A Nation of Drunkards

The amount of alcohol consumed in this country is staggering. Americans spend over 200 billion dollars a year on alcoholic drinks. We can hardly go to a grocery store without seeing someone load down a shopping cart with beer. Drinking is a national pastime, and the money is only a small part of the price our country pays for it.

Solomon said, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Prov. 20:1). After all the misery alcohol has brought upon the world for thousands of years, man still has not learned this lesson. Millions continue to pour it into their bodies at every opportunity, ignoring another warning of the wise man: “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine” (Prov. 23:29-30).

What good is this product, except perhaps for medicine? Back in the days of prohibition, a speaker who was opposed to the use of alcohol was addressing a large crowd. He asked, “If any man here can name an honest business that has been helped by whisky, I will spend the rest of my life working for the liquor crowd.” A man in the audience spoke up and said, “I consider my business honest, and it has been helped by whisky.” “What is your business?” the speaker replied. “I, sir,” the man responded, “am an undertaker.”

Come to think of it, there is another use for alcohol. It is a good remover. An old issue of the Prohibition Defender said,

Alcohol will remove stains from the summer clothes. It will also remove the summer clothes, the winter clothes, the spring clothes, and the fall clothes, not only from the back of the man who drinks it, but from his wife and children as well. Alcohol will remove furniture from the floor, rugs from the floors, food from the cupboard, lining from the stomach, kidneys from the back, liver from the side, hair from the head, sight from the eyes, a good reputation, a man’s business, a man’s friends, a happy look from children’s faces, a prosperous man to a pauper’s grave, and man from the highway to heaven to the road to hell.

In spite of the troubles alcohol brings him, the drinker keeps coming back to these words: “I will seek it yet again” (Prov. 23:35). I dedicate these lines to the drunkards of our land:

The Twenty-Third Sot

The bottle is my best friend;

I shall not quit.

It maketh me to fall down in public places;

It leadeth me beside the moonshine still.

It destroyeth my soul:

It leadeth me to the doctor for my liver’s sake.

Yea, though I drive on the wrong side of the road and cause death,

I will fear being sober.

For thou art in me,

Thy hangover and addiction trouble me.

Thou preparest a barstool before me in the presence of my drunken friends;

Thou anointest my head with bruises,

My cup turneth over.

Surely trouble and heartache shall follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in a devil’s hell for ever.

Kerry

West End church of Christ • May 10, 2026