ll--"we tempt the weak and lure the unwary and
break down the lines of moderation that prudence sets up to limit
appetite. I need not describe to you some of our social saturnalias. I
use strong language, for I cannot help it. We are all too apt to look
on their pleasant side, on the gayety, good cheer and bright reunions
by which they are attended, and to excuse the excesses that too often
manifest themselves. We do not see as we should beyond the present, and
ask ourselves what in natural result is going to be the outcome of all
this. We actually shut our eyes and turn ourselves away from the
warning signs and stern admonitions that are uplifted before us.

"Is it any matter of surprise, Mr. Elliott, that we should be
confronted now and then with some of the dreadful consequences that
flow inevitably from the causes to which I refer? or that as individual
participants in these things we should find ourselves involved in such
direct personal responsibility as to make us actually shudder?"

Mrs. Birtwell did not know how keen an edge these sentences had for Mr.
Elliott, nor how, deeply they cut. As for the clergyman, he kept his
own counsel.

"What can we do in this sad case?" he asked, after a few assenting
remarks on the dangers of social drinking. "This is the great question
now. I confess to being entirely at a loss. I never felt so helpless in
the presence of any duty before."

"I suppose," replied Mrs. Birtwell, "that the way to a knowledge of our
whole duty in any came is to begin to do the first thing that we see to
be right."

"Granted; and what then? Do you see the first right thing to be done?"

"I believe so."

"What is it?"

"If, as seems plain, the separation of Mr. Ridley from his home and
children is to cut the last strand of the cord that holds him away from
destruction, then our first work, if we would save him, is to help his
daughter to maintain that home."

"Then you would sacrifice the child for the sake of the father?"

"No; I would help the child to save her father. I would help her to
keep their little home as pleasant and attractive as possible, and see
that in doing so she did not work beyond her strength. This first."

"And what next?" asked Mr. Elliott.

"After I have done so much, I will trust God to show me what next. The
path of duty is plain so far. If I enter it in faith and trust and walk
whither it leads, I am sure that other ways, leading higher and to
regions of safet