The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1960-08-19
After The Drinks
Lesson for August Fl, 1860

S oNAiS 0o Vic 4CdoUu WHY IL
does not war against too-fast
driving, or the excessive use of
sleeping pills. or flying a light
plane in freezing rain. These are
all ways Of cutting life short, just
as whiskey is. But the Bible does
not mention them because they
had not vet been invented. The
Bible does warn us many times
about the use of wine and the
equivalent of beer. Most of
the references to "strong drink "
could be translated "beer" with
out seriously changing the mean
ing.
Death
The prophet Isaiah, looking
about him in his own city of Je-
ruSalem, saw a drinking people,
men and women for whom social
drinking was a well-established
popular habit. But he did not like
what ne saw. Furthermore, since
an authentic prophet is one who
sees with Gods eyes, we can be
sure, if we take the Bible seri-
ously, that God did not like it
either.
Does God like it any better in
America? In 1858, the last year
for which figures are available,
the sales Of liquor stores were
$4,439. 900. 600. This is just about
double what the public spent in
shoe stores in the same year.
Liquor advertising accounts for
some of this, to be sure. But
liquor ads-very attractive they
are. too-always show the liquor
drinker before the drinks, never
after. They never show the muir
derS committed under the influ-
ence of alcohol, they do not show
the wrecks caused by drinking
mot necessarily drunk drivers.
The ads show a man-before !:
they do not show him after his
drinks have made him less than
a man. 1.-The grave has opened
its mouth Isaiah said, refer
ring to his hard-drinking nation.
The grave opens its mouth to-
day . not to mention the living
death of alcoholism.
A nation that spends twice as
much in liquor stores as in shoe
stores has very odd standard
of values. to say the least. The
drinker, even the modest drinker
opens the door to becoming a
man Tor woman, who cannot
think straight. If you were to be
operated on. would you like to
think the surgeon had just taken
little rum to warm himself
UP? Would you willingly fly in
a plane if you knew the pilot
kept himself pretty well "juned
up between flights? If you were
prisoner. would you like to be
sentenced by a judge who had
several drinks under his robe
You would not. But if we don't
want important things done for
us by people even a tiny Bit
tipsy. we should not want people
thinking for us with their brains
even little fuzzed with alcohol
The farther a man goes with q
drinking habit, the bigger ano
bigger the bottle grows. bigger
in importance. that is. Isaiah
knew that a drinking nation calls
"evil good, and good evil"
The Rotten Root
The people, the liquor-lovine
people, that swarmed in Isaiah:
city. he compares to a plant O.
which the root is rotten and the
blossom is dust. They have los
their stamina, they will fall t.
! their enemies like dry grass be
fore a flame! This came true
we must remember One of the
most frightening f atures @
America is the attitude of many
leaders toward liquor. Charles A
Wells. in Between the Lines
for Jan. IS, 1859, writes: 1.-The
favored treatment liquor gets il
the U. S. Armed Services. and il
U. S. diplomacy. is notorious
Liquor gets priority treatmen
The Kremlin is cracking
down on liquor in Russia witt
severity, and preaching sobriety
ard temperance as is Rec
China. Are not the despoilers II
the American defense program
guilty Of sabotage as much as !
they mined a bridge or put
bomb in a plane? Narcotic!
squads knock themselves out 60
ing after dope-users and ped
dlers. Why is it nobody muci
bothers with the enormously
larger number of drug addict!
who drug themselves with alec
hol? Could it be because to-
many Important People" arr
the same kind Of drug victims
Biased on outlines copyrighted
by the Division Of Christian Edu
mcation, National Council Of tn
Churches Of Christ in the U. S. A
Released by Community Pres
Service.)
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