Liquor Selling vs. Christianity.
“Is keeping a liquor saloon incompatible with leading a Christian life? Should such an one be admitted to the church?” Is it compatible with a Christian life, then—with a life of unselfish devotion like that of Christ—that one should get money by selling poison to satisfy the cravings of a diseased appetite in one's neighbors? Is it consistent with a Christian life that one should peddle small-pox, and retail scarlet fever, and wholesale hydrophobia to foolish boys and half-insane men? “Yes, it is indeed quite compatible with the Golden Rule and Christian love, and my stewardship of God's talents that I should sell the peace of families, break mothers' hearts by brutalizing their boys, send my neighbor's husband home to her frantically insane, and build my fortune by trying to destroy whatever good lies in my way! Is it not legitimate trade, and a branch of industry that gives employment to a great many people? Nobody is obliged to drink unless he wants to.” We call attention to the article above taken from the Christian Union, of Feb. 9th, and ask every reader whether the ground taken by the Union is not right? How can a man honor God and bless men by a business that destroys men, soul and body? There is not a vice that the drinking habit does not stimulate, nor a vice that it does not beckon. No man from love to his neighbor sells him intoxicating beverages. Selfishness only prompts this, and it so contrasts with the Christian that none but those without reason and conscience can do it.—Ex.