Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-11-21
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM
MENTS FOR NOV. "a BY THE
REV. I. w. HENDERSON.
Subject: Worlds Temperance Sum
day, Rom. 14:12-28 - Golden
Text, Rom. 14:17-M Memory


day, Rom. 14:12-28 - Golden
Text, Rom. 14:17 Memory
Verses, 1921.
The, nub of the lesson Is to be
found in the stumbling block and the
judgment seat.
We are to be scrupulous in all
things as well as in the use of intoxi-
eating liquors lest we shall be stum-
bling blocks. And we are further to
be very careful because we are to
render account before the Judgment
seat of the Almighty according to our
deeds in this life.
1t is usual to apply this scripture
to the man or woman who uses intoX-
icants. Especially is it applied to the
Christian man or woman who uses
liquor. And it is we'll. Drink is a
good thing to dispense with regard
less of our rights. 1t is waste OF
money. It's pleasure is fallacious.
It's consequences are too uncertain
and may be definitely vicious. It's
influence may be worse than we ever
dream 1t could become through us.
Taking all things into consideration
It is no unwisdom to say that every
man ought to leave liquor entirely
alone as beverage.
But while it is the custom to re-
member what we ought to do with
liquor or ought not to do with 1t In
its personal relations to us it is quite
as largely the fashion to forget that
the most of us, especially those of us
who are given the suffrage Of free
tu land dn1ihopoto1V
place liquor as stumbling block in
the way of men. And we do 1t by
permitting the business to exist at all
We do 1t by granting 1t the right by
and with the consent of the Govern
ment, which in fact we are, to create
as we'll as to supply demand, to
bring sorrow and misery and destruc-
ton and death into the homes Of our
fellow-men.
1t Is not enough that a man shall
refrain from drinking intoxicating
liquor himself. He must see to it
that so far as his consent at least is
concerned the Government will not
be allowed to grant license to a
business which the whole Southland
for economic and moral reasons is
getting rid of, which the courts of
the country have declared to be a
nuisance and to have no constitutions
al right to exist, which is admitted to
be chief agent Of the forces of wick
edness wherever 1t is found, which
debauches government and destroys
heopportunity for multitudes of men,
women and children to possess that
peace and contentment and chance in
life to which under the Constitution
Of this country as under the laws OF
Almighty God they are entitled.
Furthermore it is illogical for a
Christian man who has done his duty
in the premises SO ia" as his civic re-
lations to his own community or COM
monwealth is concerned to refuse to
wage the fight relentlessly against
the national forces of this organized
iniquity. For we are not simply
confederation of States. we are ma
tion. And Massachusetts helps to
make the laws that regulate the pub
lie policy of the State Of Oregon. The
South makes law for the North as
we'll as for itself. And If it Is wise
for man to refuse the sanction OF
his suffrage to the allied forces or
the liquor business in the State OF
Georgia 1t is no less wise for him to
protest against a governmental ac-
quiescence to its national existence.
A man who is an abolitionist so far
as the saloon is concerned in the city
of Boston has no business to be any
thing else than that as citizen OF
this United States.
The liquor business will go when
the church ceases to allow it to be
stumbling block IN the way of ma
tion. And it will not go before. But
whether it go for economic or for
moral reasons it's end is in sight and
sure. For 1t is as unscientific as it
is immoral to allow it to exist. To
perpetuate it is TO perpetuate
plague and national disgrace. And
we will not do it.
We ought to refuse to sanction it
at all because of the fact that we
shall give an account before the
judgment seat of Christ according to
orr deeds done in the flesh. 1t is
doubtful that any Christian man will
upon sober second thought care to
admit in the presence of Almighty
God that by and with his personal
consent as a citizen of America the
curse of the American saloon, ruined
homes, blighted lives, sank precious
souls for whom Jesus died in the
mire of unspeakable iniquity. 1t is
doubtful If any of us if we thought
of it carefully would care to have
upon our souls at the Judgment day
any portion whatsoever of the blood
that has been wrung from innocent
hearts by the viciousness of the liquor
business But so long as we perpet-
uate it we are responsible in no un-
real fashion for it, for Its crimes, for
its attendant misery.
God grant that soon we shall all
see that to grant license to the
liquor business is no better than IL
censing a brothel or incest or murder
or all the crimes upon the code. God
grant that soon the church will see
the blood that is upon her hands,
For we have stood SO idly by and
given our consent. Like Paul when
the church awakes to consciousness
OF her wickedness there will be an
exhibition of religious conservation
that will reYolutionize the world.