The Portrait of the
Drunkard
-
Charles Bridges, Proverbs, (1794-1869)
Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions?
Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
Those who linger long at the wine,
Those who go in search of mixed wine.
Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it sparkles in the cup,
When it swirls around smoothly;
At the last it bites like a serpent,
And stings like a viper.
Your eyes will see strange things,
And your heart will utter perverse things.
Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
"They have struck me, but I was not hurt;
They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?"
Proverbs 23:29-35
A warning was lately given against keeping company with
sensualists (Verses 20, 21.) Here it is enforced by the most
graphical delineation of the sin in all its misery, shame, and
ruin. It is the drunkard's looking-glass! Let him see his own
face. Let it be hung up in his cottage. Fix it in the alehouse.
Could he go there? The picture is drawn with such a vividness of
coloring ! No translation or paraphrase can do justice to the
concise, abrupt, and energetic manner of the original.
Drunkenness is a time of merriment. But what must be the
stupefying insensibility, that can find a moment’s joy, with
such an accumulation of woe! Every sin brings its own mischief.
But such woe! such sorrow! in all its multiform misery'! who
hath it? The brawls and contentions over the cup; the babbling
words of pollution; the wounds, often to murder, without cause,
the redness of eyes, showing the effect of liquor on the
countenance; the impure appetites that are kindled; the
infatuation almost incredible--this is sensuality in all its
wretchedness.
Whence this world of woe and sorrow! It is
the curse of indulged will. Not satisfied with their
healthful refreshment, many will "add drunkenness to thirst."
(Deut. 29:19.) They continue long, "from morning to night, till
wine inflame them." (Isa. 5:11) They go to seek the mixed wine,
its strongest and most inebriating drink.
Wisdom's voice therefore is--Avoid the
allurements of sin. Often has a look, harmless in itself,
proved a fearful temptation. Look not therefore at the wine when
it is red. Its very color; its sparkling transparency in the
cup, the relish with which it moves itself aright, 'or goes down
pleasant'-- all tend to excite the irregular appetite. Crush it
in its beginnings, and prove that you have learned the first
lesson in the school of Christ--"Deny yourself." Whatever be its
present zest, at the last it bites like a serpent and stings
like an adder. (Comp. Chap. 20:17.) Did it bite first, who would
touch it? Did Satan present the cup in his own naked form, who
would dare to take it ? Yet it comes from his hand as truly, as
if he were visible to the eyes. If poison was seen in the cup,
who would venture upon it ? Yet is the poison less dangerous,
because it is unseen? The adder's sting is concealed, yet most
fatal. The cup of sparkling wine becomes" a cup of fearful
trembling in the hands of the Lord." (Comp. Joel 1:5.)
Seldom does any sensual indulgence come alone. One lust prepares
the way for others. The first step is sure to lead onwards.
The poor deluded victim cannot stop when
he pleases. Drunkenness opens the door for impurity. The
inflamed eye soon catches fire with strange women, and who knows
what the end may be? Loathsome indeed is the heart of the
ungodly laid bare. Drink opens it as far as words can do; and
through the organ of the tongue, it does indeed utter perverse
things. ' Blasphemy is wit, and ribaldry eloquence, to a man
that is turned into a brute.'
But the delirium is the most awful feature of the case. The
unhappy victim, having lost all will and power to escape, sleeps
quietly amid dangers as imminent, as lying down in the midst of
the sea, or on the top of the mast. Nay--even the senses seem to
be stupefied. Stricken and beaten he may be. But "his heart is
as a stone," and he thanks his drunkenness, that he felt it not.
Therefore "as the dog to his vomit, the fool returns to his
folly," craving fresh indulgence-- When shall I awake? I will
seek it yet again. More senseless than the brute who satisfies
nature, not lust; so lost to shame; his
reason so tyrannized over by his appetite, that he longs to be
bound again, and only seeks relief from his temporary awakening
to a sense of his misery, by yielding himself up again to his
ruinous sin. (Jer. 2:25.)
Oh! how affecting is the thought of the multitude of victims to
this deadly vice in every age and climate, and among all ranks
of society! Perhaps there is no sin which has not linked itself
with it; while the unconsciousness in the act of sin only
serves, not to palliate the guilt, but to increase the
responsibility.
While we see the whole nature so depraved,
in taste, so steeped in pollution--we ask--"Is anything too hard
for the Lord?" Praised be his name for a full deliverance from
the captivity of sin, and of all and every sin, even from the
chains of this giant sin. The mighty, though despised
instrument is "Christ crucified; the power of God, and the
wisdom of God." (1 Cor. 1:23-25.) It is this, which when vows,
pledges, and resolutions--all have failed; works secretly, yet
most effectually; imparting new principles, affections and
appetites. The drunkard becomes sober, the
unclean holy, the glutton temperate. The love of Christ
overpowers the love of sin. Pleasures are now enjoyed without a
sting (for no serpent, nor adder is here) and the newly
implanted principle transforms the whole man into the original
likeness to God -" Whatsoever is born of God doth not commit
sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he
is born of God. He that is begotten of God keeps himself, and
that wicked one touch's him not."
- Charles Bridges, Proverbs, (1794-1869)
