habitual drunkenness, which is almost as ruinous to soul and body, and which the world veils under the phrase "addicted to gay company." If you admit this possibility for your child, will you not bestow a thought on how the evil is to be averted? If you see the chance of a deformity in figure or a defect in speech, how careful you are to correct it; how little you think of time, or money, or inconvenience, in comparison with preventing the threatened evil. Will you think more lightly of moral deformity, or be less anxious to guard against it? If there were any means which parents could adopt to guard their children from other deadly sins, would they hesitate to use them? A little lying, a little stealing is never permitted, for it is the first step which overleaps the holy barrier between right and wrong, and is at once the most difficult and the most terrible in its consequences; and since drinking is followed by equally evil results, why should you not in that case also enforce total abstinence? You will allege that in the instances of lying and stealing, there is positive sin in the very smallest indulgence, and you cannot admit this to be the case with drinking; and herein, we candidly allow, lies the great difficulty of every advocate of total abstinence who undertakes to argue the cause with the virtuous members of the community. Let us for once waive the question of absolute right and wrong; and ask you to consider whether the too easy gradation between temperance and intemperance is not in itself a reason why we should seek to make a hedge around the virtue of our children, and help them to resist temptation. For unless this is done, some of them will always be gliding imperceptibly across the boundary, as is attested by the histories of tens of thousands of families where an unsteady son has worked ruin and death, weeping himself the while the bitter tears of a remorse, which he had not the strength to ennoble into repentance. The blighted professional men, and the failing tradesmen, who hang the heavy maintenance of their irregular lives on grieved and sorrowing friends, are seldom those who can cast the reproach of their inebriety on the example of drunken parent. They come from the ranks of the respectable, and they acquired their taste for stimulants at the temperate board of respectable and often pious relatives. Can we, then, permit children to use what may be so fatal to them? They may not have our self-control, or they may be thrown amidst temptations we never experienced; would their degradation awaken no feelings of regret, that we valued our own comfort or reputation for hospitality too much to allow of our providing them with a shield against danger? The safeguard against intemperance which total abstinence provides, although in all cases very simple, is one which education, and that alone, can render perfectly easy. Childhood has no craving for stimulants of any kind, and the want, if not created, is never felt. The glasses of gooseberry champagne and home-brewed beer which we give to our children, are the first excitants of the taste which, when fully matured, seeks the stimulus of ardent spirits and brandied wines. Our children may escape the temptation to excess,-but they may fall. It is hardly needful to say, that those who would train their children to this abstinence must practice it themselves. If we withhold intoxicating drinks from them only, we shall merely impress them with the idea that these things are among the indulgences of mature age and the privileges of manhood. But, surely, no sacrifice of personal luxury can be too great to secure our beloved ones from temptation. Christian mothers, decide for your child now! Taste not, nor suffer him to taste, anything containing the alcohol which has ensnared so many souls for Satan, and made so many mothers childless; and then, if in after years you should have to weep over blighted hopes, and your grey hairs go down with sorrow into the grave, you will not have to endure the added pang of an accusing conscience suggesting to you, that perhaps you laid the first temptation in his way. Paul may plant, and Apollos water, and only our Father in heaven can give the increase; but oh, how seldom will the reward of success be withheld from a mother's efforts and her prayers! [The foregoing is a Tract issued by Mr. W. Tweedie, and may be had of him at one penny per copy, or 6s. per hundred.] THE SUNNY SPOT. The day had been overcast; suddenly the sun shone out, and a little patch of sunshine brightened the corner of the carpet. Immediately Tray got up, and, with a wise look, trotted to the bright place, and laid himself in it. "There's true philosophy," said George; "only one patch of sunlight in the place, and the sagacious little dog walks out of the shadow to roll himself in the brightness." Let not Tray's example be lost upon us; but wherever there shall shine one patch of sunlight, let us enjoy it.-Henry Martyn. What, though we wander in a maze Bestrewed with many a thorn! What, though across the stream of time What, though we number weary hours, When life appears a blot! Still may we find, to cheer our hearts, Though on the present, with its cares, And o'er the page of future years Despair has spread her pall; Yet early days of childhood's mirth What heart remembers not, When hope's bright dreams made all so fair, Earth seemed one sunny spot. The heedless foot may press the flowers, And odours from them bring; Thus oft, in sorrow's deepest night, Faith's sweetest blossoms spring. If thou hast dried the widow's tear, Then hast thou felt, amid the gloom, If to the humble couch of pain If thou in prayer has meekly bent Then thou hast in life's desert proved Thyself a sunny spot. Then what, though down the stream of time Thy bark be rudely driven, Thy pilot's hand is ever near, To guide thee safe to heaven. Earth's weary children then shall find- They calmly rest secure from fears- UPWARD AND ONWARD-WATER OR SPIRITS.* A DIALOGUE FOR GIRLS. By FREDERICK JAMES EDMONDS, Abingdon. [A Girl coming from the Band of Hope meeting is met by one of her companions.] Mary. Where have you been to, Jane? I have been looking about for you for a long while. Jane. I have been to the Band of Hope meeting, and I wish you had been there too. Mary. Why do you wish that? Jane. Because you would learn something there that might have been of use to you during your life-time. Mary. But, Jane, I can't understand what you do at this meeting. Jane. Why, you see, we go and listen to some gentlemen, who speak to us on the bad effects from drinking intoxicating liquors, and the good effects from drinking water. Mary. So you are a teetotaler, then! Jane. Yes: and I hope I ever shall be. Mary. But, I can't see any good in becoming a teetotaler. Jane. But there is a great benefit resulting from it; for it • We have inserted our young friend's paper as he sent it, and will have great pleasure in receiving similar contributions from other juvenile writers. stops the drunkenness, which all will allow to be a very bad thing. Mary. But doesn't moderate drinking stop drunkenness ? Jane. Very seldom; at any rate, whenever I hear that a drunkard has been reformed, it is by teetotalism. Mary. But, because there are those that take more than they want, that is no reason why we should give up drinking altogether! Jane. I think that is a great reason why we should give it up; for the drunkard would say, "I don't see why I should give up my glass or two, for you don't give up yours." And I think we also should give up moderate drinking, for it is dangerous; for all drunkards were once moderate drinkers; and also we ought to remember the old proverb, "Prevention is better than Cure." Mary. Well, Jane, I must confess that you are right; but what else have you to say why we should give up moderate drinking? Jane. This:-Because the Bible speaks against it. Mary. Why, I always thought the Bible was for it; for Paul advises Timothy to take a "little for his stomach's sake, and for his often infirmities." Jane. Paul only advises Timothy to take it as a medicine, for he says "take a little," which I should think doesn't mean take it every day, for that is not a little. Mary. But then Solomon says, "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine to him that is of a heavy heart." Jane. That means, "take it as a medicine," for I am sure you are not ready to perish, nor of a heavy heart; but besides, Solomon says a little further on, "Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright; at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder;" and many other passages does Solomon give. Then again, Samson was ordered not to take wine or strong drink, and also John the Baptist, which commands came from God. Mary. It is certain you have defeated me with these two arguments; but what is the next reason why we should become teetotalers? Jane. This because it is better for your health than being moderate drinkers. Mary. That can't be, Jane, for the doctor ordered me to take a glass of porter every day with my dinner, and surely they ought to know what is best. Jane. But, Mary, those are only common doctors, whose advice I would never take in the place of such men as we were told of to-night, as Professor Miller, and some other men. Mary. What does Professor Miller and these other great men say? Jane. Why, they say intoxicating liquors are injurious to the body, for they are no more or less than poisons. Mary. But, Jane, how is it that men that work in the field all day under the sun, can't do without it; for my uncle says he can't. Jane. But, Mary, has he tried to do without it? Mary. No, I don't think he has. Jane. Then he can't tell whether he can do without it or not; I dare say he feels better after he has had a drop of beer, but remember, it does not give him strength to go on with his work; it is only a stimulant, which is not strength, for do you suppose when spurs are pricked into a horse's body, that they give it strength? of course it doesn't, for when it has finished its work, it is more tired still, and the case is the same with a man. Mary. Does any one else besides Professor Miller say this? Jane. Yes, and also two thousand of the greatest doctors in the kingdom. Mary. Well, I must say that you are right, Jane, and now I think I shall ask father and mother whether I may join the Band of Hope; but they will be expecting me home now, so I must say good-night. Jane. Good-night, Mary. EXPERIENCE OF MR. T. B. SMITHIES, The Editor of the "British Workman." (FROM AN ADDRESS AT DARLINGTON.) "When he visited his native city, and inquired there for his old schoolmates, it was then that he was led with thankfulness to look back upon the past 23 or 24 years, because he saw so many who then could afford to laugh at him for relinquishing what they thought liberty, who were now either filling a drunkard's grave or going down to poverty and bankruptcy. He doubted whether there were many present who had been tried as he had been. About 11 years ago he was very severely put to the test. After leaving York to go to London, his strength began to give way, and apparently his days were numbered. He came back to his native city and consulted one of the most eminent physicians in the North of England. He examined him carefully, and then with sincerity, and the greatest gravity, said, 'You must drink two or three glasses of wine a |