oison. An incalculable amount of
grain, and tens of thousands of hogsheads of sugar and molasses, besides
enormous quantities of other useful articles, are every year thus
wickedly perverted in this Christian land. Who does not know the odious
fact that, in many places, the _distillery_ has regulated the price of
bread? Who does not know that this engine of iniquity has at times so
consumed the products of industry as to make it difficult for the poorer
classes to get a supply? "The poor we have always with us;" and cries of
the suffering are often heard from other lands. Such facts, it would
seem, might reach the conscience of all who are wantonly destroying
Heaven's gifts. Can you, for a little selfish gain, persist in
converting the bread of multitudes into pestilential fire? How utterly
unlike the example of Him who, while feeding thousands by miracle, could
still say, "Gather up the fragments which remain, that nothing be lost."

4. By continuing this destructive business, _you greatly offend the
virtuous and respectable part of the community_. The temperance
reformation has been commenced and prosecuted by enlightened men. It is
not the enterprise of any political party or religious sect. It has the
general support of ministers and Christians of different denominations,
of statesmen, judges, lawyers, physicians, and hundreds of thousands in
the walks of private life. They regard the enterprise as one, on the
success of which hang the liberties of our republic and the happiness of
future millions.

You cannot be surprised, then, that they look with pain on operations
directly adapted to defeat their plans, and perpetuate the dread evil
they deplore. You cannot suppose that their eye will light on the
_fountains_ of this mighty evil but with inexpressible grief, disgust,
and indignation. And if you have the common magnanimity of our nature,
you will surely cease to outrage the feelings of the virtuous throughout
the nation.

5. You pursue a pernicious calling, _in opposition to great light_. The
time was when good men extensively engaged in the distilling business,
and when few seemed to be aware of its fearfully mischievous tendency.
The matter had not been a subject of solemn and extensive discussion.
The sin was one of comparative ignorance. But circumstances have
changed. Inquiry has thrown upon the community a flood of light. The
evil of intemperance has been exhibited in its complicated horrors.
Ardent spir