Influence of Diet on the Drink Habit — Men Rescued from the Lowest Depths
By DAVID PAULSON, M. D.
The influential, self-possessed moderate drinker may argue convincingly in favor of the reasonable and legitimate use of alcoholic stimulants. He is at the beginning of a way which may seem right to him; but I have had abundant opportunities to see the other end of that same road, and I know that it is death—and an awful death at that. Prov. 14:12.
My Bible declares that “every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” Matt. 3:10. I know, from personal observation, that the liquor traffic does not bear good fruit. Hence I know that sooner or later it will be hewn down by God and cast into the fire. So while I live, I purpose to cooperate with Him by the use of my voice, my pen, and my vote, in hewing down this tree.
"AT THE LAST IT BITETH LIKE A SERPENT"
Again and again I have sat at the bedside of a delirium tremens maniac, and heard his piercing, blood-curdling shriek as he vainly endeavored to escape from his imaginary foes.
I have seen, over and over again, what had been a keen, clear-headed business man reduced to a driveling fool by constantly poisoning his nervous system with this toxic substance.
I have seen our lunatic asylums, our almshouses, yea, even our great prisons, filled to overflowing with the legitimate product of this awful poison.
But each of these human wrecks began his downward career by moderate drinking, and thought he knew when to stop, and sincerely despised the poor drunken sot who had reached the stage where he had lost his own self-control.
The Scriptures have pronounced an awful woe on this dreadful curse in all its stages, from first to last; and no human being can change that verdict, any more than he can reverse the laws of gravitation, or alter the course of the seasons.
An extensive experience in dealing with drug slaves and the victims of the drink habit, has developed some definite convictions regarding their deliverance and permanent cure.
THE ALL-ROUND CURE
There are many so-called "cures" for the liquor habit, but there is only one cure that also delivers from the sin habit; and that is why I always recommend the gospel cure. But that includes intelligent physical cooperation; for the prayer of him "that turneth away his ear from hearing the law" is an "abomination." Prov. 28:9. To ask God to save a drunkard from his thirst, when his dietetic habits are constantly creating a thirst for liquor is a mockery.
I remember a young man who had been with Lord Wolseley in his famous military expedition into Egypt. Afterwards he became so cursed by the drink evil that when he finally dropped into our Life Boat Mission in Chicago, he had been drinking steadily for eight days. During that time, he had not had his clothes off, nor had he sat down to eat a meal.
FROM AN EIGHT-DAY DEBAUCH
At the end of this terrible debauch, he found himself homeless, without a penny in his pocket, his body all shaking and trembling, and every nerve crying out for alcohol.
The strains of the sweet gospel music were wafted into the street through the open door, and reached his benumbed brain. Some one invited him in. He thought it would be a chance at least to sit down in a chair and rest.
He accepted the invitation to give his heart to God. The Spirit of God impressed him that he must also give up tobacco, to which he was as much a slave as to liquor. This poor degraded wanderer said, "Yes, Lord, if You will help me I will give it up." Then he began to pray, and a new peace and assurance came into his life.
As he walked out of the mission, he threw his pipe and tobacco into the gutter, saying, "That is where you belong." His soul was saved, but his body was yet full of poisons.
The next day, with a prayer in his heart, he started out to hunt for work. After searching in vain all the forenoon, the overwhelming temptation came to him that what he had accepted the night before was a myth, and that God was not providing for him. Then he took out the little Testament the mission workers had given him, and the first verse that met his eyes was Luke 11:9: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find."
PERSPIRATION AFTER INSPIRATION
An hour later, he had an opportunity to unload nine tons of coal into a cellar under the sidewalk. He had to get into that warm underground place and shovel the coal back. It was a severe Turkish bath, but just what he needed to eliminate the poisons that saturated his body.
With the dollar and sixty-five cents that he earned, he went to our Workingmen’s Home, had a good bath, some wholesome, simple, non-stimulating food, and a good night’s rest. Then Providence opened the way for him to go out and work during the summer in a Dakota wheat field. When he returned, we accepted him into our Chicago medical missionary training class. He soon became a faithful missionary nurse, led many other men to the foot of the cross, and to-day is a conscientious Christian man, loved and respected by all who know him.
One day, in our Chicago medical missionary work, a policeman brought to us a man who had been ten days in the gutter and was apparently at the point of death. However, physiological remedies and careful nursing soon wrought a marvelous transformation.
“THE OVERWHELMING TEMPTATION CAME TO HIM”
I then learned from him that he had stood up in one of the Chicago missions again and again and asked for prayers, and yet had always gone back to drink. I assured him that God was not only willing but anxious to deliver him from his bondage; that he must be manufacturing the chains for his own slavery.
FIERY FOODS UNDOING HIM
I soon discovered that he had an abnormal appetite for mustard, pepper, fiery spices, condiments, juicy beefsteaks, and tea and coffee, all of which produce a thirst that water cannot satisfy, and really were constantly arousing the awful craving for liquor which was sweeping him from his feet in spite of the prayers of the mission workers—just as certainly as a hot stove would produce blisters on the one who should persist in laying his hands on it.
I advised him to go to our Workingmen’s Home, and eat rice, well cooked grains, juicy fruits, refreshing vegetables, and nourishing dairy products, and abandon those artificial, thirst-producing foods. He did not seem to appreciate the importance of my advice, but promised, nevertheless, to carry out my suggestions.
FELL BY EATING
For a few days, everything went well. He had absolutely no desire for liquor. Then he visited friends on the North Side who invited him to dine with them. The meal consisted of pork chops, and all those other wretched things that are really the devil’s toboggan slide to the saloon door for all those who have inherited the liquor appetite.
He told me afterward that before he had finished the meal, the craving for liquor so overpowered him that he would if necessary have walked into the mouth of hell for it to quench his thirst.
He went to the nearest saloon. Then he was ten days in the gutter. The officers of the law again brought him to us. He was so dropsical that his skin had burst in several places, and the fluid was oozing out. To all appearances, he had only a few hours to live; but God, in answer to our prayers, blessed the simple remedies we administered, and in a short time he was practically restored.
Then he told me he had discovered the difference between eating for strength and eating for drunkenness (Eccl. 10:17), and henceforth would carry out my dietetic advice to the letter.
THE PATENT MEDICINE DELUSION
This man was soon filling a good position, and in a few weeks was well and strong, with126absolutely no craving for liquor. But a year and a half later, when suffering from a fit of indigestion, he went to a drug store for something to "settle his stomach." A patent medicine containing alcohol was given him. The very first dose aroused the old drink demon, which led him directly to a saloon, and the result was a debauch so serious that it ended his career.
From hundreds of cases where I have had an opportunity to observe the close relation between diet and drunkenness, I have selected this one as most typical. And furthermore, it illustrates the danger of doping with patent medicines, which are also likely to contain alcohol, morphine, and other unknown dangerous and demoralizing drugs.
DIET SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DRUNKARD
First of all, the drink victim should be pointed to the Source of all strength. He should be admonished to cooperate intelligently by discontinuing at the same time the use of tobacco, tea and coffee, meat, mustard and pepper, and other exciting and irritating foods.
For a few days, until the craving is completely smothered, it is well to live exclusively on fruit, using it abundantly in its various forms three or four times a day, adding to this plenty of water drinking, and spending the time as far as possible away from all sources of temptation.
Almost everywhere there are sad victims of the drink habit who sincerely desire to be delivered, but they know no way of escape. The priests and Levites of the same communities are passing by on the other side, simply because they consider them hopeless cases.
I earnestly pray that this article may be used of God to create a new determination in the hearts of tens of thousands of Christian people to rise to their heretofore overlooked privilege "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Isa. 61:1.
