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in darkness. I love the Good Spirit with all my heart. Jesus shall be my trust as long as I live. This is all I have to say."

William Snake." My brothers and sisters, it is about six years since I first set out in the service of Jesus; and I feel glad that I am not yet tired of this good way. Several of my brothers and sisters have lately died out of my class: they are gone to the Great Spirit in heaven, where they are now praising him. I am left alone to weep over their bones; but I hope by and by to meet them in heaven. I will trust in Jesus. This is all I have to say."

James York." It is now seven winters since I first found the Lord Jesus in

my heart. Before I found him I was very poor, wicked, and drunken, and wandered about in the woods without any knowledge of the Great Spirit. I feel happy in serving him, and will try to be faithful. My trust is in Jesus, who died for me."

John Isaacs.-" Brothers and sisters, I will tell you what the Great Spirit has done for me. Before I found him my path was very crooked, and I was fast walking down to the bad place. I am now trying to walk straight, that I may get to heaven."

Chief Yellow Head's wife.-"I am glad to say that I feel happy every day in my heart. My desire is to get to heaven, that I may see Jesus and all the good people who have gone to heaven. I will try to be faithful, and trust in Jesus."

Sally Snake.-"I will tell what the Great Spirit has done for me. I feel that the Great Spirit always sees my heart, and that he knows how poor and weak I am. I feel very poor this day in my heart. I try to watch and look around me every day, that sin may not get into my heart, and so cause me to

fall. I am glad to see the Preachers, who come to tell us about the words of the Great Spirit. I always pray for them."

Chief Naningeshkung. "I am also glad to see this love-feast, and I am glad to feast with my brethren once more. follow after my brothers and sisters in

the good way. I was once very wicked and very poor; but the Great Spirit found me, and had mercy upon me. I am glad to see our Ministers. I will always trust in Jesus."

Big Wing." My brothers and sisters, I am glad that my life has been spared to see this love-feast, while many of my brethren have died. I feel glad in hearing the good word once more. I owe much to the Great Spirit for what he has done for me; and I have nothing to pay with. My hope is in Jesus. I hate the fire-water, which I once loved, and which some still love. I am glad to see our Preachers, who tell us the way to heaven. I will strive to be faithful, and always trust in Jesus. This is all I have to say."

Several others expressed themselves in a similar manner. The council-house was full of Indians, and it was a truly delightful and profitable meeting. How delightful to see these poor people, who, a few years ago, were sinking under the influence of every vice which degrades human nature into a premature grave, raised, by the power of the Gospel, to the dignity of men and Christians! Of them it may be truly said, what the eloquent Watson said, with reference to the West India colonies, "Your Missionaries have dived into that mine from which we were often told no valuable ore or precious stone could be extracted, and they have brought up the gem of an immortal spirit, flashing with the light of intellect, and glowing with the hues of Christian graces."-Canada Christian Guardian. J. STINSON.

AMERICAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. THE Eighth Report of the American Temperance Society, presented in May, 1835, like its predecessors, is a document replete with invaluable information. It is chiefly occupied by a discussion of the physical and moral effects of the alcoholic poison,-its history,-the way in which it causes death,-its effects upon infant children,-its influence upon the soul,--its production of pauperism and crime, its consequences in counteracting the effects of the Gospel,-and its polluting and hardening influence upon the heart. The Report describes the present state of the Temperance reformation in

America; and the following is the summary given to us upon this delightful subject. More than two millions of persons have ceased to use ardent spirits. More than eight thousand Temperance Societies have been formed, embracing, it is believed, more than one million five hundred thousand members. Twentythree of these are State Societies; and there is now one in every State, with one exception, throughout the Union. More than four thousand distilleries have been stopped; and more than eight thousand merchants have ceased to sell ardent spirits, and many of them have ceased to

sell any intoxicating liquor. More than twelve hundred vessels sail in which it is not used; and more than twelve thousand persons who were drunkards, and it is supposed more than two hundred thousand other persons, have ceased to use any intoxicating drink.

The most distinguishing feature of this Report is its recommendation to the members of l'emperance Societies through out America, to adopt the principle of total abstinence. The number of those who are, in practice, adopting this principle is constantly and rapidly increasing. In the pledge of many Societies, the words "ardent spirit have been changed for "intoxicating liquor;" and most of the Societies which have been formed during the past year, especially among young men, have been formed upon the plan of abstinence from the use, as a beverage, of all intoxicating liquor.

The Report having quoted largely from the statements made at the annual meetings of the Preston Temperance Society, concludes by a reference to the moral good which is likely to be permanently accomplished by the beneficent agency of Temperance Societies. "Such," it says, "has been the change of mental and moral habits, where abstinence from the use of intoxicating liquor has prevailed, that not only has drunkenness ceased, but health, virtue, and happiness have been greatly promoted; and all means for the promotion of the good of man have been crowned with augmented success. It has been like the purifying of the pestilential atmosphere of a great country, on the health of the population. The old plan of operating on this subject, while men continued to make, to sell, and to use the cause of intoxication, and laboured only to remove its effects, was as unphilosophical and as absurd, as it would be to manufacture, sell, and use poisonous miasma, and bend all our ef forts, not to prevent the cholera, but only, if possible, to cure it, after it had, by the wickedness of men, occurred; or for the Government to license the dissemination of the cause, and then to employ Physicians to try to remove the effects. But the present plan, which has burst like a new sun upon the world, is not to generate the cause. Instead of making it the great object to remove the evil after it has been committed, or while continuing the cause, to prevent only its effects, the plan is, not to commit the evil, but to let mischief alone before it is meddled with: then its effects will have no existence. Let this become universal, and drunkenness and all its abominations will, of course, for ever cease.

The cessation of the cause will necessa rily be followed by the cessation of its effects; and their cessation will be the cessation, and to an untold extent, of innumerable other evils, and the produc tion of good, pure, unmixed, immeasur ble good, under the influences of the means of grace, and of the Holy Spirit, to an extent which can hardly be conceived, and to multitudes which no man can number."

THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL.

"The art of distillation has been said, by some, to have been known in China, at a period much earlier than we have any authentic evidence of its having been known in other parts of the world. But there is no proof that alcohol was ever extracted from fermented liquor till about eight or nine hundred years ago. When this was first done in Arabia, no person knew what this product of distillation was; nor was there any language that had for it even a name. They, however, made a name. They called it alco hol; and that is the chemical name in every country to this day. Alcohol, in the language of that country, was a fine impalpable powder, with which the women used to paint their faces, for the purpose of increasing their beauty, and in order to appear to be what they really were not. And if any, under the influence of this intoxicating poison, really thought that they were more beautiful than they were when sober, and under the influence of that only which God made as a beverage for man, they were deceived.

"It was, however, soon ascertained to be a poison; and it does not appear that any one, who understood its nature, even thought that the time would ever come when any people would think of using it as a drink. Arnoldus de Villa, a Physician in the south of Europe, who lived in the thirteenth century, is, so far as is known, the first writer whose opinion is on record, who recommends in any case the use of it even as a medicine. Under his influence, however, and that of his disciple, Raymond Lully, who was born at Majorca, in 1234, its medicinal use extended northward, and spread over various parts of Europe. Judging from its immediate effects, it was thought to increase life; and was denominated aqua vitæ, 'water of life. This was what its friends pretended it to be; and what, while under its influence, and deluded by its effects, multitudes down to this day lave thought it to be. Whereas, if named according to its nature and consequences, it should have been, aqua mortis et damnationis,

'water of death and damnation.' Yet, so powerful was its influence to deceive men, and to make them call evil good, and good evil, that Theoricus, as stated in Holinshed's Chronicles, published in the sixteenth century, wrote a treatise upon its wonderful sanative power; in which he says, It sloweth age, it strengtheneth youth, it helpeth digestion, it cutteth flegme, it abandoneth melancholie, it relisheth the heart, it lighteneth the mind, it quickeneth the spirits, it cureth the hydropsia, it healeth the strangurie, it pounceth the stone, it expelleth gravell, it puffeth away ventositie, it keepeth and preserveth the head from whirling, the eyes from dazzling, the tongue from lisping, the mouth from snaffling, the teeth from chattering, and the throat from rattling; it keepeth the weasan from stiffling, the stomach from wambling, and the heart from swelling; it keepeth the hands from shivering, the sinews from shrinking, the veins from crumbling, the bones from aching, and the marrow from soaking.' Such were supposed to be its wonderful virtues; and many began to think that they could not live without it.

"Ulstadius, another writer, ascribes to it this most singular praise: he says, 'It will burn, being kindled.' And this he considers as demonstration of its peculiar excellence.

"It was not therefore strange, with such views of its power as a medicine, that men should begin to conclude that it must also do good in health, especially when they were peculiarly exposed, and under severe labour; nor that they should introduce the use of it for the purpose of preventing, as well as curing, diseases. This was the case particularly in the mines in Hungary; and afterwards, in 1581, it was introduced, by the English, as a kind of cordial for their soldiers while engaged in war in the Netherlands.

which is now suspended over our country, and which is pouring its fiery stream through all the currents of public and domestic intercourse.' The people of that country have since drunk forty millions of gallons of distilled spirit, besides vast quantities of fermented spirit, in a year. And although it did not become

a common drink with the people of the United States, till within less than one hundred years, they have since drunk in a year more than sixty millions of gallons; and the people of some other countries have drunk, in proportion to their numbers, more than twice that quantity."

DELUSIVE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRIT.

"It sometimes also appears to remove trouble; and this is another motive to take it. A man's wife, in the state of NewYork, was seized with the cholera, and he was in trouble. She died; and he drank alcohol. Under its influence he took her by the hair of her head, and, in high glee, dragged her body across the floor, and tumbled it into the coffin. It seemed to remove trouble, and, even under the most trying circumstances, to occasion mirth. But the mirth of the wicked is short; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Yet, as the mirth is real, and is occasioned by alcohol, it presents a motive to drink it. And thousands do drink it on this account.

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"It sometimes also seems to remove even poverty; and to increase riches, and other desirable things. A poor man in Massachusetts, who was not a drunkard, but was in the habit of daily using spirit, greatly to his own injury and that of his family, was entreated by a rich neighbour to renounce the practice. had done it himself, and found great benetit, and he wished his neighbour to do it. But the poor man gave this as a reason why they did not think alike on this subject: You,' said he, are a rich man, and of course have no need of taking it. You are rich enough, and you feel rich enough without it. But I am a poor man, and nobody likes always to feel poor; and when a man has taken a little, he feels five hundred dollars richer than he did before.' But is he any richer? Is his family any richer? Or is it all delusion? Delusion; but no more real than the men experience in other cases, who, because it gives them present pleasure, think it does them real good. It gave to this man for a moment the pleasure of feeling that he was rich when he was not rich, the pleasure of being deceived; and this is its nature. It gives 3 R

"It was also introduced as a drink into Ireland and various other places. What was the consequence of this? The same which ever has been, and, while the world stands, ever must be, the consequence in every country, of thus using it, delusion, delusion,' as to its nature and effects. Men cannot come under the power of this mocker, and not be mocked. Another effect was, and, while it is used, ever must be, it created a tendency to perpetuate that use of it; and also to increase the quantity used. Hence,' says a British writer, speaking of their introducing it into the army in 1581, from this little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, has been evolved that mighty mass VOL XIV. Third Series. DECEMBER,

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to men the pleasure and profit of deception. For this reason it has often been furnished at public sales of property, for the purpose of leading those who might attend, and would partake of it, to feel more rich than they really were, and to give more for property than it was worth."

ARDENT SPIRIT THE CAUSE OF

DEATH.

"Alcohol is a substance which is, in its nature, unfit for the purposes of nutrition. It is not in the power of the animal economy to decompose it, and change it into blood, or flesh, or bones, or any thing by which the human body is or can be nourished, strengthened, and supported. When taken into the stomach, it is sucked up by absorbent vessels, and carried into the blood; and with that is circulated through the whole system, and, to a certain extent, is then thrown off again. But it is alcohol when taken; it is alcohol in the stomach; it is alcohol in the arteries, and veins, and heart, and lungs, and brain, and among all the nerves, and tissues, and fibres of the whole body; and it is alcohol when, after having pervaded and passed through the whole system, it is thrown off again. Give it even to a dog, and take the blood from his foot, and distil it, and you have alcohol, the same which the dog drank. No, not the same which he drank, for a dog knows too much to drink it: the same which, in opposition to his knowledge of good and evil, or the instinctive sense which God gave him, and drunkenness had not perverted, you forced upon him. Not even the sense of a dog will permit him to take it; nor can the powerful stomach of a dog digest it : much less can that of a man. Take the blood from the arm, the foot, or the head, of the man who drinks it and distil that blood, and you have alcohol. take it from the brain strong enough, on the application of fire, in an instant to blaze. Not a blood-vessel, however minute, not a thread of the smallest nerve in the whole animal machinery, escapes its influence. It enters the organs of the nursing mother, which prepare the delicate food for the sustenance and

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growth of her child. It is taken into the circulation, and passes through the whole system of the child; having, through its whole course produced, not only on the mother, but also on the child, the appropriate effects of the drunkard's poison. This is a reason why, after the mother has taken it, the bahe, although before restless, sleeps all night like a drunkard; and a reason also why such

children, if they live, often have an ap. petite for spirit, and are so much more likely than other children to become drunkards. This is a reason, also, why, when the parents have been in the habit of freely taking it, their children are so much smaller and less healthy than other children; have less keenness and strength of eye-sight, firmness of nerve or ability of body and mind to withstand the attacks of disease, and the vicissitudes of climates and seasons; and, also, a reason why they have less inclination and less talent for great bodily and mental achieve. ments. By the operation of laws which no man can repeal or withstand, the iniquities of the fathers are thus naturally visited upon the children from generation to generation."

ARDENT SPIRIT AND CRIME. "Alcohol so affects the understanding, that moral considerations are less clearly perceived; and it so affects the heart, that moral obligation is less powerfully felt.

It causes the conscience to lie more dormant, and the imagination to be more extensively and deeply polluted, and polluting. It corrupts the very source and springs of moral action, and brings a man peculiarly in all respects under the power of the devil. Mental iniquity, from which the mind, when not poisoned, instinctively recoils, becomes, when it is, the element of its delicious revel; and crimes, from the thought of which it be fore started back with abhorrence, it now commits with greediness. And so perfectly is this known, that, by the agents of him who was from the beginning ' a murderer,' it is furnished for this very purpose.

"A young man in Ireland committed a murder, in March, 1833. He was after. wards tried at Kilkenny, and pronounced by the Jury to be guilty. Yes, my Lord,' said the prisoner. I am guilty;" and, pointing to his mother, a woman more than eighty years of age, who stood by, he said,She was the cause of it." She had agreed beforehand for the price of the blood of Mr. Lennard, the man, who, according to that agreement, was to be murdered by her son. She watched for the coming of the unfortunate and unsuspecting man; and when she saw him approaching, she handed her son the pistol, with which to take his life. there was not enough wickedness and hardness in the young man to commit the deed. He instinctively shrunk back, saying, "How can I murder the peor gentleman? His mother handed him the whisky bottle, which she had got for the occasion, and said, Take that.' He

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took it, shot the man, and was hanged. (Br. Par. Rep., p. 292.) It increases the wickedness of the soul; and prepares it to be led captive by the adversary of all good at his pleasure. The men, therefore, who manufacture, import, sell, or in any way furnish it, to be used as a drink, are assisting the old murderer in the work of human destruction.

"Another young man, who had committed a crime so horrid that it was thought to be incredible, was asked by the Magistrate, in his examination, how it was possible he could commit such a crime. He answered, With the help of whisky I could commit twenty such crimes.' (Ibid., p. 299.) It tends to remove all difficulties, arising from moral considerations, in the way to hell; and to keep its victim, till his probation closes, from turning his eye toward the path of life.

"A young man, who but just escaped death, from the outrage and brutality of a number of persons who were under its influence, who was indeed supposed to be killed, and was left by them for dead, in giving his deposition, after his recovery, was asked by the Magistrates whether they were drunk. He answered, 'No. They were well able to do their business.' He was then asked whether they had been drinking. He answered, 'I wonder that your Honour, a gentleman of your knowledge, should ask such a simple question: sure you do not think that they would come without preparing themselves.' So universally is it now understood to be a needful preparation for all deeds of darkness, that he wondered any one should think that they would attempt such mischief without it.” -Temperance Advocate.

REVIVAL OF RELIGION IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.
City-Road Chapel,
Nov. 5th, 1835.

IT will give pleasure to all good men to learn, that there are evidences more clear and striking than ever before ap peared, of a revival of the work of God in France. This is the case in the department of Saône-et-Loire. At Mâcon, Chalons, Louhans, Givry, and many other parts, places of worship have recently been opened, by the Wesleyan Missionaries, which are crowded with attentive hearers. In many of the villages, even the Roman Catholics earnestly request evangelical Preachers to teach them the way of salvation. From Condé, in Normandy, we learn by Mr. Jean Le Lièvre, that a gracious work has begun to manifest itself; and, as an effect of this good work, thirty-seven persons have recently joined the society. "If," says the writer of the letter, "we had another Preacher, who might be stationed at Caen, I believe this barren wilderness would soon become a fruitful field. We

have one family of eight persons joined with us in church fellowship."

into society, all of them having a clear
testimony of the pardon of their sins,
and many of them the enjoyment of per-
fect love. From this number I except
those who are only awakened, those who
have fallen away, and some who, on ac-
count of particular circumstances, could
not attend, but who, nevertheless, enjoy
the favour of God. As you know the
places, you will feel an interest in see-
At St. Verant, four;
ing them in detail.
Tonguillarde, four; Cerrieux, eight;
Vors, seven; La Grâne, five; Pallon,
eight; Plan, two; Violins, thirteen;
Mansals, sixteen; Dourmillouse, thirty.
There are but twenty-eight families in
this last-named place, of which there are
in society twenty women and ten men,
who follow the voice of the good Shep-
herd. The women's class is the most in-
teresting I ever saw. Christian affection,
simplicity, and liberty, prevail and reign
among them in all their beauty. The
confidence that the members have in their
beloved Leader is pleasing in the highest
degree. God has made her faithful, and
able to fulfil worthily the duties of her
charge. She talks to them as a mother
would to her beloved children. She bears
them on her heart; and she has a very
correct judgment. One might appeal to
most of our congregations, and say,
"Come to Dourmillouse, and see what
is, and what ought to be, a class-meeting."
These beloved children of God, not being
able to give a sous per week, because of
their poverty, give and collect a little
hemp, rye, barley, oats, and eggs; all of
which will be sold, they say, to support

I beg especially to lay before you translations of letters lately received from our Assistant-Missionary, T. L. Rostan, who is stationed with Mr. Cook in the South of France. Yours very truly, W. TOASE.

Hautes Alpes, 16th Oct., 1834. My very dear Brother,-You will join with me in praising the Lord, when I tell you, that I have admitted ninety persons

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