IV. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS THE EVIL OF INTEMPERANCE.
There are a number of texts in the Bible, which, if human language can mean any thing, most unquestionably furnish a warrant for drunkenness, whatever might have been the intention of the writer; and that they have had the effect to sustain and promote this evil, the practical history of Christian countries furnish proof that can not be gainsaid. That teacher of Bible morality—that wise man who is said to have received his wisdom directly from God, and must consequently be considered good authority—is represented as saying, "Give to him that is athirst, and wine to those of heavy heart. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." Here we are virtually recommended to drown our sorrows, and benumb the pangs of poverty, by becoming dead drunk; for it is only after the inebriate has quaffed the contents of the intoxicating bowl, or swung the bottle to his lips till he becomes stupefied and insensible (i.e., "dead drunk"), that he can "forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." We dare not deny, then, that Solomon recommended a state of beastly intoxication as a means of drowning our troubles; for no other meaning can be forced upon the text than that which we have assigned it, without assuming an unwarrantable use of language. Away, then, with such a book as "the source of moral and religious instruction for the heathen," or as a reading-book for youth and children! The question is not what the Bible can be made to teach; but what is it naturally understood to teach, and what are the moral consequences of so understanding it?
And we find in Exodus a still more explicit license, not only for drinking, but for buying and selling, intoxicating drinks It is proclaimed, upon the authority of Jehovah, "Thou shalt spend thy money for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after" (Dent, xiv. 26). We are sometimes told, but without reliable authority, that the wine here referred to did not possess very intoxicating properties. But it will be observed that the text did not stop at wine, but "strong drink;" thus leaving no doubt upon the mind of the reader but that they used strong liquors, even if we were warranted in assuming the wine was not of this character, which, however, we are not, and which we know is not true: for, although like the wine of the grape in other countries, it would not intoxicate while new, yet in that warm climate, as travelers affirm, it will ferment in a few hours. It is evident, then, that wine was one of their intoxicating beverages in addition to "strong drinks." And here we find a license for buying and selling and using both in a book which the orthodox churches would have us adopt as "the fountain of our laws, and the supreme rule of our conduct," ostensibly for the improvement of the morals of the people; when it is known to unbiased investigators of the subject that these and similar texts have been a stumbling-block in the progress of the temperance reform among that class of people who take the Bible as it reads without studying the art of extracting the old meaning with the clerical force-pump, and coining a new meaning of their own especially adapted to the occasion,—an art studied and practiced by the spiritually blinded devotees of all "the Holy Bibles" which God is assumed to have inspired for the salvation of the human race. I will cite one case in proof of the statement that a Bible containing such texts as I have cited is calculated to do much mischief in the way of retarding the temperance reform by furnishing the plainest authority for drinking and trafficking in intoxicating liquors. A friend, upon whom I can rely, related to me the following case:
A man addicted to intemperate habits was converted to religion and induced to sign a temperance pledge, partly by the influence of a speaker who quoted from "the word of God" such texts as these: "Woe unto him who holds the bottle to his neighbor's mouth" (Hab. ii. 15); "Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging" (Prov, xx. 1). But a few days after his conversion, as he was turning the leaves of the Bible, his eye accidentally caught sight of one of the texts I have quoted,—"Thou shalt spend thy money for strong drink," &c. Here he discovered that his Bible and his God both declared that buying and drinking intoxicating beverages was all right. It was enough. His resolution gave way; his firmness was unmanned, his moral manhood prostrated, his pledge overruled; and, in less than two hours, he was again lying in the ditch "dead drunk." Here is a proof of the mischief that can be wrought by one single text upon those who have accepted the Bible as "the supreme rule of their conduct." You may proclaim the evil of intemperance with the tongue of a Cicero, or paint it with the pencil of a Raphael, and muster all the texts you can find in the book condemning the practice, yet one such text as I have quoted will poison the moral force, of it all while the Bible is read and adored as "the rule of their conduct." As one drop of belladonna or prussic acid will poison a whole pint of water, in like manner will one immoral text, when found in a book accepted by the people as their highest authority in practical morals, have the effect to neutralize the moral force of every sound precept that may be found in the book. It is useless, and labor comparatively lost, for a book or a moral teacher to inculcate good precepts, while it is known they are morally capable of teaching or preaching bad ones. One spark of fire is sufficient to explode a powder-magazine. Bad precepts and bad examples are both very contagious in a morally undeveloped and unenlightened age; and their pernicious effects can not be wholly counteracted or prevented by any number of precepts of an opposite character.
But we are told the precepts above quoted are in the Old Testament, and not the New, which is now accepted as higher authority. But then it should be borne in mind, that the Old Testament is still being printed and bound with the New as a part of "the Holy Bible," and "God's perfect revelation to man" for "the guidance of his moral conduct." It is still circulated both in Christian and heathen countries by the million with the New, and as of equal authority with the New Testament. It takes both to make "the Holy Bible." It will be in vain, then, to plead any extenuation or apology for the immoralities of the Old Testament on this ground. They will both stand or fall together. The "new dispensation" could not stand a day without the Old Testament as a basis. And then, when we push our investigations a step further, we find the New Testament lending its sanction to most of the evils and crimes which are supported by the Old Testament; and among this number is that under review,—the vice or sin of intemperance. Paul, one of the principal founders and expounders of the religion of the New Testament, and one of the leading examples and teachers of its morals, in his letter of exhortation to Timothy, advises him to "drink no longer water, but take a little wine for the stomach's sake" (1 Tim. v. 23). As for the plea or purpose for which the intoxicating beverage was to be used on this occasion "for the stomach's sake," it is the same that dram-drinkers and drunkards have always had recourse to to justify the use of strong drink. It is always drunk for "the stomach's sake." And, when we find Christ himself converting a large quantity of water into wine (see John ii.), we must conclude that the New Testament does not teach a system of morals calculated to arrest the sin of intemperance. Those, then, who wish still to continue floundering in the cesspool of drunkenness, can find in the New Testament, as well as the Old, a justification for this sin.