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Chapter 3—Alcohol and the Home
Moderate Drinking
—Moderate drinking is the school in which
men are receiving an education for the drunkard’s career.—
The
Review and Herald, March 25, 1884
.
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God’s Blessings Changed to a Curse
—Our Creator has be-
stowed His bounties upon man with a liberal hand. Were all these
gifts of Providence wisely and temperately employed, poverty, sick-
ness, and distress would be well-nigh banished from the earth. But
alas, we see on every hand the blessings of God changed to a curse
by the wickedness of men.
There is no class guilty of greater perversion and abuse of His
precious gifts than are those who employ the products of the soil
in the manufacture of intoxicating liquors. The nutritive grains, the
healthful, delicious fruits, are converted into beverages that pervert
the senses and madden the brain. As a result of the use of these
poisons, thousands of families are deprived of the comforts and even
the necessaries of life, acts of violence and crime are multiplied,
and disease and death hurry myriads of victims to a drunkard’s
grave.—
Gospel Workers, 385, 386
.
Marriage Vows Melted in the Fiery Liquid
—Look upon the
drunkard’s home. Mark the squalid poverty, the wretchedness, the
unutterable woe that are reigning there. See the once happy wife
fleeing before her maniac husband. Hear her plead for mercy as the
cruel blows fall on her shrinking form. Where are the sacred vows
made at the marriage altar? where is the love to cherish, the strength
to protect her now? Alas, these have been melted like precious
pearls in the fiery liquid, the cup of abominations! Look upon those
half-naked children. Once they were cherished tenderly. No wintry
storm, nor the cold breath of the world’s contempt and scorn, was
permitted to approach them. A father’s care, a mother’s love, made
their home a paradise. Now all is changed. Day by day the cries of
agony wrenched from the lips of the drunkard’s wife and children
go up to heaven.—
The Review and Herald, November 8, 1881
.
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