Wesley’s Testimony by John Wesley

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 14, 1858

Wesley’s Testimony.

By John Wesley

We may not sell anything which tends to impair health. Such is, eminently, all that LIQUID FIRE commonly called DRAMS or SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS. It is true, these may have a place in medicine; they may be of use in some bodily disorders, although there would rarely be any occasion for them, were it not the unskillfulness of the practitioner. Therefore, such as prepare and sell only for this use, may keep their consciences clear. But who are they? Who prepare them only for this end? Do you know ten such distillers in England? Then excuse these. But all who sell them in the common way, to any that will pay, are poisoners-general. They murder his Majesty’s subjects by wholesale, neither does their eye pity or spare. They drive them to hell like sheep. And what is their gain? Is it not the blood of these men? Who, then, would envy their large estates and sumptuous palaces? A curse is in the midst of them. The curse of God cleaves to the stones, the timber, the furniture of them! The curse of God is in their garden, their walks, their groves; a fire that burns to the nethermost hell! BLOOD, BLOOD! IS THERE. The foundation, the floor, the walls, the roof, are stained with blood! And canst thou hope, thou man of blood, though thou art “Clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and farest sumptuously every day,” canst thou hope to deliver down thy fields of blood to the third generation? Not so; for there is a God in heaven, therefore thy name shall soon be rooted out. Like as those whom thou hast destroyed, body and soul, “Thy memorial shall perish with thee.”—J. Wesley.