It is true that the moral verdicts of the Christian are not always immediate and sure. ' Manifest are the works of the flesh,' wrote St. Paul, naming among them 'drunkenness' [fiidai, Gal 5'^- -'), but they were far from being so manifest to all his converts. The Christian conscience needed to be educated, the spiritual taste to be cultivated. At Corinth the aya-n-r], or love-feast, which ended in the Lord's Supper, all too readily degenerated into something not very unlike the banquets in the idol- temples. ' One is hungry, and another is drunken ' {fieduei, 1 Co 11-^). ' Paul paints the scene in strong colours ; but who would be warranted in saying that the reality fell at all short of the description ? ' (^Nleyer, Coin, in loc). It has always been one of the enchantments of Bacchus and Comus to make their devotees glory in their shame, so that they
• Not once perceive their foul disfigurement. But boast themselves more comelv than before'
(Milton, Comus, lit.).
That this is true of the vulgar and of the educated alike, both in pagan and in Christian times, is attested not only by a thousand drinking-songs but by the orgies of the ' Symposium ' and the ' Noctes AmbrosianiE.' Yet even Omar Khayyam, after all his praise of the Vine, is obliged to confess that he has ' drowned liis glory in a shallow cup ' ; and, in the light of Christianity, drunkenness stands condemned as a sin against the body which is a ' member of Christ.'
Christianity is a religion of principles, not of rules, and in Ro 14-^ St. Paul states a principle which justifies any kind and thoughtful man, apart from considerations of personal safety and happi- ness, in becoming an abstainer. In doing this tlie Apostle is far from imposing a new yoke of bondage. He does not categorically say to the Christian, ' Thou shalt not drink wine,' but he reasons that it is good {Ka.\6v) — it is a beautiful morale — in certain conditions and from certain motives, to abstain. There was evidently a tendency among Christian liberals, who rightly gloried in their free evangelical position, to say, ' If men tvill per- vert and abuse our example, we cannot help it ; the fault is their own, and they must bear the consequences.' St. Paul, the freest of all, sees a more excellent way, and chooses to walk in it, though he does not exercise his apostolic authority to command others to follow him. What is his own liberty to drink a little wine in comparison with the temporal safety and eternal salvation of thousands who are unable to use the same freedom without stumbling ? He cannot — no man can — live merely unto himself, and he would sooner be so far a Nazirite or an Essene than do anything to hurt a brother.
It is noticeable that there was never any organ-
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EAGLE
31;
ized movement in the Apostolic or post-Apostolic Church against the use of strong drink. Many of the Fathers, following the example of Philo — who wrote a book nepl pUdris on Gn 9-^ — dealt with the subject at length. Clement, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine all preached moderation to every one and abstinence to some. But neither the apostles nor the lathers ever dreamed of seeking legislation for the prohibition or even the restric- tion ot the sale and use of intoxicating liquors. Since their time two things — the discovery of dis- tilled liquors in the 13th cent., and the trend of civilization northward — have greatly altered the conditions of the problem.
' Extremists now place all alcohol-containing drinks under the same ban, hut fermented liquors are still generally held to be comparatively innocuous ; nor can any one deny that there is a difference. It is safe to say that if spirits had never been discovered the history of the question would have been entirely different ' (A. Shadwell, EBr^l xxvi. 578). ' The evils which it is desired to check are much greater in some countries than in others. . . . The inhabitants of south Europe are much less given to alcoholic excess than those of central Europe, who again are more temperate than those of the north ' (i6. xvL 759).
Just where the temptations to drunkenness are greatest, the Apostle's principle of self-denial for the sake of others is evidently the highest ethic. No drunkard can ' inherit the Kingdom of God ' (1 Co 6'"), and the task of Christian churches and governments is ' to make it easy for men to do good and diHicult for them to do evil.'
Since, however, it is notoriously impossible to make men sober merely by legislation, the main factors in the problem must always be moral and re- ligious. The Apostolic Church found the true solu- tion. The Christians who were hlled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost were mockingly said to be filled with wine (yXevKos, Ac 2'^ perhaps ' sweet wine ' ; not ' new wine,' as Pentecost took place eight months alter the vintage). St. Peter tried to convince the multitude that it was not a sensual but a spiritual intoxicatiun, and St. Paul gives to all Christians the remarkable counsel, ' Be not drunken with wine, wherein is dissoluteness {dcruTia ; cf. dcrwrajs in Lk 15'^), but be hlled with the Spirit' (Eph 5'*). It is presupposed that every man naturally craves some form of exhilaration, loving to have his feelings excited, his imagination fired, his spirit thrilled. And drunkenness is the perversion of a true instinct. It is the fool's way of drowning care and rising victorious over the ills of life. Intoxication is the tragic parody of in- spiration. What every man needs is a spiritual enthusiasm which completely diverts his thougiits from the pursuit of sensuous excitement, on the psychological principle that two conflicting passions cannot dominate the mind at the same time. That enthusiasm is the gift of the Divine Spirit.