that what you hold to be "good creatures of God" are, even in their moderate use, the germ from whence springs intemperance, and all its fearful concomitants of disease, want, crime, misery, and death? Have not observation and experience convinced you that any use of strong drink exposes to temptation, and has proved a fruitful source of individual suffering and domestic discomfort; a great impediment to national prosperity, and a principal hindrance to the success of a preached gospel? Has not the fact been forced upon your notice, that through the love of strong drink, hundreds of thousands are kept from the house of God-from the perusal of his word-from respect to his day—from fellowship with his people--and from the enjoyment of his salvation? And has not the history of Missionary operations disclosed to you another mournful fact, namely, that some of the most hopeful plantations which ever gladdened the eyes and rejoiced the heart of a zealous Missionary, have been blighted and wholly destroyed by the introduction of those drinks to which you have (thoughtlessly I would fain hope) given the name of "good things of this world," and the use of which you have sanctioned by your interpretation of the Apostle's exhortation to sobriety?

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I know not, Sir, whether ever you have read Dr. Adam Clarke's commentary upon these words: it is much in point. "Be sober" he says is derived from two Geeek words, which signify not, and to drink ; "do not drink, do not swallow down." The word "devour" is also derived from two words, down and to drink. If you swallow strong drink down, the devil will swallow you down." The learned Dr. adds, Hear this! ye drunkards, topers, and tipplers, or by whatsoever name you are known in society, or among your fellow sinners. Strong drink is not the only way to the devil, but the devil's way into you; and YE are such as the devil MAY (particularly) swallow down."

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Allow me, Sir, to place before you a few facts which may not have come before you, or the force of which you may not hitherto have felt.

First, a copy of a Testimonial, still in the course of signature, and to which are already affixed the names of about Sixteen Hundred Medical

men:

"We, the undersigned, are of opinion:

"I.-That a very large portion of human misery, including poverty, disease and crime, is induced by the use of alcoholic or fermented liquors, as beverages. "II.-That the most perfect health is compatible with total abstinence from all such intoxicating beverages, whether in the form of ardent spirits, or as wine, beer, ale, porter, cider, &c., &c.

"III.-That persons accustomed to such drinks may, with perfect safety, discontinue them entirely, either at once or gradually, after a short time.

"IV.-The total and universal abstinence from alcoholic liquors, and intoxicating beverages of all sorts, would greatly contribute to the health, the prosperity, the morality, and the happiness of the human race."

Amongst those who have signed this Testimonial, are the Physicians and Surgeons of the Royal Household-several Professors of Medicine and Surgery in the first Hospitals in the Kingdom-eminent members of the medical staff of the Army and Navy-and hundreds of the most skilful Medical Practitioners in the United Kingdom, and in the East and West Indies. I am able to add, that this Testimony has been confirmed by the experience of many thousands in various parts of the world, including persons of every age, profession, and habit. You will perceive, Sir, that this is not merely a physical question: though if it were, a minister of the Gospel could hardly be excused from giving it due attention. The Rev. Jabez Burns, Ď.D., in an "Address to Ministers of the Gospel," recently published, says :-"Ministers of religion are expected to be sufficiently versed in the laws which govern the physical system, to discern the difference between stimulation and nutrition;" and the same remark may be applied to all those general principles which affect the health and well-being of the mere physical man. In reference to the body, as well as to the soul, is not the kind and merciful language of the gospel, "Man, do thyself no harm!"

Many hundreds have seen and felt this. A meeting of Christian Ministers friendly to the practice of total abstinence from strong drink, was convened last April in Manchester, at which it was stated that nearly two thousand Ministers of various denominations had adopted the teetotal practice. At the conference then held, a certificate was drawn up, as follows:

"1.-That chemical and riedical science has now fully demonstrated that intoxicating drinks are not necessary as a beverage, to any class of our fellow creatures.

"11.-That the use of these drinks is attended with a perversion of pecuniary means-the waste of the bounties of Divine Providence-and is fraught with imminent peril to the health, mental improvement, and moral safety of mankind.

"III.-That the Total Abstinence principle is simple, practicable, and efficient, both for the restoration of the drunkard, and the preservation of the sober members of society.

"IV. That the universal success of this principle would tend, under the Divine blessing, to lessen human sufferings-to stay the progress of pollution, crime, and Sabbath profanation-and to promote the high interests of national order, sound morality, and true religion.'

This Certificate, Sir, expresses the calm and deliberate opinion of experimentalists in Teetotalism. It was signed at the period of its publication by nearly three hundred Ministers, and has since received the

signatures of about as many more. which you are, no doubt, familiar;

WILLIAM JAY.

J. PYE SMITH, D.D.; F.R.S.
DR. S. W. TRACEY.
DR. G. RYAN.

DR. A. JONES.

J. BURDER, A.M.

N. HALL, B.A.

Among the names are many with they include the venerable

W. R. THOMBURN, A.M.
F. J. FALDING, M.A.
D. HUGHES, B.A.

J. SHERMAN.

R. TRAIL, M.A.

R. THOMPSON, A.M.

If these and hundreds more of your brethren in the Ministry of the gospel are right, I leave you to say who are wrong.

In the above I have not included a name dear to every lover of the truth-JOHN ANGEL JAMES, of Birmingham. In his celebrated work, "The Church in Earnest," he says: "When will the ministers and members of our churches begin generally to enquire, whether it is not expedient for them, if not for their own sakes, yet for the sake of the community, to discontinue altogether the use of intoxicating liquors ? When it is considered that one half of the insanity; two-thirds of the abject poverty; and three-fourths of the crime of our country, are to be traced up to drunkenness that more than £60,000,000 are annually expended in destructive beverages-that myriads annually die the drunkard's death, and descend still lower than the drunkard's gravethat thousands of church members are every year cut off from christian fellowship for inebriety-that every minister of the gospel has to complain of the hindrance to his usefulness from this cause-and that more ministers are disgraced by this than by any other habit-that, in short, more misery and more crime flow over society from this source than from any other, war and slavery not excepted-and that by the highest medical authorities these intoxicating drinks are reduced as diet, from the rank of necessaries to luxuries-it surely does become every professor of religion to ask whether it is not incumbent upon him, both for his own safety, and for the good of his fellow-creatures, to abstain from this pernicious indulgence. Professors of religion! will you not, by abstaining from a luxury, lend the aid of your example to discountenance this monster crime, and monster misery? It is in the power, and therefore, is it not the duty, of the Christian church, to do much to stop this evil, which sends more persons to the mad-house-the jail-the hulks-and the gallows-more bodies to the grave-and more souls to perdition, than any other that can be mentioned ? CAN THE CHURCH BE IN EARNEST TILL IT IS PREPARED TO MAKE THIS SACRIFICE?" I call to mind, Sir, another important fact, of which, however, you can scarcely be ignorant, that thousands trained in Sabbath and weekday Schools have become the victims of drinking customs. The proportion is most appalling: considerably more than one half of the scholars, male and female, turn out drunkards, and but too large a proportion of the teachers fall into the same degraded ranks! The reason evident : total abstinence from these enticing and destructive beverages is not made a branch of education; no adequate shield against temptation is furnished; and the enemy gains an easy victory over the bodies and souls of thousands !

In a powerful Essay by the Rev. W. J. SHREWSBURY, recently published, I read as follows:" In the present day two opposite modes of

proceeding force themselves upon public attention-abstinence from inebriating drink, and a refusal to abstain. The question is no longer one of degree, but of PRINCIPLE. Neutrality is impossible: to attempt it is cowardice, and unworthy a Christian. The day is past in which he can be allowed to say, I wish well to the cause, though I am not an adherent to it.' That betrays the weakness of a feeble mind, and not the manly courage and simplicity of a Christian. If the cause be a bad one, why should he wish it success? If it be a good one, why should he be content with simply wishing, instead of heartily supporting it by his example, his influence, his efforts, and his prayers. No man who loves his neighbour as himself can turn aside from this great work, and refuse to lend his aid. Christian liberty is wide in its range, and so is Christian obligation. Christianity is LOVE; Total Abstinence is love; Strong drink is not love. Who dares controvert any one of these assertions Christianity is EQUITY; Total Abstinence is equity; Strong Drink is not equity, it is a monstrous injustice. On a large scale we endeavour to serve two masters; Churches and Gin-palaces stand side by side. Ministers preach the Gospel, and sit down to smoke and drink, what the great ROBERT HALL SO emphatically declared to be liquid death and distilled damnation. How long shall that thing be swallowed in moderation, by a Christian, which is the generator of so much mischief? Should not Christians "abstain from all appearance of evil. Ought they to drive their morality so near the bounds of evil, as to lead even weak persons to believe that they actually touch, taste, or handle it. The form of it should not appear with or among them; much less the substance.

I will advert but to one other fact. A Clergyman of the Established Church, in a popular tract, entitled, Common Sense,* for those who do not Think by Proxy,' says: "But tell the professing Christians of the present time, that by the manufacture of their favourite beverage forty thousand persons are engaged in the desecration of the Lord's Day, and the next Sabbath will find them sitting down to this identical beverage, and apparently relishing it as much as if they had been informed that forty thousand immortal souls had by it been sent to the House of God." But I must conclude; or I might ask you further, as 66 every tree is known by its fruit," have you made yourself acquainted with the results of the total abstinence practice, as to individuals, to families, and to the church of Christ? I could furnish you with most interesting and delightful details. It must, indeed, be evident to every candid observer, that such a practice can be productive only of good. Should the few tracts I have thus brought before you be the means of arousing your attention to a serious consideration of the whole question, and, still more, should they induce you to become the advocate of TRUE SOBRIETY, it will indeed cause the heart of one to rejoice, who has endeavoured to profit by your ministrations, but to whom your conduct up to the present time in this matter, has been "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence."

I am, REV. SIR, yours respectfully,
E. T

• Ipswich Temperance Tract, No. 28.

Stereotyped and Printed by J. M. Burton, Ipswich.

ALCOHOL

GENERATES A TENDENCY TO DEATH.

BY E. JOHNSON, M.D.

Ever since the time of the great Cullen, who first called the attention of the medical public to its vast importance, it has become an acknowledged principle of practice, that the chief office of the physician in the sick room is to watch and ascertain, in each case, the particular nature of the "tendency to death;" and, having ascertained this, to tax his ingenuity in devising impediments to throw in the way of this particular tendency. Thus, if the disease tends to death through feebleness in the heart's action-inability of the heart to carry on the circulation-this fact at once teaches the physician what he ought to do, viz., to strengthen by every possible means the powers of the system. If the disease tends to death, by pressure of too much blood on the brain, producing insensibility and all its deadly consequences, here, again, the physician is instructed, by the nature of the tendency to death, in what he is to do, viz., to relieve this pressure. If the disease tends to death through deficiency in the quantity of blood, so that the blood is not circulated, because the current passing through the chambers of the heart is too small to be grasped by that organ, here, again, the physician immediately perceives in what direction his assistance is required, by merely observing in what direction the enemy is approaching. There is good physiological proof, supported by numerous well-conducted experiments, that there are but two ways in which it is possible for a man to die that, whenever he dies, he either dies because no blood is conveyed by the arteries from the heart to the capillaries, or because they convey black, i.e. venous, blood.

Alcohol has a direct tendency to produce death in both these ways.

There are two ways in which the arteries are made to contain black blood, viz., by mechanical obstruction to the entrance of the air into the lungs, and by loss of sensibility on the part of the brain.