WHEN DOES THE SIN COMMENCE?
By John Bright
To drink deeply—to be drunk—is a sin; this is not denied. At what point does the taking of strong drink become a sin? The state in which the body is when not excited by intoxicating drink is its proper and natural state; drunkenness the state farthest removed from it. The state of drunkenness is a state of sin. At what state does it become sin? We suppose a man perfectly sober who has not tasted anything that can intoxicate; one glass excites him, and to some extent disturbs the state of sobriety, and so far destroys it; another glass excites him still more; a third fires his eye, loosens his tongue, inflames his passion; a fourth increases all this; a fifth makes him foolish and partly insane; a sixth makes him a savage; a seventh or eighth makes him stupid—a senseless, degraded mass; his reason is quenched, and his faculties are for a time destroyed. Every noble and generous principle within him withers, and the image of God is polluted and defiled. This is sin, awful sin; for drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But where does the sin begin? At the first glass, at the first step towards complete intoxication, or at the sixth, or seventh, or eighth? Is not every step from the natural state of the system toward that of stupid intoxication an advance in sin, and a yielding to the unwearied tempter of the soul?—John Bright.