Proverbs 23:35 They have stricken me, shall you say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake?… 1. The application of anaesthetics to surgery is one of the most beneficent discoveries of the present age. One shudders at the very thought of the surgical operations of the olden days, executed without the merciful drug that makes the patient unconscious of his agony. But almost every good thing in the kingdom of God is travestied in the kingdom of Satan. Satan has therefore his own anodyne which he uses to the ruin of the bodies and souls of men. It is evident from the proverb that alcohol was known to be an anaesthetic three thousand years ago. Modern science corroborates the ancient saying. Most people know that a man in liquor often appears insensible to wounds which otherwise would cause intense pain. Medical men occasionally use alcohol as an anesthetic when chloroform is inadmissible. The practical result of this property of alcohol is that the intemperate man — and many a regular "moderate" drinker, too — is unconscious of the gradual deterioration of his bodily frame. The vital organs are becoming diseased and their functions deranged; but meanwhile the process is most rapidly going on in the brain. Hence all the perceptions are dulled, and the painful sensations, that otherwise would give timely warning of the growing mischief, are to some extent unfelt. One of the purposes of pain is to sound a warning note, to give a signal that something is wrong, that some part of the complex mechanism of the body is out of gear. Our duty is, therefore, not to be contented with allaying the pain, but if possible to cure the disease which causes the pain. 2. The moral anaesthesia to which alcohol gives rise is even more terrible than the physical. Acting as a subtle brain-poison, it works sad havoc with the moral perceptions. All delicacy of conscience is quickly lost, the distinctions between right and wrong become blurred, and the man once honoured and trusted becomes a liar, a thief, and an ingrate. The loving, dutiful son becomes selfish, morose, and attacks his mother with murderous violence. Now, in such cases as these (which are, alas! only too common) we cannot believe that the honest man wilfully takes to lying, the affectionate father wilfully becomes the savage brute, or the dutiful son is filled wilfully with a fierce hatred of his mother. Evidently the mind, conscience, and will become diseased. Alcohol not only dulls the sense of pain in the physical system; it is an ansesthetic that dulls the mind so as to produce unconsciousness of the moral havoc that is being made. The unhappy being loses his power of truthfulness, and yet is hardly conscious that he is a liar. It should be remembered that absolute drunkenness is not always necessary to produce such results. The free and regular use of alcoholic beverages, though stopping short of intoxication, will assuredly produce more or less injury to the body and degradation of the mind and will, both in the drinker and in his children. Let us beware lest we even in the least degree impair these God-like qualities with which we have been endowed. 3. The last words of the text express what we are accustomed to call the "drink crave." When intoxication is over, and all the misery and depression that are the after-results of excess are felt, then the unhappy victim of the drink-habit says in effect, if not in the actual words of the text, "I will seek it yet again." The man who is always strictly moderate in his use of alcohol then steps in and says, "But why are you so foolish as to seek it again? Has it not done you enough harm already? Why not leave it alone?" But if he knew into what a state the poor drunkard had fallen — a state of both physical and mental degradation — he would not talk so glibly. First of all, the drink-crave has a physical basis. Certain of the vital organs are so affected and in such distress that the overpowering crave for drink is as natural, under the circumstances, as the craving of an excessively hungry man for food. Inebriety becomes, in fact, an actual and terrible bodily disease, not easily to be cured. Further than that, the mind of the inebriate is so obscured that he does not realise his fall as do those about him. The horror of his position does not appear to him. Strange and sad to say, this mental blindness, often extends to the near relatives. 4. Probably many moderate drinkers would agree with what has been said, and would give thanks that they are not as other men are. Yes, by all means let them give thanks for God's protecting grace. But let them also ask themselves whether their example as moderate drinkers is helpful to their family and friends, whether the edifying spectacle of their self-restraint is likely to diminish the number of drunkards or to lessen the peril to which so many are exposed. (J. E. Crawshaw.). Parallel Verses KJV: They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. |
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