The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-11-16
The Sunday School Lesson.
SERIES FOR 1895.--FOURTH QUARTER.
STUDIES IN JEWISH HISTORY.

distant We we're told that the man was
in high wrath when he found that he
had taken his long walk in vain. there
being no drink for him at the second
hotel. He had very poor opinion of the
State of Maine. This man is the repre-
sentative of class, who have the crav-
ing for drink SO strong that it begins in
the early morning as kindling flame.
The other aspect of ruinous intemper-
ance spoken Of by the prophet is that
which becomes accustomed to Goddess
feasting; where music Of harp and Lutte
and tabret and pipe is welcomed to ex-
cite the fancy, but where God is utterly
forgotten, thy regard not the aoork of
Lord, neither haze they considered the
operation of has hands.
Early drink and late drink,-it meant
loss of stamina in patriotism, and the
ruin of manhood, alike in the rich and
the poor; it meant death made busy,
and the country falling to ruin and be-
coming captive to its covetous enemies.
Intemperance and luxury did this for
Judah; it turned the sites of cities to
sheep pastures, the parks of the rich to
hunting grounds for the Bedouins. This
was the just judgment of righteous
God upon his unfaithful people.
2. The Drunkard Deluded.-
We. 1921.
The prophet pronounced woe upon
those who draw iniquity or are held to it
by the threads of influence, cords of
va1aity, as he calls them; yet are really
held to their sin as 1t acre Nth cart
rope. Many have we known who, as
drinkers, boosted that they we're free.
Their bonds were as silk in the weaving.
But when the trial came they found
that these same easy bonds we're as the
ropes which held the oxen of old to their
carts; they were thongs almost too hard
for the most resolute human will to
break.
Many are the men who try to persuade
themselves that there is no Divine judg-
ment pronounced against intemperance.
They will not believe the logic of expe-
rience. They say they can drink and no
harm will come. AS for judgment of
God in the coming days, they say: Let
him hasten his aOork that aCe mag see
1T.
But when the judgment comes they
do not think it so fine thing. A young
man we once knew maintained, against
friendly advice, that he was sure that he
could always control his desire for strong
drink. But he one day acknowledged
that total abstinence was his only safe
course. He came to us and we solemnly
administered to him the total abstinence
pledge. But he found that he could not
then even keep his pledge. The pledge
was again and yet again administered;
as often broken. The young man is now
wanderer from home; and what hope
can we have of his earthly future? How
many young men are treading the same
delusive and ruinous path!
1t is an important lesson to learn that
natures laws can never be evaded or
modified. Vain is it to call evil good
and good evil, to put darkness for light
and light for darkness. to put bitter for
sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe on all
who try to reverse natures inexorable
facts. Even while one is boasting of his
freedom in transgression of nature, he
is himself being ground to powder in ma
lures relentless mill wheels. Nature
avenges every wrong.
3. The Drunkard without
HOnOr.-vs. %, %.
The very worst feature of intemper-
ance is its perversion of the moral sense.
When men can boast of their ability to
indulge in strong drink, and think such
mightiness creditable to them, the life
has gone out of their manhood. Men
have been proud to have it said of them,
"They can carry off an amount of liquor
that would overcome other men," Woe
unto them that are mighty to drink
a0ine. When again men devote their
strength to mingling strong drink. to
the concoction of drinks to tempt the
drinkers, their strength, however cum
ming. is moral weakness,
Wofully weak are all who have been
made apparently strong by intoxicating
drink. Z. Their physical strength exists
only in their imagination; and those who
accumulate money by the sale of alco-
holic beverages are destined to see no
good of their gains.
To be in alliance with the liquor pow
or and uphold the saloon. for reward,
comes little short of the utmost degra-
dation of manhood. 1t is thing to re-
mark that there were those in the
prophets day who could justify the
aoicked for REGARD. There are such
now. Men will. for pecuniary or po
litical reward, favor the saloon. There
were those of old also who could take
atoay the Righteousness of the righte-
ouS from him. So we have met men
who believe, or crate as if they believed,
that the men who chiefly curse the
world are such as John Hawkins, John
B. Cough, John G. Woolley,-a trinity
of "holy st. Johns" as all well-wishers
of their race must agree.