II. THE INFATUATION PORTRAYED--by 1. _Giving false names to things_ (ver. 20). Call (1) evil good: drinks (poisons) are called beverages; evil things made by men are called God's good creatures. And so they call (2) good evil; despise the really good and safe; pour contempt on water and safe fluids, and treat them as evil or worthless. How drinks have secured the most alluring titles--strong cordials, dew, &c., generous. Not only false names, but 2. _False qualities_ (ver. 20), "Bitter for sweet." Now intoxicating drinks are not sweet or palatable to the natural taste; they blister the mouth of children; do burn the delicate nerves of the stomach; the tongue and lips have to be trained, drilled, hardened. Observe, they call sweet bitter; things really so are treated as insipid. Ask the spirit-drinker to taste milk or tea, or water, and see how his poisoned taste revolts, &c. Then there is presented to us--3. _Infatuated results._ Put darkness for light; men plead and say these drinks--(1) Brighten the intellect. How false! See the bloated faces, the diseased eyes, the sensual expression, the stupid look, the stupor. The light is artificial, momentary, false--no better than the effects of certain gases or deadly stimulants, as opium, Indian hemp, &c. But they refer to men, to Burns, Pitt, Sheridan, and other drinking wits. But they were intellectually great in spite, &c. Look at Milton, Sir Isaac Newton; look at the inspired prophets--the seraphic Isaiah, the writer of the text. (2) They who drink say their drinks lighten the heart, give social joyousness. Right; but is it not sensual, spurious, evanescent, ends in darkness? So they put light for darkness. The calm, equable sobriety of soul they called dulness, darkness. But this is real, abiding, and rational. So, both in name and quality, and in effects, they call "evil good," &c. III. THE WOES DENOUNCED. 1. _There is the woe of physical consequence._ The seed and the harvest, the poisons and their effects, fire, deranged stomach, plague, diseased liver, excited heart, fevered brain, all tending to a host of maladies, shortened life, and an early grave. There is--2. _Woe of a distracted mind._ Reason beclouded; reflection, perception, all marred. The guiding star eclipsed, the light obscured with darkness. There is the--3. _Woe of moral defects._ The man is vitiated, made worse and worse; his affections, his desires, his conscience, his heart, the whole soul. There is--4. _The woe of perverted powers._ Gifts, talents, &c., all poisoned; influence deadly; the man a curse--a curse to all. 5. _The woe of God's malediction._ God's woe, His displeasure, His threatening, His curse; this is written in both volumes of the Scriptures--in frightful representation, in declared eternal condemnation.