Leviticus 10:8

"And Jehovah spake unto Aaron, saying, Drink no wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tent of meeting, that ye die not: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations: that ye may make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which Jehovah hath spoken unto them by Moses."

The significance of this little paragraph is out of all proportion to the size of it. Here it is revealed that the very first time that God spoke to the newly-invested High Priest, he was enjoined to, "Drink no wine nor strong drink ..." And despite the injunction here being primarily concerned with what people today call "drinking while on duty," the priority of it points squarely at the incredible dangers of indulging in the use of alcoholic beverages. When it is remembered that the "wine" and "strong drink" spoken of here were weak indeed compared to the burning liquors sold under those labels today, the dangers loom larger and larger. Distilled liquors were unknown in those times; fermented wines have only a fraction of the alcohol content that distinguishes the powerful concoctions that men call "wine" today. The facts are known to all, but the evil desire of men clouds their thinking on this question. America today faces no greater problem than the alcohol problem.

Drinking alcohol has shed enough blood to turn the ocean red. Eighty percent of all traffic fatalities are caused by it. Millions of homes are impoverished and blighted by it. It has filled jails, halfway houses, mental institutions, and hospitals all over the world. The bill of particulars against this vice is endless. Who can challenge the declaration of Seiss that, "It has done more, perhaps, in bringing earth and hell together, than any other form of vice"?[14]