The drunken ship is fast filling with water. Not a man at the pumps, not an arm at the helm. Having destroyed their friends, the crew fall upon each other. Close under their bow rave the breakers of a rocky shore, but they hear it not. At intervals they seem to realize their condition, and their power even yet to save themselves, but they make no effort. Gloom, and storm, and foam shut them up against hell with many thunders. In this terrible extremity Independence is heard to refuse help, and boasts of his strength. Friendship and Parental Love rail at thoughts of affection. Language trumpets his easy yarns and grows garrulous as the timbers crack one after another. Rage and Revenge are now the true names of Firmness and Courage. Silly Mirth yet giggles a dance, and I saw him astride the last timber as the ship went down, tossing foam at the lightning. Then came a sigh of the storm, a groaning of waves, a booming of blackness, and a red, crooked thunderbolt shot wrathfully blue into the suck of the sea where the ship went down. And I asked the names of those rocks, and was told: "God's Stern and Immutable Laws." And I asked the name of that ship, and they said: "Immortal Soul." And I asked why its crew brought it there, and they said: "Their captain, Conscience, and helmsman, Reason, were dead." And I asked how they died, and they said: "By one single shot from the pirate Alcohol; by one charmed ball of Moderate Drinking!" On this topic, over which we sleep, we shall some day cease to dream. ADVERTISEMENTS _THE BEER QUESTION._ The National Temperance Society has published the following books, tracts, and pamphlets upon the beer question, which should have a wide circulation. The following are adapted to Sunday-school libraries, as well as for family reading and general distribution. +Brewer's Fortune, The.+ By Mary Dwinell Chellis. 12mo, 425 pp +$1.50+ This takes up and discusses the entire beer question; the writer having carefully studied the subject from every point of view, and it is worthy of the widest circulation. It is one of the best volumes ever written by this popular author, and shows that wealth can not compensate for evil-doing, and that the sins of the fathers are often visited upon the children. +Brewery at Taylorville, The.+ By Mary Dwinell Chellis. 12mo, 445 pp +1.50+ This book shows how much evil was wrought by the establishment of a brewery in a hitherto prosperous town, and how it brought ruin and disgrace upon those who indulged in what are called the lighter drinks. It is one of the strongest books in favor of total abstinence from everything that can intoxicate. +Firebrands; a Temperance Tale.+ By Mrs. J. McNair Wright. 12mo, 357 pp +1.25+