to find a door or window, or to submit to almost any ordinary inconvenience. In fact, to go to the root of the evil, the habit of spitting much at all, is a bad habit; and any thing which tends to the secreting, and, of course, to the necessity of discharging much saliva, ought to be, by all young persons, who are forming their manners, carefully avoided. And scarcely any thing, let me add, admits of being placed and kept more fully under the influence of the will, in ordinary circumstances, than this.

2. Another offensive habit, closely connected with the foregoing, against which I would warn you, is the excessive use of tobacco, in any form. I do not deny that chewing, smoking, and snuffing tobacco, within certain limits, may be considered as quite consistent with the habits of gentlemen; because many gentlemen practise them; and some who practise more than one, or all of them, even to a degree of excess, yet, from their great personal neatness, and constant attention to appearances, have still avoided becoming, in any considerable degree, offensive to those around them. Such instances, however, are rare. At any rate, nothing is more common than the reverse; and the cases are so numerous in which the consumers of this hateful weed become a source of inconvenience to all with whom they associate, that even the ordinary use of it ought to be regarded with apprehension, by those who would escape the excess to which others have become victims.

You ought to be aware, my young friend, that no class of persons are more apt to fall into excess in the use of tobacco, in every way, than students; and no class of students, perhaps, more remarkably than

those who are devoted to the study of theology. Whether their sedentary habits, and especially their habits of stated composition, form the peculiar temptation by which so many of them are unhappily beguiled, I know not: but it has fallen to my lot to know a very large number of ministers, young and old, who by excessive smoking, chewing, or snuffing, have deranged the tone of their stomachs; have undermined their health; have seriously injured their voices; have had the fumes of tobacco so thoroughly inwrought in their persons and clothing, that it became impossible for many delicate people to sit near them with impunity; and have laid themselves, after a while, under so absolute a necessity of smoking, or chewing incessantly, that they have been obliged to withdraw from company, or from the most urgent business, and even to break off in the midst of a meal, and retire to smoke, or else run the risk of a severe affection of the stomach.

In vain do you remind such people, when they are young, and when their habits are forming, that the use of tobacco is, in most cases, unhealthful, and in many, extremely so; that if they use it at all, they are in danger of being betrayed into excess, in spite of every resolution to the contrary. In vain do you remind them that many persons, of both sexes, cannot bear either the smoke or the perfume of tobacco, and, of course must be driven from the room, if not from the house, in which this offensive practice is going forward; that, like tippling, one degree of excess in this indulgence leads to another, until a sort of necessity of continuing it is incurred; that habits of smoking and chewing, especially the former, will

render them intolerable inmates in many families; and that by the excessive use of tobacco, more particularly in the form of segars, thousands have been insensibly betrayed into habits of drinking, and have become confirmed sots, before they were aware of being in the least danger:-I say, in vain do you remind many young men, and even pious young men, who are commencing such habits, of these dangers. In vain do you hold up to their view particular cases, as examples of all that you say. They will not believe you. They are in no danger. Others may have insensibly fallen into excess, and become offensive; but they never will. Onward they go, with inflexible self-will, "as an ox goeth to the slaughter," resolving to follow appetite at all hazards, until some of them become themselves fearful examples of the evils against which they were warned!

I have already hinted at one of the dangers arising from the excessive use of tobacco, which very many, even after being put on their guard, cannot be persuaded to appreciate. I mean the tendency of the segar to generate a fondness for intemperate drinking. He whose mouth and fauces are frequently and strongly stimulated by the fumes of tobacco, is apt to be thirsty; and to such an one, simple water is insipid, and scarcely tolerable. Something stronger is, of course, sought after. And hence it so often happens, that habits of disgraceful, and finally of ruinous tippling, grow out of the excessive use of the segar.

The truth is, no man, especially no young man, ought ever to use tobacco in any shape, who can possibly avoid it; that is, who does not find him

self reduced to the same necessity of taking it, as a medicine, that he is, now and then, of taking digitalis, opium or calomel; in which case, instead of allowing himself to contract a fondness for the article, and living upon it daily, a wise man will take it, as he would the most nauseous medicine, in as small quantities, and as seldom, as possible. I beseech you, my young friend, not to disregard this advice. Rely on it, if you are so happy as to escape the thraldom which the odious vegetable in question has imposed upon millions, you will rejoice in it as long as you live. But you probably will not escape, unless you renounce the use of the article entirely. If the most servile votary of the segar, the quid, or the snuff-box, could take even a cursory glance at the ruined health, the trembling nerves, the impaired mental faculties, the miserable tippling habits, the disgraceful slavery, and the revolting fume, to which they have insensibly conducted many an unsuspecting devotee, he would fly with horror before even the possible approaches of the danger.

3. Another habit which every friend to the honour of religion, and to human happiness, ought to avoid with the utmost care, is, that of indulging in the use of intoxicating drinks.

The habit of which I now speak is not that of intemperate drinking. This is a sin so unquestionable and degrading, so destructive of health, of reputation, and of all that is good, that no argument can be necessary to convince a professing Christian, and especially a candidate for the holy ministry, that every approach to it ought to be regarded with abhorrence. And I have no doubt that every manifest and known

approach to it, will be so regarded by every conscientious man. But there are approaches to this sin so remote and insensible, that thousands are drawn into them without the smallest apprehension of danger; and it is not, perhaps, until it is too late to apply any human remedy, that their fears begin to be excited. Happy is he who sees the evil afar off, and is wise enough to escape from every measure of its influence.

That intoxicating drinks, as a general fact, are injurious to all who are in health, I hold to be established by the soundest medical wisdom, and by the dictates of all sober experience. The use of them, as a beverage, tends to excite morbidly the nervous system; to impair digestion; to generate hepatic and other chronic and loathsome diseases; to interfere with the happy operation of medicines in cases of sickness, and, of course, to diminish the prospect of recovery; to shorten life; to weaken and derange the intellectual powers; to unfit men for the feeling and profitable hearing of the gospel, and for all the practical duties of life. Such are the daily and hourly effects of intoxicating drinks. They do more to generate crime, to destroy human life, and to prostrate domestic and social peace and happiness, than sword, famine, and pestilence, all combined.

Now to oppose the power of this destroyer; to discourage the use of this tremendous poison as a beverage, the pledge of total abstinence from all that can intoxicate, has been introduced and recommended by benevolent men. I cordially approve this pledge. I have taken it again and again. I have recommended it to my children, and to all, young and old, within my reach. I set no alcoholic or fermented liquor on