Isaiah 5:11-12 Woe to them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!… I. THE SIN, WITH ITS CONCOMITANTS AND CONNECTIONS, DESCRIBED IN THE TEXT. 1. The prophet refers to intemperance and its associate habits of festivity and dissipation. The corrupt condition of social life, springing from the depravity of the heart, has in every age encouraged those stimulants to evil adverted to in this passage, and which are alike felt by the high and the low. The wine mentioned is the date or palm wine, which possessed an inebriating quality; but, whatever be the particular drink — the wine of the wealthy or the beer of the poor — the accompaniments of the festival, metropolitan or rural, are frequently similar both in kind and effect, and tend to evil. Our Lord, it is true, was at a feast of Cana in Galilee; and music, "the harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe," may minister to an innocent recreation or gratify judicious taste; but we need scarcely adduce the trite distinction between the use and abuse of a thing, to show wherein lies, in the present case, the moral danger. The sin of excess, both in eating and drinking, in the forms of gluttony and intoxication, is peculiarly odious. (1) Intemperance is both bad in principle and degrading in character. and call it "a spontaneous fury"; and Basil, with greater vehemence of expression, says it is "a voluntary devil, a chosen madness." — (2) But while this is the case, it has a greater tendency than almost any other crime to destroy the feeling of shame and to harden conscience. (3) It leads to other great sins. Its name is legion; for, in reality, there is scarcely any vice or folly that it does not either originate or encourage. It is said by Eustathius that "the nurses of Bacchus were painted with snakes and daggers in their hands, to show that drunkards were beastly and bloody."(4) Intemperance is dangerous to the peace of society, and puts to hazard the lives of mere Vulgar quarrelling in low life, and polite duelling in high, disturb, separate, and destroy families. How many have been the murderers of others in seasons of intemperate festivity. Ammon was slain by his brother Absalom when indulging in wine. Simon the high priest, and two of his sons, were sacrificed to the inebriation of their brother. Judith slew Holofernes, when the latter was in a state of intoxication. Alexander the Great killed Clitus at a feast, and inflicted upon himself a vain repentance. 2. The prophet points out the connection between intemperance and unhallowed festivity, and an infidel disregard of the works and ways of Deity. Thus are body and soul at once degraded and ruined. Under the influence of intemperance men are led to disregard "the operations of His hands," not only undervaluing the works of God, but unmindful of His providential and gracious dispensations. His judgments do not alarm, His mercies do not conciliate them; they despise the one, and disown the other. II. THE WOE DENOUNCED BY THE PROPHET UPON THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF INTEMPERANCE. The "woe" is to be plainly traced in the conscious unhappiness of the delinquent, even though he seem gay and smiling — in the general and almost certain loss of health, that first of earthly blessings — in the diminution and probable loss of property, and of every resource — in the dereliction of friends worth having in the terrors of an unprepared for death, or the even more horrible condition of a moral death unfelt, and a natural death unheeded — and, lastly, in the quenchless burnings of the bottomless pit. Habits of intemperance are progressively formed, and therefore require the exercise of extreme carefulness, self-discipline, and prayer. Beware of the first step — of the first temptation — of the first immoderate indulgence. I conclude by presenting you with three short maxims of human wisdom, and one precept of Divine inspiration. He that will not fear, shall feel the wrath of heaven. He that lives in the kingdom of sense, shall die into the kingdom of sorrow. He shall never truly enjoy his present hour, who never thinks on his last. "Be not filled with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." (F. A. Cox, D. D. , LL. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! |
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