The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-11-10
TO KEErING MNIsrERs. ETC.

That ia where the church stood on the tenn
perence question 90 years ago
IL is true that Solomon once pronounced
wine mooker and strong drink raging. But
this was evidently at the end OF a weeks de-
the end OF his spree. Solomon an advocate of
temperance Why did he not say wine
maketh merryf' Did he not prescribe to
those "heavy of hearth" Did he not want to
give his sweetheart wineY Nonsense The
Bible recognizes wine as necessary an article
OF consumption as bread itself. From Genesis
20 Revelation IL is vine, wine, wine. Christ
himself evidently considered wine of more i'm
portance than bread. For while he refuses TO
make bread out of stone for a hungry devil,
he has no conscientious soruples about con-
vertlng water into wine for a lot of drunken
wedding guests From all my Bible reading
can At this moment recall but one Instance
where an individual ordering a drink called
for wator--and he was In hell
For eighteen hundred years the Bible and
the church have been the bulwarks of intern
perance. The Christian may dispute this fact !;
but he cannot deny that some OF his greatest
saints were drunkards; he cannot deny that
when his God drowned the world, he saved
only drunkard and his family 10 perpetuate
the race-that when he doomed a great city to
destruction he saved only drunkard and his
famtlyi he cannot deny that his greatest
preacher, Paul, advised taking Il little wine
for the stomach'e sake; he cannot deny that
Christ himself bore the reputation of u rwine
bi6ber,' that he was manufacturers of wine,
that ne furnished wedding feasts with wine,
that he gave IL 10 his disciples TO drink, and
expected to drink II himself In heaven; he can
not deny that Christ blessed the wine cup,
and passed IL on through the Christian gener-
atiOns; he cannot deny that whenever Chris
tianity has gained a foothold, there intemper-
ance has made her home. An army of
missionaries went TO India, and what Is the
resultl Says the Archdeacon of bombay
For every truly converted Christian, the
drinking practices of English Christians have
made thousand drunkards." They went to
siberia, and soon transformed a happy, indus
trious people, into race of drunken vaRa-
bonds, They traversed the forests of America,
the Bible IN one hand, the bottle in the other,
and under the combined influence Of faith and
nrewater, the last poor wretch must soon
reach the happy huntinR-grounds.
That many Christians are now Jealous work
ers IN the cause Of temperance / am glad TO
acknowledge. All honor 20 them But they
should remember that they are simply follow
ing in the wake Of an Intidel movement, that
lnhdes and not the church inaugurHted the
temperance reform. The first temperance
an Infidel-Joseph Lindsay. The first temper
ance paper published in this country was pub
liehed by an opponent Of the church-William
Lloyd Garrison; and the first book In favor OF
total abstinence was written by an Atheist
Judge Herttell.
THE CHURCH AND THE REPUBLIC.
Not only must we ascribe TO these so-called
Inhdels the credit OF inaugurating every true
reform, but the establishment and Depreciation
| OF our republican form of government Itself
we owe not TO the church, but to those outside
| of IL, and wholly or in a measure free from en-.
| shaving dogmas. The Declaration of Iudepend.
ence and the Constitution OF the United State,
| gre both lnfidel documents, the former Deistio
the latter Agnostio the former recognizing the
existence OF Supreme Being. but making nc