114 
MISSIONARY LIFE 
discretion, and without abusing it, than you are ? 
If with all the restraints of the Bible and the 
frowns of public sentiment against the habitual use 
of ardent spirits as a beverage there is danger of 
being overcome and destroyed by it in this land, as 
multiplied thousands are, then the liability of being 
ruined by it, soul and body, where all these checks 
are unknown, must be vastly greater. Is not a 
dangerous weapon safer in the hands of an en- 
lightened person, who at least should have control 
over himself, and whose position in society throws 
around him a powerfully restraining influence, 
than in the hands of one who is already low in 
vice, and who has nothing to lose by a misuse, or 
the careless use of that weapon ? 
Third: The frauds and cruelties practiced by 
traders from enlightened countries have done 
much to increase the wickedness of the people. 
New ways of sinning have been taught them, and 
new temptations have been placed before them. 
All know how wicked and designing men wrong 
their fellows in this country, and how trying it is 
to the better and finer feelings of our nature to be 
imposed upon and cheated. 
We may conceive how easily advantage may be 
taken of the ignorance and weakness of a super- 
stitious people, and that the most shameful frauds 
may be practiced upon them. Numerous instances 
