A lecture on the harmony of teetotalism, with the divine word : as expressed in the authorized version of the Bible (with answers to several objectors) / abridged from the works of Dr. Lees, and printed for general circulation.

  • Frederic Richard Lees
Date:
[between 1850 and 1859]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the harmony of teetotalism, with the divine word : as expressed in the authorized version of the Bible (with answers to several objectors) / abridged from the works of Dr. Lees, and printed for general circulation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/36 (page 29)
    wrong-doing of man’s own work, but not here. Was it the vague modern prescription to ‘use, but not abuse, the good creature’? No : that was known already, and had failed. Was it mere advice like that announced to rulers—“It is not for kings to drink wine!' No! It was a clear return to the old Egyptian plan of Abstinence, with a penalty attached to its violation. As a remedy for intemperance, the Bible absolutely represents teetotalism as issuing from the Councils of the Everlasting. <e And the Eternal spake unto Aaron, saying—Do not drink * wine nor strong-drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the appointed tent, lest ye die: it is an ordinance for ever throout your generations; that ye may distinguish between the holy and the unholy, and between the unclean and the clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Eternal hath spoken.” u Here, so far as the Priestly Office is concerned, we have ‘a mandate of absolute interdiction.’ The moral object was to secure the function of the Teacher being performed aright by preserving his normal condi¬ tion,—hence the Jews, in after ages, extended the principle of the law, hy analogy, to Kings and Eulers;—the direct object to be accomplished, was the total prevention of intemperance,—the 'philosophical means adopted was teetotalism, put forth as law, and thus contra-distinguished from mere advice. If a Plymouth-brother, or an Unbeliever, chose to dispute the wisdom. or the necessity, of Teetotalism as the prophylactic eor intemper¬ ance—I simply refer them to the book. Their quarrel is with God, or with it—not with me as the Interpreter. I, at least, am sure that God would neither go beyond, nor stop short of, the very needs of the case; and I am equally sure of the historic fact, that nothing less ultra than teetotalism ever has cured the Intemperance either of Priests or People. VI.—THE BIBLE REPRESENTS ABSTINENCE AS A DIVINELY AP¬ POINTED PHYSICAL PREPARATION EOR THE HIGHEST SPIRITUAL LIEE. The proofs of the preceding propositions are most of them proofs of this, and need not be formally repeated. A sound, uncorrupted body is the best organ for a moral life, while indulgence in luxury and stimulants is obviously incompatible with it. Intoxicating drink, as the Wise Man declares, excites the lower and sensual nature. Bayle lias justly remarked, that “a man elevated with wine finds himself more inclined and disposed to transgress the laws of chastity ... Generally speaking, there is nothing material to say against what the Italians object, that wine and good cheer excite to impurity. It is the constant doctrine of the ancient Pagans and [Christian] Eathers, confirmed by the experience of all ages and places!'4 The Bible history, as we have seen, illustrates the doctrine with terrible distinctness. Not to recite the opinions of Moses, Isaiah/and the authors of the Proverbs, I will here confine myself to the doctrine as expressed or implied in the Divine Institutes. Eirst, God prohibited wine to the Priests, all the while they ministered in holy things, in the tabernacle or the temple. * * “True,” says an objector, “but only then; how do you apply it to all men, at all times? ” We do not apply it as a positive prohibition to all men,—but regard it as a special law involving an universally applicable principle, Dr, Thomas Arnold, Lev. x. Teetotalism a preventative enjoined by God Abstinence a divinely appointed preparation for religious life Bayle Dr Arnold.