THE missionary was loth to depart from this interesting field of labor, but he was called, and must obey. He “threw his mantle” upon the shoulders of a noble young man, whose name was Truman; he was a fluent speaker, and an enthusiast in whatever he believed to be right; a giant in courage and bodily strength, and above all, a conscientious Christian; to him was consigned the care of this noble enterprise.

The rum-sellers, with their dupes, were now aroused to a full sense of the power arrayed against them; they justified their conduct, by holding up that of the ministers and leading[119] men in the Church, and the latter would quote Paul’s advice to Timothy, where he says, “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and thine often infirmities.” Tim. v. 23.

“Here,” they boastingly said, “wine is commanded as a drink;” and dared a refutation.

But Truman showed them that this passage did not only not prove that wine should be used as a common drink, but proved that it should only be used as a medicine. He showed them, too, that Paul was a Temperance Lecturer, and not afraid to reprove rulers before whom he “reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.”

The argument that Christ turned water into wine was also brought forward; the reply to this was, that there was no evidence that the miraculous transformation contained a single particle of intoxicating matter; whilst every rational supposition, based upon[120] the holy character and pure doctrines of the Redeemer, would most emphatically declare that there was not.

Such was the acute and powerful reasoning of this young man, that minister and deacon were silenced, if not convinced. Mr. Truman having been himself snatched from the very vortex of ruin, his experience in the dens ............