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Present Situation
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ministers. They command the consideration shown to the money
power. Churches that accept such members are virtually sustain-
ing the liquor traffic. Too often the minister has not the courage
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to stand for the right. He does not declare to his people what God
has said concerning the work of the liquor seller. To speak plainly
would mean the offending of his congregation, the sacrifice of his
popularity, the loss of his salary.—
The Ministry of Healing, 340
.
Ministers Have Dropped the Banner
—The Lord has a contro-
versy with the inhabitants of the earth who are living in this time
of peril and corruption. Ministers of the gospel have departed from
the Lord, and those who profess the name of Christ are guilty of not
holding aloft the banner of truth. Ministers are afraid to be open pro-
hibitionists, and they hold their peace concerning the curse of drink,
fearing lest their salaries should be diminished or their congrega-
tions offended. They fear lest, if they should speak forth Bible truth
with power and clearness, showing the line of distinction between
the sacred and the common, they would lose their popularity; for
there are large numbers who are enrolled as church members who
are receiving a revenue, either directly or indirectly, from the drink
traffic.
These people are not ignorant of the sin that they are committing.
No one needs to be informed that the drink traffic is one that entails
upon its victims, misery, shame, degradation, and death, with the
eternal ruin of their souls. Those who reap a revenue, either directly
or indirectly, from this traffic, are putting into the till the money
which has come through the loss of souls of men.
The churches that retain members who are connected with this
liquor business, make themselves responsible for the transactions
that occur through the drink traffic....
Money Stained With the Blood of Souls
—The world and the
church may unite in eulogizing the man who has tempted the ap-
petite, and answered the craving of the appetite he has helped to
create; they may look with a smile upon him who has helped to
debase a man who was formed in the image of God, until that image
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is virtually effaced; but God looks with a frown upon him, and writes
his condemnation in the ledger of death....
This very man may make large donations to the church; but
will God accept of the money that is wrung from the family of the