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A minister offers practical and moral guidance to recently emancipated people, welcoming their freedom while warning that liberty brings new responsibilities. He encourages gratitude and industry, urging recipients to seek honest labor even at low pay, accept temporary government aid but aim for self-reliance, and use savings to guard against future need. The pamphlet stresses personal habits—cleanliness, economy, sobriety—and insistence on honesty, truthfulness, and avoidance of stealing, lying, and profane swearing. Moral instruction is grounded in Scripture and framed to help families secure stable, respectable livelihoods.
Sobriety is another habit or virtue we hope you will observe. Rum is the ruin of thousands. Keep clear of it, or it will ruin you. Soul and body die under its ravages. A drunkard is worse than a beast. Look at the drunkard’s home—or rather, dwelling; home is too sacred a word—and see how desolate and dreary and wretched it is. The Bible says, “Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God;” so that they are miserable here, and more miserable hereafter and for ever.