WHAT IT COSTS TO BE VICIOUS.
By J. H. Hanaford
It is estimated that it costs our country each year $1,500,000,000 (nearly the amount of our public debt) for tobacco and intoxicants! It may cost more to till the soil and sustain our factories, but from our industries we expect a fair and ample return, making them "pay." What do we get in return for this vast outlay for these instruments of dissipation? Not one cent!! No one is made wiser, healthier, more moral, happier, wealthier, or better in any respect. But, what are the natural fruits of their use? Vice, crime, pauperism, idiocy, disease, a quarrelsome disposition, degradation and ruin. Can any Christian indulge in their use, or in any way encourage their use, by making it easy to be vicious, as by favoring the license system? Can any intelligent man say one word in favor of their use? If this is impossible, what should be the position of the entire church in reference to these forms of dissipation?