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XVII.
Health and Temperance
Chapter 188
:
Evils of Intemperance
1. WHAT do the
Scriptures say of wine?
"Wine is a mocker, strong
drink is raging: and whosoever is
deceived thereby is not wise." Prov. 20:1.
NOTE.-All intoxicating drinks are deceptive.
They seem to give strength, but in reality
cause weakness; they seem to create heat,
but in fact lower the general temperature;
they seem to impart vitality, but really
destroy life; they seem to promote
happiness, but cause the greatest
unhappiness and misery. To intemperance may
be attributed much of the world's sorrow.
2. What is one of the
evil results of intemperance?
"Be not among wine-bibbers; among
riotous eaters of flesh: for the drunkard and
the glutton shall come to poverty." Prov.
23:20,21.
3. What are other evil
effects of intemperance? "Whoredom
and wine and new wine take away the heart."
Hosea 4:11. "They also have erred
through wine, and through strong drink are out
of the way; . . . they err in vision,
they stumble in judgment." Isa. 28:7.
NOTE.-"One of the subtlest effects of this
many-sided drug is to produce a craving for
itself, while weakening the will that could
resist that craving."-
"Alcohol," by Dr.
Williams, page 48.
4. With what sins is
drunkenness classed?
"Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like." Gal. 5:19-21.
5. What are common
accompaniments of intemperance?
"Who hath woe? who hath
sorrow? who hath contentions? who
hath babbling? who hath wounds
without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go
to seek mixed wine." Prov. 23:29,30.
6. How do intoxicants
serve one in the end?
"Look not thou upon the wine when it
is red; when it giveth his color in the cup,
when it moveth itself aright. At the last it
biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an
adder." Verses 31,32.
NOTES.-The effects of alcoholic liquors are
thus described in the American Prohibition
Year Book for 1912, pages 26,27:-
"On the Individual. Alcoholic
liquors, whether fermented brewed, or
distilled, are poisonous, increasing greatly
the liability to fatal termination of
diseases, weakening and deranging the
intellect, polluting the affections,
hardening the heart, and corrupting the
morals, 'bequeathing to posterity' a
degeneration of physical and moral
character.
"On the Family. A disturber and
destroyer of its peace, prosperity, and
happiness, and thus removing the sure
foundation for good government, national
prosperity and welfare.
"On the Community. Producing
demoralization, vice, and wickedness,
counteracting the efficacy of religious
efforts and of all means for the
intellectual elevation, moral purity, social
happiness. and eternal good of mankind."
"On the State. Promoting crime and
pauperism, paralyzing thrift and industry,
corrupting politics, legislation. and the
execution of laws."
Alcohol tends to destroy the higher forms of
cells, those directly concerned with the
vital processes, particularly the delicate
brain-cells, and to replace them with
useless and harmful connective tissue, or
what is commonly known as scar tissue.
Reliable statistics demonstrate that the
total abstainer has an advantage of at least
twenty-one per cent over the moderate
drinker.
"The offspring of alcoholics show impaired
vitality of the most deep-seated character,
such as deformities, neuroses, which may
take the severe forms of chorea, infantile
convulsions, epilepsy, or idiocy."-
"Alcohol," page 44.
7. To what extent is
intemperance the cause of crime?
A lord chief justice of England
declared, "If sifted, nine tenths of the crime
of England and Wales could be traced to drink."-
"Alcohol."
8. What may be said of
the use of tobacco?
Being a rank poison, its use is
highly injurious.
NOTES.-"Tobacco is the most subtle poison
known to chemists, except the deadly prussic
acid."- M. Orfila, president Medical
Academy, Paris.
"Tobacco is ruinous in our schools and
colleges, dwarfing body and mind."- Dr.
Willard Parker.
"I shall not hesitate to pronounce tobacco
in young men to be evil, and only evil,
physically, mentally, and morally."-
Edward Hitchcock, of Amherst College.
"The use of intoxicating liquor by men, and
the use of cigarettes by boys, is creating a
race of feeble-minded, unhealthy, and
valueless citizens."- John Wanamaker.
"We might as well go to the insane asylum
for our men as to employ cigarette
smokers."- The late E. H. Harriman,
railroad magnate.
"Cigarettes are ruining our children,
endangering their lives, dwarfing their
intellects, and making them criminals, fast.
The boys who use them seem to lose all sense
of right, decency, and righteousness."-
Judge Crane, of New York City.
"Cigarette smoking in the case of boys
partly paralyzes the nerve cells at the base
of the brain, and this interferes with the
breathing and heart action. The end organs
of the motor nerves lose their excitability,
next the trunks of the nerves, and then the
spinal cord. . . . The power of fine
coordination is decidedly lost."- Prof.
Sims Woodhead, of Cambridge University.
"The use of cigarettes affects the nervous
system, weakens the willpower, and destroys
the ability of the boy to resist temptation;
and because of this he easily falls a victim
of those habits which not only destroy the
mind and soul, but irresistibly lead him
into a violation of the laws of the state."-
George Torrance, superintendent Illinois
State Reformatory.
Tobacco using is demoralizing in its general
effects, and tends to create an appetite for
strong drink. It originated with the natives
of North America, the Indians. In November,
1492, when Columbus discovered the island of
Cuba, he sent two sailors to explore it,
who, when they returned, reported, among
many other strange and curious discoveries,
that the natives carried with them lighted
firebrands, and puffed smoke from their
mouths and noses, which they supposed to be
the way the savages had of perfuming
themselves. They afterward declared that
they "saw the naked savages twist large
leaves together, and smoke like devils."
Originating with the wild barbarians of
America, the smoking habit, after some
years, was introduced into Europe, and was
rapidly adopted, not only by the lower
classes, but by those in high authority,
even princes and nobles participating in the
new intoxication. It has since become
well-nigh universal.
9. Where does
intemperance often begin?
Intemperance often begins in the
home. Many who would not think of placing on
their tables wine or liquor of any kind will
load them with food that creates a thirst for
strong drink,-
with
strong tea and coffee, injurious condiments,
rich pastry, highly seasoned foods, and the
like.
10. What will
drunkards, with other workers of iniquity, never
inherit?
"Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
. . . nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, . . . shall inherit the
kingdom of God." 1 Cor. 6:9,10. |
