dent temperament,
a ready wit, and a face beaming with the sunshine of piety towards God
and good-will to men. Besides, there was a just appreciation of his many
deeds of gallantry, some of which he occasionally related, and which
rarely failed to fill his hearers with admiration for the brave heart
that could prompt and the ready skill that could perform them. Hence, he
was listened to in the town and neighbourhood of Hull with an amount of
sympathy, attention, and respect which no other advocate of total
abstinence, possessed of the same mental abilities, could command.

[Sidenote: FORMS A BAND OF HOPE.]

The _Band of Hope_ had a warm friend and powerful advocate in the person
of Mr. Ellerthorpe, and it was in connexion with its services that he
found his most congenial employment. 3,000,000 of the inhabitants of
our country are now pledged abstainers from intoxicating drinks, and
this number includes upwards of 2,000 ministers of the Gospel. But
thirty years ago this cause was regarded with disfavour even by the
religious public. Hence, when Mr. Ellerthorpe and others sought to form
a Band of Hope in connexion with the Primitive Methodist Sabbath School,
Great Thornton Street, Hull, they met with much opposition from several
members of the Society, and also from some of the teachers in the
school, who were 'tipplers,' and could not endure the idea of a Band of
Hope. But the Band was formed, with Mr. Ellerthorpe as president, and it
soon numbered three hundred members. Before his death he saw upwards of
thirty of these Juvenile Bands formed in Hull. He attended most of their
anniversaries, throwing a flood of genial merriment, just like dancing
sunlight, over his young auditors. Hundreds of these 'cold water
drinkers' sometimes listened to him on these occasions, and as he
related some of the scenes of his eventful life, their young hearts
throbbed and their eyes filled with tears.

We cannot close this chapter of our little book without asking, Were the
motives which led our friend to sign the pledge, right or wrong? The
celebrated Paley lays down this axiom, 'That where one side is doubtful
and one is safe, we are as morally bound to take the safe side as if a
voice from heaven said, "This is the way, walk ye in it."' And is not
total abstinence the only safe side for the abstainer himself? Some men
have a strong predisposition for intoxicating drinks, and they must
abstain or be ruined. Naturalists tell us that i