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If there is any single vice which a man desires to eject from his character, or from another's, he can accomplish the end finally and completely, and only, by letting in the corresponding grace. Sin, in every form of its indulgence, is to be looked upon as an intoxication. Let him therefore introduce into the blood vessels of his soul a counter-stimulant. Let him intoxicate himself with love, and joy, and peace, the fruit, as it were, of the True Vine, and there will be no possibility of intrusion from lower sources, because no room will remain for them. And it follows from the same principle that a Christian must apply more and more to spiritual sources as life goes on. The spiritual capacities enlarge with time. And the same amount of devotion will not fill them now as filled them a year ago. He must pray more, seek after godliness more, covet the best gifts more. The tendency of the experienced Christian often is to relax devotional habits and live on a grace that is past. He has reached a high level and his religion has become, as it seems to him, self-acting. But stagnation is all the more perilous because it is high. There is no smaller measure for the grace that is to be in him than this — he is to be filled with the Spirit. He defrauds himself of what he might possess and imperils all he has by seeking to live on less. The surplus must be made up from earth. And every minutest crevice left unfilled by good must, by the law against vacuum, be filled by something worse, something which must adulterate and may ruin at last the whole.

(H. Drummond.)

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KJV: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

WEB: Don't be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,