248 



The Grape Culturut. 



to produce licentiousness or dissipa- 

 tion. Ho considered him as a man en- 

 titled to the highest and noblest honor, 

 worthy of being reckoned among the 

 best of men. On the single account 

 of drink he would make an excep- 

 tion — Dickens belonged to the old 

 school, who did not advocate temper- 

 ance principles; cuid he was glad that 

 the old school icas passing away." 



Quibblers, Pharisees! ah, yesl thank 

 •God that you do not belong to that old 

 school, a school that had for its teach- 

 ers, Noah ! whom God chose, amongst 

 all men, to replenish a drowned-out 

 wicked world ; David ! a man accord- 

 ing to God's own heart, from whose 

 loins was to come that no less won- 

 derful and divine teacher, Christ ! the 

 Son of God, God himself! — go, right 

 ■or wrong, Keverends, go and return 

 thanks that you belong to a new, 

 more insipid and less joyful school — 

 return thanks that you are not such 

 arrant sinners as these deservedly 

 most honored and revered teachers. 



Consistency, it appears, is not the 

 jewel that belongs to this class of 

 men ; early last spring they issued a 

 ■call for a National Convention, to 

 meet at Pittsburgh, to advocate an 

 amendment to the Constitution of the 

 United States, making acknowledg- 

 ment _ (otherwise the world knew it 

 not) that Almighty God is the author 

 of National existence; that Jesus 

 Christ is the ruler of nations ; that 

 the Bible is the fountain of good 

 words and religion. 



Assuming, as they do, to be the 

 representatives of Christ upon earth, 

 this was a shrewd attempt to be de- 

 clared infallible; to rule and govern 

 the world in his name. Now if these 



ambitious — I was going to say amphi- 

 bious — water-drinkers sincerely main- 

 tain their devotion to the Bible, they 

 can not be faithful to the total abstin- 

 ence theory; if they believe no lon- 

 ger in the old teachers, they can not 

 be faithful to Christ, and should not 

 attempt to rule and govern in his 

 name, as his ministers; nor can they 

 be faithful to the American principles 

 of Freedom and natural rights. They 

 can not obey the Bible and fight 

 against it at the same time; nor can 

 the rank and file obey their politico- 

 religious masters without rashly and 

 wantonly striking at our Eepublican 

 institutions. They may take which- 

 ever horn of the dilemma they please. 

 There are few things that I can 

 regret not to have seen in this world, 

 3'et I shall always deplore the fact that 

 I was not present at the theatre when 

 a Eoman audience, in the first sur- 

 prise created by a noble but to them 

 new sentiment, came down in thun- 

 ders of applause to mark their admi- 

 ration and reward the poet; it must 

 have been an impressive sight worth 

 being dead centuries ago. Terence 

 lived about 160 years before Christ; 

 but this noble sentiment, "I am a 

 man, and hold nothing foreign to me 

 that relates to mankind, " sounds like 

 Christianity itself, and will eternally 

 live to do him honor. It rings as 

 fresh now as in the astonishment of 

 its first utterance. That sudden flash 

 and explosion of heart which it sent 

 forth in the unsusceptible bosoms of 

 his iron-hearted countrj'men, has been 

 felt in every age and clime, and con- 

 tinues to be thus felt in the breast of 

 eveiy man who reads it. In it we 

 have an insight of the soul's divine 



