Joel 1:5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and howl, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.… Awake, ye drunkards, and weep I and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine! for it is cut off from your mouth. The words imply that the wine used in Judah was of an intoxicating character, that men in that country used it to an inebriating extent, and that such men should humble themselves in deep penitence on account of the great calamity that was coming upon the land. A more contemptible character, a more injurious member of the human family, exists not upon earth than a drunkard. Drunkenness is the chief curse of England to-day. Despite the earnest and praiseworthy efforts of temperance reformers, establishments for creating and supplying the intoxicating beverage are increasing in size and multiplying in number on all hands. The beer-house has become one of the most influential estates of the realm. A few years ago there were only three estates - the throne, Parliament, and the Church. Not long since journalism was added to the number, and now we must add the beer-house. This beer-house bids fair to control the House of Commons, sport with Cabinets, and even to govern the nation. The prophet here thunders in the ears of the drunkards of his country. Why should these drunkards now weep? I. BECAUSE THEY WERE TO BE DEPRIVED OF THE BLESSING THEY PRIZED THE MOST. What does the drunkard value most? The intoxicating cup. For this he will sell his country, his self-respect, his health, his wife, his children, his all. By the intoxicating cup you can buy him over to any cause. But these drunkards in Judah were to lose that. Joel says, "For it is cut off from your mouth." The locusts were to destroy the vine, and there would be no grapes, and therefore no wine. God will sooner or later take from every sinner that which he values most, that which he esteems his greatest pleasure or enjoyment. He will take power from the ambitious, wealth from the miser, pleasure from the voluptuary, the intoxicating cup from the drunkard. II. BECAUSE THEY WERE TO LOSE THE BLESSING THEY HAD ABUSED, God will not have his gifts abused. He who abuses his blessings shall inevitably lose them. He dried up the vine now in Judah because men had abused it. And! am disposed to think it would be a blessed thing for England, ay, and a blessed thing for drunkards, were all the spirit-distilleries, all the breweries, all the beer-houses, dried up as this vine now was. I scarcely know which is the worse, the drunkard or the drunkard-makers. CONCLUSION. "Awake, ye drunkards!" Awake from your sottish stupidity! Reflect upon what you are, and what a self-ruinous course you are pursuing. Awake! You are sleeping on the bosom of a volcanic hill about to burst and engulf you. "And weep." Because of the blessings you have abused, because of the injuries you have inflicted upon your own natures as well as others; weep because of the sins you have committed against yourself, society, and God. "Howl, all ye drinkers of wine!" Ah! if you were aware of your true situation, you would howl indeed - howl out your soul in confession and prayer. "O thou invisible spirit of wine, If thou hast no name to be known by, let Us call thee devil." (Shakespeare.) D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. |
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