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 indul. gence, 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 fol. low appetite at all hazards, until some of them

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become themselves fearful examples of the evils against which they were warned!

I have already hinted at one of the dangers arising from the exorbitant 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

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 himself 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 HABITUAL USE OF ARDENT SPI

RITS.

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 ev ry conscientious man. But there are ap proaches 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.

Let me say, then, that the young man who is in the daily habit of taking any portion of ardent spirits, especially before breakfast or dinner, even if it be ever so small, is in an extremely perilous habit, from which there is a high degree of probability that he will not escape with impunity. Nay, one of the most enlightened observers our country ever produced, the venerable President Dwight, has said, that "the man who drinks spirits regularly, ought to consider himself as having already entered the path which leads to habitual intemperance." Nothing is more insidious than the love of this stimulus; nothing more apt to gain on the appetite without being at all suspected by him who is most interested in the fact; no indulgence more frequently found to increase in its endless cravings with every day's indulgence. So that many a man deemed perfectly sober, by himself, and by all his acquaintances; nay many a conscientious man, before he was aware, has found the practise of daily taking a small quantity of spirits, gra

dually extending its claims and its power, until he was no longer able to resist, and be. came the slave of gross intemperance.

My firm persuasion is, that, in general, no one who is in health, and who is under forty years of age, ought ever, as a system, to drink any thing stronger than water. It is the most natural, the most salubrious, and, in all respects, the best drink. The cases of the most robust and ruddy health that I have ever seen, have been those of persons who drank nothing but water. Among the old Romans, in the " purest and simplest periods of their republick, no young man was allowed to drink any kind of strong drink, until he had attained the age of thirty years. And if I could prevail upon every young man to act rigidly upon this plan, putting every thing out of view excepting his nodily health, and his interest for the present life, I should consider myself as gaining a most desirable object.

He who drinks nothing but water, has but little temptation to drink at all more frequently than he ought. Yet it is very possible to take too frequently, and too much, even of this simple beverage. I have known some individuals, chiefly students, who unhappily contracted the habit of requiring something to moisten their lips every half hour, or oftener; and even in the pulpit, they could never get through a discourse