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

176 Verdict of Scieince and Cliristianity.
it not rather be feared that no more certain means could
be devised of hindering the arrival of a time when the
body of the people will be well fed, well clothed, well
educated, well ordered, well behaved, than to perpetuate
a system which has been hitherto so fruitful in all misery
and evil, and which, by its baneful influence on the bodies
and minds of one generation, transmits some of its malignant marks, often by hereditary taint, to a posterity uncursed by heaven? It is important that no vain expectation should seize the social philanthropists and
reformers of this day. If they permit the seed of strong
drink to be sown, they will not, by any counter-contrivance, prevent the uprising of the old familiar crop of
intemperance, disease, destitution, vice, and crime. What
will be ensured besides this is the choking of much good
seed that would otherwise come to fruition. "God will
not be mocked" even by his servants when they act in
ignorance of his laws. As are the seed and the sowing,
so the harvest will be, as long as the sun gives light, and
the rivers roll onward to the seas.
OBJECTIONS.
I. It is objected that the froiosal of excluding i'zloxicating liquors from daily diel, social hoslblallies, and front
g, eneral commerce is, under existing circumstances, an extreme
one; that there is already a gratzfying advance made, as to
public sobriety, ufoni former times; and that, whatever may
be hereafter exiedient, pfiresent effort should be limited to reforms of a more moderate descriitlon."
This threefold objection may be best examined in its
separate parts:
(i.) The charge of extremezess is one well adapted to
terrify those who are never more alarmed than when they
are supposed to be going in advance of the opinion of
their own social circle. But minds not enslaved by con
-,A