The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-08-08

Reply Of Rev. DIR. Gardner to Senator Till
mans Fling.


NIcchVllle, July L4.-'jn Huniay
night DR.. G. S. Gardner, pastor Of the
First Baptist Church, Of this city,
preached to a large congregation the
following sermon, discussing he dis
pcnsary and prohibition. Among the
distinguished rcor.c present was
Bishop Duncan, o. Tie Methodist
Church, who gave his unqualified ap.
proval Of the sermon.
Or. Gardner ba> 81 hi discussion on
the following text:
Woe unto him that givcth his neigh
hor drink that ruttcst thy bottle to
him and makcst him drunken also.
llabakkuk. 1l.15.
He said: The people Of South Caro-
lima are face to face with great moral
issue. There is no problem which
more directly involves the very yitals
Of State life than of the sale Of intoxi-
eating beverages. 1t is question
which involves the very fundamentals
Of personal and civic righteousness.
The question before us is specific
alternative; the dispcnsary or prohibi-
ton. The question is this: Shall
the State sell Intoxicating beverages
to its citizens or shall it not? That is
to say, shall you and l and all the
the rest of the people together sell to
our fellow citizens as beverage in
toxicating liquors for the pecuniary
profit there is in it? Shall there be a
State liquor selling establishment, set
up for the purpose Of gratifying the
depravcd appetite for alcoholic bever-
age, Of which you and l shall be joint
proprictors and Jointly reap the pro-
fits? Yondcr is poor fellow who is
cursed with an abominablc appetite for
drink. His family needs all the money
lie can earn, and the poor man himself
needs to cultivate sobriety for his
body's sake and for his souls sake.
Now, the question is, shall you and !,
Joined together in this great combine
called the State, agree to sell that man
the whiskey which we know will in
jurc his body and his soul, and i'm
novcrish his family, and put the pro-
fits Of it in our pockets? don't
know how you all feel about it, but,
as far as | am concerned, / answer
that question with negative in which
is concentrated all the emphasis of my
soul. don't want to do it, and I am
not going to do it unless l am dragged
into it, despite my protest, by ma
jority of my fellow citizens. I hate
II shudder at the very thought Of be-
ing joint proprietor Of State
saloon.
The dispensary advocates may try as
much as they please to suga-cost this
proposition. They may say this is not
a fair statement Of the case. But it
is an exact statement Of the naked
facts. They may say that the liquor
drinkers willget the whiskey and drink
it any way. But l remember that
there is One who says "Be not ye
partaker of their evil deed" Will
they get it and drink it any way? /
am very sorry if that is so, but there
is one thing certain. if I can help it
they shall not get it from me; and
they shall not drink it with my ap-
proval, and / want none Of the profits
Of the cursed business in my pocket.
The moral principle Of the dispen.
sary and the licensed saloon is the
same. In the one case we sell to q
man the privilege of selling the liquor
to his fellow citizens. In the other
we sell the beverage to him ourselves;
and I cannot see that there is any
great distinction between the moral
quality of the two acts There is but
one way to solve the liquor problem.
1t never will be solved until it is
solved that way, and that is by law
prohibiting its sale and the enforce
ment Of that law. Here is traffic
which is evil, and only evil, for which
not one good thing can be said, or ever
was said, which dishonors God, which
curses society, which destroys men,
body and soul, which corrupts all w.lo
have anything to do with it in any
shape or form whatever; the evils of
which have been declared by the great
statesman, Gladstone, to be greater
than those of war, famine and pesti.
lence combined. President Kruger
said at the beginning Of the South
African war, that Great Britain would
pay price which would stagger hu-
manity, but the horrors of the South
African war are utterly insignificant
compared with the horrors wrought
every year of our lives by the liquor