Temperance | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 25, 1880

Temperance.

LINES.

Written on seeing a young lady, an intimate friend, partake of the sparkling wine—that "destroyer of souls."

DASH from thy lips that sparkling glass! As thou would'st spurn the blackest sin; Though nought its beauty can surpass, Yet dire destruction lurks within. Oh! dash away that liquid flame! Nor let it taint thy youthful breath; For in it lurk the seeds of shame, And anguish, poverty, and death. What, though the wine-cup, sparkling bright, Can quiet all thy rising fears; 'Twill prove thy soul's eternal blight, And whelm thee in remorse and tears. Oh! could that glowing wine-cup tell The woes its liquid fire has wrought, 'Twould but unfold the scenes of hell, With darkest shades of horror fraught. 'Twould tell the wreck of god-like mind; Life's fondest joys to ruin driven— Of anguish deepest—most refined— The loss of peace—of life—of heaven! Then dash away that sparkling glass! As thou would'st spurn the blackest sin; Though naught its beauty can surpass, Yet dire destruction lurks within.

—Golden Censer.