The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-07-05
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
THE EVIL OF DRUNKENNESS.

Almighty God has made provision of
food and drink sufficient to ensure the
preservation of life and health, writes
Rev. Jos. Schuen in The Sacred Heart
Review. Nevertheless, it often hap
pens that the gifts which God puts at
the disposal of man are employed in
such manner as to prove not profit
able, but rather harmful to us: they
are misused by being employed to ex-
cess. Thus it is especially with spirit
uous drinks, the excessive use Of which
proves injurious for time and eternity.
AS rule it is men rather than women
who are given to excess in this mat
ter.
Drunkenness begins with an Unborn
tendency to evil, due to the sin of our
first parents. "The Imagination and
thought of mans heart are prone to
evil from youth" (Gen. viii, 21. 81
know that there dwelleth not in me,
that is, in my flesh, that which is
good" (Rom. vii, 49,. This propen-
sity to evil is developed in various
ways; it is an accursed root from
which many poisonous plants grow.
One man develops it in the form of
anger, another in that of luxury, an
other of avarice, another in that of
envy, and still another in that of love
for strong drinks. Often the unfortu-
nate tendency manifests itself at an
early age, even in childhood. We meet
with children that have not yet left
school in whom the desire for drink
is already developed. The proneness
to evil is not a sin in itself, yet it
leads to sin if it is let go unchecked.
If not resisted with determination it
grows rapidly, as fire spreads if the
spark is not stamped out.
The desire for strong drink is de-
veloped by frequent indulgence; drink
as habit is an acquired habit The
desire is often contracted through the
fault of parents. Many parents are
so unwise as to give strong drink to
their children; some are foolish enough
to applaud their children if they can
drink off a glass like grown person.
1t may also be the fault of strangers.
There are people so ignorant or mali
cious as to ply children with strong
| drinks; they take delight in getting
them intoxicated and amusing them
selves with their antics. AS for
adults, their danger very often lies in
the company they keep. How often
it happens that a friend, so called,
teaches another the love for strong
drink! Young men often boast of how
| Cto
of ridicule induce their friends to
drink more than is good for them.
1t may also be through ones own
fault that the habit of taking strong
drink is acquired. A man may begin
by drinking moderately, but on ac-
count of the love he has for the as
sociations he meets with in drinking
places, he frequents them more and
more and so gradually acquires a love
for liquor. He may indeed resist the
passion for drink, but unfortunately
the number of those who once acquire
the habit and resist with any determin-
alton is very small The craving for
drink once acquired will not rest with
out being satisfied. Once the habit is
1 AOAnCu II uSSOnoS du IOu CHdlu, d
strong yoke; the man becomes slave
to it and can not break the letters that
bind him. He says: Come, let us
take wine and be filled with drunken
ness, and it shall be as today so also
tomorrow and much more" lis. wi, 12).
He cannot get rid of the craving: "If
the Ethiopian can change his skin, or
the leopard his spots, you also may
do well, when you have learned eviI'
| Ger. xiii, 53)
This is the way in which drunken
ness begins there is an inclination to
evil from nature and the habit is
formed by INDUCING this inclination
repeatedly.