MH page 337

“Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; ... that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? ... Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.” Jeremiah 22:13-17 .

A scriptural denunciation of building a house through unrighteousness, oppression, and violence. The paragraph consists of a direct biblical quotation from Jeremiah condemning exploitation and violence.

This scripture pictures the work of those who manufacture and who sell intoxicating liquor. Their business means robbery. For the money they receive, no equivalent is returned. Every dollar they add to their gains has brought a curse to the spender.

The manufacturing and selling of intoxicating liquor is portrayed as an unjust business that brings a curse rather than value. The text offers a moral evaluation of the liquor trade without stating a direct empirical test of physical outcomes.

With a liberal hand, God has bestowed His blessings upon men. If His gifts were wisely used, how little the world would know of poverty or distress! It is the wickedness of men that turns His blessings into a curse. It is through the greed of gain and the lust of appetite that the grains and fruits given for our sustenance are converted into poisons that bring misery and ruin.

Human greed and the lust of appetite misuse God's provisions by converting sustaining grains and fruits into destructive poisons. It combines a moral argument about human nature and appetite with an empirical claim about converting food sources into substances that cause misery and ruin.