The Drunkenness of the Nation.
By Wm. C. Gage
While recently in conversation with a literary gentleman, allusion was made to the case of a government official, who was unable to perform his duties on a late public occasion on account of intoxication. In commenting upon it the gentleman remarked, "That is not the worst of it; the whole nation is drunk; the people are thoroughly filled, even to intoxication, with the spirit of war, and have lost control of their reason." This remark, coming as it did from an avowed infidel, struck me as expressing very forcibly the state of the nations as described by the prophet in Jer. xxv, 26-28. We understand this prophecy applies to the time just before the second advent of Christ, when the nations are angry, Rev. xi, 18, and are preparing for the "battle of that great day of God Almighty," Rev. xvi, 14. And while we cannot help deploring the state of things that now exists, and the worse condition that will exist, we are compelled to see and admit that the prophecies are being rapidly fulfilled before our eyes. As we see the spirit of war and strife taking hold of the people, and even drawing away some who have seen the light of present truth, our earnest prayer should go up to God that he would save his people from even tasting of the "wine cup of this fury." In giving the signs of his second coming, our Saviour admonishes the watching, waiting ones to take heed lest their hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. We understand that the term drunkenness, here used signifies something more than physical intoxication, for we find it to be a peculiarity of all except God's people at the coming of Christ, and even some of his servants will say "my Lord delayeth his coming" and will "eat and drink with the drunken." Now while we are compelled to deplore the increasing prevalence of intemperance in our midst, yet it does not follow that this is the drunkenness here referred to, which we think signifies the excited and almost insane condition of the masses at or near the end produced by drinking deeply into the spirit of war and strife and the lusts of the world. Babylon is represented in the revelation as making "all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." How well this has been fulfilled may readily be seen in the facts before our eyes, and she is still presenting the poisoned chalice to the lips of her infatuated devotees. This is amply illustrated in the teachings of the corrupt Christianity of the day. The people are being filled with the spirit of strife and contention by means of war sermons and the like, and the whole energies of the church and clergy seem bent in this one direction. Even the children are taught to love war and to hate their enemies, while a military spirit pervades even their play-hours, and instead of their childish amusements we find them learning the "Zouave drill" and other military evolutions. At a late "festival" of a large and popular Sunday-school, each boy was presented with a toy gun and equipments, and the public press admired the movement as calculated to instill a spirit of patriotism into the tender minds of the youth, which might have a lasting effect upon them. If patriotism and the use of implements of death are inseparable, then the less Christians have of it the better, and while we believe children should be taught to love a country so good as ours, yet it ought not to be to the exclusion of true Christianity, so antagonistic to a spirit of war and bloodshed. But above all they should be taught to earnestly "desire a better country, that is, an heavenly." While we cannot fail to see this growing tendency in our midst, may we also recognize it as one of the signs of Christ's speedy coming, and endeavor faithfully142to heed the injunction of the great Head of the Church: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares."