The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-01-11
SUNDAY RUM SCORED
Pulpit Strongly Denounces
the Opening of Saloons
on the Sabbath.
THREE MINISTER'S PHILLIplCs.
Legislators Warned That the
Liquor Men Are Setting
Shares for Them.
The Rev. j. C. Allen Attempts to
Instruct This City in
Morality.

The Rev. j. C. Allen, pastor Of the
Bergen Baptist Church, spoke last night
on the proposition to legalize the sale of
intoxicants on Sunday. His remarks
were in the nature of a prelude to the
sermon. He said in part
The attempt to legalize Sunday liquor
selling demands the emphatic protest OF
every Christian pulpit, every church
member and every patriotic citizen. 1t is
not SO cowardly as the betrayal of
Maceo-for it is open-handed-but it is
as t~reacherous to liberty as his assassi-
nation. With all due recognition of the
worlds progress, there is no doubt that
here, in the United States, liberty has
most of present achievement and most
of future possibility. Here. also, the foes
of liberty are as insidious and, unop-
posed, as dangerous as elsewhere. The
varied social disturbances. labor troubles,
strikes, expressions by capital, Socia1istic
instead of patriotic theories. demagogism
vs. craftsmanship, political corruption VS..
patriotism, the exciting issues of the re-
cent campaign and other social problems
all are but phases of the great, world
wide conflict between right and wrong,
and which shall decide whether human
progress shall continue under the tri-
umph of right principles, or dishonesty,
s~elfishness and general lack of principle
prevail to our destruction.
Ill fares the land, to Fastening ills a
Where wealth accumulates and men de-
cay.
The real question. then, is concerning
the deterioration of men. I must call
attention to the violation of the "Ameri-
can idea" in the proposed modification of
law. 1t is class legislation" Why
should liquor-sellers have privileges
which are denied to any other business?
Their cry is liberty" but their want is
monopoly, and that of the worst. sort.
They want to m~onopolize the wages that
should g to pay the butcher, the grocer
and the respectable dealer in the neces-
saries of life.
! might mention the right. of every en-
ploye to Sunday as a day of rest, and
affirm the right to rest for each depends
upon the law of rest for ALL"
/ might name the right of the great
orderly and order-loving majority. church.
goers and non-churchgoers, to a Sunday
rest, undisturbed by the clamor and fire.
guent brutality of a drunken crowd, and
affirm that liberty means the greatest
good of the greatest number.
All these considerations are important,
but they are all subsidiary to the one
supreme consideration of men. How will
they be affected by the ~1egalized Sunday
lfquor-selling? The saloon is a natural
incubator of evil. It's twin eggs are
human ignorance and Satanic cunning,
whence spring the horrid brood of social
and political m-onstrosities which, locust
like, spread themselves through the land,
d~evouring everything before them, or,
dying under the hot breath of public
opinion, smell rank to heaven. Not only
are crimes of all sorts plotted in saloons,
but frequent outbreaks of many social
theories in strikes and other combina-
tons against social order are planned
there.
The best opportunity of the walking
delegate and the demagogue is on Sun
day, when the masses of wbrkingmen n
women are free. The saloon or its annex,
the concert hall, afford space for a gath
ering crowd whose passions are nflamed
by the same drink that dulls moral per-
ception, and then, under the influence of
designing men, the most desperate n
wicked resolutions are AIKEN. The whole
ward low; to legalize its Sunday work
would multiply its possibility for evil a
hu~ndredfold. It's destruction of virtue is
now appalling, but would then be greatly
facilitated. Its robbery of homes is now
wholesale, but would then be complete.
Its effrontery to law is now most brazen;
with law ON its side the total subversion
preservation of society demands not only
the defeat of this proposed legislation,
but the overthrow of this Ubiquitous
traffic.
And when 1t Is also considered that
Goo has enjoined Subbath observance,
takes note of civil affairs, and has de-
clared both in His Word and in history
that obedience brings blessing, but viola
ton brings penalty, there can be only
one opinion-the liquor traffic must be de-
stroyed or it will destroy US. Thus to
all who love the name of duty it is plain.