A man addicted to intemperate habits was converted to religion and induced to sign a temperance pledge, partly by the influence of a speaker who quoted from "the word of God" such texts as these: "Woe unto him who holds the bottle to his neighbor's mouth" (Hab. ii. 15); "Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging" (Prov, xx. 1). But a few days after his conversion, as he was turning the leaves of the Bible, his eye accidentally caught sight of one of the texts I have quoted,--"Thou shalt spend thy money for strong drink," &c. Here he discovered that his Bible and his God both declared that buying and drinking intoxicating beverages was all right. It was enough. His resolution gave way; his firmness was unmanned, his moral manhood prostrated, his pledge overruled; and, in less than two hours, he was again lying in the ditch "dead drunk." Here is a proof of the mischief that can be wrought by one single text upon those who have accepted the Bible as "the supreme rule of their conduct." You may proclaim the evil of intemperance with the tongue of a Cicero, or paint it with the pencil of a Raphael, and muster all the texts you can find in the book condemning the practice, yet one such text as I have quoted will poison the moral force, of it all while the Bible is read and adored as "the rule of their conduct." As one drop of belladonna or prussic acid will poison a whole pint of water, in like manner will one immoral text, when found in a book accepted by the people as their highest authority in practical morals, have the effect to neutralize the moral force of every sound precept that may be found in the book. It is useless, and labor comparatively lost, for a book or a moral teacher to inculcate good precepts, while it is known they are morally capable of teaching or preaching bad ones. One spark of fire is sufficient to explode a powder-magazine. Bad precepts and bad examples are both very contagious in a morally undeveloped and unenlightened age; and their pernicious effects can not be wholly counteracted or prevented by any number of precepts of an opposite character.