An Expression of Satan’s Violence—Thus he [Satan] works when he entices men to sell the soul for liquor. He takes possession of body, mind, and soul, and it is no longer the man, but Satan, who acts. And the cruelty of Satan is expressed as the drunkard lifts his hand to strike down the wife he has promised to love and cherish as long as life shall last. The deeds of the drunkard are an expression of Satan’s violence.—Medical Ministry, 114. (Te 32.1) MC VC

Indulgence in intoxicating liquor places a man wholly under the control of the demon who devised this stimulant in order to deface and destroy the moral image of God.—Manuscript 1, 1899. (Te 32.2) MC VC

Calmness and Patience Lost—It is not possible for the intemperate man to possess a calm, well-balanced character, and if he handles dumb animals, the extra cut of the whip which he gives God’s creatures, reveals the disturbed condition of his digestive organs. In the home circle the same spirit is seen.—Letter 17, 1895. (Te 32.3) MC VC

The Shame and Curse of Every Land—The bleared, besotted wrecks of humanity—souls for whom Christ died, and over whom angels weep—are everywhere. They are a blot on our boasted civilization. They are the shame and curse and peril of every land.—The Ministry of Healing, 330. (Te 32.4) MC VC

The Wife Robbed, the Children Starved—The drunkard has no knowledge of what he is doing when under the influence of the maddening draft, and yet he who sells him that which makes him irresponsible, is protected by the law in his work of destruction. It is legal for him to rob the widow of the food she requires to sustain life. It is legal for him to entail starvation upon the family of his victim, to send helpless children into the streets to beg for a penny or to beseech for a morsel of bread. Day by day, month by month, year by year, these shameful scenes are re-enacted, until the conscience of the liquor dealer is seared as with a red-hot iron. The tears of suffering children, the agonized cry of the mother, only serve to exasperate the rum seller.... (Te 32.5) MC VC