SATAN'S FAVORITE MEDIUM.
By G.
In the beginning of the history of our race, when there was but one man and one woman, and they in a state of innocency, the adversary of God tried an experiment for their overthrow, which for the time was eminently successful. His scheme was to encourage a self-ambition through self-indulgence. His first subtle attack on their integrity was by the way of the woman's curiosity to her appetite. This citadel gained, the man also fell an easy victim, and their separation from God was complete. Although a permanent victory was frustrated by the plan of salvation devised in the heavenly council, Satan has been working ever since on the line of carnal appetite for the destruction of souls. With all his experience, all his cunning craftiness, all his evil ingenuity, he has not yet found a more effectual means of leading human beings into forbidden paths. The self-indulgent spirit, with all its inherent weakness, was imparted to the offspring of Adam and Eve, and perverted appetite continued to assert its demands. If the first pair failed to keep it down by their own will-power, the task of putting it down when once it had gained the ascendancy would be much more difficult on the part of their captive posterity. The power to overcome this medium of Satanic control was inconceivably lessened by the spirit of disobedience which had given it place. It was, evidently, in great measure, through the indulgence of perverted appetite that the spirit of self-seeking, which prevailed in Noah's time, had been fostered to such an extent. And inasmuch as drunkenness such as prevails in our day is not the only form of intemperance that will bring a people to destruction, it would appear that abstinence from intoxicating beverages is not the only essential temperance goal to which the world should be directed. Noah must have been an overcomer of the prevailing features of intemperance before the flood; for he “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” and the Lord testifies that he was “righteous.” By faith he “prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” After the flood, however, it seems that the deceiver assailed Noah through the medium of strong drink. The first mention in the Bible of any individual's being drunk is the case of Noah. Then shall we assume that if so good a man as Noah got drunk, there is nothing so bad about it, after all? Men who want to drink, or who want to apologize for drunkenness, reason after this manner. But it would seem that the true reasoning would show the exceeding deceitfulness of the strong-drink evil,—the subtleness of the power behind it,—that it could overcome a man like Noah, even for a single instance. We are not given the details of Noah's failure, whether he came to the point of drunkenness gradually, or whether this was the first or the last time that he was drunk; and we have no right to judge or to speculate beyond that which is revealed. The record says that “Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.” We know, too, from the further statement of the case, that through this circumstance there came a great curse upon one branch of Noah's family, and a very prolific branch at that. It must have been a great encouragement to the enemy of souls to see this head of the new world, who had withstood the evils of the old, humiliated in the sight of his children by just a little variation of the same means by which the head of the former dominion had been brought down. This point is pertinent and important, from the fact that God had given Noah a dominion of no small proportions, as the new head of the race. From that day to this, Satan has not allowed the strong-drink feature of his soul-destroying industry to languish. And a few striking instances are given in the Scriptures of his overcoming prominent representatives of the Lord's cause at most critical periods. We mention two. When the Lord brought His people out of Egypt, He had them build a tabernacle and establish the typical sanctuary service. This service daily pointed forward to the final victory of God's people through the atonement of Christ. What could do more to pervert this solemn service and debase its priesthood than to induce them to defile the sanctuary by entering upon their duties while in a state of intoxication? So the two officiating sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, were tempted to drink wine, and they went into the sanctuary while under the influence of strong drink. Of course they were not so drunk but that they thought they were all right; they were not conscious of any special disqualification. But their spiritual discernment was so beclouded that in lighting their censers they used “strange fire,” which the Lord had strictly forbidden. “And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” The exceeding sinfulness of this act of Nadab and Abihu is seen in the penalty of instant death, and in the fact that their father and brothers were forbidden to make any demonstration of mourning for them. But all the rest of the people bewailed this sad result of drinking intoxicating beverages. And the Lord gave commandment to Aaron, saying: “Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations; and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.” Lev. 10:9-11. Another prominent instance of the failure of representative men through intemperance is that of Solomon. He was endowed with special wisdom, and had been commissioned to build the temple of God at Jerusalem. Wealth and honor had been his portion. But he fell through the indulgence of appetite and an inordinate catering to carnal enjoyment. Telling of his experience in Ecclesiastes 2, he says, “I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.” Verse 2. But his testimony is that it is all “vanity and vexation of spirit.” Of the wisdom given him, he leaves this advice: “Be not among wine-bibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh; for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness [the result of drunkenness and over-eating] shall clothe a man with rags.” Prov. 23:20, 21. “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Ch. 20:1. But Satan's success in the past through the power of perverted appetite need not discourage any seeker after eternal life. There is One whom Satan signally failed to overthrow, even after a forty-days' physical fast. That One was our Saviour, Jesus Christ, by whose grace and in whose strength even we may overcome every temptation. The apostle Paul has left us this rule, which, if faithfully observed, will keep us from all excesses: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” I Cor. 10:31. G.