BATTLE-CRY OF TEMPERANCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 213, 29 February 1872, Page 7

BATTLE-CRY OF TEMPERANCE.

1 There's a mustering of force* from the mountain and- the glen,— Men art arming for the struggle^ ' .'- Not apologies for men, Pry bones are to life awaking, , ,' And prophetic eyea behold Wonder* in the " Yale of Vision," Like those grandly seen of old. - Long, the tribes of men have languished Under *- destroying cane ; BoreVe>e plagues that fell on Egypt, But Intemperance is worse. In its gallery of portraits, lighted by the fires of Bell, Flame out faces of the fallen, Painted fearfully and welL Lo ! the heads of mighty genius In dark frames' arrest the gate I ' Boundeach broad, Byronic forehead Serpents intertwine with bays, •Features of one, «reatly gifted, There the startled eye discerns ; ' Albyn's own immortal singer,. Early marked for ruin-Burns ! Artisti of divine conception That the pencil dropped ere noonPoets, in their wild delirium, Waking harp-strings out of tune : . ' And a face of kingly splendour, :» With' unutterable woeStamped on all its lines of beauty, ' Whispers to the gaeer— Poe. , Sovereigns robed in royal purple In that gkllery are seen— Loathsome marks of dissipation, . v Blotting out majestic mien. Alexander, crushing-nations - - ' Underneath his iron heel, < Outlined with the blood of Clytus Clinging to his ruthless steel ; And tne mighty king. BeUhazzar, -Drunken in his festive hall. While a pencil tipped with lightning, Writes bis doom upon the wall : And the " scourge of God " who perished - .»When a thousand fields were won, Overthrown by, wine, the mocker, Attila, the royal Hun.

In that gallery of horror - . • Darker sights the vision pain, Truth's apostles by the Demon ' Of destroying habit slain : Priests, ordained of God, that yielded When the '* still, small voice " was dumb, An inheritance in heaven Madly bartering for rum. Count the raindrops that are swallowed By the vast engulphing main, Not the victims by this agent Of the Powers of darkness * kin. _ Pestilence that walks at midnight, War that reddens land and sea,' Monster ! bof-n of distillation. Are but dwarfs compared to thee. By no lines the realm is bounded . , O'er which Alcohol, the king, Holds his reign of d,eath and terror While the birdfl of hope take wing. Based on God-like wind in ruin, . <)n Love's bleeding, broken heart, In his throne from which the Furies ' On their farful mission start. Who asks where his court is holden ? With his satraps, Death, Despair, In the churchyard and the dungeon. On the scaffold-- find it there !■ . Find it where poor widowed 'mourners Eor their starving orphans wail. And the host of homeless vagrants Crowd the poor-house and the gaol. Where.ithe druggist sells his bitters, • , Though it works the people ill, ;*Aud beneath a lying label Hides tlie serpent of the still ; - Where ten .thousand homes, once happy, By the'sheriff have been sold, ' Boughtby vendors of the poison, ' Blood on their ill-gotten- gold. Live we in a land of Freedom, While a countless host of slaves, Bone and sinew 6f"the country, ■ " Stagger todisbonoured graves? While the Senate is polluted - By inebriates Void of shame. Faithless to high trusts confided Blots upon th«, nation's fauie? ' Band,niy brothers ! for the conflict, - Though it; prove a weary strife, And beneath our Temple's banner, In God's name enlist our life.' Let the torrent of Destruction Be arrested- iv i,te flow, Bearing to * gulf of darkness Bich and poor, the high and low.

. — W. H. C. JEosstee, New York,