What Reformers Say of Alcohol
MARTIN LUTHER: "Whoever first brewed beer has prepared a pest for Germany. I have prayed to God that He would destroy the whole brewing industry. I have often pronounced a curse on the brewer. All Germany could live on the barley that is spoiled and turned into a curse by the brewer." GENERAL BOOTH, founder of the Salvation Army: "Nine tenths of our poverty, squalor, vice, and crime springs from this poisonous tap-root [the drink traffic]. Society, by its habits, customs, and laws, has greased the slope down which these poor creatures slide to perdition." WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON: "I protest before God that great as is my detestation of slavery, I would rather be a slave seller, yea, a kidnaper on the African coast, than sell this poison [alcohol] to my fellow creatures for consumption." JOHN G. WOOLLEY: "Alcohol is the fast friend of shipwreck, and train wreck, and health wreck, and life wreck, and home wreck, and business wreck, and character wreck. It is a cockroach among the industries of mankind. It is the world’s most notable sneak-thief, and it does its larceny in broad daylight as well as in the dark."