The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

The Grcal and Gooed ill Dan&'er.
temiperance are portrayed in general but appalling terms,
it is not said that the classes thus scourged were the ill-educated and the down-trodden, but it is the "priest and the
prophet" who stray and stumble;* the luxurious inhabitants of Ephraim who are abandoned to dissipation;t
the princes who are sick with wine, and the king who
stretches out his hand with scorners; I the rich and
powerful oppressors, who turn their temples into wineshops;~ the wealthy sensualist, who debauches his
neighbors. 11 And when the Saviour and his apostles
would warn against the perils and evils of strong drink,
they do not assume that only the ignorant and the worldly are exposed to those perils, but they press these warnings upon the most faithful and pious. "'Take heed to
yourselves," said Jesus, in warning his followers against
"surfeiting and drunkenness;" and it is to believers
that the exhortations are addressed, " Be not drunk with
wine, wherein is excess" (asolioa-mental and moral
ruin). ** "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking
whom he may devour" (katai'ee-drink down). tf Thle
general fact is that the richest, wisest, and best have
fallen, and the general inference is that none can guard
too vigilantly against the -influence of this betrayer of
men. The Scriptures, therefore, do not at all sanction a
current opinion that " education," or even moral and religious influences, will secure society against the evils of
strong drink, unless the education and moral influence
are directed specifically against the formation of the
drinking appetite and the exclusion of its causes.
3. T/ze Scr!litzres clearly poiint ozit that t/e cause of nimteif5erance atd all z'ts nischief lies ait ihe ztlozoxicatii, anzd corrztlzg z nalzire of slronz drink. Alcohol, as such, was not
* Isaiah xxviii. 7, 8. t Isaiah xxviii. I, 3.; Hosea viii. 5. ~ Amos ii. 8.
Ilab. ii. I-, i7. ~ Luke xxi. 3, 4.
** Epli v. I3. tt I Pet. v. 8.
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