The Signs of the Times
November 27, 1907
Drunkenness and Crime
(Continued from Last Week.)
The Work of the Liquor Seller
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 covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.” ST November 27, 1907, par. 1
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. ST November 27, 1907, par. 2
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. ST November 27, 1907, par. 3
Houses of prostitution, dens of vice, criminal courts, prisons, almshouses, insane asylums, hospitals, all are, to a great degree, filled as a result of the liquor-seller's work. Like the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse, he is dealing in “slaves and souls of men.” Behind the liquor-seller stands the mighty destroyer of souls, and every art which earth or hell can devise is employed to draw human beings under his power. In the city and the country, on the railway trains, on the great steamers, in places of business, in the halls of pleasure, in the medical dispensary, even in the church, on the sacred communion-table, his traps are set. Nothing is left undone to create and to foster the desire for intoxicants. On almost every corner stands the public house with its brilliant lights, its welcome and good cheer, inviting the working man, the wealthy idler, and the unsuspecting youth. ST November 27, 1907, par. 4
Day by day, month by month, year by year, the work goes on. Fathers and husbands and brothers, the stay and hope and pride of the nation, are steadily passing into the liquor-dealer's haunt to be sent back wrecked and ruined. ST November 27, 1907, par. 5
More terrible still, the curse is striking the very heart of the home. More and more, women are forming the liquor habit. In many a household, little children, even in the innocence and helplessness of babyhood, are in daily peril thru the neglect, the abuse, the vileness of drunken mothers. Sons and daughters are growing up under the shadow of this terrible evil. What outlook for their future but that they will sink even lower than their parents? ST November 27, 1907, par. 6
License Laws
The licensing of the liquor traffic is advocated by many as tending to restrict the drink evil. But the licensing of the traffic places it under the protection of law. The government sanctions its existence, and thus fosters the evil which it professes to restrict. Under the protection of license laws, breweries, distilleries, and wineries are planted all over the land, and the liquor-seller plies his work beside our very doors. ST November 27, 1907, par. 7
Often he is forbidden to sell intoxicants to one who is drunk, or who is known to be a confirmed drunkard; but the work of making drunkards of the youth goes steadily forward. Upon the creating of the liquor appetite in the youth, the very life of the traffic depends. The youth are led on, step by step, until the liquor habit is established, and the thirst is created that at any cost demands satisfaction. Less harmful would it be to grant liquor to the confirmed drunkard, whose ruin in most cases is already determined, than to permit the flower of our youth to be lured to destruction thru this terrible habit. ST November 27, 1907, par. 8
By the licensing of the liquor traffic, temptation is kept constantly before those who are trying to reform. Institutions have been established where the victims of intemperance may be helped to overcome their appetite. This is a noble work; but so long as the sale of liquor is sanctioned by law, the intemperate receive but little benefit from inebriate asylums. They can not remain there always. They must again take their place in society. The appetite for intoxicating drink, tho subdued, is not wholly destroyed; and when temptation assails them, as it does on every hand, they too often fall an easy prey. ST November 27, 1907, par. 9
A Solemn Warning
Concerning those who practise various forms of wickedness that are today so prevalent in many of our cities, the Lord has spoken plainly. He says: ST November 27, 1907, par. 10
“Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! In mine ears said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. ST November 27, 1907, par. 11
“Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands. ST November 27, 1907, par. 12
“Therefore [for the reasons above given] My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and the multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled; but the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.... ST November 27, 1907, par. 13
“Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: that say, Let Him make speed, and hasten His work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! ST November 27, 1907, par. 14
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ST November 27, 1907, par. 15
“Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! ST November 27, 1907, par. 16
“Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! ST November 27, 1907, par. 17
“Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. ST November 27, 1907, par. 18
“Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people, and He hath stretched forth His hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” ST November 27, 1907, par. 19
Has not this prediction been fulfilled in San Francisco, in Valparaiso, and in Kingston? Yet how few recognize the hand of God in these judgments! ST November 27, 1907, par. 20
Well could it be said of the cities of our world today, as the Saviour declared of the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, “Woe unto thee!” “The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.” When the Lord sees men whom He has spared as He spared the inhabitants of Nineveh, continue to legalize and carry on the liquor traffic, the next stroke of the Infinite will be to destroy life. God has given men an opportunity to repent, to prepare to meet death with Christ's armor on, if death must come; and yet they continue in the wicked works that brought the cities under the rebuke and the chastening hand of God and caused the devastation of that in which they took so much pride. ST November 27, 1907, par. 21
In recent disasters human lives have been wonderfully spared. Should there not be an acknowledgement of the Lord's mercy? Should there not be heartfelt repentance? Should not the liquor-saloons that have wrought so much evil be entirely abolished? ST November 27, 1907, par. 22
The honor of God, the stability of the nation, the well-being of the community, of the home, and of the individual, demand that every possible effort be made in arousing the people to the evil of intemperance. Soon we shall see the result of this terrible evil as we do not see it now. Who will put forth a determined effort to stay the work of destruction? As yet the contest has hardly begun. Let an army be formed to stop the sale of the drugged liquors that are making men mad. Let the danger from the liquor traffic be made plain, and a public sentiment be created that shall demand its prohibition. Let the drink-maddened men be given an opportunity to escape from their thraldom. Let the voice of the nation demand of its lawmakers that a stop be put to this infamous traffic. ST November 27, 1907, par. 23
“If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn
unto death,
And those that are ready to be slain;
If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not:
Doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it?
And He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know
it?”
And “what wilt thou say when He shall punish
thee?”
ST November 27, 1907, par. 24
(Concluded next week.)