Editorial
Hell and the Sugar Cube
LSD used to signify a value in sterling pounds, shillings and pence. Now these three initials identify a tincture with terrifying effects. By this new weapon hell is invading the very minds of men.
LSD is described as a “psychedelic drug,” that is, a “consciousness expanding” drug. Compared with this, the well-known narcotics are like a walk in the park on a Sunday afternoon. One ounce of this drug can make 300,000 doses, each one dropped on a sugar cube is potent enough to derange the mind of the taker for ten hours, and dangerous enough that the mental disorientation thus produced may be permanent.
The disciples of this devilish drug say, “No one has really lived until they have taken a trip via LSD.” It is estimated by some that, this year one million doses will be swallowed by people who just as eagerly swallowed the lie.
The users of this drug have developed into a cult with strong religious overtones. They speak of using “altars,” and of officiating “priests,” and of administering a “host” to the communicants.
If ever there was a “table of devils” this surely must be one. One user, describing his sensations while on a “trip,” said that he felt as though there was a serpent writhing within him. Another “saw” within himself, “hideous shapes … horrible … a flood of bogeymen.”
The hellish origin of this latest craze is undeniable and its dangers terrifying. A few pounds of it dumped into the water supply of a city would be sufficient to mentally disorient a multitude of its inhabitants: men, women and little children.
It is not alone the young set, but also many who feel the limitations of the stiffened muscle, the grey hair, and the not-so-elastic artery are experimenting with the drug. One of these reported after a session in “high… “ “We got in the car … the pavement opened up… the street lights expanded … came to traffic lights … I couldn’t tell what colour they were…” Another, a religious psychologist, talked about his experience that it was “like Moses’ experience of the burning bush.”
The police are virtually helpless even to interrupt the surge of this invasion. The drug is colourless, odourless and tasteless. It is being dropped surreptitiously into the drinks of young girls. It is being fed to children in their orange juice by parents so that the whole family can take a “trip” together.
When the Lord spoke of “perilous days,” He was not overstating the condition of things in these last times. In past eras, the perils may have included being bitten by a mad dog, or falling prey to the black plague, or to some highway robber. Today the secret service of Satan is infiltrating every strata of life, even the very pulsations of the subconscious.
It behooves us as those who have given allegiance to the Lord Christ ever to remember that we are at war. Our own preservation and the safety of our children are at stake. We are at war with a mighty, merciless and subtle foe. It is not simply desirable, but imperative that we lay hold of the equipment supplied for the conflict, the armour of God (read Ephesians chapter 6).
What folly it is, of which some of us have been verily guilty, that of making expeditions into the enemy’s camp; of prancing around unguarded, unprotected and overconfident, our vitals exposed to the fang and the fire. We had thought the armour too heavy, too constricting, too clumsy and left it aside, unburnished and untried. Then while we meandered in by-paths of the enemy’s tramping, while we reclined in some cloister of secret sin, we were pounced upon and perhaps carry with us to this day the reddened scars of our folly.
Oh that the young may be warned! Indeed may the Lord help us all to be like Solomon’s valiant sixty. They were awake in the night, alert and aware of the danger, armed with swords at hand and all “expert in war.”
Then may we stand, not with the raucous voice of fleshly bravado, but with a deep and humble dependence upon “the power of His might” that we may be preserved in the evil day and having done all to stand.
“I need Thee every hour,
Stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power
When Thou art nigh.”