Daily Sacrifice, April 14 (10:17)
“Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!” —Ecclesiastes 10:17.
SOLOMON extols the land whose leaders set an example to the generality of the people by using God’s gifts temperately, not in giving way to gluttony or inebriation. It means much to any country when those in high station refuse to be parties to the use of intoxicants. Frivolous worldlings sneered when the Hon. William Jennings Bryan turned down his glass at a banquet, or drank the pure juice of the grape instead of wine, but his example meant a great deal to uncounted thousands who realized something of what it cost one in his position at that time to stand firmly against one of the most outstanding evils of the times.
—Clara Aiken Speer.