The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-10-29
written Tor the MONITOR.
SUGGESTIONS ON THE TEN pEEsANCE
QUESTION.


wine. Prohibitionists need have no hest
tation in admitting that Jesus made wine,
that he drank wine. But when we admit
this, it must always be with the clear and
forcible statement that the modern liquor
making and drinking were not yet born.
And if any one pleads this, insisting upon
the letter rather than the spirit of the Word,
they must drink wine, and only wine, and
pure wine at that, and wine made by
Christ's touch of miracle. There was the
dark, and damnable an abuse as to com
pei all out of love for their brother to fore
go the gift, TO turn from it as if it had
never been, yea, to look upon it as a
deadly eneIny. Take the mere poisonous
deliberations of liquors, and it is stamped
as the most infamous fraud that ever lifted
its serpent head in the midst of man. One
barrel is turned into two by the use of
poisons, and one of them into two, and one
of those two into another two, and 50 on,
the devil knows how far. The letter kill
eth. From the mere letter of scripture we
can argue the sanction of p~olygamy and
slavery. But no honest and unprejudiced
heart will argue for a minute that the
Bible endorses these evils. Its spirit is
set against them with an energy that
means their destruction. You might as
well say that the spot on the hull of the
acorn is the oak, all the oak that God
meant to think, as to say that certain
things permitted by the Bible because of
the age in which truth was working to-
wards its flower, is a complete contradic-
ton Of its spirit. Let us see in the matter
of slavery, how the spirit kills the letter.
Often was the book of Philemon quoted as
an endorsement of slavery. Because Paul
sent back 0nesimus, the slave, to Philemon
the master, forsooth it was light in this
latter day, and under the smile of declara-
ton, the glory Of our land, which lays
down as a fundamental principle the fact
that all men are born free and equal, and
have certain inalienable rights, among
which are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness, for man to hold his brother man
as a brute chattel. Read the book ofPhil-
emon, and you will find that it strikes at
the very root of slavery. 1t teaches the
worth of the slave, his equality with his
master before the heavenly master; it
teaches the brotherhood OF slave and mas
ter,-indeed it SO sets forth the christian
worth and dignity of the slaye that the
masters hand must drop its claim in very
awe of the worth in Gods sight of the
poor and despised slave. Tradition says
that Philemon set Onesimus free; and in
deed it is hard to see 10Y he could help set
him free, If there was in him a spark of rev.
erence and belief in the word of God as
written by Paul.
But at the most we claim this, that the
scripture permits wine drinking as a pleas
ure. 1t nowhere e~njoins it as n duty. But
all through the Bible does teach us that
we are our brothers keeper, it does teach
us to say "If wine make my brother to Of
ferd, then will | drink no wine as long as
the world stands" And does it not make
my brother to offend? o how sadly! Wit
ness the Stiffness, the ~blasphcmy, the abuse
of wife and children, the murder, the in
sanity he drinks in with the wine.
And yet in the face of this scripture and
this awful fact here is a man, a doctor of
divinity divine as they are sometimes
called-who says you are all wrong in try
ing to have prohibition. You have no
right to have prohibition, because | and
a few other moderate drinkers claim scrip
ture permission to drink moderately; you
have no right to rob us of Il liberty! |
is his very moderate drinking that has
kindled the flames of hell in the d%runkard;
and now while hundreds of his brethren are
being burned up in the awful flame, and
their homes and love for wife and little
children and their manhood and their souls
with them, this man will stand by and look
upon the awful woe, the conflagration OF
all that is highest and best In the human
heart,-will look upon it complacently
through tie sparkle Of his wine, through
his selfish indulgence, and say it is
my right, | will not give it up ever, to
save him. You have heard of Nero fid-
ding while Rome was burning! Out! out,
upon such s%elfishness! Out! upon the silk
en- threads OF my pleasure weaving a rope
for the neck OF my brother! Weaving a
rope for the neck of my brother? Aye,
and in the loom of my selfishness it will
yet weave a rope for my own neck. | am
to fettcr my liberty for the good of my
brother-ror the freedom Of my brother.
Jesus died that man might live. And He
said "follow me-" The rule of life is there
fore to die that others may live. Surely!
surely! then the wise and right thing to do
and the noble thing as well is to die to
every indulgence that my brother may
live; that he may be set free from his hab-
its that are fast claiming him for dungeons
of eternal gloom.
Why not license? Yes! license rattle
snakes, License tho infamy which just a
short time ago came to public light in
England. License theft! License muir
der. You cannot regulate evil. The
strength necessary to regulate evil is
strength enough to prohibit it. Enforce
your license laws? say SO too! But do
ing so is like killing what rattlesnakes
ooroa inin your ward while Won must not