p. 521 | A WORD TO THE BOYS by Josiah Gilbert Holland

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 25, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 33.

A WORD TO THE BOYS.

By Josiah Gilbert Holland

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 to-morrow 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 into practice.

I know you don't drink now, and it seems to me as if you never would. But your temptation will come, and it probably will 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"? or will you take the 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 on with a hot head and a skulking soul that at once begins to make apologies for itself, and will keep doing so during all its life? Boys, do not become drunkards.—Dr. Holland.