ty has been pitched off into
old habits by the delicate hand of her whom he was anxious to please.

Bishop Potter says that a young man who had been reformed sat at a
table, and when the wine was passed to him refused to take it. A lady
sitting at his side said, "Certainly you will not refuse to take a
glass with me?" Again he refused. But when she had derided him for
lack of manliness he took the glass and drank it. He took another and
another; and putting his fist hard down on the table, said, "Now I
drink until I die." In a few months his ruin was consummated.

I call upon those who are guilty of these indulgences to quit the path
of death. O what a change it would make in your home! Do you see how
everything there is being desolated! Would you not like to bring back
joy to your wife's heart, and have your children come out to meet you
with as much confidence as once they showed? Would you not like to
rekindle the home lights that long ago were extinguished? It is not
too late to change. It may not entirely obliterate from your soul the
memory of wasted years and a ruined reputation, nor smooth out from
anxious brows the wrinkles which trouble has ploughed. It may not call
back unkind words uttered or rough deeds done--for perhaps in those
awful moments you struck her! It may not take from your memory the
bitter thoughts connected with some little grave: but it is not too
late to save yourself and secure for God and your family the remainder
of your fast-going life.

But perhaps you have not utterly gone astray. I may address one who
may not have quite made up his mind. Let your better nature speak out.
You take one side or the other in the war against drunkenness.
Have you the courage to put your foot down right, and say to your
companions and friends: "I will never drink intoxicating liquor in all
my life, nor will I countenance the habit in others." Have nothing to
do with strong drink. It has turned the earth into a place of skulls,
and has stood opening the gate to a lost world to let in its victims,
until now the door swings no more upon its hinges, but day and night
stands wide open to let in the agonized procession of doomed men.

Do I address one whose regular work in life is to administer to this
appetite? I beg you--get out of the business. If a woe be pronounced
upon the man who gives his neighbor drink, how many woes must be
hanging over the man who does this every day, and every hour of the
day!