A Word to the Boys by J. G. Holland

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 17, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 23.

A Word to the Boys.

By J. G. Holland

WHAT do you think, young friends, of the hundreds of thousands who are trying to cheat themselves and others into the belief that alcoholic drinks are good for them? Are they to be pitied and not blamed? Do you want to be one of these wretched men? If we are to have drunkards in the future, some of them are to come from the boys to whom I am writing; and I ask you again if you want to be one of them? No! of course you don't! Well, I have a plan for you that is just as sure to save you from such a fate as the sun is to rise tomorrow morning. It never failed; it never will fail; and I think it worth knowing. Never touch liquor in any form. That is the plan, and it is not only worth knowing, but it is worth putting in practice.

I know you don't drink now, and it seems to you as if you never would. But your temptation will come, and will probably come in this way. You will find yourself sometime with a number of companions; and they will have a bottle of wine on the table. They will drink and offer it to you. They will regard it as a manly practice, and very likely they will look upon you as a milksop if you don't indulge with them. Then what will you do? eh, what will you do? Will you say, "No, no! none of that stuff for me! I know a trick worth half a dozen of that!" or will you take a glass with your own common sense protesting, and your conscience making the whole draught bitter, and a feeling that you have damaged yourself, and then go off with a hot head and a skulking soul that at once begins to make apologies for itself, and will keep doing so all this life? Boys, do not become drunkards.—J. G. Holland.