The Evil and the End of Intemperance
W. Clarkson Isaiah 5:11, 12, 22 Woe to them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!… When other evils have entered and other calamities have overtaken a state, intemperance is sure to make its black and hateful mark. These verses suggest - I. ITS TYRANNY. Such is its strength that it makes its devotees, t rise up early in the morning" (ver. 11) in order to worship at its shrine. It is an unnatural and detestable action; the earliness of the hour of the day might well be pleaded as a proof of innocency (Acts 2:15). But when the passion for "strong drink" is at its height, it compels its helpless victims to break through all decencies and proprieties, and get up early in order to indulge. This is only one instance of its despotism; it leads those who "follow "it along many a path and into many a dark pit, from which they would fain turn away but cannot. At first a small silken cord, it becomes at last an adamantine chain. II. ITS POWER OF PERVERSION. It compels good things to minister to evil (ver. 12). "The harp and the viol," etc., are excellent things in their way and in their place; but, used for the purpose of enlivening and protracting immoderate indulgence, they are perverted to an evil and guilty end. Music is meant to cheer, to attract toward that which is good, to gladden the heart and to brighten the life of man; it reaches its highest function when, in the worship of God, it conducts the thought and utters the feeling of man toward the Supreme. Made the minister of vice, it sinks to its lowest level. The love of strong drink can thus pervert the good gifts of God to unworthy uses. III. ITS DEGRADING TOUCH. It leads "men of strength to mingle strong drink" (ver. 22) in order that they may glory in their power of drinking. In many lands and ages men have boasted of their power to withstand the influence of the intoxicating cup. What a miserable degradation of human strength! That men who are capable of performing noblest deeds, of rendering highest service, of engaging in Divine worship, should prostitute their powers by trying to drink much wine without becoming inebriated, this is a shocking degradation of human faculty. IV. ITS BLINDING INFLUENCE. "They regard not the work of the Lord," etc. (ver. 12). Certainly, at the table of unrestrained reveling, God would be forgotten and his works be disregarded; but not there alone is the influence of intoxication felt. The man who gives way to this indulgence finds his mental powers becoming clouded, his spiritual sensibilities benumbed, his appreciation of the sacred and the Divine lessened if not lost. Strong drink dulls and deadens the higher faculties of the soul, and the nobler functions of our manhood are undischarged, its purer joys abandoned. V. THE WOE IT WORKS. "Woe unto them," etc. (ver. 11)! Beyond the evils which we have been tracing to the intoxicating cup - evils which are of themselves woe enough for any one sin to work - there are: 1. The loss of physical strength and beauty. 2. The loss of reputation and of friendship. 3. The loss of self-respect and, with this, the sinking of the moral character; the upgrowth of attendant moral evils. 4. Death and condemnation. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! WEB: Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!