Questionable Amusements and Worthy SubstitutesJudy, J. M.
Religion
Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes
Judy, J. M.
Amusements -- Religious aspects -- Methodist Church; Christian ethics
with our own eyes as the years have come and gone. The downfall and ruin
of this young man, and the unsaved fate of his brother, easily may be
traceable to the "social glass" and the boon companions of the social
glass--tobacco and playing-cards. Last year I met a man who had prided
himself in the fact that he could drink or let it alone, and thought
that it was all right to take a "social glass" occasionally. Election
time came around; he fell in with his friends, and, as one always will
do sooner or later who tampers with it at all, went too far. Before he
knew it he was as low in the gutter as a beast. It was three days before
he was a sober man again. He work had ceased, he had disgusted his
fellow-workmen, disgraced his Christian family, and had humiliated
himself so that he was ashamed to look any man in the face until he had
repented of his sins before God, and had promised Him, by His help, that
he would never drink another glass. What a pleasure it was to hear that
old man, as he is close to sixty years of age, to hear him tell in a
spirited religious service of how he had strayed from his path and had
got lost in the woods, but thanked God that he was out of the woods, and
by His help would remain out. When we become undone in Christ He lifts
us up and starts us on our new way rejoicing in His love. If Christ
Himself were here in body, do you know what He would advise on this
point? He would say: "As it is written;" "Look not thou upon the wine
when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it goeth down
smoothly: at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an
adder." Beware of the social glass, my friend, for though it promises
pleasure, it gives but pain; it promises joy, it gives but sorrow; it
promises deliverance, it gives but eternal death!
III. STUDY THE DRINK EVIL.
We hear it said, "No use to picture the horrors of the drink evil; every
one knows them already." In part, this is true. All of us know more than
we wish it were possible to be true; and yet no one can ever realize
its horrors until caught, and torn, and mangled in its pinching, jagged,
griping meshes. It is one thing to know by a distant glance, it is
another thing to know by the pangs of a broken heart and of a wrecked
life. For those who are not thus caught in its meshes to realize its
horrors so as to seek its destruction but one course is possible;
namely, To study the evil. Let the teacher tell of its ravages; let the
minister proclaim its curses; let the poet sing it; the painter paint
it; the editor report it; the novelist portray it; the scientist
describe it; the philosopher decry it; the sisters and wives and mothers
denounce it--until all shall unite in smiting it to its death!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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