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Alcohol and Men in Responsible Positions
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frivolities and dissipation of that night cost the life of one of the
most eminent prophets that ever bore a message from God to men.
The intoxicating cup prepared the way for this terrible crime.—
The
Review and Herald, March 11, 1873
.
No Voice to Save John
—Why was there no voice to be heard
in that company to keep Herod from fulfilling his mad vow? They
were intoxicated with wine, and to their benumbed senses there was
nothing to be reverenced.
Although the royal guests virtually had an invitation to release
him from his oath, their tongues seemed paralyzed. Herod himself
was under the delusion that he must, in order to save his own reputa-
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tion, keep an oath made under the influence of intoxication. Moral
principle, the only safeguard of the soul, was paralyzed. Herod and
his guests were slaves, held in the lowest bondage to brute appetite....
The mental powers were enervated by the pleasure of sense,
which perverted their ideas of justice and mercy. Satan seized upon
this opportunity, in the person of Herodias, to lead them to rush into
decisions which cost the precious life of one of God’s prophets.—
The Review and Herald, April 8, 1873
.
Divine Warnings
—The Lord cannot bear much longer with
an intemperate and perverse generation. There are many solemn
warnings in the Scriptures against the use of intoxicating liquors. In
the days of old, when Moses was rehearsing the desire of Jehovah
concerning His people, there were uttered against the drunkard the
following words:
“And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse,
that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though
I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His
jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are
written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out
his name from under heaven.”
Solomon says: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and
whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” “Who hath woe? who
hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath
wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry
long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou
upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup,