Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-11-26
Ministers Who Align Them
selves Wrong.

selves Wrong.
We can conceive how certain
ministers may think it is their
privilege to use wine, though we
doubt their Christian Judgment in
doing so. We may ever admit it
as an academic proposition that the
scriptures sanction the s of al
cohol under guarded conditions.
But we cannot understand how
auy Christian minister can enter
tain these ideas in such a way as
to lead him to align himself with
the saloon in the United States in
its work Of political and moral de-
bauchery. The saloon question
and the private use OF alcoholic
drinks are by no means connected
with each other. Thousands OF
Christians who are 'liberal" in
their privtae habits nevertheless
see that the use of alcoholic drinks
is one thing and siding in and
fighting for saloons is quite anoth-
er. The Christian minister who
cannot make these distinctions and
who docs not array himself
against the saloon openly before
God and man is too crude in his
mental operations and too gross
in his moral perceptions to be tit
for a religious teacher.
And the church which allows it
self to be committed to the side OF
the tavern, the brewery, the dis
tillery and the saloon, as against
the temperance reform of to-day
is simply a caricature upon the
name of Christianity. Instead Of
being a helper of righteousness in
the world it is in respects the main
agent of the kingdom of Satan.
In her recent book, "Holy Or
ders," Marie Corelli levels a tariff
Indictment founded on facts in g
certain section of the Church o:
England. She says in part:
81 find, for example, at the pres
ent time a dozen bishops of the
Church of England most siren
nously supporting the vested in
terests of brewers and distillers
and opposing the government eli
forts to lessen the material curse
of drink. These gentlemen ap'
parently are not considering the
ruin, iIl-health and moral degra'
dation of thousands of living mel
and momen and unborn children
which must occur if these vestet
interests in the liquor traffic are tt
continue unabated-their sol'
thought is "property!" Can an,
of these shepherds of Christian
focks tell me that this great anx
iety about property" is a per
mitted canon of the Christia1
creed? Was it not Christ VIII
said: 'One thing yet thou lackest
sell all thou hast and give to tn
poor. and follow Me?' The live
OF men and women in this gener
ation-the health and sanity an
strength of the generation to com
depend on the crushing OF tn
tyrannous devil of drink that hold
Great Britain in it's grip, and We
certain ~prelates, protesting Christ
do not hesitate to array them
selves on the side of interest Il
property as if money or Ian
could be matched against the val
ue of one human soul! And wha
sort of rights are these in prop
erty' that has been wrested out
national vice and degradation?
is property that should be fun
away in horror and fear, wit
tears of shame that it was eve
held under such conditions-ft
the evil brought upon this pee
pie by drink is an evil SO vast an
terrible that the brain recoils frol
it, and the heart grows sick"
We say again, whatever the pr
vate convictions of ministers ar
prelates may be regarding person
al liberty and biblical teachir
concerning wine, if they are ell
lightened Christians they will ne
er array themselves upon the sit
of the great evil of drink as it
present appears. Whatever scht
astic distinction they may ma
in their own minds they will fiji
a way to enroll themselves in Il
fight against the drink traffic as
is at present conducted. Not
do this shows a mental and mo-
alteration which wholly units
minister for a religious instructt