ecurity that he will not
become a victim to its power.

[Footnote F: Under this standard you shall conquer.]

We know the remarks which instantly mount to the lips of many at the
sight of such an assertion: "Surely the little we take can never hurt
us. Look around and see how many have done the same, and continued the
habit to the end of life, without having ever been betrayed into
drunkenness." We do look around, and are constrained to remark, how many
have seemed to live temperately to the end, who, if the reality were
known, would be quoted as warnings against the insidiousness of the
poison, instead of examples of the security with which it may be used in
moderation. They were never delirious; but were they never fevered?
Fever is often fatal, without delirium. Ah, did every disease with which
human beings are fevered, and swollen, and slain, receive a candid name;
were every gravestone inscribed with a true memorial, as well of the
life, as the death of him at whose head it stands; could every
consumption, and dropsy, and liver-complaint, disclose its secret
history; did every shaking nerve, and palsied stomach, and aching
temple, and burning brain, and ruptured blood-vessel, relate how it
began, and grew, and triumphed, we should hear, indeed, of many who died
in consumption, or dropsy, and other diseases, without any impulse
towards the grave from the use of strong drink; but of how many, never
regarded as intemperate, should we learn that the real, though slow and
silent cause of their death was _drink_. They lingered long, and their
malady was called a disease of the lungs; or they fell suddenly, and it
was a case of apoplexy; or they were greatly swollen, and it was
considered dropsy; they lost their powers of digestion, and were said to
be troubled with dyspepsia; every vital function refused its natural
action, and the poor victim was treated for a liver-complaint. But why?
what produced the disease? Alcohol! They were poisoned. They died of the
intemperate use of ardent spirits, however moderately they may have had
the credit of indulging in them.

But again, we look at the world, and while we cannot acknowledge that
they have habitually indulged in even a moderate use of ardent spirits
without receiving some injury--for alcohol must hurt a healthy man in
some way or other--we do acknowledge that many have thus indulged with
no very perceptible injury. They have continued sober. But so it must be
ack