The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1913-09-18
THE PEOPLES FORUM.
Gospel Temperance a Law.
To the Editor of The Republican.

To the Editor of The Republican.
There are some who claim that intox-
icating liquors are Gods bounty to US
and therefore should be used as such.
That is to say: God made the alcoholic
liquors for us to drink, and we should
regard them as His gift to be used with
moderation. This is fallacy; it is a
misrepresentation of facts that is easily
exploded God made the grapes from
which the wine is produced; He made
the rye. the corn, from which whiskey
is made, but not in one of these, in the
form in which he gave it to man for
food. is there particle of alcohol. He
gave US the apples, but He didn't make
the cider. and surely no sane man will
claim that there is any alcohol in the
apple you cat, in the corn you trans
form into meal, or in the mush the good
house wife makes of the meal.
Man, by an artificial process produced
the alcohol. 1t is the result of fermen-
tation, and that is the first stage IN the
process of decomposition, when the
divine gifts are returning to decay and
rottenness. The sugar and starch they
contain are converted into alcohol,
which is new substance. 1t was not
in the corn, or rye or any of the articles
in that pure state in which God gave
them to sustain our strength and nourish
our bodies, nor does the use of this food
produce in our bodies one drops of
alcohol.
With what air of victory do they
come back at you with their assertion,
that this process of fermentation and
decay is law of nature, which God has
established. True, but it is a process
by which the food is made unfit for use.
Fermentation destroys the nourishng
properties of all kinds of food.
If you allow the time designed for the
use of food to pass, it returns by fermen-
tation to the earth out of which it grew
1t becomes foul and repulsive. The
fact that the alcohol and acid produced
by this process may be preserved and
used in the arts and as medicines, is no
proof that they were intended to assist
and nourish the body.
If those who defend the use of alcohol.
ic drinks because fermentation is a
natural process, then to be consistent
they must argne for the use OF spoiled
food IN every stage of decomposition,
Nowhere in all nature has God put a
drop of alcohol in any living growth,
either IN vegetable or animal kingdom.
in any berry, fruit. grain. or in any
spring or fountain.
Some wise ones say you can't get
alcohol by fermentation unless 1t first
existed in the substances They forget
that you can't have fermentation ex-
cept in connection with atmospheric air,
for the oxygen of the air is necessary
to carry on the process. If the good
wife does not make her fruit alright
when she puts it up" it will very soon
be unfit for use.
You may as well say that spoiled
fruit, or meat are Gods bounty for our
use, as to claim it for alcohol. Then
they think they have you when they
say, if you reject alcohol because it is
from fermentation, you will have to re-
ject bread which is also the product to
fermentation. There is Just one OBJ
lection to this statement. 1t is not true.
That ought to satisfy any sane mind.
The gas which pulled up the bread was
a product of fermentation, but that was
dissipated by the heat of the oven.
Alcohol then is not gift of God s
bounty. and cannot then be used for this
purpose; and hence it is not right to
speak of 1t in this connection, as if it
was like food for daily use. So injurious
and destructive has it been and is, that
it shows plainly that God did not design
such use of it; and If so employed it is
more properly called a curse than
blessing. What miserable subterfuges
men will resort to, that they may be
justified in their use of that which an
abnormal appetite Graves. They first
destroy Gods bounty, then make a
liquid fire of it. and burn out the vitality
of the body, the manhood of the soul,
nay burn body and soul in this very
quintessence Of damnation, and all this
is justified by the false assumption that
it is on the same level with food. Food
nourishes, alcohol weakens. Food sus-
tains, alcohol destroys. They DESTROY
Gods bounty, yet claim to accept it.
They refuse what God meant to be nour
ishment by making it an agent of de-
struction, shedding its death blight
upon one or more in almost everv
family relationship in the land.
Oh, man, man, have we any response
DilitY in this? Christian men; men with
human hearts and human sympathies,
look into families where drunkenness
has entered by use of intoxicating
d,ini;s," and think of the sorrow,