Death of John
55
though drunken and confused, endeavored to summon reason to his
aid.
He had been exalted for constancy and superior judgment, and he
did not wish to appear fickle or rash in character. The oath had been
made in honor of his guests, and had one of them offered a word of
remonstrance against the fulfillment of his promise, he would gladly
have saved the life of John. He gave them opportunity to speak in the
prisoner’s behalf. They had traveled long distances to the mountains
in the wilderness to listen to his powerful discourses, and they knew
he was a man without crime, and a prophet of God. Herod told them
if it would not be considered a special mark of dishonor to them, he
would not abide by his oath.
But though at first they were horror-stricken at the unnatural de-
mand of the girl, they were so far intoxicated that they sat in silent
stupor, without reason, reverence, or thought. Though they were in-
vited to release the monarch from his oath, their tongues were dumb.
No voice in all that company was raised to save the life of an innocent
man, who had never done them harm. Herod, still under the delusion
that, in order to maintain his reation, he must keep an oath made under
the influence of intoxication, unless formally released from it, waited
in vain for a dissenting voice, but there was none. The life of God’s
prophet was in the hands of a company of drunken revelers. These
men occupied high positions of trust in the nation, and grave responsi-
[80]
bilities rested upon them, yet they had gorged themselves with dainty
food, and added drunkenness to surfeiting, until their mental powers
were enervated by the pleasure of sense, their brains turned with the
giddy scene of music and dancing, and conscience lay dormant. By
their silence they pronounced the sentence of death upon the anointed
of the Lord, to gratify the horrible caprice of a wicked woman.
Too often in these days the most solemn responsibilities rest upon
those who, from their intemperate habits, are not in a condition to
exercise the calm judgment and keen perceptions of right and wrong
with which their Creator endowed them. The guardians of the people,
men in authority, upon whose decisions hang the lives of their fellow-
creatures, should be subject to severe punishment if found guilty of
intemperance. Those who enforce laws should be lawkeepers. They
should be men of self-government, in full harmony with the laws gov-
erning their physical, mental, and moral powers, that they may possess