and weak grounds takes up, and goes about repeating rumours, which may possibly in some degree be true. If the esteem of his fellow-creatures be of any value in his eyes, let him remember, that he of all others stands the least chance of possessing it; the inventor of slander, the propagator of calumny, the retailer of scandal and detraction, is the object of universal contempt and abhorrence: to those who are immediately injured by him he is particularly odious, nor is there any other kind of robber, whom they would not more readily pardon, than the robber of their good name.

But it is not the injured person alone who pursues the calumniator with his hatred; all men make common cause against him; the virtuous and noble cannot bear the thought of being deprived of a well-earned reputation, and of being subjected to the pestilential breath of obloquy :— they of course hold him in detestation, from whom, knowing how he behaves towards others, they have so much reason to expect injuries of the same kind to themselves; nay, even the vicious dislike and dread him, and though, from the base nature of all sorts of vice, they may take a pleasure in listening to his defamatory conversation, yet for his person they still entertain an aversion; though they may love the slander, they hate the slanderer. But with his character his views in life must suffer at the same time, since who will have dealings with, who will trust, assist, or pro

mote the common enemy of mankind? His peace of mind too must be entirely gone, as he must live in perpetual apprehension of being detected and brought to shame, and of suffering either in his person or his property for his falsities and illnature. Such, and many more, are the evils which attend the calumniator; and, in addition to them, without repentance, he will certainly be excluded from the kingdom of Heaven. For if none" that maketh a lie shall enter into that heavenly city," if to all liars their portion be assigned" in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone," then assuredly that capital liar,—the slanderer-(who lieth most injuriously) shall be far excluded from happiness, and thrust down into that miserable place! If, as St. Paul says, no railer or evil speaker shall inherit the kingdom of God, how far from it shall they be removed, who without truth or justice calumniate and abuse their neighbour!-If of every idle or vain word we must render a strict account, how much more of words of this kind! words, so empty of truth and void of equity! words, not only negatively vain and useless, but positively mischievous and spoken to bad purpose! Supposing, then, it were possible that slander should here avoid detection and escape punishment, yet infallibly, hereafter, at the dreadful day, it shall be disclosed, irreversibly condemned, and inevitably recompensed with utter shame and sorrow.

THE business of the minister of the Gospel is not only to instruct his audience in those truths of which they may be ignorant, but to remind them of those which they may have forgotten; nay, he will much more frequently find himself called on to do the latter than the former. The generality of men, in all material things, know their duty extremely well; and when they swerve from it, it is either that they are carried away by the violence of some passion, which transports them to despise all arguments against it, or, what is more frequent, these arguments do not present themselves at the time.

This it is, which renders the reading of good books, and listening to discourses from the pulpit so very useful; it is not that either, generally speaking, tell you any thing quite new, but they bring to your remembrance things of the utmost

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importance, which the cares and pleasures of the world are too apt to drive from you; and by doing this frequently (if you have the wisdom frequently to have recourse to them) they at last make such an impression as to keep you effectually from sin.

It is on this account that I undertake, at present, to discourse against the vice forbidden in the text drunkenness. The reasons why we ought not to be guilty of it have been given, and are known to every one; and the utmost that the preacher' can expect to do, is to recall them to your memory, and perhaps to place them in a stronger light.

Drunkenness is destructive of our happiness, both in the world to come, and at present;—if we die while we are in the habits of it, it will most certainly prevent us from going to Heaven, and in the mean time it is extremely hurtful to our comfort while we continue on earth.

First, then, I assert that drunkenness is destructive of our happiness in the world to come; -this must be proved from the Scripture, in which, in various places, it is strictly forbidden, and those who are guilty of it are threatened with exclusion from the kingdom of Heaven. In St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, we read-" Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,"-by which is meant that it entirely unfits a man for selfgovernment, and reduces him to the condition of the madman or the idiot. The same apostle, in

writing to the Ephesians again, discountenances this vice: he mentions it, among many others, as incapacitating those who practise it for the attainment of salvation,-" Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Again, in his letter to the Galatians, describing the different fruits of the spirit and of the flesh, of the latter he says"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." You see in what kind of company the drunkard is placed-with the adulterer, the idolater, the murderer, and the robber; and his vice is ranked in the same class with theirs-it is expressly asserted at the same time, that the kingdom of God can never be gained by such as these. Nor indeed, had Scripture been silent on this head, should we have been at any loss to conclude the same from the dictates of our own reason: our bodies, we are assured, are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Ghost; can we suppose that without displeasing God we may convert them into mere vehicles for gluttony and drunkenness ?-Reason is the dis