The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-06-10

church organ seems to think. It's quo
tation from Corinthians is expressly
directed against those who eat meat
offered to idols aud who sit in tcm.
pies eating such offerings. The warn
ing of the Apostle against drunken
ness has nothing TO do with this ques-
tion. The qualifications Of Christian
bishop have nothing to do with it. be-
cause a man may 90 into a saloon and
take q drink and still be sober and
"not given 10 wine nor be in train
ing TO become 4 bishop.
The placing by Apostle Peter of e1-
cessive wine drinking in the same class
az lasciviousness, lust and rcvelry, also
has nothing 20 do with the case OF a
man who goes into a saloon and takes
"A casual drink. 1t would be more to
the purpose and more citation in point
if the News applied this scripture to
the lascivious polygamists than TO the
man who takes an occasional drink in
a saloon.
The assertion that the saloon exists
in violation of the divine law, and that
il is criminal and makes criminals out
of its patrons is simply one Of the silly
concentrations of which the church
organ is so fond when il gets on its
ambling donkey in stupid moraliza-
tion.
To say that "the saloon Is in the
same class as the opium dem is TO
assert An absolute falsehood. The sa.
loon is 3 lawfully licensed and regu-
lated place OF business. The opium
den is under the ban of the law. and
is liable TO be broken up whenever and
wherever found.
The great trouble with The church
organ. as in the first place with Presl.
dent Smith in this matter. is that they
confuse the idea of crime. which IS
against the statute law, with sin, which
is against the law Of God, and for
which. as such, there is no temporal
punishment. except as that SIN involves
the breaking of the criminal law OF
the land. The unreasoning folly of
undertaking TO confuse the question of
sin with the criminal law. TO class all
saloons as alike. making no exception
for the well-conducted saloon as against
the lawless and criminal dive, and 10
say that the opium den is on tho same
plane as the saloon in the law and as
criminal proposition. is TO lose sight
of all the moral and legal landmarks
The editor of the News, in his editorial
as quoted. shows that he does not un-
derstaud the difference between matters
theological and matters of legal and
temporal enactment; that he conGuses
the scriptural authority with the statu-
tory authority. and considers all in a
confused tumble that utterly shuts out
any clear-sighted idea Of the proper re
lation of things. not only as between
themselves. but as compared with other
things. Doubtless this confusion ot
mind arises very largely from the
training Of that writer in the line that
all authority, both temporal and Spir-
itual, should he vested in the priest
hood, and that the priesthood should
have jurisdiction in all matters both
Of sin and of crime, without, distiuc.
tion and without regard to the proper
divisions Of authority as between spIr-
itual and temporal, ecclesiastical and
civil. 4 man trained in that way Of
thought viii almost necessarily get into
the confusing muddle in which the
church organ editor finds himself III
discussing this question.