Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1872-06-11
For the Spectator.
To You.

To You.
ut is good neither to eat flesh nor drink
wine, nor anything whereby thy brother STUN
bleth."
This text must either go out of the Chris
tian's Bible, or the bottle go off the Chris
tians table The passage is SO clear that it can
hardly admit of cavil or a doubt From it
we may lay down the proposition, that no man
has moral right to do anything, the influence
of which is certainly and inevitably hurtful to
his neighbor. That good men are bound to
sacrifice anything and everything that is coun-
ter to the glory of God and destructive of the
best interests of humanity. You have legal
right to do many things, which as Christian
you cannot do. What right have you to sus-
tain those moral slaughter-houses, those foun-
tain heads of death from which the drink
poison is sold? What right have you to ad-
vocate their license, to patronize the traffic or
even in any way to abet the whole system of
drinking alcoholic stimulants at home or
abroad? If a glass Of wine on your table will
entrap some young man or some one who is In
clined to drink, then you are thoughtlessly set
ting trap for his life-you are his tempter-
you give the usage your sanction, and to him
the direct inducement to partake of the bottled
demon that sparkles so seductively before him.
your brother to stumble he stumbles over you.
IF he goes away from your table or your house
and commits some outrage under the effects of
that stimnlant, you are, to a certain degree,
guilty of that outrage. You have partner
ship in every blow he strikes, or in every oath
he may utter in every bitter wound he may IN
fict on the hearts of those he loves, while un-
der the influence of your glass of brandy, whis-
key or wine.
The man who PUTS the bottle to his neigh
bors lips is accountable for what comes from
those lips under the influence of the dram ;
and is accountable too, for every outrage that
the maddened victim of the cup may perpe-
trate during his temporary insanity
In this view of the question, is it too much
to ask of every professed Christian, and every
lover of his kind, that they will wholly abstain
from everything that can intoxicate. For the
sake of your children do it. For the sake of a
brother husband, friend For the sake of
those who will plead your example; for the
sake of frail tempted ones who cannot say No !;
for your fellow travellers sake to Gods bar and
to the eternal world, touch not the bottled dev-
il, under whose shining scales damnation hides
its adder-sting.
We ask, as Paul did. for the sake of those
who stumble" 0, those Stumblers those
Stumblersl We dare not speak of them. 1t
would touch many OF US TOO tenderiy-lt would
reveal too many wrecks-the wrecks that angels
have wept over. 1t would recall to us many
who have gone down at midday into blackness
of darkness
Would that every parent were Q Nprohiba-
tory law to his family. Would that every
pulpit would thunder forth the warning cry
'Look not on the wine when it is red, when it
sseiveth its color in the cup. for at the last it
''biteth like serpent and stingeth like an ad-
"der." At the last at the last But, oh !
who can tell when that 'last' shall ever end ?
When will the victim last groan be heard p
When will the last horror seize upon his
wretched soul2 mo. A."