be good once had a multiplicity of wives, and have not some of them
too gone to heaven? Men who professed to be good once were engaged in
the slave-trade, and have not some of them gone to heaven? But can men
who understand the will of God with regard to these subjects, continue
to do such things now, and yet go to heaven? The principle which applies
in this case, and which makes the difference between those who did such
things once, and those who continue to do them now, is that to which
Jesus Christ referred when he said, "If I had not come and spoken to
them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin."
The days of that darkness and ignorance which God may have winked at
have gone by, and he now commandeth all men to whom his will is made
known to repent. Your fathers, when they were engaged in selling ardent
spirit, did not know that all men, under all circumstances, would be
better without it. They did not know that it caused three-quarters of
the pauperism and crime in the land--that it deprived many of
reason--greatly increased the number and severity of diseases, and
brought down such multitudes to an untimely grave. The facts had not
then been collected and published. They did not know that it tended so
fatally to obstruct the progress of the Gospel, and ruin, for eternity,
the souls of men. You do know it, or have the means of knowing it. You
cannot sin with as little guilt as did your fathers. The facts, which
are the voice of God in his providence, and manifest his will, are now
before the world. By them he has come and spoken to you. And if you
continue, under these circumstances, to violate his will, you will have
no cloak, no covering, no excuse for your sin. And though sentence
against this evil work is not executed at once, judgment, if you
continue, will not linger, nor will damnation slumber.

The accessory and the principal, in the commission of crime, are both
guilty. Both by human laws are condemned. The principle applies to the
law of God; and not only drunkards, but drunkard-makers--not only
murderers, but those who excite others to commit murder, and furnish
them with the known cause of their evil deeds, will, if they understand
what they do, and continue thus to rebel against God, be shut out of
heaven.

Among the Jews, if a man had a beast that went out and killed a man, the
beast, said Jehovah, shall be slain, and his flesh shall not be eaten.
The owner must lose the whol