Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · September 25, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 38

A CORRESPONDENT of the Voice, writing from Nebraska, says that he thinks that Prohibitionists are treading on dangerous ground when they “make an exception, in prohibitory laws, of wines used for ‘sacramental’ purposes.” He does not see “how any Christian Prohibitionist can propose or advocate alcoholic liquor for sacramental purposes.” To this the Voice replies that it does not advocate the use of alcoholic wine in the communion. “We simply say that it is not the province of legislators to decide whether or not the sacramental wine should be fermented. A law which prohibited the manufacture of fermented wines for sacramental purposes would go beyond the proper province of law, and cause many sincere Christians either to violate the law or to violate what they believe to be the injunction of Christ. There is no necessity for that.” This is a serious question, and should give pause to some of the ultra-Prohibitionists who want to enforce upon everybody their ideas not only of temperance, but of religion as well. Even the Voice should pause long enough to answer candidly, whether some of the legislation which it advocates would not interfere quite as seriously with religious liberty as would the prohibition of fermented wine in the communion.