The more respectable you make sin, the more dangerous it is. An old
black bottle in the rough hand of the keeper of a low dive, would have
no power to cause a clean young man to swerve from the right course,
but he is a hero ten times over, who can withstand the temptation of a
wine glass in the jeweled fingers of a beautiful young lady. Tom's
tempter came in the latter form, and she who might have spurred him on
to the highest goal, and whispered in his ear, "look not thou upon the
wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it
moveth itself aright," started him down a course which made him learn
from a terrible experience that "at the last it biteth like a serpent,
and stingeth like an adder." Does any one call a glass of wine a small
thing? Read Tom's story and then call it small, if you dare! Whatever
he did was done with his might, drinking not excepted. He boasted of
his power to drink much and keep sober, while he laughed at the
companions who imbibed far less and went to bed drunk.
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