orifices of the stomach. I am persuaded, that
much of the tendency to apoplectic and paralytic affections; much of the
general indisposition, which we often witness in men advanced beyond the
middle period of the usual term of human life,--men who have of late
perhaps, lived temperately--is to be attributed to the wine which they
drank when young.

But I will not dwell longer on the evils of excessive drinking. You know
the admonitions of Scripture,--_Take heed lest at any time your hearts
be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. Be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess._ You know that _drunkards cannot inherit the kingdom
of God_; you know that drunkenness is spoken of by St. Paul as being the
vice of those, who remain sunk in the thick darkness of ignorance and
heathenism, and as utterly unbefitting those who are blessed with the
light of the Gospel. Indeed, it is unworthy of any man possessed only of
common sense.

Guard, then, my dear nephew, against this degrading habit with
determined resolution. Let neither the example, nor the solicitations,
nor the taunting jests of your companions, induce you to demean yourself
so far, as to be guilty of a vice so utterly unworthy of you, both as a
man and as a Christian. If they, for their amusement, were to request
you to cut off your right hand, you would not feel bound to comply with
them. Do not, for their gratification, expose yourself in the condition
of a fool, or an idiot. Do not, in order to please a party of
thoughtless revellers, incur the displeasure of Almighty God, and run
the hazard of eternal ruin.

And take care, that you do not yourself _acquire_ a taste for any such
sensual indulgences. "The appetite for intoxicating liquors," says
Paley, "appears to be almost always _acquired_." Guard against the first
beginnings of intemperance. _Principiis obsta._ If you are not on your
guard, you will be in danger of being carried on, step by step, until
retreat becomes out of the question.

You would avoid many trials of your firmness, and be relieved probably
from much irksome importunity, if you could make up your mind to
renounce wine altogether. This you would do with the less difficulty, if
backed by the sanction of medical advice. I apprehend that most medical
men, if desired to give their _candid_ opinion, would recommend
abstinence from wine as conducive to a _young_ man's health both of body
and mind. I knew _water-drinkers_ at Oxford, who yielded