(d) One disorders the health, and confuses the mind, through overmuch eating and drinking.
3. There is a virtue in self-denial in eating and drinking. Our Lord Himself exhorts to fasting (Matt. vi. 16), and Himself set us the example to fast. It must, however, never be done to excess, so as to injure the health. And as it is well to abstain from food, so is it well to abstain from intoxicating drinks, if done merely as an act of self-denial, and to avoid scandal.
4. Gluttony or Drunkenness is the fruitful mother of several evil children.
(a) The degradation of the superior faculties, which are weakened by surfeiting and drunkenness. The mind is abased, and the soul smothered by excessive eating and drinking.
(b) Forgetfulness of Salvation. The soul becomes so lost in the grossness of the life led by the glutton, and the gourmand, and the drunkard, that it does not care for the things of the life to come.
(c) Laxity of Morals. When the thoughts are given up to pampering the animal man in one particular, the power to resist temptation to indulge the animal appetites in other particulars is weakened, if not lost.
(d) Passion. The glutton and the drunkard are liable to give way to explosions of rage and anger, to quarrels and discords. Self-restraint being sacrificed in one quarter is lost in another.