King's Business - 1910-05

has, too, a pregnant meaning. It not only means to bite, but to gnaw away, to waste away. It is used of usury. The " l o an s h a r k" has teeth of the same sort. There is a ruinous tax on the drinker's physical, moral and monetary resource^. Wine is a viper like those fiery serpents in the Wilder- ness which bit the people and many of them died. There is but one remedy —and that is the look for life to Him that was lifted as Moses lifted up the serpent on the pole. V—THE TWOFOLD MORAL MIS- ERY. 1. Shall behold strange women. The bar and the brothel are side by side; yes, under the same roof. This is another proverb: "W i ne and wo- me n ." The eye that has looked on the wine when it is red, is soon in the " r e d light district," following the strange woman, who, like the wine, ' 1 giveth her eye, f ' and ' ' he goeth after her straightaway as the ox to the slaughter . . . and knoweth not till a dart strike through his l i v e r" (Pr. 7:22, 23). Between the f a ng of the serpent and the dart of the strange woman, the poor dupe is like to be soon done for. 2. Shall utter perverse things. "Wh en the wine is, in the wit is o u t ." The lips babble much that should be secret; the tongue is dipt into much filthyiess, or set on fire of hell to speak profane blasphemies, and conspire to devilish mischief. VI—THE T W O F O L D MENTAL MISERY. 1. In the midst of the sea. Our space is exhausted, but here is a man tortured with dreadful imagina- tions. All the waves and billows of the bottomless pit are roaring in his ears. The waters compass him about, even to the soul; the depths close round about him; the weeds are wrapped about his head (Jon. 2:5). 2. Upon the top of a mast. He has no rest; sleep forsakes him; his dizzy head sweeps the arc of the horizon, with the royalmast, now dashing into the billows, aport and now starboard; while demons shriek and mock with the howl- ing of the storm. VII—THE THREEFOLD PHYSICAL MISERY. 1. Stricken . . . not sick. We have seen the drunkard stricken when he was not sick, yet unable to defend himself. 2. Beaten . . . felt it not. We saw one stagger, grasp at a telegraph pole, miss it, re- cover but pass the equilibrium and fall

compound, this mixt wine! The pre- scription is about as follows: R of woe, of sorrow, of contentions, of babblings,

of wounds without cause, of want and wretchedness, of red and black eyes, of any and all abominations, Each ad libitum. M.

Now this word " s e e k " is from a root meaning to " t r y , " " t a s t e , " " e x- ami n e ," " s a mp l e ." Note "Sample Room." All that list of woe is wont to follow on a taste, or sampling of our mixture. I knew a drunkard who quit his cups for a year; the demon who ran his favorite dram shop sent him a bot- tle, requesting him to sample it, as he wished an opinion of its quality. That taste recaptured him. But " Wh o hath wo e ?" Not him only who tarries at the wine, but they, also, who tarry at home; that father, that mother, that wife and those children, those brothers and sisters; and where are the proud and destructive waves of this red flood stayed? " O h, mamma, a r e n 't you g l a d ," said a child whose drunken father lay dead in the house, " a r e n ' t you glad dad is dead? Now we shall have meat to eaf^ and shoes to wear, for he won't spend the money any mo r e ! '' III—THE THREEFOLD EXHORTA- TION. 1. Look not on the wine when i t is red. This might be rendered, When it blushes. It has cause to blush for all the unblushing indecencies it occasions; and its red is reflected in the face of the drunkard until he can blush no more. 2. When it giveth its color in the cup. The Hebrew has it, "When it giveth its eye, i. e., its bead; it glances with its eye; an apt and vivid figure. So the basilisk. So the strange woman of another verse. It makes " g oo goo e y e s" at you. Ah, it is a sly devil!. 3. It moveth itself aright. That is when it flows smooth- ly how tempting it is when its votary sees its soft, rich, " o i l y " flow from the decanter to the glass. Thus it moveth itself aright to lead the un- Wary steps awrong, for there is no right in it. IV—THE TWOFOLD WARNING. 1. It stingeth like an adder. 2. It biteth like a serpent. This word " b i t e t h "

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