f our moral and religious institutions, or as
introducing disorder, distress, and ruin into families and society; it
calls to us, in a voice of thunder, to awake from our slumbers, to seize
every weapon, and wield every power which God and nature have placed
within our reach, to protect ourselves and our fellow-citizens from its
ravages.

But the occasion will not permit me to dwell on the general effects of
intemperance, nor to trace the history of its causes. I shall,
therefore, confine myself more particularly to a consideration of its
influence on the individual; its effects on the moral, intellectual, and
physical constitution of man--not the primary effect of ardent spirit as
displayed in a fit of intoxication; it is the more insidious, permanent,
and fatal effects of intemperance, as exemplified in the case of the
habitual dram-drinker, to which I wish to call your attention.

I. The effects of ardent spirit on THE MORAL POWERS. It is perhaps
difficult to determine in what way intemperance first manifests its
influence on the moral powers, so variously does it affect different
individuals. Were I to speak from my own observation, I should say that
it first appears in an alienation of those kind and tender sympathies
which bind a man to his family and friends; those lively sensibilities
which enable him to participate in the joys and sorrows of those around
him. "The social affections lose their fulness and tenderness, the
conscience its power, the heart its sensibility, till all that was once
lovely, and rendered him the joy and the idol of his friends, retires,"
and leaves him to the dominion of the appetites and passions of the
brute. "Religious enjoyment, if he ever possessed any, declines as the
emotions excited by ardent spirit arise." He loses, by degrees, his
regard to truth and to the fulfilment of his engagements--he forgets the
Sabbath and the house of worship, and lounges upon his bed, or lingers
at the tavern. He lays aside his Bible--his family devotion is not
heard, and his closet no longer listens to the silent whispers of
prayer. He at length becomes irritable, peevish, and profane; and is
finally lost to every thing that respects decorum in appearance, or
virtue in principle; and it is lamentable to mark the steps of that
process by which the virtuous and elevated man sinks to ruin.

II. Its effects on THE INTELLECTUAL POWERS. Here the influence of
intemperance is marked and decisive. The i