I. THE IMMEDIATE EXTERNAL EFFECTS. (Vers. 29, 30.) Trouble, quarrels, violence, deformity. "No translation or paraphrase can do justice to the concise, abrupt, and energetic manner of the original." "Oh that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!"
II. THE ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCES. (Ver. 32.) It "bites like a serpent, and spits poison like a basilisk." This is the course of all sin; like Dead Sea fruits that tempt the taste, and turn to ashes on the lips. It is the "dangerous edge of things," against which men have to be on their guard. The line between use and abuse is so easily passed over. Corruptio optimi pessima.
III. THE EFFECT ESPECIALLY ON THE INTELLIGENCE. (Vers. 33-35.) The mind falls into bewilderment, and sees double or awry. The victim of intoxication is indeed "at sea," and like one sleeping on the very verge of danger and sudden death. In a spiritual sense he is drunk who does not perceive the great danger of his soul, but becomes more secure and stubborn under every chastisement (Jeremiah 5:8). It is the dreadful insensibility - depicted by yet. 35 which imitates the thought and speech of the drunkard - which is among the worst consequences of the vice. "The sight of a drunkard is a better sermon against that vice than the best that was ever preached upon the subject." "He who hath this sin, hath not himself; whosoever doth commit it, cloth not commit sin, but he himself is wholly sin" (Augustine). - J.
They have beaten me and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
1. The application of anaesthetics to surgery is one of the most beneficent discoveries of the present age. One shudders at the very thought of the surgical operations of the olden days, executed without the merciful drug that makes the patient unconscious of his agony. But almost every good thing in the kingdom of God is travestied in the kingdom of Satan. Satan has therefore his own anodyne which he uses to the ruin of the bodies and souls of men. It is evident from the proverb that alcohol was known to be an anaesthetic three thousand years ago. Modern science corroborates the ancient saying. Most people know that a man in liquor often appears insensible to wounds which otherwise would cause intense pain. Medical men occasionally use alcohol as an anesthetic when chloroform is inadmissible. The practical result of this property of alcohol is that the intemperate man — and many a regular "moderate" drinker, too — is unconscious of the gradual deterioration of his bodily frame. The vital organs are becoming diseased and their functions deranged; but meanwhile the process is most rapidly going on in the brain. Hence all the perceptions are dulled, and the painful sensations, that otherwise would give timely warning of the growing mischief, are to some extent unfelt. One of the purposes of pain is to sound a warning note, to give a signal that something is wrong, that some part of the complex mechanism of the body is out of gear. Our duty is, therefore, not to be contented with allaying the pain, but if possible to cure the disease which causes the pain.
2. The moral anaesthesia to which alcohol gives rise is even more terrible than the physical. Acting as a subtle brain-poison, it works sad havoc with the moral perceptions. All delicacy of conscience is quickly lost, the distinctions between right and wrong become blurred, and the man once honoured and trusted becomes a liar, a thief, and an ingrate. The loving, dutiful son becomes selfish, morose, and attacks his mother with murderous violence. Now, in such cases as these (which are, alas! only too common) we cannot believe that the honest man wilfully takes to lying, the affectionate father wilfully becomes the savage brute, or the dutiful son is filled wilfully with a fierce hatred of his mother. Evidently the mind, conscience, and will become diseased. Alcohol not only dulls the sense of pain in the physical system; it is an ansesthetic that dulls the mind so as to produce unconsciousness of the moral havoc that is being made. The unhappy being loses his power of truthfulness, and yet is hardly conscious that he is a liar. It should be remembered that absolute drunkenness is not always necessary to produce such results. The free and regular use of alcoholic beverages, though stopping short of intoxication, will assuredly produce more or less injury to the body and degradation of the mind and will, both in the drinker and in his children. Let us beware lest we even in the least degree impair these God-like qualities with which we have been endowed.
3. The last words of the text express what we are accustomed to call the "drink crave." When intoxication is over, and all the misery and depression that are the after-results of excess are felt, then the unhappy victim of the drink-habit says in effect, if not in the actual words of the text, "I will seek it yet again." The man who is always strictly moderate in his use of alcohol then steps in and says, "But why are you so foolish as to seek it again? Has it not done you enough harm already? Why not leave it alone?" But if he knew into what a state the poor drunkard had fallen — a state of both physical and mental degradation — he would not talk so glibly. First of all, the drink-crave has a physical basis. Certain of the vital organs are so affected and in such distress that the overpowering crave for drink is as natural, under the circumstances, as the craving of an excessively hungry man for food. Inebriety becomes, in fact, an actual and terrible bodily disease, not easily to be cured. Further than that, the mind of the inebriate is so obscured that he does not realise his fall as do those about him. The horror of his position does not appear to him. Strange and sad to say, this mental blindness, often extends to the near relatives.
4. Probably many moderate drinkers would agree with what has been said, and would give thanks that they are not as other men are. Yes, by all means let them give thanks for God's protecting grace. But let them also ask themselves whether their example as moderate drinkers is helpful to their family and friends, whether the edifying spectacle of their self-restraint is likely to diminish the number of drunkards or to lessen the peril to which so many are exposed.
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SolomonPlaces
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Awake, Beat, Beaten, Blows, Drink, Feel, Feeling, Felt, Hit, Hurt, Ill, I'm, Overcome, Pain, Seek, Sick, Smitten, Smote, Sore, Stricken, Struck, Wake, Wilt, Wine, YetOutline
1. Consider carefully what is before youDictionary of Bible Themes
Proverbs 23:29-35 4544 wine
6106 addiction
Proverbs 23:31-35
5946 sensitivity
Proverbs 23:34-35
5534 sleep, spiritual
Library
A Condensed Guide for Life
'My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. 16. Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. 17. Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. 18. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. 19. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. 20. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: 21. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThe Afterwards and Our Hope
'Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. 18. For surely there is an end and thine expectation shall not be cut off.'--PROVERBS xxiii. 17, 18. The Book of Proverbs seldom looks beyond the limits of the temporal, but now and then the mists lift and a wider horizon is disclosed. Our text is one of these exceptional instances, and is remarkable, not only as expressing confidence in the future, but as expressing it in a very striking way. 'Surely there is an end,' says our Authorised Version, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
The Portrait of a Drunkyard
'Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30. They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34. Yea, thou shalt be as …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Three Important Precepts
A sermon (No. 2152) intended for reading on Lord's Day, July 13th, 1890, delivered by C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, on Lord's Day Evening, June 22nd, 1890. "Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way."--Proverbs 23:19. The words are very direct and personal; and that is what I wish my sermon to be. My soul is more and more set upon immediate conversions. I have no voice with which to play the orator; I have only enough strength to be an earnest pleader …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs
Buying the Truth
A sermon (No. 3449) published on Thursday, March 11th, 1915; Delivered on Lord's Day evening, June 26th 1870, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon. "Buy the truth, and sell it not."--Proverbs 23:23. John Bunyan pictures the pilgrims as passing at one time through Vanity Fair, and in Vanity Fair there were to be found all kinds of merchandise, consisting of the pomps and vanities, the lusts and pleasures of this present life and of the flesh. Now all the dealers, when they …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs
The Heart: a Gift for God
A sermon (No. 1995) intended for reading on Lord's Day, December 11th, 1887. at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon. "My son, give me thine heart."--Proverbs 23:26. These are the words of Solomon speaking in the name of wisdom, which wisdom is but another name for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is made of God unto us wisdom. If you ask "What is the highest wisdom upon the earth?" it is to believe in Jesus Christ whom God has sent--to become his follower and disciple, to trust him …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs
All the Day Long
A sermon (No. 2150) delivered on Lord's Day Morning, June 22nd, 1890, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon. "Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off." {end: or, reward}--Proverbs 23:17, 18. Last Lord's-day we had for our texts two promises. I trust they were full of comfort to the tried people of God, and to souls in the anguish of conviction. To-day we will …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs
Buying the Truth
"Buy the truth, and sell it not."--Proverbs 23:23. JOHN Bunyan pictures the pilgrims as passing at one time through Vanity Fair, and in Vanity Fair there were to be found all kinds of merchandise, consisting of the pomps and vanities, the lusts and pleasures of this present life and of the flesh. Now all the dealers, when they saw these strange pilgrims come into the fair began to cry, as shopmen will do, "Buy, buy, buy--buy this, and buy that." There were the priests in the Italian row with their …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915
The Secret Walk with God (ii).
He that would to others give Let him take from Jesus still; They who deepest in Him live Flow furthest at His will. I resume the rich subject of Secret Devotion, Secret Communion with God. Not that I wish to enter in detail on either the theory or the practice of prayer in secret; as I have attempted to do already in a little book which I may venture here to mention, Secret Prayer. My aim at present, as I talk to my younger Brethren in the Ministry, is far rather to lay all possible stress on …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren
How those are to be Admonished who Sin from Sudden Impulse and those who Sin Deliberately.
(Admonition 33.). Differently to be admonished are those who are overcome by sudden passion and those who are bound in guilt of set purpose. For those whom sudden passion overcomes are to be admonished to regard themselves as daily set in the warfare of the present life, and to protect the heart, which cannot foresee wounds, with the shield of anxious fear; to dread the hidden darts of the ambushed foe, and, in so dark a contest, to guard with continual attention the inward camp of the soul. For, …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great
Secondly, for Thy Words.
1. Remember, that thou must answer for every idle word, that in multiloquy, the wisest man shall overshoot himself. Avoid, therefore, all tedious and idle talk, from which seldom arises comfort, many times repentance: especially beware of rash answers, when the tongue outruns the mind. The word was thine whilst thou didst keep it in; it is another's as soon as it is out. O the shame, when a man's own tongue shall be produced a witness, to the confusion of his own face! Let, then, thy words be few, …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety
The Comforts Belonging to Mourners
Having already presented to your view the dark side of the text, I shall now show you the light side, They shall be comforted'. Where observe: 1 Mourning goes before comfort as the lancing of a wound precedes the cure. The Antinomian talks of comfort, but cries down mourning for sin. He is like a foolish patient who, having a pill prescribed him, licks the sugar but throws away the pill. The libertine is all for joy and comfort. He licks the sugar but throws away the bitter pill of repentance. If …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12
Of Internal Acts
Of Internal Acts Acts are distinguished into External and Internal. External acts are those which bear relation to some sensible object, and are either morally good or evil, merely according to the nature of the principle from which they proceed. I intend here to speak only of Internal acts, those energies of the soul, by which it turns internally to some objects, and averts from others. If during my application to God I should form a will to change the nature of my act, I thereby withdraw myself …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer
Distinction Between Exterior and Interior Actions --Those of the Soul in this Condition are Interior, but Habitual, Continued, Direct, Profound, Simple, and Imperceptible --Being a Continual
The actions of men are either exterior or interior. The exterior are those which appear outwardly, and have a sensible object, possessing neither good nor evil qualities, excepting as they receive them from the interior principle in which they originate. It is not of these that I intend to speak, but only of interior actions, which are those actions of the soul by which it applies itself inwardly to some object, or turns away from some other. When, being applied to God, I desire to commit an …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents
The Annunciation of Jesus the Messiah, and the Birth of his Forerunner.
FROM the Temple to Nazareth! It seems indeed most fitting that the Evangelic story should have taken its beginning within the Sanctuary, and at the time of sacrifice. Despite its outward veneration for them, the Temple, its services, and specially its sacrifices, were, by an inward logical necessity, fast becoming a superfluity for Rabbinism. But the new development, passing over the intruded elements, which were, after all, of rationalistic origin, connected its beginning directly with the Old Testament …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Of Preparation.
That a Christian ought necessarily to prepare himself before he presume to be a partaker of the holy communion, may evidently appear by five reasons:-- First, Because it is God's commandment; for if he commanded, under the pain of death, that none uncircumcised should eat the paschal lamb (Exod. xii. 48), nor any circumcised under four days preparation, how much greater preparation does he require of him that comes to receive the sacrament of his body and blood? which, as it succeeds, so doth it …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety
A Sermon on a Text not Found in the Bible.
MR. JUSTICE GROVES.--"Men go into the Public-house respectable, and come out felons." My text, as you see, my dear readers, is not taken from the Bible. It does not, however, contradict the Scriptures, but is in harmony with some, such as "WOE UNTO HIM THAT GIVETH HIS NEIGHBOUR DRINK." Habakkuk ii. 15; "WOE UNTO THEM THAT RISE UP EARLY IN THE MORNING, THAT THEY MAY FOLLOW STRONG DRINK."--Isaiah v. 11. "TAKE HEED TO YOURSELVES LEST AT ANY TIME YOUR HEARTS BE OVERCHARGED WITH SURFEITING AND …
Thomas Champness—Broken Bread
The Cavils of the Pharisees Concerning Purification, and the Teaching of the Lord Concerning Purity - the Traditions Concerning Hand-Washing' and Vows. '
As we follow the narrative, confirmatory evidence of what had preceded springs up at almost every step. It is quite in accordance with the abrupt departure of Jesus from Capernaum, and its motives, that when, so far from finding rest and privacy at Bethsaida (east of the Jordan), a greater multitude than ever had there gathered around Him, which would fain have proclaimed Him King, He resolved on immediate return to the western shore, with the view of seeking a quieter retreat, even though it were …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
"Who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the Flesh,"
Rom. viii. 4, 5.--"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh," &c. If there were nothing else to engage our hearts to religion, I think this might do it, that there is so much reason in it. Truly it is the most rational thing in the world, except some revealed mysteries of faith, which are far above reason, but not contrary to it. There is nothing besides in it, but that which is the purest reason. Even that part of it which is most difficult to man, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
Some General Uses from this Useful Truth, that Christ is the Truth.
Having thus cleared up this truth, we should come to speak of the way of believers making use of him as the truth, in several cases wherein they will stand in need of him as the truth. But ere we come to the particulars, we shall first propose some general uses of this useful point. First. This point of truth serveth to discover unto us, the woful condition of such as are strangers to Christ the truth; and oh, if it were believed! For, 1. They are not yet delivered from that dreadful plague of …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life
The Christian Faith
Scripture references: Hebrews 11; Matthew 9:29; 17:20; Mark 10:52; 11:22; Acts 2:38; 3:16; 10:43; 16:30,31; Romans 1:17; 5:1; 10:17; Galatians 2:20. FAITH AND PRACTICE Belief Controls Action.--"As the man is, so is his strength" (Judges 8:21), "For as he thinketh in his heart so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). "According to your faith be it unto you" (Matthew 9:28,29). "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). The Scriptures place stress upon the fact that …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian
The Acceptable Sacrifice;
OR, THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART: SHOWING THE NATURE, SIGNS, AND PROPER EFFECTS OF A CONTRITE SPIRIT. BEING THE LAST WORKS OF THAT EMINENT PREACHER AND FAITHFUL MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST, MR. JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD. WITH A PREFACE PREFIXED THEREUNTO BY AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN LONDON. London: Sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgates, 1692. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. The very excellent preface to this treatise, written by George Cokayn, will inform the reader of …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3
The Third Commandment
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.' Exod 20: 7. This commandment has two parts: 1. A negative expressed, that we must not take God's name in vain; that is, cast any reflections and dishonour on his name. 2. An affirmative implied. That we should take care to reverence and honour his name. Of this latter I shall speak more fully, under the first petition in the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed be thy name.' I shall …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments
Opposition to Messiah Ruinous
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel T here is a species of the sublime in writing, which seems peculiar to the Scripture, and of which, properly, no subjects but those of divine revelation are capable, With us, things inconsiderable in themselves are elevated by splendid images, which give them an apparent importance beyond what they can justly claim. Thus the poet, when describing a battle among bees, by a judicious selection of epithets …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2
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