The Delusion of Drink

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 3, 1879

The Delusion of Drink.

ONE of the delusions of the whisky drinker is, that he is made stronger by the use of stimulants. He is made stronger just as he is made wiser and richer—"in his own conceit." A man half drunk would be ready to out-argue Solomon, or offer to buy out the Rothschilds. Everything with him is on a grand scale. The stones in the road look larger, and he steps several inches higher than he did before; but in fact he is no wiser, richer nor stronger than he was before he impaired his judgment by the deceiving cup.

A correspondent eighty years of age, writing to the Temperance Advocate, illustrates the principle thus: "Fifty-five years ago the writer of this was a resident of West Virginia, and one morning four of us, young men, started to walk two miles on a new-made turnpike; and on the way two of my friends got to talking about their personal strength. Each one thought himself the strongest, and in order to try we stepped out to the side of the road, where there were plenty of rocks of all sizes. One was selected that after trying neither one could lift. I then tried it myself, and raised it quite easily on to my knees. We then went on to the camp of the turnpikers. There we were treated to whisky. I drank some (but I think quite moderately), and on going back, as I believed myself so much stronger for the whisky, I thought I would step out and lift it again, and perhaps toss it off a rod or two, but my surprise was great when I found I could not raise it enough to let daylight under it. It set me to thinking, and I thought that whisky was a lie; that its use gave weakness instead of strength. And although I had a good and growing appetite for it, I joined a temperance society the first opportunity, and since that I have not pulled the cork out of a bottle of spirits of any kind, and I am quite certain if I had continued to drink spirits I should not have attained the age of eighty years, as I have already done. My advice to young men is, if you want to be strong in body and mind, happy in this world and the next, use neither whisky nor tobacco."