The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-08-06
Now NJ works.

They have had case under the Tenn
perance law, at Meridian, which affords a
commentary on that absurd legisla-
law. A party not having the requisite
number of signers to his petition for
permission to sell by retail, established
for the benefit of his customers Pick
wick club to which regular dues were
paid, and where, according to the testl-
mony, they kept their liquors and other
refreshments to be taken when desired.
This was construed TO be violation OF
the law. and it certainly was violation OF
its intent so far as il was designed to put
a stop to drinking. The advocates of the
law, lodged as they supposed, the neces-
sary information before the Mayor. A
Jury was empannelled and the case after
an exciting trial, conducted by able
attorneys on both sides, was concluded
with verdict of not guilty. The conse-
ouence is the Pickwick club will continue
to flourish. People who are inclined to
indulge their taste for the ardent will still
crafty it. liouor-drinkiDg and liquor-sell-
ing. in another form, will still go on; but the
State will loose the large fund heretofore
realized from licenses for the benefit OF
public schools and the deficit will have
to be made up by the taxpayers at large,
who will have to bear the burden of a
folly which had been exploded in the
puritan States where it originated.
| On the subject of temperance legisla-
ton the following conclusion of long
article in the New Orleans Christian Ad-
vocate is appropriate;
There is no law in the Scriptures en-
Joining total abstinence; there is no
Scripture from wrich such law can be
drawn by deduction or implication. Such
deduction might be made but that the
allowed practice throughout the history of
the church forbids it. There being nc law
in Scripture, it is not allowed to US to make
one. TODD so would be immoral It's, how
ever, proposed to make law, and to make
one which would exclude the Savior himself
from the communion of the church. John
the Baptist was a Nazarite; Christ was
not. The Jews were pleased with neither.
Christ said TO them "John the Baptist
came neither eating bread nor drinking
wine, and We say he hath devil. The
Son of Man is come, eating and drinking,
and We say. ''Behold gluttonous man,
and a wine-bibber" Now it is proposed
not only to censure the Savior, as the
Jews did, but to turn him out by human
legislation. Will we not feel rather lost
when we sever the connection? But is it
Judged that new moral law is demanded
by the Incorporate use OF Intoxicating
LIQUORS? There were drunkards and
drunkenness in former times yet this did
not in the council Of the All-Wise, call
for total abstinence law God is the
wisdom and law giver of his own church.
1t is not for man to declare his laws
defective or to add thereto his human
enactment. Yet there are many in these
latter times who think the church in great
need of many auxiliary associations, and
that the laws promulgated from ON high
need the additional touches of human
wisdom. Whether this argues a true
faith in God and his plans, or is the
result of want of confidence, can be easily
decided
This is written not in advocacy of
moderate drinking, but simply against
the enactment of a law which is unscrip-
tural and on no grounds justifable. 5.