Against these sacrilegious uses of scripture, I place the estimate of the fruit of this upas tree from one whose words are unmistakable, and whose wisdom none can question.  Solomon said:  “Wine is a mocker.”  Was there ever a word of more weight in its application?  When a boy in school nothing so vexed me and made me want to fight, as for a boy to mock me.  I remember when one of the prettiest girls in school made faces at me and mocked me; from that hour I could never see any beauty in that girl’s face, nor have I quite forgiven her to this day.  When the Jews wanted to heap the greatest indignity possible upon Jesus, when they had driven the nails in His hands, pierced His side, placed the crown of thorns upon His head and pressed the bitter cup to His lips, they stood off and mocked Him.

Is wine a mocker?  Did Solomon know what he was talking about when he gave it that detestable name?  He added still another word and called it a deceiver.  Does it deceive and mock?  It meets a young man at a social feast, garlands itself with the graces of hospitality, sparkles in the brilliant jewels of fashion, smiles through the faces of female beauty, furnishes inspiration for the dance and mingles with music, mirth and hilarity.  Gently it takes the young man by the hand, leads him down the green, flowery sward of license, filled with the rich aroma of the wild flowers of life.  When it has firmly fixed itself in his appetite, it begins to strip him of his manhood as hail strips the trees, and when, with will-power gone, nerves shattered, eyes bleared and face bloated, he stands with the last vestige of manly beauty swept from the shattered temple of the soul, it stands off and mocks him.  It goes to a home, tramples upon the pure unselfish love of a wife, enthrones the shadow of a drunkard’s poverty upon the hearth-stone, makes the empty cupboard echo the wail of hungry children for bread, with its bloody talons marks the door lintels with the death sentence of an immortal soul, and then stands off and mocks the home.  It goes to the Congress of the United States and says:  “Put upon me the harness of taxation and I’ll pull you out of the mire of national debt, and make the administration of the party in power a financial success.”  Then with a government permit, it proceeds to take out of the pockets of the people five times as much as it pays the government; creates three-fourths of the country’s crimes, four-fifths of its pauperism, sixty per cent. of its divorces, dooms to poverty and shame a great army of children, blights rosebuds of beauty on cheeks of innocence, shatters oaks of manhood, leaves its polluting taint upon all that it touches, and then stands off and mocks the republic.  Was there ever more meaning condensed into one brief utterance than in Solomon’s warning, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise?” Is it wisdom in this republic to deliberately, for revenue, set in motion causes that neutralize its progress, waste its forces and destroy the fireside nurseries of the nation’s destiny?