Seite 31 - Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene (1890)

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Effects of Stimulants
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and to go forward in a certain path, be it right or wrong, is more easy
than to start. To corrupt our ways before God requires no effort; but to
engraft habits of righteousness and truth upon the character takes time
and patient endeavor.
Many who would hesitate to place liquor to a neighbor’s lips, will
engage in the raising of hops, and thus lend their influence against the
temperance cause. I cannot see how, in the light of the law of God,
Christians can conscientiously engage in the raising of hops or in the
manufacture of wine and cider for the market.
I have often heard people say, “Oh! this is only sweet cider. It
is perfectly harmless, and even healthful.” Several quarts, perhaps
gallons, are carried home. For a few days it is sweet; then fermentation
begins. The sharp taste makes it all the more acceptable to many
palates, and the lover of sweet wine and cider is loth to admit that his
favorite beverage ever becomes hard and sour.
Intoxication is just as really produced by wine and cider as by
stronger drinks, and it is the worst kind of inebriation. The passions
are more perverse; the transformation of character is greater, more
determined and obstinate. A few quarts of cider or wine may awaken
a taste for stronger drinks, and in many cases those who have become
confirmed drunkards have thus laid the foundation of the drinking
habit.
For persons who have inherited an appetite for stimulants, it is
by no means safe to have wine or cider in the house; for Satan is
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continually soliciting them to indulge. If they yield to his temptations,
they do not know where to stop; appetite clamors for indulgence, and
is gratified to their ruin. The brain is clouded; reason no longer holds
the reins, but lays them on the neck of lust. Licentiousness abounds,
and vices of almost every type are practiced as the result of indulging
the appetite for wine and cider. It is impossible for one who loves
these stimulants, and accustoms himself to their use, to grow in grace.
He becomes gross and sensual; the animal passions control the higher
powers of the mind, and virtue is not cherished.
Moderate drinking is the school in which men are receiving an
education for the drunkard’s career. So gradually does Satan lead away
from the strongholds of temperance, so insidiously do wine and cider
exert their influence upon the taste, that the highway to drunkenness is
entered upon all unsuspectingly. The taste for stimulants is cultivated;