In the work of prevention, much has been accomplished; in the work of cure, alas! how little.

The appetite once formed, and the unhappy victim finds himself under the control of a power from which he can rarely get free.
Pledges, new associations, better and more favorable surroundings, all are tried, and many are saved; but the number of the saved are few in comparison with those who, after a season of sobriety, fall back into their old ways.
In all these many years of untiring efforts to lift up and save the fallen, what sad disappointments have met our earnest and devoted temperance workers.

From how many fields, which seemed full of a rich promise, have they gathered only a meagre harvest.

But still they have worked on, gaining strength from defeat and disappointment; for they knew that the cause in which they were engaged was the cause of God and humanity, and that in the end it must prevail.
Meantime, the bitter, half-despairing cry, "O Lord, how long!" was going up from the lips of brokenhearted wives and mothers all over the land, and year by year this cry grew deeper and more desperate.

All hope in man was failing from their hearts.