The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-11-20
Fl SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM
MENTS FOR NOV. "a BY THE
REV. l. W. HENDERSON.

day, Rom. 14:12-2" - 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 we'll as in the use of intoxl-
eating liquors lest we shall be Stun
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 a waste or
money. It's pleasure IS fallacious.
It's consequences are too uncertain
and may be definitely vicious. Its
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 a 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
it's personal relations to US 1t is quite
as largely the fashion to forget that
the most of us, especially those OF US
who are given the suffrage OF a free
manhood in this land, deliberately
place liquor as a stumbling block in
the way of men. And we do 1t by
permitting the business to exist at all.
We do it by granting it the right by
and with the consent Of the Govern
ment, which in fact we are, to create
as we'll as to supply a 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 1t
that so far as his consent at least is
concerned the Government will not
be allowed to grant a 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 constitution
al right to exist, which Is admitted to
be a chief agent of the forces OF wick
edness wherever it Is found, which
debauches government and destroys
the opportunity for m~ultitudes of men,
women and children to possess that
peace and contentment AMI 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 far as his civic re-
lations to his own community or COM
monwealth is concerned to refuse tc
wage the fight relentlessly against
the national forces of this organized
iniuuity. For we are not simply a
confederation Of States, we are a ma
ton. 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 az
well as for itself. And if it Is wise
for a man to refuse the sanction OF
his suffrage to the allied forces OF
the liquor business in the State OF
Georgia it is no less wise for him to
protest against a governmental &C.
quiescence to it's 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 q citizen OF
this United States.
The liquor business will go when
the church ceases to allow it to be a
stumbling block IN the way of a ma.
ton. And it will not go before. But
whether it so for economic or for
moral reasons its end is in sight and
sure. For it is as unscientifc as 1t
is immoral to allow it to exist. Tc
]perpetuate it is to perpetuate a
plague and a national disgrace. And
we will not do it.
We ought to refuse to sanction 1t
at all because of the fact that we
shall give an account before the
Judgment seat of Christ according to
our deeds done in the flesh. 1t ia
doubtful that any Christian man will
upon sober second thought care tC
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 I'M
real fashion for it, for its crimes, for
it's attendant misery.
God grant that soon we shall all
see that to grant a 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 a consciousness
of her ~wickedness there will be an
exhibition of religious conservation
that will reyolutioniZe the world.