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

I58 Tlze Suppression of the Liquor Trazffc.
daily, hourly, is not to be reckoned; the good undone by
it is equally beyond computation; and to hope that Christian civilization will be able to effect what it might, and
as quickly as it might, with this agency of evil in the
field, is to fall into a stupendous and calamitous mistake.
Could we personify this civilization appealing to her
friends-the friends of invention, of intellect, of justice
and religion-we should depict her standing in the midst
of all the wreck and ruin which strong drink has wrought
from the beginning of time; and as she points to the veil
which hides the future from all eyes but One, we should
behold her pleading that such wreck and ruin should not
embarrass and impede her in her progress through the
years to come. Civilization is a precious and splendid
heritage, and it is the concern of any one who values it
that it should be transmitted in a richer and nobler form
to the succeeding ages. How this can be done is for
each to ponder. How it will not be done is clear,
if the love of alcoholic liquor and an organized system
of its sale are carried on with the tide of time and with
the increasing intercourse of nations. But let the English
race-whether in the British Isles or in the "Greater
Britain" outside, or in the commonwealths that have
cast off the maternal rule-resolve to deal boldly and
effectively with the great antagonist of Christian civilization, and this example would form a precedent which other
races would be encouraged and proud to follow. Let it
be laid down as a position not to be questioned that alcoholic liquor as a beverage is a poison to all civilization,
and that common traffic in it is a curse of the greatest
magnitude; let all the energies of civilization in the most
civilized of nations be directed against its deadliest
enemy; and the results of this action would soon manifest
themselves in forms of the grandest and most enduring
benefit.