p. 553 | Temperance by Enoch Pond

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 9, 1880

Temperance.

By Enoch Pond

THE ABSURDITY OF A LIQUOR LICENSE.

THE old idea of intoxicating drinks was that, in themselves, they are nourishing, strengthening, useful; and injurious only when taken to excess. The effort, therefore, was to guard against the abuse of them; to prevent, if possible, their being taken to excess. To secure this object, the practice was to intrust the sale of them to suitable persons only, and to charge money for the licenses—to secure something out of the traffic for the public chest—and this practice was well enough if the principle on which it was founded was but just. If the danger and evil of the use of spirits was only in the excess, then public caution should be taken to guard against excess; and perhaps no better plan could be devised for this purpose than that of the license.

But one of the discoveries of the temperance reformation—perhaps the most important of them all—is, that for persons in health, and to be used as a drink, intoxicating liquors are never useful, they serve only to excite, never to nourish and strengthen; and that the habitual use of them is injurious and dangerous, causing more suffering and poverty, diseases and deaths, than any other cause whatever. This is a late discovery, and a great discovery; and if it be true, as we believe it is, then the practice of selling licenses for the sale and use of liquor loses all its consistency, loses its entire foundation, and becomes one of the grossest and most dangerous absurdities.

Perhaps I can best show this by two or three comparisons. Let us apply the principle to other like cases. We learn from the papers that the army-worm, one of the most destructive little pests in the world, has made its appearance in some parts of our country, and is destroying every green thing in its progress. The farmers are much aroused for the destruction of the little vermin, and leave no means untried to be rid of him. Now, suppose the government should insist on tolerating the army-worm; should pass an act for that purpose, and should license a set of men to look after the interests of the poor worm, and take care, at least, that it should not be utterly destroyed; that enough, at least, should be left for seed. Now what would be thought of such an act? Who would approve it or wish its continuance? And yet the army-worm, with all its mischief, is not to be compared with the ravages of intoxicating drinks. The former can destroy only the products of the field, while the latter is destroying the country over, not only property of all kinds, but the health and happiness of individuals and families, and in cases innumerable, life itself.

Take another case, of a more ridiculous character. Here is a worthy housekeeper whose home is terribly infested with rats. They have forced their way into every part of it. They are found, not only in the garret and cellar, but in the kitchen, and even the parlor; eating, destroying, defiling everything. Of course she is trying to destroy them, and she is killing a good many. But her heart is touched, and she cannot bear to destroy them all. She pities them, and has a place prepared where she is keeping and feeding a few of the rats, that they may live, and breed, and keep the stock good, and may be ready for service whenever she shall want. Now what would you think of such a woman? Do you believe there ever was such an one? Was ever such a fool seen in woman's clothes? And yet what better do those do who wear the garb of magistrates, and who are selling licenses the country over to sell intoxicating liquors, and thus make drunkards, and ruin families, and hurry thousands upon thousands who otherwise might be useful and happy to a premature death and a drunkard's grave—and eternity! Let the sellers of licenses and their supporters the world over think of this, and say whether the vile practice shall be continued.—Rev. Enoch Pond, D. D., in Christian Union.