Basic HTML Version
Chapter 27—Liquor Traffic and Prohibition
“Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and
his chambers by wrong; ... that saith, I will build me a wide house
and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled
with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because
thou closest thyself in cedar? ... Thine eyes and thine heart are not
but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for
oppression, and for violence, to do it.”
Jeremiah 22:13-17
.
The Work of the Liquor Seller
This scripture pictures the work of those who manufacture and
who sell intoxicating liquor. Their business means robbery. For the
money they receive, no equivalent is returned. Every dollar they add
to their gains has brought a curse to the spender.
With a liberal hand, God has bestowed His blessings upon men.
If His gifts were wisely used, how little the world would know
of poverty or distress! It is the wickedness of men that turns His
blessings into a curse. It is through the greed of gain and the lust
of appetite that the grains and fruits given for our sustenance are
converted into poisons that bring misery and ruin.
[338]
Every year millions upon millions of gallons of intoxicating
liquors are consumed. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent in
buying wretchedness, poverty, disease, degradation, lust, crime, and
death. For the sake of gain, the liquor seller deals out to his victims
that which corrupts and destroys mind and body. He entails on the
drunkard’s family poverty and wretchedness.
When his victim is dead, the rum seller’s exactions do not cease.
He robs the widow and brings children to beggary. He does not
hesitate to take the very necessaries of life from the destitute family,
to pay the drink bill of the husband and father. The cries of the
suffering children, the tears of the agonized mother, serve only to
exasperate him. What is it to him if these suffering ones starve?
237