Magical Mountain Elixir

Ladies and Gentleman, step right up, and gather round. Let me tell you about my Magical Mountain Elixir! Today is a special day, because do I have a deal for you! Does your life seem too joyful and too smooth? Do you long for habitual grief and despise the day of blessing? Would rather have continual gloom and despair? Is your life just a little too serene and what you need is some conflict to vex your soul? Do you grow weary of living peaceably with your loved ones and need some unjustified anger in your heart directed to those who love you most? "Ah," you say," now you are getting close to the desires of my heart." But wait, there's more! When you are talking with others, do you find yourself making too much sense? Are you too coherent and your thoughts are too eloquent and need to disable that restraint in your brain that prevents you from offending people, and making a fool of yourself? What if I told you there is a way to halt that annoying little self-check that keeps you from uttering all that is in your mind, would you believe it? Oh, my friends, what if I also told you that besides all that I've told you, I could also give you health troubles! Some are temporary, but others will plague you for the rest of your life! Dear friends, how about it? Step right up to get a bottle of my Magical Mountain Elixir which will provide you all that I've described and even more, guaranteed! Hello? Where did everyone go?

That may not have been the best sales pitch, but it's an honest one. Proverbs 23:29-30, "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." This is what you get in exchange for drunkenness. Years ago, I picked a man up for work. In the house I saw people laying passed out all over the place. There was a makeshift coffee table made of cases of beer, though much of the other furniture had been drank the night before. They were hung-over, sick, and foolish looking. I was embarrassed for them. A grown man, who had lost so much control to alcohol, lost control of his bladder and was laying in his own filth on the floor. His "friends" thought it was funny as they stepped over him. Sounds like so much fun. My co-worker started every workday sick with a hangover, and ended every night in drunkenness. He couldn't drive to work himself because he lost his license. He often drank his paycheck over the weekend and was penniless come Monday. Not quite a beer commercial, but it's reality. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise," Proverbs 20:1. Don't be deceived by drugs and drunkenness.