p. 10 | The Use of Intoxicating Liquors by Christians

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 7, 1907

The Use of Intoxicating Liquors by Christians.

By G. P. Eckman

HENRY WARD BEECHER was asked to explain his position on this matter, one Sunday morning, at a great hotel in the White Mountains, and very earnestly did he reply in these words: “It is just like this. Suppose there is a precipice out by a schoolhouse, where many children are assembled. Suppose that halfway down the precipice there is a spring that I specially enjoy, and, strong man that I am, I can go down there safely, by a narrow path, dangerous to many, but not to me. Suppose that the children are determined to go down there after me, and will not believe that the path is dangerous, since they see that I tread it with impunity. Some of them that try it fall and break their necks, and others are lamed for life. Now, what sort of man, much more, what sort of Christian, should I be, if under these circumstances I persisted in going down that dangerous path? Nay, verily, if I have one particle of magnanimity of soul, if I have been at all taught of Christ, I shall put a good, strong fence across that path, and never tread it any more. That is my position on the total abstinence question. That is why I am myself a total abstainer, and shall be always unless I take alcoholic drinks by a physician’s prescription. For why should I insist on drinking wine, even if I am fond of it, as I am not? It would do me no special good, and what I gain in character by the habit of studying the good of others is an incalculable and an eternal gain.”

But I have a right to drink, if I choose, says some professedly Christian man, who loves his tipple, and does not accept Christ’s plan of self-denial for the benefit of others. Certainly you have the right if you mean personal privilege. There is nothing in the constitution of things which denies you that right. You can even defend it by recourse to the Scriptures, if you take isolated passages in place of the consensus of Christian teaching. Of course you are free to do as you please, and take the consequences. But remember, “love seeketh not her own.” We are to have in respect another’s wealth, and not our own. The question for the Christian is, “Shall I not abate my rights in the interest of another’s safety?” Would not the genuine Christian—that is, one who has the spirit of Christ—rather abstain all his life from wine and other intoxicants than to be an occasion of just one fall through the subtle power of his careless example? O, one does not expect this plea to be effective with those who are not Christians! But with you, Christian, it ought to have weight, for “ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price.”—G. P. Eckman, D. D., in The Communicant.