72
Confrontation
common fire? It was when they put the cup to their lips that they
made themselves responsible for all their acts committed while under
the influence of wine. The indulgence of appetite cost those priests
their lives. God expressly forbade the use of wine that would have an
influence to becloud the intellect.
“And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor
strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the taber-
nacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever
throughout your generations: and that ye may put difference between
holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that ye may
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teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken
unto them by the hand of Moses.”
The special injunction of God to the Hebrews in reference to the
use of intoxicating liquors should be regarded in this dispensation. But
many who are holding the highest responsibilities in our country are,
in too many cases, liquor-and-tobacco slaves.
Jurors in our courts, by whose verdict the innocence or guilt of
their fellow men is decided, are many of them liquor-drinkers and
tobacco-inebriates. And, while under the influence of these, which
becloud the intellect and debase the soul, judgment is given upon the
liberty and life of their fellow men.
Perverted judgment in many cases clears from all punishment the
greatest criminals, when the safety of society demands they should
receive the full penalty of the law which they have violated.
The men who are legislating, and those who are executing the laws
of our government, while they are violating the laws of their being in
debasing appetites, which stupefy and paralyze the intellect, are not
fitted to decide the destiny of their fellow men. Those only who feel
the necessity of keeping soul, body, and spirit in conformity to natural
law, to the end that they may preserve the right balance of their mental
powers, are fitted to decide important questions in reference to the
execution of the law of our land. This was the mind of God by decrees
to the Hebrews that wine should not be used by those who ministered
in holy office.
Here we have the most plain directions of God, and His reasons
for prohibiting the use of wine; that their power of discrimination
and discernment might be clear, and in no way confused; that their
judgment might be correct, and they be ever able to discern between
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