The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-01-31

=
oership. TO do this. and yet to allow
church members totyote unrebuked to a
egalize rum selling, is fiat self'contra- c
diction and moral dishonor.
Y. n
It is often debated whether rum-sell- t
ing is sin per Sc, or only sin in Its
This query need not l.
detain long an alert and practical mind.
Whether sin in itself, or only in its {
conseuuenbes, or in both respects, it is
certain that rum selling as business
is so mischievous that after many de-
cades of discussion the general Protest
ant rule is to exclude the rum seller
from church membership. This large
and indisputable temperance fact has
many sides;
1. Any business, which justly ex-
cludes the man who practices it from
church membership cannot be consist
emily licensed, or in. any way egalized
by Christian votes. One and the same
church cannot, without self-contra-
diction, exclude rum sellers from church |
membership and also favor the
legal sanction of rum-selling. 1t can
not, in reason or honor, with one hand
make rum sellers, and with the other
excommunicate rum sellers.
2. Any business which justly eX-
cludes the man who practices 1T from
church membership cannot be legalized
without sim This is the official decla-
ration of the Methodist Church i'll the
United States, and is the level to which
j. all churches that exclude rum-sellers
, from church membership ought, in
simple Christian consistency, to rise.
t Logical consistency requires this level.
/ g. Any business which justly eX-
v cludes the man who practices 1t from
church membership ought not to be
legalized by the state, nor should the
It state have any partnership iii sucf
$. business. 1t is from the point OF view
st of this fact that the GOttenberg system
IS which provides for the continuance OF
l. the traffic under state management, i
r. seen to be vicious in principle.
is 4. Any business which justly ex
", cludes the man who practices 1t iron
d. church membership cannot be legalize
a by free state depending on the vote
r of a free church which excludes run
I'd sellers from membership, unless by I'll
he disloyalty of Christians to their prime
es pies.
he ). AS no rum seller ought to be
church member no political party th'
.te proposes to legalize rum-selling can
he consistently supported by Christie
be votes.
he These five propositions are only tt
I've different sides of a single pentagon.
nd the churches were consistent WI
All themselves. and were to exhibit TN
ed. nimity within the defenses of this pc
bit tagon, there is no political party in
ea- nation whose policy, in regard to
lies liouor traffic might not be brOug
ng- gradually into harmony with Christi
and principles. Let the churches make
,rO- liouOr traffic an outlaw, and ultlmat'
Sea the state must do SO.
the Not only do most rotestant churcl
now exclude rum sellers from chul
has membership, and not only has it bt
at officially affirmed by the Methoc
orm Church in the Northern States that
one liouor traffic can never be legall
the without stu. but the Methodist Gnu
in the Southern States has lately
ense clared that church member who 81
N. an application for a license CONN
>me- not only an indiscretion, but an
morality. These are great and men
ious able deliverances. Other denomlnatl
rage are rising with more or less rapidlt
the Methodist level of conslstel
dity, What one part of the chnrch recogn
rate as immortality, the other parts cal
the much longer treat as merely ndls
ton. The hour of the total dlvorc
,athy the church and the liquor traffic or
bers. nigh, and may God hasten it!
bout My propositions are two:
nited 1. That no religious denominat
$ and which excludes rum m-sellers from CHI
now membership can consistently alloy
mem- members to vote to legalize it.