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TALE OF THE CORN SHEAF.

ye wish to enjoy a happy life here and hereafter, become total abstainers; but, do not misunderstand me. Think not that I mean to infer that a total abstinence from strong drink will save your never dying souls. Let each total abstainer become a true and loyal Christian, also; let him or her "wash and be clean." Some young people imagine, when they have taken our pledge, they have done all that is required of them. They need not trouble themselves about their neighbours or their neighbour's children. They have done a great deal-actually abstained from their usual little glass of wine at dessert, refused papa's ladle of sweet punch, turned aside from mamma's proffered negus-they are staunch teetotallers, firm adherents to the cause. God bless you, manly boy! may you long continue to remain so; God bless you, cherub-faced girl! and strengthen your good resolutions. Nevertheless, you must do more. Do you remember a certain pool mentioned in the Bible? Those who were strong carried the weak in their arms, and laid them close to the healing waters. You possess neighbours, and these neighbours have little children. Have you spoken to them ?-have you asked them to join your "Band of Hope" ?-have you accompanied them to Siloam? Dear, happy children, a few years more, and we shall be called hence. Who shall occupy these places?-whose voices shall sound on the platform ?-who shall proclaim pardon for the drunkard? -who shall visit the houses of want?-who shall speak from these silent pages ?-who save the children of to-day-the men and women of the time to come? Children, children, ye are the pillars on which shall rest the temples of our future greatness. Let no one think himself or herself too unimportant to engage in this work. Ye all know that

"Little drops of water, little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean and the beauteous land."

Even a little child possesses sufficient influence to turn the current of a life. And now, in conclusion, let us ask God to acknowledge all our endeavours :God of love, look down from thine heavenly abode and bless each dear child throughout our highly favoured country; bless them now, in the sweetest season of their lives; bless their resolutions, and give them grace to keep them even unto the end. And as they advance along the tortuous road, be Thou still very near them, hovering o'er them in danger, standing betwixt them and harm. Shield them with Thine All-powerful arm, ward off the cruel shafts of the destroyer, lead them into green pastures and beside still waters. Unloose their stammering tongues when they would speak to the fallen, uphold their weak spirits, and strengthen them with everlasting strength. Grant us Thy divine aid in this our moral crusade; and by-and-by, when we are gone, raise Thou up a valiant host from amongst these children of to-day, who will fight the great fight, and, in Thy own good time, become the conquerors. Help us, O Lord, for we are weak, not weak or the work, but weak in the work. We cry unto Thee for aid, for Thou hast told us to ask all things, nothing doubting. We wait, Lord; countless mercies have already been showered down, yet we wait. Send us still more, and to Thee shall we ascribe all the glory.

CONTENTMENT is more satisfying than exhilaration; and contentment means simply the sum of small and quiet pleasures.

INDUSTRY doth preserve and perfect our nature, keeping it in good tune and temper, improving and advancing it towards its best state.

THE love shown to us when we are ill makes us realize that sickness oft terminates in heaven.

Tale of the Corn Sheaf.

BY THE LATE W. J. M'MULLAN.

TREES fruit-bearing, grasses cereal,
Planted by God's bounteous hand,
Fann'd by Eden's airs etherial,

Clothed the beauteous maiden land:
The copse breathed sweet of eglantine,
And round the cedar clung the vine.
Flowers new-sprung and dew-besprinkled
Formed man's first and fragrant bed;
Blossoms that like star-beams twinkled

Canopied Eve's gold-tress'd head;
All that was meet for joy or food
Was there, and God pronounced it good.
The Spring, the Summer, Autumn mellow,
Shared the year, but ever blent-
The bud, the bloom, the grain-ears yellow,
All present, as each came and went;
For innocence then stamped man's brow,
And earth was bless'd in blade and bough.

Sin brought change, and change brought sorrow—
Sweat of brow and sweltering toil:

To tend the flock, to trench the furrow,
In thorn and thistle-bearing soil,
Became our fallen parent's lot,
Which through all ages varieth not.

The ground its golden harvest yielded,
A hundred-fold on hill and plain;
Sickle and pruning-knife were wielded

'Mid harmless grape and wholesome grain— Each a recurrent blessing, given

To man, as manna sent from Heaven.

A blessing!-but, as erst, in Eden,

The tempter, of all ill the source,
In cluster and in corn-sheaf hidden,
Turned the boon into a curse;
Taught men to brew, with potent spell,
From grape and grain the draught of hell!
A second deluge, soon its waters

O'erspread the land like waves of fire;
Sweeping down earth's sons and daughters-
Still rolling faster, rising higher;
And now its deadly surges roar
In every clime-on every shore.

Who that sows the seed, and reapeth

When full the ear and crisp the leaf, Dreams of the woes that strong drink heapeth On myriads from the misused sheaf? The doom perennial we make"The ground accursed for man's sake." Angel of Mercy! love-commissioned

To the meanest of mankind,

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Thy wings from Heaven's own sunbeams fashioned,
Dry up with an assuaging wind

The fierce and overwhelming waves:
Breathe freedom in the breasts of slaves!

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MR. GLADSTONE ON PUBLIC-HOUSES AND INTOXICATING LIQUORS.

Mr. Gladstone on Public Houses and Intoxicating Liquors.

THE Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer, was present at the opening of a Reading-Room at Buckley, in January, and in the course of a lengthened speech he remarked :-" Well, then, what are the other competitors for the spare time of the labouring man? There is the publichouse. Now, I am not going to speak in extreme language about the public-house. I sometimes think that, when in our zeal to repress excess of that description, we denounce public-houses and the men connected with them, we run the risk of doing considerable mischief by obliterating the distinction between the respectable and the worthy man keeping a public-house, and the man that is not respectable and is not worthy. The public-house, after all, ministers to the necessary wants of mankind. It is not to be expected-whether it be desirable or notthat the use of stimulants can, by whole communities, altogether be dispensed with. At all events, I am sure it does not become those who are in my own condition of life, and who feel that it is necessary for them to have some assistance of that kind in order to get through their own labours, it does not become me to get up on platforms and denounce too violently, the moderate, the rational, and the Christian-like use of such things. (Hear, hear.) But still the public-house is not a desirable place for labouring men to spend that portion of their time not absorbed by labour, and sleep, and food. In itself, it is not desirable, and it generally has a bad end." This passage may be accepted as a fair and distinct representation of the views held on strong drink and the drink traffic, by one of the most popular and influential statesmen of the age. It shows us what Mr. Gladstone sees, and what he does not, as yet, see -a classification which opens to us a twofold line of respectful criticism and comment. What Mr. Gladstone does see is, that the keepers of public-houses are not all respectable and worthy men; a fact which may be asserted of other occupations, but which Mr. Gladstone also sees has a perilous and alarming significance in the case of the liquor traffic. He knows that great efforts are made, or supposed to be made, to keep that business respectablethat it is known to be so dangerous that an elaborate system is employed to commit its working to safe and worthy hands. Yet he knows and acknowledges that the system does not work successfully, that men, disreputable and unworthy, and not a few of them either, do get connected with it, and recklessly make it the powerful instrument of their own emolument at the expense of social virtue and prosperity. Seeing this, Mr. Gladstone may surely conclude that no mere change of the licensing system, such as he has favoured-no abolition of the magisterial veto and substitute of a higher license fee-will remedy the abuse he recognises and deplores. He perceives also that there is something about the public-house which makes it a source of mischief to the visitors, and that this something is not dependent on the respectability of the owner of the place. He is altogether opposed to the working man making it his resort-his club(as some have facetiously described it); it is dangerous to tarry there-it is enchanted ground-and Mr. Gladstone pleads for some other kind of public-house which the working man may frequent with safety to

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his pocket, his morals, and his health. It would be an insult to so ingenious and inquisitive a mind as Mr. Gladstone's to hint that he has not well defined to himself what that something is which makes the public-house an undesirable place of resort to our labouring people. Rosenmüller tells us that the ancient Egyptians believed there was "a liquid pestif erum (something pestiferous) in wine, but they could not say what it was. Is the English Chancellor of the Exchequer in the same obscurity as to the dangerous element of the public-house? It cannot be the landlord, when he is " respectable and worthy," nor the furniture, nor the warmth; perhaps it may be, in part, the company and conversation. But why should the company and conversation there be so different and corrupting to the company and conver sation elsewhere? A differentia being granted, can a logical mind like Mr. Gladstone's have stopped short at the question wherein that differentia consists? Unless we return the affirmative and highly uncom plimentary reply, we are driven to conclude that Mr. Gladstone sees as certainly, if not as vividly, as we do, that the distinctive danger of the public-house lies in (1) the presence of the intoxicating drink; (2) the interest of the seller in promoting its consump tion; and (3) the tendency of all the associations of the place to render that consumption excessive and injurious to the highest degree. Seeing this, then, Mr. Gladstone, before he preaches the possibility of a real reform of the licensing system, based on a continuance of the public-house system, ought to explain to humbler intellects how any revision of that system will eliminate this triple source of danger from the drinking shops now licensed, or to be licensed at any future time.

What Mr. Gladstone unfortunately does not see is truth of the most serious moment.

1. He does not see that to ascribe respectability and worth to a business which menaces the respectability and worth of those who patronize it, is an error both in reasoning and in ethics. The casuist may draw imaginary conditions and fictitious conclusions--he may ask, "If so and so were thus and thus, would not this and that be the result?" But if he fail to show that he is dealing with real and not ideal cases, he proves nothing except his own fertility of fancy. A respectable public-house is a beautiful ideal, but where is the counterpart reality? As to the keepers being respectable and worthy men, we may dismiss the question by a trio of rejoinders: that, unless they can make their business like themselves, they have made out no canse for its toleration; that it is an injustice to themselves, and a curse to others, for respectable and worthy men to engage in a traffic pernicious to society; and that their association with such a traffic is calculated to injure effectually the good character which, for the sake of gain, they have brought into its service. If visitors do not escape contamination, what must be the fate of the perpetual residents and officiating genii loci?

2. Mr. Gladstone does not see that a distinction should be drawn between public-houses for the sale of liquor and houses for the sale of wholesome and innocent refreshment. Public-houses of the present sort are not wanted for the latter purpose. What is is in a name? Much often that is deceptive; for the licensed victuallers, as a whole, do anything but victual the people; they neither furnish food to their customers, nor do they allow them to carry food to their families.

3. Mr. Gladstone does not see that intoxicating liquors are useless to mankind. This is his capital error; and it is curious to observe how it leads him unconsciously to deny one class of facts and to render homage to a class of antiquated fictions. The

CARRICK-A-REDE AND DUNSEVERICK CASTLE.

The

public-house ministers, he assures us, to the wants of mankind; and truly it does, by increasing man's artificial wants, and diffusing through ten thousands of families the saddest want of all, true peace and substantial comfort; but his meaning is that mankind want -- stand in need of—intoxicating drinks. But he gives us only bare assertion instead of proof. He treats us to a formal assertion that we must not expect whole communities to dispense with the use of stimulants. So, the man of the world might say, we must not expect whole communities to dispense with sinful pleasures; but would Mr. Gladstone therefore justify and recommend the pursuit of such pleasures or facilities for their attainment? But why are we not to expect whole communities to do without alcoholic stimulants (other stimulants we say nothing of)? Has Mr. Gladstone's reading supplied him with no examples of whole communities doing this very thing which he would expel from our expectations? The early Persians and Romans (certainly the Roman women) were more like modern teetotalers than drinkers. Cæsar states that the Suevi excluded wine as a source of effeminacy and mischief, and other tribes did the same. The Saracens, who swept the degenerate Christians of the East before them like chaff, drank no alcohol. The bulk of the Hindoo people were, on the establishment of the British power, abstainers from strong drink. North American Indians and many other aboriginal races have, until brought in contact with Europeans, been ignorant of intoxicating liquors. The time has been, if it is not now, when in all probability a great majority of the adult inhabitants of the world, abstained from those stimulants which Mr. Gladstone believes "whole communities" will never dispense with. The right hon. gentleman would, no doubt, object to a Maine Law, that it was an unwise attempt to dispense with alcoholic stimulants, yet he cannot be ignorant that "whole communities"-States whose sovereign right to secede and form new Federal combinations, he has affirmed-have adopted that law, and still uphold it, by immense majorities. Mr. Gladstone leaves it problematical whether dispensing with alcoholics would be desirable or not. We are glad that he makes this reservation, for it implies a consciousness on his part that not a little may be said in favour of such a change; nor can he blame us for giving all the force possible to our conviction, that of all social changes, none would be more desirable than such a revolution in the habits of our own and all civilized communities. "At all events," is a further indication that Mr. Gladstone suspects that the case of the temperance reformer is not to be despised; he forbears to argue the general question, and he deprecates too violent denunciations" of the moderate, rational, and Christian-like use of these things," by persons like himself, who "feel" this use to be "necessary" to their due performance of daily labour. We may justly smile over this amusing sentence, for we never yet heard of any user of these drinks being suspected of denouncing, violently or gently, their use "in moderation" by other people. What their "rational and Christian-like use" is, the orator did not stop to explain; for he was not professing to argue, but simply to state what notions himself and others entertained. It is to be feared, however, that not a few who are led by authority rather than argument, would be ready to believe on Mr. Gladstone's dixit, that there is a use of intoxicating liquors which is rational and Christian-like. The secret of Mr. Gladstone's position is laid bare by the allusion to his own experience; he is a victim to his own feelings, and the doctor's prescription. will not be forgotten that, in the debate on his Wine Bill, be stated that having received a copy of the

It

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Medical Declaration, to which the name of his own physician, Dr. Ferguson, was attached, he brought that gentleman to book, seeing that he had just before ordered him a quantity of wine per diem. The doctor excused himself by stating that he had signed the Declaration in some unnatural sense or the other, and his patient accepted the explanation. Would he not have done wiser, we respectfully suggest, had he asked whether the other eminent subscribers were likely to stultify themselves as Dr. Ferguson had been doing? and if not, whether their collective opinions were not of more weight than his impromptu excuse? No doubt Mr. Gladstone felt, aud still feels, that wine assists him to do his work, but so would he have felt had he been a constant user of opium or any other drug. Others have once felt the same and now feel very differently, because they have made the trial of a change resolutely and fairly. Mr. Gladstone can scarcely be ignorant of the many eminent men whose intellectual labours have equalled or excelled his own, and who have found abstinence their friend. It will be happy for him should he learn in time to profit by it, that the stimulus of alcohol is an excitent, not a creator, of nervous power, and that it is merely using him up the sooner, instead of being of the use which he fondly imagines.

We cannot regret that Mr. Gladstone has given utterance to his views, though we should have preferred a closer concordance of them with those advocated by ourselves and our temperance coadjutors. It is clear that Mr. Gladstone is no thick-and-thin admirer of liquordom, and it is also clear that he feels something of the strength of our temperance position. For the rest, we shall read his speech aright if we take it as an admonition to educate the rising statesmanship of the country in temperance truths. To win one convert in high places is to gain the car of a nation, and to multiply beyond all calculation the moral influence of our cause over all classes in the State. D. B.

Carrick-a-Bede and Dunseverick Castle.

PROCEEDING by the coast road from Belfast and passing through Carrickfergus, Larne, Glenarm, Cushendall, and Cushendun, the tourist arrives at Ballycastle, which is thirteen miles from the Causeway. At Ballycastle a guide should be obtained, accompanied by whom the tourist will, after a tramp of three miles, come upon the village of Ballinatoy, a little beyond which the road takes a sharp turn, and here uplifting its spire-like rocks above the waves, lies Carrick-a-rede, a small islet separated from the mainland by a narrow channel 20 yards wide. The headland which projects a considerable way into the sea, and on the extremity of which is a small cottage built for a fishing-station, is divided into a tremendous rent or chasm of 60 feet span, and at a depth of nearly 100 feet, the green waves foam and dash against the beetling cliffs at either side. Across this chasm which seems to have been caused by some sudden convulsion of nature rendering and separating one rock from the other, a rude bridge is thrown, for the use and convenience of the fishermen who reside on the island during the summer months. This bridge is constructed on the principle of the hide rope bridges in the Andes, and other parts of South America. The construction of this bridge is very simple, two strong ropes or cables, are extended from one part of the chasm to another in parallel lines four feet apart, athwart the gulf,

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they are then made permanently secure by iron rings morticed into the stone surface. Across these cables planks 12 inches wide are firmly lashed and secured, while a slight rope at a convenient height for the hand runs parallel with the footway; this completes the entire foundation of the swinging bridge, and swing it does tremendously in stormy weather, but insecure as it may seem to casual visitors, such is the effect of custom that the fishermen and peasantry, men, women, and children cross it fearlessly, day and night, often carrying heavy burdens, and they may be seen walking and even running as unconcernedly, as if they were on terra firma.

But it is anything but pleasant to witness, from a boat on the water, persons passing and repassing at this giddy height. It cannot but make the spectator anxious, and perhaps nervous, to see the apparent danger to which these poor people are exposed, while thus fearlessly treading the dangerous and seemingly insecure footway which conducts them across the yawning gulph at their feet, the path is so narrow, the height so great, and the bridge apparently so infirm.

Passing under the swinging bridge of Carricka-rede right through the yawning chasm, in which the water will be found very much more tranquil, and the tide flowing less rapidly than at the outer side of the island, the tourist may proceed along the coast passing through the strait which separates Sheep Island from the mainland, as far as Dunseverick, Dunseverick Castle was formerly one of the strongholds of the sept of O'Cahan, by whom it was inhabited till the time of Cromwell. As we see, a very small portion of these ruins are standing; like those of Dunluce they are situated on an isolated rock jutting out into the sea, in a little bay lying to the East of Bengore Head. This rock is very similar in size and height above the sea to the one on which Dunluce stands, being about half an acre in area and 120 feet high. It is said to have been celebrated in old Irish history as Dunsoorke," but antiquarians differ very much on this point; but it seems pretty certain that a fortification of some sort stood here some time previous to the introduction of Christianity. Tradition ascribes its erection to the twelfth century. It is now but a melancholy fragment of its former strength and grandeur. Looking up to it we are at a loss to conceive how access could be had to the castle. Immense masses of the rock have been hewn away evidently for the purpose of rendering the castle as inaccessible as possible. Nestling on the top of a bleak isolated rock apparently without access of any kind, we could not wonder if tradition ascribed this fortress to the wonderful skill of the mystic architect of the Giants' Causeway.

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Literary Notice.

"ZOE'S BIBLE:" The Story of an Orphan. THIS is a little work just published, by a writer whose contributions have appeared in several numbers of our Journal. It is characterized by wonderful fidelity to life, and is of touching and romantic interest. We should advise all our readers to send, without delay, 12 stamps for a copy, to W. Macintosh, 24, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., and to recommend their friends to read it too.

"Help! Help!!"

By the Rev. H. GALE, B.C.L., Rector of Treborough,
Somerset.

LET no man say that we place this temperance question before the Gospel-that is, by way of preference. God forbid! The drink and its traffic are now, by the written law of the land, placed before and in direct antagonism to the Gospel; and, by the help of the Lord, we will overthrow them. We no more put Teetotalism and the suppression of the liquor traffic before the Gospel, than as the alphabet precedes the art of reading,—or than as a backwoodsman fells the forest to make room for his house and farm,-or than as we drain a cesspool that has emitted a pestilential fever to induce returning health, or cast down the "Moloch" which ignorance and cupidity have set up, to make way for the Church of the Living God. Shame be on those who charge us falsely! Themselves under a worldly and sensual spirit, and for the sake of lucre, place a grievous stumblingblock in the Gospel's way; and then, when vice and drunkenness have been produced, in the same spirit declare that it is the Gospel's business to remove the stumbling-block. Oh that they would remember the words of our blessed Lord to Satan, when he besought Him to show His power by casting Himself down from a pinnacle of the temple, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." When we are told that the Gospel is the only remedy for drunkenness, we venture to differ from the statement. We view the Gospel as a remedy, for what man is without it; and millions of sober heathen attest the fact that they can be sober in the absence of the Gospel, by simply abstaining from the drunkard-making drink. Those who misinterpret the Gospel are wanting in the knowledge of both natural and revealed laws. So far as the Gospel-message has ever shown itself in connexion with the curse of drunkenness, it has been aided by teaching the laws of man's nature and the nature of the drink; and only so far as it has done this has it been instrumental in the cure; it is no more a cure for the broken laws of drinking than for the broken laws of the process of digestion. If men lay hold of the Gospel, putting all their trust in the merits of Christ, aud "working out their own salvation with fear and trembling," all will be well, spiritually; but it is no disparagement of the "Good News" that it will not renovate a body emaciated, filthy, and corrupted, by forbidden pleasures and sin of every kind, or cure the plague, or restore or amputate a shattered limb. It is only by a course of prudent living, in steady conformity with the laws of natural life, and by the blessing of God upon the right use of his appointed means, that much of health, strength, and purity, can be regained. Our bishops and priests, instrumentally then, have much to do with framing the law-that law that licenses the sale, that facilitates the drinking, that produces the crime, disease, and pauperism, which fill the land with mourning, and people the regions of darkness. My fellow-Christians, will you haste to the rescue," by aiding the Temperance movement? We have assisted to throw up the "bloody way," -we have licensed the thief to prowl upon it, and

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THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.

the people are plundered, stripped, and dying; every particle of its dust is stained with human gore that cries to Heaven for justice; and that highway of souls to ruin must be destroyed. We have aided in the construction of a "trap to catch men;" it has ten thousand ways of ingress, and hardly one of escape. The trap must be annihilated, and the imprisoned set at liberty. We demand your assistance, and in the right way. All other helps, till that is done, are totally inadequate; the cause must be removed, the liquor traffic must be suppressed. Not only is every bishop, priest, deacon, and minister of every Church responsible before God for this iniquity, unless he protest against it, and work to put it down; but every man and woman too that "names the name of Christ with sincerity." Blame not exclusively the manufacturers and dealers— many of them are as good as yourselves-nationally they are ur nominees, they are our co-partners in trade, and as long as the country shares in the plunder by our sanction, we are equally guilty of the crime. implore you by the floods of tears that are being shed-by slaughtered children-by outraged womanhood-by the legions of men that have been slain-by their mangled bodies and ruined souls -by the lamentations of the dying, and the groans of the lost-by the blood of the victims of unrighteous and cruel laws that will be required at your hands-by the claims of justice,-by the love of God,-by a crucified Redeemer,―by the Holy Spirit, do not, oh! do not "look on and pass by on the other side," and thus become little less criminal than the thieves themselves.

You have, by unwise laws, aided in making many pretty much what they are; you have dug a charnel-house,-you have ensnared them into it, you have rolled a stone to its mouth; help theGrand Alliance" to hurl it back! Help! help! Come up, for the sake of yourselves as well as of the victims, "in the name of the Lord," against this mighty wrong!

Ir is the general opinion that there are clouds which are all lightning and no thunder, and the universal opinion that there are men who are all thunder and no lightning.

YOUR self-made man, whittled into shape with his own jack-knife, deserves more credit than the regular engine-turned article, shaped by the most approved pattern.

WE often take repentance for reformation, resolutions for actions, blossoms for fruits, as on the naked twig of the fig tree, seeming fruits sprout forth, which are only the fleshy rinds of the blossoms.

LET us be patient to live. Not that we should not have aspirations; but, till the flying time comes, let us brood contentedly upon our nests.

THE only petitions in the Lord's Prayer that many people utter in sincerity are the fourth and a part of the fifth-give us our daily bread, and forgive us our debts.

THE good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth; the bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven.

PUBLIC opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What we think of ourselves indicates our fate.

IF a sense of the ridiculous is all there is in a man, he bad better have been an ape at once, and so have stood at the head of his profession.

The Temperance Movement.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1864.

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WHEN this, the February number of our Journal, reaches the hands of its readers, New Year's greetings and congratulations will be well nigh done with. So also, we fear, we may truthfully add, will it be with many a New Year's good resolution. As the bright morning sun beamed in upon us on the 1st of January, how many a vow was plighted, how many a fervent prayer sent up to heaven, that this year might be better spent than the last, that it might witness a greater devotedness of our hearts to God, a more entire dedication of our talents to His service, and for the promotion of His glory upon earth.

But as the mouth now past has gradually waned, how often has it been the case that our prayers and our resolves have been alike forgotten; day after day has come and gone much as days come and went in other years, and the 1st of February finds too many of us the same thoughtless, cold-hearted, unprofitable servants that we have ever been.

There are, however, we would fain hope, some amongst us who are not thus forgetful, who still feel animated by the new year's solemn teachings, and who are yet to-day, warm and earnest in their longings for a better life, as they were a month ago. It is to these, ready and eager for the work while the day still lasts, and who know that at the furthest, night must soon overtake us all, that we now appeal for hearty co-operation in our campaign of 1864.

Ours is not the only field, as we are too well aware, in which the crusade against evil has to be maintained, but there are none in which help is more urgently required. Where is the true-hearted Christian that can look around him at the present time and not burn with indignation, as he beholds the ravages which strong drink is making, and who does not desire that its career of conquest and of death may speedily be stayed who, knowing and feeling this, will not lend his arm for the conflict, and by God's help be an humble instrument in hastening the day of victory?

:

How can you do this? We will tell you:

Firstly, if you are not a total abstainer already, sign the pledge at once, and implore the Divine help to enable you to keep it. You drink but little as it is, you say perhaps; so much the better, it will be the less denial to you to give it up altogether, and while you drink but one glass a day, or even one in a year, you are on the side of the drinking system, helping to lend it respectability and strength, and can never consistently urge an erring brother, who is ruining body and soul by intemperance, to burst his galling chains and join the temperance band.

This, then, firstly. Now, secondly, endeavour, as God gives you ability, to discountenance by all means in your power the drinking customs of society, which are at the bottom of all the evil, and which have made nearly every drunkard that now weeps in hell. By labouring steadily among your own immediate circle, be it small or large, you may be the means of achieving much,―more in all probability than you have faith at present to believe possible.

Thirdly and lastly, we invite your cordial co-operation and assistance in the work undertaken by the Irish Temperance League, a work which it is our new year's resolution to push forward with renewed vigour during 1864. Our friends up and down the country can help us in many ways. They can assist us with funds. A minimum annual subscription of two

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