Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1893-05-02

thrsSti'n voters IuNlfu
". . or a SERIES uf six Articles Written by j.
H. smith. NJ. d.. for the Tennessee Methodist
In my former article on this subject
/ insisted that Gods plans required
harmony between our political and re-
hgious crceds. In this article | shall
insist that in order to have such har-
mony we must have political party
that makes the abolition of the liCen-
sed beverage liquor traffic one of the
leading planks i'll its platform of prin-
ciples. You oppose this sort of pOliti-
cal partisanism, my brother, as being
too political, and say, make Prohibition
a non partisan, separate and distinct
issue and / am with. you. But why do
YOU propose that Not to avoid poll
ties: for you are of all men one of the
most intense political partisans; but
simply to allow yourself an opportuni-
ty to remain i'll an affiliate with liquor
licensing political party Then, what
is your political creed, and how does it
harmOnize with those declarations Of
your Church which says. I'VE are EN-
phatically Prohibition Church. We
stand out squarely and before the
whole world. certainly in theory and
for the most part in practice, for the
complete suppression of the licensed
liquor traffic. We offer no compromise
to and seek no terms from sin of
this heinous quality. We are opposed
to all forms of license of this iniquity
whether the same be high or low
Do we not offer compromise to and
seek no terms from the license liquor
traffic when we vote with a liquor Ii
censing party i'll order to get the liquor
vote to help to elect our man to office?
The rapid growth of intidelity today
rests on Just such inconsistency among
church people as this. Intelligent
masters would not have tolerated it
among their servants in the days OF
/ Southern human slavery. God is not
mOCked; whatsoever man SOWeth that
also shall he reap" Just as we'll say
make murder. theft, arson or any other
crime IL separate question, so that /
may vote my moral responsibility on
that question and still have the pleas
ure of remaining in and atliliating with
a political party that licenses it. The
Supreme Court of the nation has put
these things and the beverage Ii
quor traffic on the same footing by de-
claring that mo citizen of State has
any right to engage in the latter with
out special political legislation author
ling it. And yet you compromise with
and seek terms from" those who legal
ize or license,this business, and those
who run this business, in order to get
your political favorite elected.
Now let us see if you don't. At the
Memphis Annual Conference of the
NJ Z. Church, South, held in Mayfield,
Ky. last November. the following reso-
L. HE
reported on by majority of the com
mittee on Temperance, as means fav
orable to the promotion of temperance
AS our Church condemns the licens-
ing of the liquor traffic as a great
wrong, and our Federal and State SUI
preme Courts have decided that the
traffic could not be continued without
such license, and that the licensing of.
the traffic is matter of legislative
will only we hold that no citizen as
piring to the responsible position of
laWmaker should expect or receive the
vote of any church member, unless he
pledges himself publicly to use hisvot
and influence to repeal all laws not
authorizing, upholding and perpetual
ting the business" And yet to this
resolution. sustaining not only the po
sition taken by our Church in its high
est official capacity, but that taken by
1.-THE Supreme Court of the Unlte4
States as we'll, there was intense oppo-
sition manifested by some of our min
listers of the gospel, on the plea that it
would force them out of the political
party of their choice. Is not this com
promising with and seeking terms from
a business of this heinOuS quality. y
minister of the gospel claiming to be
| follower Of John Wesley, unwilling to
vote VOW upon himself to politically
sustain the official declarations of his
own church and the decisions of the
highest court of his country, in the in
| tereSt of temperance and morality, be-
cause it would prevent him from vot-
| ing for the advocates of the licensed
LIQUOR iniquity when nominated by "a
certain political party Yes, that is
precisely where you have placed your
self, my brother! Now stop; don't go
to pouting. and try to dodge the issue
by saying, Il am as good a Prohibition
ist as you are" There are thousands
of clever men who, because they assent
to the general truths of Christianity,
and do some things that Christians do,
claim to be as good Christians as you
are; and yet, because of a failure to
practically comply with the demands
of Christianity. they are going straight
to hell You. my brother, though you
have greater reason to fear it than
Paul had, may not go to hell. You may
miss it by the skin of your teeth, and
so may those men who claim to be as
good Christians as you are; but there
are tens of thousands of others going
there through a traffic legalized and
made possible by the men you have
helped to elevate to position and pow
er by your notes.-the exercise of the
highest. and hence the most response
bic political function known to Ameri-
can citizenship. Yes, some are to be
saved whose works are to be burned
up. and the stars that might have deck
ed their crown blotted out. Is that
the sort of heaven to which you aspire,
and the crown for which you sigh?
Yes. and your Church says further
that the liquor license that your reck-
less voting has helped and is is helping
to fix upon the country, ''can not be
put so high that the prayers of Gods
people for its suppression will not rise
/ above it, nor 50 low, though it makes
/ it's bed in hell, that the shrieks of the
souls lost through its accursed agency
will not descend beneath it," Areyou,
my brother, part of Gods people
whose prayers are rising like incense
above and for the suppression of this
hellish business, while your vote goes
to help elect men who make or endorse
2 I,,,,,, IF tho fOr.naar