Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1910-12-23

against the message and the man.
Now in referring to these enemies Of
His, He said on one occasion, My
friend and colleague, John the Bap-
tist, whom | honor and respect, has
come into the world neither eating
nor drinking" and He was referring
of course to the drinking of wine
Now, there is proof positive. my
friends, that the Founder of the
Christian religion drank beverage
which these people to-day tell you is
a poison to the human system and a
curse to humanity. He drank wine;
hot only SO, but on one occasion he
made wine. if you please, at the we'd
ding feast in Caana. | was speak
ing with a prohibitiOnist the other
day in Oregon at place where /
made an address, and | referred to
the miracle at Caana and said to him,
How do you reconcile that miracle
with the stand you are taking on
this question tO-day-that Jesus not
only drank wine, but that He made
wine ?" WE'LL" he said, /" do not
believe that the wine which Jesus
made was Intoxicating
Well" said how do you know
that it was not p And do you
know what his answer was? He
says: " 1t could not have been in
toxicating because it did not have
time to ferment. Uaughter.) That
was the brilliant answer of this
man, supposed to be profound the
ologian and to know his Bible and to
have little gumption and common
sense. | did not say another word
closed the argument then and there
AS matter of fact, the wine which
Jesus Christ made on that occasion
was an intoxicating beverage. and
/ the proof of this is found in the story
/ itself.
In speaking in Salem. Ore. l think
it was Tuesday night. after making
this little preliminary talk, said:
Do you think, after taking such a
stand, and knowing what You know
about the teachings and practices of
Christ, if he would come into the
world again to-day that he would be
a prohibitionist p And there was
bunch OF prohibitionists down in the
front part Of the theater and some
ladies who had white ribbons on and
some ladylike gentlemen with them
Qaughter) shouted, Yes, yes, yes.
He would be-.
Well," l said to them, II am
glad to have you express that Opin-
ion. You seem to know great deal
about the mind of Jesus and what he
would do if he were here. Will you
please tell me why Jesus Christ was
not prohibitionist in the time He
lived in the world if you think He
would be one now if He were here ?"
There was not word-not a word.
AS matter of fact, my friends, in
temperance in the time of Jesus
Christ was social evil. He under
stood this evil. He knew that it had
existed during the whole period OF
the history Of the people. lie knew
that it had existed away back at the
time OF the Deluge. and He knew
that over and over again. on almost
every page OF the Old Testament
men were warned against intemper-
ance; He knew that in many parts of
the Roman empire intemperance was
very great social evil, so that He
had to face precisely the same prob
lem, so far as drunkenness is con-
cerned, as you and l are facing, the
same problem that the prohibition
lists are facing. and don't you imagine
that He was wishing to get rid Of
this as much as the Anti-Saloon
league
Now l am opposed to this whole
prohibition scheme on three practi-
cal common sense grounds. In the
first place, I am opposed directly to
it on the fundamental ground that it
is an outrageous infringement OF the
inherent rights of the individual citi-
zen (applause). | have been taught,
and we have all been taught, on the
most excellent authority, that every
man is endowed with certain inalien-
able rights; rights which no man or
set of men, not even an overwhelm-
ing majority of mer, can deprive me
of without doing a great injustice,
and 1 have supposed that among
these inherent rights that every one
of us was born with right to eat
and drink what we please without
asking these prohibition parsons.
Now, they will tell you that you
have a perfect right to eat and drink
what you please, providing you do
not drink an intoxicating beverage.
But a man might wish to drink
glass of beer, and if he does he is
committing the greatest crime under
the sun! The prohibitionist says:
No; if you wish to drink, you must
drink tea or ice-c0ld lemonade, or if
you wish something stronger than
that, you can 60 to drug store and
get prohibition tonic.