Drunkenness, Tempt Not to
Illustration★★★★Col. John Trumbull, of Connecticut, used to relate the following of himself; An old Mohegan king named Zachary, used to dine annually with his father, then governor of the State.
This Indian king had been a great drunkard, but was thoroughly reformed. John, one of the Goyernor’s boys, knowing old Zachary’s story, thought he would test him. At the table, he said to the old chief: “Zachary, this beer is excellent: will you taste it?” The old man dropped his knife, his black eye sparkling with indignation, as he said: “John, do you know what you are doing?
You are serving the devil. I tell you that I am an Indian; and that if I should but taste the beer, I could not stop until I got to ruin, and became again the drunken, contemptible wretch your father remembers me to have been.
John, while you live, never tempt a man to break a good resolution.”
The point
A reformed Indian chief refuses a taunting offer of beer, warning that even a taste would plunge him back into ruin, and pleads never to tempt a man to break a good resolve.