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Chapter 2—An Economic Problem
Liquor Traffic Breeds Dishonesty and Violence
—In every
phase of the liquor-selling business, there is dishonesty and violence.
The houses of liquor dealers are built with the wages of unrighteous-
ness, and upheld by violence and oppression.—
The Review and
Herald, May 1, 1894
.
Millions Spent to Buy Wretchedness and Death
—“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.”
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This Scripture pictures the work of those who manufacture and
who sell intoxicating liquor. Their business means robbery. For the
money they receive no useful equivalent is returned. Every dollar
they add to their gains has brought a curse to the spender.
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 dealer deals out to his
victims that which corrupts and destroys mind and body. He entails
on the drunkard’s family poverty and wretchedness.—
Drunkenness
and Crime, pages 7, 8
.
A Contrasting Economic Status
—The drunkard is capable of
better things. God has entrusted to him talents with which to glorify
God; but his fellow men have laid a snare for his soul, and built
themselves up out of his property. They have lived in luxury while
their poor brethren whom they have robbed, lived in poverty and
degradation. But God will require for all this at the hand of him
who has helped to speed the drunkard on the way to ruin.—Undated
Manuscript 54
.
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