But there is another danger before you, of which, as a faithful friend,
I wish to forewarn you. I see a dark storm gathering over your heads.
You cannot be ignorant of the mighty movement that is making in our land
on the subject of temperance. You must have felt the heavy concussion,
and heard the rolling thunder. The religious, the moral, the patriotic,
the learned, and the wise, as intemperance has been developing its huge
and hateful features more and more, have been aroused to effort; they
have closed together in a firm phalanx; and as they move on with the
standard of _total abstinence_ waving before them, the great, and the
good, and the valiant of every name, are swelling their ranks. The cry
is waxing louder and louder, "Where are the strong holds of the monster;
point out to us the fountains that supply his insatiable thirst, and who
it is that feeds them; and who it is that opens the enormous floodgates?
and thither we will march, and against such men will we point our
heaviest artillery." And to this cry there is an answer more and more
distinctly breaking out: "To the distilleries--to the distilleries." My
friends, wait not till this storm of public indignation bursts upon you,
nor fancy that you can face it. Oh, no; it will be a steady, fiery
blast, that will bear you down; and you will find that none but the
dregs of the community will be left with you to sustain you. You will be
left with the drunkards, to be distinguished from them only as their
abettors and supporters; and from you will every virtuous and patriotic
man turn away in disgust, as enemies to himself, his children, and his
country. Think not that all this is imagination: look up, and you will
see the cloud blackening, and the lightning beginning to play, and hear
the thunder roaring. But it is not yet too late to escape from the fury
of the storm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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