v. 22. _Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and
men of strength to mingle strong drink._
There are certain vices which the customs of certain countries seem
to place only in the number of human infirmities; and yet, if we look
at their effects, we shall see that really they are as black as those
sins which God and man visits with the severest punishments. +I. The
drunkard's excuses,+ by which he endeavours to defend or palliate his
crime. 1. _Good fellowship._ But can friendship be founded on vice?
especially on a vice which notoriously impairs the memory and the
sense of obligation, leads to the betrayal of secrets, and stirs up
strife and contention? Instead of promoting conversation it destroys
it by destroying the very capability of communicating rational and
agreeable thoughts. The drunkard may make his company merry, but they
laugh at, not with, him, and merely because they are delighted with
the sight of one even sillier than themselves. 2. _"It drowns care."_
But the drunkard's care must arise either from his ill state of
health, the unfortunate posture of his worldly affairs, or the stings
of his guilty conscience; and, in either case, his temporary oblivion
is purchased at the cost of an aggravation of the evils which cause
him to desire it. To drink to drown remorse is especially absurd, for
all that the drunkard can expect from this course is the benefit of
travelling some part of the road to eternal misery with his eyes
covered. 3. The drunkard has other excuses: he says that he is so
exposed to company and business, that he cannot avoid drinking to
excess, or that he is of so easy and flexible a temper, that he
cannot resist the importunities of his friends, as he calls them.
Thus he is for softening his vice into a sort of virtue, and calling
that good nature, which his creditor calls villany, and his family
cruelty. +II. The drunkard's woe.+ This is made up of the miserable
effects, as well temporal as spiritual, of his favourite vice.
1. Poverty. 2. Contempt. 3. Ill-health. 4. An untimely death.
Consider, too, the spiritual evils that spring from and punish the
vice of drunkenness. 1. The understanding is depraved and darkened.
2. The will is enfeebled and dethroned. 3. The passions are inflamed
and rendered ungovernable. 4. Regard for men and reverence for God
are destroyed. Drunkenness travels with a whole train of other vices,
and requires the whole width of the broad way to give it room. Where
its journey is to end, we know; so that if the guilt and misery which
attend it here, be not enough, there, at least, the drunkard, having
opened his eyes and recovered the use of his reason, will perceive
the truth of the text.--_Skelton, in Clapham's Selected Sermons,_ ii.
384-392.