Recently, in a hospital for alcoholics, I met a man who told me a story all too familiar. For seven years he had remained sober. Not one drink had he taken during this time. Then one night he was walking home with a friend from work. The friend suggested they stop for a beer. He only intended to get a soft drink but when he saw the beer he decided that just one would not hurt him. After all, he had gone seven years now and was safe, he reasoned. He drank that beer and now for four years he has been struggling to get back on the drinkless trail again, but as yet he hasn’t been able to make it.
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Charles L. Allen, POWERLESS BUT NOT HELPLESS, (Tarrytown, New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1954/1992), p. 80.