p. 220 | Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · July 16, 1896

CIVIL VS. RELIGIOUS PROHIBITION.

THE AMERICAN SENTINEL believes in prohibition as the proper method of dealing with the traffic in intoxicating drinks. But it believes in prohibition as a civil and not a religious act. It would restrain the liquor traffic as a foe of human rights, on the same principle that it would restrain the violence which naturally grows out of intemperance. It does not believe in licensing dogs to bite or thieves to steal. And it would prohibit these on all days of the week for the same reason that it would prohibit them on any one day. Dealing with the evil on a civil basis, no other course could be taken. It is only on the religious basis that a compromise is being effected which allows the liquor traffic almost full liberty during six sevenths of the week.

Prohibition upon merely one day of the week, that day being the “Christian sabbath,” is a religious act, and must be justified, if at all, on religious grounds. But the facts which call for prohibition—the violence, misery, and ruin produced by alcoholic drinks—are not religious facts, but secular facts. The demand for prohibition arises from a secular source. The reasons which justify it are civil reasons. To shift the question to the ground of religion is unreasonable, unjust, and calculated only to confuse the issue in the minds of the people.

As well might we compromise with any other crime on the basis of Sunday prohibition, as with that of inciting men to commit violence by means of intoxicating drink.