The Biggest Issue – Alcoholic Drink in Ireland

Statistics and Quotes

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1.        Statistics

a.       Canadian Beer. There are over 120 brands of Canadian beer. The Canadian people drink over 16 billion pints of it every year. That's enough to keep Niagara Falls spilling at full flow for ten minutes!

b.       French Alcoholics. Alcoholism kills almost 22,000 persons a year in France, the country which has more cases of cirrhosis' of the liver than any other in the world. Official statistics also show that the average Frenchman drinks 31 gallons of wine a year.

c.       "Drunkenness has killed more men than all of history's wars." -General Pershing

d.       The Trap Of Genius. Friedeman Bach, the most gifted son of the great German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, went to pieces through drink. Michael Haydn, younger brother of Joseph Haydn, and hardly less gifted, was ruined by drink, Franz Schubert became an inveterate wine drinker and died in his early thirties. Robert Schurnann's binge drinking led to a nervous breakdown. After the death of his wife, Rembrandt, then thirty-six, became an alcoholic. Upton Sinclair said, "I call drink the greatest trap that life has set for the feet of genius!" -Sunday School Times

2.        Quotes

a.       The great Canadian physician Sir William Osler was lecturing one day on alcohol. “Is it true," asked a student, "that alcohol makes people able to do things better? "No," replied Sir William. "It just makes them less ashamed of doing them badly."

b.       Alcohol is not a cure for any disease in the world. Since alcohol cures no disease, it is not a medicine. It creates only an illusion of vigor which does not exist. -Dr. Howard Kelly

c.       Beginning a second night's carousal in Babylon, Alexander the Great drank the health of every person individually. He called for Hercules' cup, which had a huge capacity. Filling it, he drank it all down, drinking to the Macedonian Preteas. He pledged to him again, and fell to the floor. A few days later, he was dead at the age of 32.

d.       Is Liquor A Disease? If it is-

1)       It is the only disease that is contracted by an act of the will;

2)       It is the only disease that requires a license to propagate it;

3)       It is the only disease that is bottled and sold;

4)       It is the only disease that is spread by advertising;

5)       It is the only disease that produces a revenue for the government;

6)       It is the only disease that provokes crime;

7)       It is the only disease that is habit‑forming;

8)       It is the only disease that is spread by advertising;

9)       It is the only disease without a germ or virus cause, and for which there is no human corrective medicine; and

10)    And the only disease that is given as a Christmas present.

e.       Two Costliest Drinks For Lincoln

1)       On the last day of Lincoln's life, the great emancipator said: "We have cleared up a colossal job. Slavery is abolished. After reconstruction the next great question will be the overthrow and suppression of the legalized liquor traffic:."

2)       That evening, the assassin Mr. Booth stopped in a saloon, filled himself with liquor to nerve himself for his planned tragedy. That night Lincoln's bodyguard left the theater for a drink of liquor at the same saloon. While he was away Booth shot Lincoln. Those two drinks might be the most costly drinks in American history.

f.        One of the best social arguments against the use of alcohol is in the words of Lady Nancy Astor: "When I have a good time, I want to know about it."

g.       Senator Mark Hatfield in the US has been seen time and time again, when he goes to social functions where hard liquor and wines are served, he turns his glass upside down. His testimony and influence against drinking has profound effect.

h.       Even President Bush is a teetotaller – knowing firsthand the ruin of alcohol in his own life as a college student. At banquets, he drinks water!

i.         Thomas Edison On Alcohol.

1)       Thomas Alva Edison might well be called the "Founding Father" of most of our modem electrical conveniences.

2)       One of the most interesting and instructive things about Edison is what he said about alcohol beverage: "To put alcohol into the human body is like putting sand in the bearings of an engine. I am a total abstainer from alcoholic liquor. I always thought I had a better use for my head." We are glad he did‑otherwise, we might still be using coal oil lamps! -Pulpit Helps

j.         The Little Baby's Shoes

1)       So depraved and de-humanized by drink was Melvin Trotter that he sneaked into the room where his baby lay in a little white casket, and removed the little white shoes from its feet. He went to a saloon, plopped the little shoes down on the counter and said, "Give me a drink! I'm dying for a drink!"

2)       However, not every spark of humanness had died in the sordid soul of the saloon keeper, because he said, "Here's a drink, but you go and put those shoes back on the feet of your dead baby!" Sometime thereafter this slave of alcohol came to know Jesus Christ. Let Trotter tell what happened:

3)       "There was not anything that I knew about that I had not gone through. I had taken cure after cure. I had taken everything known to science, and had made resolution after resolution. But just one glimpse of Jesus Christ, and I have never wanted a drink from that instant to this!" -Walter B. Knight