r
arsenic, operating sometimes more slowly, but with equal certainty."

THE WONDERFUL ESCAPE.

In the town where I reside were twelve young men who were accustomed,
early in life, to meet together for indulgence in drinking and all
manner of excess. In the course of time, some of them engaged in
business; but their habits of intemperance were so entwined with their
very existence, that they became bankrupts or insolvents. Eight of them
died under the age of forty, without a hope beyond the grave, victims of
intemperance. Three others are still living in the most abject poverty.
Two of these had formerly moved in very respectable circles, but now
they are in the most miserable state of poverty and disgrace.

One more, the last of the twelve, the worst of all, remains to be
accounted for. He was a sort of ringleader; and being in the wine and
spirit trade, his business was to take the head of the table at
convivial parties, and sit up whole nights drinking and inducing others
to do the same, never going to bed sober. He was an infidel, a
blasphemer, a disciple of Tom Paine, both in principle and practice, yet
he was a good-natured man, and would do any body a kindness. At length
he left the town, and went to reside at a distance, where, for a time,
he refrained from drinking, was married, and every thing seemed
prosperous around him; but instead of being thankful to God for his
mercy, and watching against his besetting sin, he gave way to his old
propensity, and brought misery on his family and friends.

One dark night, being in the neighborhood of Dudley, he had been
drinking to excess, wandered out of the house, and staggered among the
coalpits, exposed to fall into them, and be lost. He proceeded on till
he fell, and rolled down the bank of the canal; but God, who is rich in
mercy, had caused a stone to lie directly in his path, and the poor
drunkard was stopped from rolling over into the water, where, by one
turn more, he would have sunk into eternal ruin. His senses returned for
a moment; he saw that if he attempted to stand, he would fall headlong
into the canal, and crawled back again into the road. But this
miraculous preservation had no effect upon him; he merely called it a
lucky escape.

Once, after having indulged in many days of intemperance, being come a
little to his senses, he began to reason with himself upon his
folly--surrounded with blessings, yet abusing the whole--and in an
angry, passi