The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1905-09-27
The Lexington Dispatch.
Wednesday, September 27, 1905.
The Liquor Problem
Is a Governmental Question and Not a
Church Question.

no liquor question at all for no
one would ABUSE ,,s ust-then we
should have no courts, ei1ber' crimi-
nal or civil. The pity is that this Is
not true and that the reverse is true
| "a great many of tbs citizenship OF
! our county are not Christians al d are
aotuated by principles and motives
that are not even just lot to say
Christian. The Christian citizen then
| has two fold duty-hrst, to his God
aud biz cnurcb-second, to his coun-
try. His church is divine ins.ltu
ton, governed and controlled by rules
and laws based on divine command
and it's mission is to ssve the soul
from eternal punishment
It has to do not only with mans
acts toward his neighbor and hia
neighbours property, but it goes
deeper and further and has to do
with mans thoughts, with his in-
tentions, with his desires and with
his passions as they are born in the
mind before they are given utter
ance or acted upon. It has to do
with spiritual and eternal things
The Christian citit'zen in bis Sec
ond relation is part of the govern
ment or State. Ee must obey it's
laws-''Render unto Ceasar the things
that are Ceasar's aod to God the
things that are Gods" In this re.
iation be has to do with tie temporsl
welfare and happiness Of the p4opI~
of his State. As citizen his work
is for time, not eternity. he should
act oo conditions as he finds them,
not on conditions which should exist.
If wrongs exist in the government
they should be righted as nearly ss
the conditions of the people will per.
NIT.
Government being human inati-
tuition and controlled and managed
wholly by man, must at it's best very
be imperfect. So that it often happens
that the church member as citiz4n
is brought face to face with two
evils, one of which in bis capacity as
citizen be must accept. Two men
are candidates for the came Office
both are un6t-one more 90 than the
other. he rightly votes for the bet
ter of the two. Two policies OF gov
ernment are advocated by each of the
political parties-both parties are
more or less correc there are plapks
in the platforms of each which are
more or less unjust. He rightly
votes for the nominees OF the party
of least corruption and the platform
least Objectionable.
The sale of wbiskey, if prohibited,
must be prohibited by government.
If permitted by the government.
The church as an institution could
not do it if it 80 desired, and it should
not desire to do so because that is
not within its work. Therefore the
sale or the prohibition of the sale of
liquors is governmental and not a
church question, and the church
member as citizen must act upon
it 90 be would act on other political
questions choose the lesser of the
two evils.
Hence be asks, is = wrong for the
State to sell whiskeys Which is the
lesser evil, to sell it itself, by it's own
agent-Dispenssry, or authorize an
other person to sell for his own ben
eft-Bar rooms? The Dispensary
system puts al! sellers under bond
and on salary-takiDg away the temp
tation to sell. The bar room seller
makes all be can and like all OF US
wants more.
Only the abuse of whiskey is sin
full and there is a Legitimate use for
it. When we vote for the Dispen-
sary law We vote for the law as it is
administered; if it is true that it. is
badly administered. This law offers
liquors for sale only for legitimate
purposes, under it no liquors should
be cold which are to be used for in
toxication. So the citizen is not SELL
ing whiskey as the old bar room
keeper sold it, if the State sells un.
der the Dispensary. But if liquors
are sold under license, still the citi-
zen is as much seller of whiskey in
that way as under the Dispensary,
for it cannot be successfully contra
dicted that the bar room keeper, SELL
ing under license, is any less the
agent Of the State than the diepen-
ser.
SO we contend that the sale of
whiskey by Dispensaries for only le-
gitimste, and not sinful, purposes is
both Legitimate end proper and casts
no odium On the citizen. If the
whiskey is sold for legitimate pur-
poses and used for wrong or sinful
purposes the State is no more to
blame than the merchant who sells