Every man is responsible for evils which result from his own selfishness or indifference to the lives of men. In other words, to make a man responsible for results, it is not necessary to prove that he has malice, or that he intended the results. The highwayman has no malice against him he robs and murders, nor does he desire his death, but his money; and if he can get the money, he does not care. And he robs and murders because he loves himself and does not care for others; acting in a different way, but on the same selfish principle with the owner of the ox; and on the very same principle is he held responsible. In the trial of the owner of the ox, the only questions to be asked were these two: Was the ox _wont to push_ with his horn in time past? Did the owner _know it_ when he let him loose? If both these questions were answered in the affirmative, the owner was responsible for all the consequences. This is a rule which God himself has established. * * * * * Is INTOXICATING LIQUOR wont to produce misery, and wretchedness, and death? Has this been testified to those who make and deal in it as a beverage? If these two things can be established, the inference is inevitable--they are responsible on a principle perfectly intelligible, a principle recognized and proclaimed, and acted upon by God himself. Turn then your attention to these two facts. 1. Intoxicating liquor _is wont to produce misery_. 2. Those who make or traffic in it, _know_ this. 1. Upon the first point it will be sufficient to remind you of the hopes which intoxicating liquor has blasted, and the tears it has caused to flow. Let any one of us count up the number of its victims which we have known--consider their character and standing in society--their once happy families and prospects, and what a fearful change has a few years' use of strong drink produced. Very few but remember twenty, thirty, fifty, or one hundred families ruined in this way. Some of them were once our intimate friends--and their story is soon told.