The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-04
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church at centervilie. He Is an able scholarly man. as his logical, temper ate letter shows.-Editor The Adver- tiser.f
 AS every voter ought to feel deep interest in the proposed amendment U so the Constitution of Alabama, ahe " " any source, which will help him intel ligently to decide how to cast his vo.e. I wish to submit a few thoughts tns. have come to me in my study oi tn1 s.,i amendment. which may prove heipiu'
 l. The amendment makes 1t forever unlawful to manufacture alconoHe liquors linciuding wine); it makes !. unlawfpi to sell the same in except an,i uo saeramental purposes. Even If every member of a future legislature were the tool of the ''liauor element" the manufacture and sale of intoxicating This fact would probably lessen the temptation to the liquor element to use large sums of money to control elections and bribe legislators. ea1res ne no oaps psnats m for ss 'nf ,s punishment would not follow It's viola tion except by statute. The iegfsla, ture might repeal all statutes and make, make ., penalty so light that ,,hon1 A healthy public sentiment Is still needed for successful prohibition. As an instances of constitutional law that of 1878 which prohibited railways to give a free pass to an official of the state or of the United States. It was left to the discretion of the legislature to fix the penalty, and the legislature ty--and the railways used their own discretion about obeying the constitu- tion.
 ?. The question of how far the render their rights, and thus limit their freedom (which question IS in- volved In this amendmento requires for its answer knowledge or the and is too deep for me. I leave It, therefore, to lawyer-statesmen 10 answer.
 3. The suppression of the drink habit by judicious prohibition law successfully operated. means tremen, dous saving to the wealth, health and life of the people. Morals usually are improved and religion usually Is bene- fitted by effective prohibition.
 f. The claim, however, is made that the present amendment Is essentially moral and religious movement tnat will help tremendously morality ana religion, and this duty demands every Christian vote for it. The strengtn
  the fact that many will accept this claim as true without giving It care. full study. I wish every voter would examine the amendment careruIIy thoroughly from the moral and re- ligious standpoint solely, excluding in so doing at that time questions or economics and all other questions.
 The amendment prohibits absolutely the manufacture l,na of all i,rus aieonGns mins sacramentai wine), but 1t permits the sale of alcohol for medical, scientific and mechanical purposes and wine Tor purposes; The thougntnul a sell that which is not allowed 10 pc made? The two moral premises upon which these two contradicting laws are based are: first, the use Of alco- hol for any purpose whatsoever Is moral wrong, sin. and, therefore It's should be absolutely pro hibited; and, secondly. that its use IS not always wrong, is not always sin. but Is sometimes right, ana tnere- ere mitted. A proposition that affirms that the use of alcohol Is always a sin, and that its use sometimes Is not a sin is self,contradietory. The The at the same time. It's first promise Is false. It's second Is true. The amendment is combination or a falsehood and truth. combination praotieeS 1nae SsSos0e sScR 9eoeit on Mother Eve to ruin her and Adam, and he has often tried this method on Ewes daughters since to catch the sons or Adam also.
 AS wine cannot be made, but may be sold in Alabama, what possible good can come from the permission to sell that whose manufacture is pro hibted1 The naSsr state oho instance. may make 1t, and Federal law. which is supreme In interstate traffic, will bring 1t into Alabama: But the promise which is fundamentai to Aiabama's absolute prohibition af- firms it to be a sin even to make wine, and the Alabama church, which pur- chases Ohio made wine, has encourageo the Ohio wine maker In shining. and Is a partner with him in his sin. Ii maker is damned for his sin. as he surely will be unless he Is forgiven. righteousness demands that the sim ming partner, an Alabama ehnren. nke-
 Logis, however. says: If the use or alcohol is always a sin, the Federal law should forbid the transportation of 1t from one state to anotner, en made to accomplish this. The opposi- ton of Rev. Brooks Lawrence to the congressional aspirations of MT. s. H. Dent was chiefly because MT. Dent
 
 gressionai law prohibiting the trans portation of alcoholic liquors (which includes sacramental wine) into pro- hibition states. When Alabama its prohibitory transportation law, no church in Alabama can get wine for the Lords Supper. The unsophisti- cated Christian who voted for the that he should have wine for sacra- mental purposes now finds he did an irreligious act, misled by deceptive promise. The kind of morality that deceives the unsophisticated Is Jesuis- tical. not Scriptural. Logic, however, will not stop in its progress until every state in the United States has substantially the Alabama law In It's constitution. and the United States has absolutely prohibited the importation of alcohol. No wine can now be manu~ factured nor imported. and the Lords Supper. as Christ instituted It., Is thing of the past. This moral and religious amendment by reason of It's false premise is an insidious attack upons the Church of God. which he bought with his own blood, the sym bol of which blood is sacramental wine. The Church in voting for the amendment logically is saving off the limb of the tree upon which IL is sIt- ting. is cutting off its head to cure its headache, is exhibiting as an illustra- tion of the scriptural statement: The legs of the lame are not equal.
 Of course those who believe that the wine which Christ used and that is mentioned with approbation in the Bible, was unfermented juice tusually of inc erape) and did not contain even a trace of alcohol. may dissent to the conclusion of this logic, but the theory that good grape wine Is always un- fermented grape juice appears to be Nineteenth century invention, pup forth to bolster up an extreme theory of total abstinence and of prohibition. and if has been repudiated by prac- tieally all of the accurate. conscfen- tIn,,n thnrnnRh RihlicaI aChOlarShin of