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WINE A MOCKER

I. QUAR., LESSON XI., MAR. 18, PROV. 20:1-7

Golden Text—”Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”—Prov. 20:1

The moral precepts of this lesson need little comment; but it is well for all to lay them to heart. There can be no vital piety where the simple precepts of morality are ignored. He who would live godly must, at the outset, abandon every vile and evil thing—must seek to purify the earthen vessel, and pray for divine grace to keep it so, and he must earnestly strive against all the downward tendencies of his fallen nature.

It has been well said that the intemperate use of spiritous liquors is an apt illustration of the course and effects of sin in general. It benumbs the sensibilities, beclouds and stupefies the judgment, weakens the will, enslaves and degrades the whole man, and finally wrecks his health and all his manly hopes and aspirations, and brings him in haste and disgrace to the grave.

Yet, while this vice is a visible and most prominent illustration of the course and effects of sin, such is the actual tendency of all sin, though its effects may not always be

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so visible, nor so hateful, nor so rapidly ruinous. All sin is intolerable in the sight of God; and to love and cherish it in its less obnoxious and more secret forms is as worthy of condemnation as enslavement to its grosser forms. Only those who abhor sin in all its forms, and who strive against the sinward tendencies of their fallen nature, and who, because of such realized and acknowledged tendencies, avail themselves of the robe of Christ’s righteousness through faith in his precious blood as their ransom price, are acceptable to God. Let us flee, therefore, from every sin, and from every appearance of evil; and let us manifest our hatred of sin by a continual and lifelong striving against it; and day by day and year by year will manifest more and more of a mastery over it.

Below we add some statistics showing in figures something of the immense expense of the single sin of intemperance in the use of spiritous liquors; yet we may safely say that the half cannot be told in any such way. But who can compute the enormous expense of the whole retinue of sins, great and small, to our fallen and enslaved humanity? What enormous expense of misery and wretchedness has been incurred, for instance, by the intemperate propagation of the human species, begotten in sin, shapen in iniquity, and brought forth with the deeply engraven hereditary marks of sin into a world of temptations, deceptions and snares!

In the Boston Herald of Jan. 30, ’93 were given the following statistics by Edward Atkinson, the well-known statistician.

STANDARD OF COMPARISON

THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF LIQUORS

Spirits withdrawn, including fruit brandy—gallons,…. 89,554,919
12 per cent, used in the arts,. 10,746,589
Consumed as beverage, —————
gallons,…………………. 78,808,330
Valuation spirits—78,808,330
gallons @ $4.50,………….. $354,637,485
Valuation beer—974,247,863
gallons @ 50 cents,……….. 487,123,931
Domestic wines—25,000,000
gallons @ $2.00,………….. 50,000,000
Imported beer,…………….. 3,051,898
Imported wines,……………. 40,000,000
—————
Total in 1891,…………….. $934,813,314
Estimated increase spirits in 1892,…. 35,000,000
Actual increase beer,………. 21,070,963
Increase domestic and imported wines,…. 10,000,000
——————
Total, 1892,………………. $1,000,884,277
Authority, F. N. Barrett.
Consumption of liquors per capita U.S. population in 1892,…. $15.28
Total expenditures of the U.S. Government 1892 per capita of population,….. $5.27
Total cost of U.S. Government aside from war debt and pensions per capita of population,…. 2.53
Spirits, beer, etc., per day per person, 4 + cts.
All government expenditures 1892 per day per person,….. 1 + cts.

Truly none are wise who permit themselves to be deceived by sin in any of its forms; for the pleasures of sin are brief, ignoble and unsatisfying, and the dregs of the cup are a bitter recompense.

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— March 1, 1894 —