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Hence, we see the importance of the temperance pledge, and the futility of all objections to the absolute necessity of its existence as the indispensable bond of temperance union and prosperity, without which, no one can give evidence of true friendship to the temperance cause. On the correctness of such principles, we express the earnest wish that not only tens of thousands, but that many millions of devoted females now living, and those of unborn ages and generations yet to come, may be inclined to add their names to the pledge of total abstinence from all intoxicat ing liquors. Ladies of the present generation, do all in your power of influence, both by precept and example, to persuade all the members of your respective households, from oldest to youngest, who are capable of understanding and performing the duty, to sign the temperance pledge in the Family Bible, neatly prepared and written, to be preserved as memorials for generations following, when the subscribers to the pledge shall be dead and gone.

Parents, mothers, and all who may be mothers of the next generation, pause, and reflect for a moment on the importance of a single act of your life, which may be performed in one minute, and be a lasting memorial and example worthy of imitation, and be joyfully followed by thousands yet unborn, who may see your names to the temperance pledge of the nineteenth century, once written by your hands in the Holy Bibles which you now delight to read; the property of your lawful heirs when you die, and left in their hands for their perusal and guide in wisdom's pathway of duty and the way to heaven and glory, when you are dead and gone, to find your peaceful and

eternal home in the place prepared for you in the mansionhouse of God, the Father's kingdom of glory. O think for a moment what joy it will give you in the eternal world of glory, to look down from the celestial abodes of angels and the spirits of the just of Adam's lost race, made perfect in glory through the grace of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and there witness the improvement and use that may be made by your offspring on this earth in hundreds round their firesides, with your old Bibles open before them, reading your names once signed by your own hands in your much-loved Bibles, while thousands of other Bibles, the property of your offspring on earth, have their names written to pledges of total abstinence after your example, to go into the hands and possession of their heirs; and thus onward in succession, after the example of ancestors, while time shall last, and be lost in eternity.

O that every female in our land and world, from the queen on the throne of national power, to the housewives and daughters of farmers, mechanics, manufacturers, merchants, and professionalists of every rank of useful business of life, would sign the temperance pledge of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, and thus give example and influence to the promotion of the Temperance Reformation, which is providentially transforming this generation of human beings into a sober, industrious, prosperous, and happy world, as soon as intemperance, and all antiChristian principles, influence, and practices shall be purged out of it, and the predicted reign of the Glorified Redeemer shall extend from the rising to the setting sun, un. molested by the influence of any adversary.

CHAPTER XIV.

Effects of the Power of DIVINE PROVIDENTIAL MORAL SUASION, in one Neighborhood, by the Reformation of some Hard Drinkers and Drunkards, and the sudden and alarming Death of several other incorrigible Drunkards, personally known to the Author, who witnessed the remarkable Results recorded in this Chapter of the POWER OF PROVIDENTIAL MORAL SUASION in favor of Temperance Reform.

PROVIDENTIAL MORAL SUASION.

In one of the counties of the State of New York, there is a neighborhood which comprises a portion of three towns. Its settlement commenced some years before the war of the American Revolution, by emigrants, principally from some of the New England States, some of the lower counties of the State of New York, and various other places after the Revolution, comprising a community, in the new settlement, of such families generally as had been accustomed to the enjoyment of religious privileges. Consequently, soon after the peace of the Revolution, they organized into a religious congregation of church and society; unitedly erected a house of worship, settled a faithful and much-loved gospel minister, and for a series of years enjoyed union, peace, and prosperity in attend. ance on the ordinances of religious worship.

But an adversary was permitted to mark them out for a prey. The whole society was without a village; a neighborhood of plain country farmers and mechanics, scattered over an area of from two to three miles distance, in every

point of compass, from their central house of worship. The approach of a sly, artful, sagacious enemy first appeared, in a spirit of emulation, to fill the whole neighborhood with commodious places for social amusements in the unmolested enjoyment of country taverns and every-day beverages, for the morning, noon, and evening fireside dram, to cheer up the spirits of both old and young.

Before a temperance society was organized in the world, or one known to exist, the neighborhood above described was satanically enriched with ten taverns-several liquorselling stores, to recommend the petty sale of dry goods, together with a variety of cider-mills, a number of rumloving fiddlers, who depended much on their art for a livelihood, to accomplish which, they had only to keep or live near to a tavern, and be ready, almost every evening, to rosin the bow, strike up the music, and a company of drinkers and dancers would soon be in attendance, to grace the enchanted rooms, which, not unfrequently, would be enlivened with whole royal families of kings, queens, Jacks, and their deuces, to aid in passing away the jovial hours of life in dram-drinking, time-spending amusements, and gambling for intoxicating beverages, or for money, to pay for the good stuff to create happiness.

The next step of the sagacious enemy was to raise up fault-finders and remonstrancers against the lovely and faithful minister, until he was dismissed, and removed from his charge; the house of public worship was sold at public auction, to pay trumped accounts claimed by some disaffected builders, and was bid off, and secured by others from being converted into even a farmer's barn. The

THE SPIRIT OF WAR.

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Church, after long and painful struggles, was disbanded, and scattered among surrounding denominations of other neighboring congregations; and thus, the social religious inclosures of the former original society claims and privileges were demolished, and the whole area of the neighborhood was considered as common ground for whomsoever might become so powerful and successful as to usurp, take possession, and occupy it at their pleasure.

Such was the state of that neighborhood at the time when the Madisonian war of 1812 was declared, and our whole country was electrified with the animating prospect of the conquest of the Canadas, the universal triumph of Napoleon usurpations; French politics, and natural religion, under the specious denomination of “ HALSION ILLUMINISM," a wonderful appellation, indeed, but signifying nothing essentially different from Thomas Paine's "Common Sense Age of Reason”—amounting to a system of anti-christian philosophy, founded on natural religious freedom from all Bible restraints.

At this period, there was an astonishing amalgamation of infidel principles-the spirit of war, and the overwhelming flood of intoxicating liquors of every description. Hence, in the above described neighborhood, at a tavern near the center, with a rum-selling store attached to it, there might be found every day in the week, and especially on the holy Sabbath, crowd after crowd of coming, going, staying, lounging, and drinking customers, all animated with the happiness of the religion of nature, and the politics of war for the enlargement of territory. And no guests were more highly honored at those seasons of