The Liquor Traffic and the Attitude of the Christian
By Irwin H. Evans
By IRWIN H. EVANS
President of the North American Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists INTEMPERANCE is almost universal, and is a universal curse. But the tragedies lived daily before their eyes have failed to impress many well-meaning persons with the awfulness of this unspeakable curse. Prisons filled and workhouses overflowing, poverty-stricken widows and orphans, the mentally and physically deficient offspring of drunken parents, the humiliation and shame that daily follow in the trail of the empty glass,—all these are so continually before our eyes that we lose in some degree our sensibility of the heinous thing, and even come to tolerate it. Were it not for the great profits received from the sale of intoxicating liquors, the evil traffic would not be so difficult to overthrow. But the profits are enormous, and they fall into the treasuries of nations, states, cities, and individuals; and because of this, men are willing to shut their eyes to the miseries it engenders. The present generation has been philanthropic in the erection of asylums for the insane, incurables, imbeciles, etc. Our prisons have undergone reconstruction, and public sentiment toward all the unfortunates of society has been enlisted until immense sums are cheerfully supplied for improved accommodations of all classes of public charges; but while this is true, the great seed sower for degeneracy is allowed to remain. Fabulous sums of money are invested in promoting the use of alcoholic beverages. Often the public press voices the desires of the liquor manufacturer and salesman, utterly regardless of the lives of those who fall victims to drink. And as long as the saloon is legalized, and allowed to carry on its work, there will remain with drinking a popularity that could not be if the manufacture and sale of liquor were prohibited. To lead men to indulge in drinking alcoholic beverages is prohibited by the word of God. One of the ancient seers wrote, "Wo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken." Can Not Stand for Licensed Crime
God's people can never stand for licensed crime. They must forever lift up their voices against intemperance and the sale of alcoholic beverages. They are not only to be temperate themselves, but they are to be more—they are to be active in opposing the licensing of saloons and the indiscriminate sale of opiates and narcotics. It is the duty of every Christian to cooperate in saving his fellow men from alcoholism and every other form of intemperance. Strong, Definite Action Demanded
In this country, the voice of the people makes the laws. The voters can not escape responsibility on this question if they would. Indifference, neglect, lack of time,—none of these flimsy excuses can count, when the home, the children, the family, the future of the nation, are at stake. Action—strong action, and action on the right side—is now demanded of every total abstainer, that those less favored morally than himself may be as free as he, and not exposed to this accursed evil. The traffic in the souls and bodies of human beings should forever be prohibited by a free people. Therefore it is the duty of every one to vote for the prohibition of the liquor evil whenever and wherever he has the opportunity.