The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-28
International SundaySchool
 Lesson ~
First Quarter. Lesson Xiii, March
 29th. Prov. xxiii, 20-s5.

First Quarter. Lesson Xiii, March
 19th. Prov. xxiii, 20-35.
 Temperance Lesson
 This book of kingly authorship will never lose its charm. and the world of letters win always be its debtor. Even the Man who spake as man never did. uses admiring terms as He tells how the wisdom of its author was the loadstone which drew the queen of the south from the ut termost parts of the earth. Solomon Is first of philosophers, and Aristotle Is thought to have reproduced him. He is the eldest of fablers whom Aesop initiated. He is the eldest of natural scientists.
 Stanley aptIy calls the Book of Pro- verbs the sanctifcation of common sense; 'and again" the philosophy of practical life" Familiarity with Solomon's sayings, in Guthrie's judg- ment, accounts for the proverbially high character of old Scotla's sons. And this handy guide in homely mat ters has it's spiritual uses also. Words worth says finely: ''The proverbs of solomon come, from above. They also While other parts of Scripture show us the glory, of our high calling. this may instruct us in all minuteness of detail how to walk worthy of It." These aphorisms are a succession of flashlights. showing the wisdom of goodness. the folly of sin. They might be memorized in our homes and Sunday schools to highest advan- tage. t
 Now Israers peet-king and prodigy of wisdom, sets himself to the task of painting the drunkard's portrait. It Is a faithful likeness. and hcrrid because faithful The royal artist per- sists in his undertaking, though his canvas grows lurid under each suc- cessive stroke of the pencil. His picture has proved. veritable dam ger-slgnal, flashing its warning col or upon successive generations for three thousand years. Its red light has proved a powerful deterrent to multitudes. Nowhere in literature Is the woe, the folly, and the fate of the drunkard so powerfully depicted
 That such picture could have been painted thirty centuries ago suflcient- ly proves the antiquity of that vice. Drunkenness Is no modern sin or mere accident of our present civilization. It is as old as Noah. and older. Intox- icating liquors undoubtedly inflamed the race before the flood, and led on to that nameless depravIty which had to be drowned out in awful Judgment And each succeeding generation has suffered the crushing might of this dreadful vice. Each has been burned, bitten. and poisoned by this vice; from each has burst the sorrowfui and despairing interiections here uttered: "oy' Alas"
 Old as 1t Is. Solonon's picture Is the very similitude of the drunkard of today. Three, thousand years have not sunfced to change the causes or ef- fects of incompetence. Study the sue lineation.
 Those who tarry at wine. by the increase of the subtle and nowerf,,I appetite. are compelled to seek strong. CT potations (mixed winel. The grad uaI light wine to red wine. and inc highly alcoholized wine, with It's eyes or beads. is inevitable. Then follow the facial signs of inAbriety (redness Of eyes4: next quarrelsome en ess, cause less wounds and the infian1ln9 of sax. ual passion. Finally. incipient denen- tia, which makes the drunkard ob,iv- ious to personal danger, and to in- dignities visited upon him by hootinr noD or officers of lava dementIa m which however the appetite parsist- ently asserts itself; the worm dyins not and the fire being unduenched. Al IS forgotten. all is lost; but among the debris of mind. heart. ana man. hood the conqueror stalks =
 And .careth naught .. .... For the awful ruin that he has
 wrought" This is no fancy sketch of genius. nor happy aesthetic study: but 1t deserves the close. respectful attention of every one who loves himself and his neigh Dor. No one can push this picture nonchalantly aside unless his Bible al. lows him to say. T am not my broth. er's keeper" No truly philanthropic spirit can turn with indifferent cool. ness from this inspired canvas. It pictures the all-embracing "woe"