Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 1, 1894
By Mrs E. G. White
“Woe unto him that buildeth his house by
unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor’s service
without wages, and giveth him not for his work; 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? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and
justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord. But 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.”
In every phase of the liquor-selling business, there is
dishonesty and violence. The houses of liquor dealers are built with the wages
of unrighteousness, and upheld by violence and oppression. The effect of the
liquor traffic is clearly delineated in the words of the prophets: “Woe to
the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a
fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are
overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a
tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters
overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. The crown of pride,
the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: and the glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the
hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while
it is yet in his hand he eateth it up. . . . But they also have erred through
wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and prophet have
erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the
way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all
tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”
Through indulgence in sin, the world is becoming as corrupt
as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, and as it was in the days that
were before the flood. Jesus said that this condition of society would be a
sign of his coming. He said: “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be
also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married
wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the
ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the
days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted,
they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and
brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day
when the Son of man is revealed.” The very sins that brought upon Sodom
the fire of destruction are practiced today, and are fast ripening the world
for the day of final doom. Indulgence in intoxicating liquor and in licentious
practices, is common in all our cities and villages, and the last great day is
hastening upon the world.
There are many solemn warnings in the Scriptures against the
use of intoxicating liquors. Solomon says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink
is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” “Who hath
woe? who hath sorrows? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds
without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they
that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it
giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it
biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold
strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be
as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth on the top
of a mast. They have stricken me, thou shalt say, and I was not sick; they have
beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet
again.”
Is not this description true to life? Does it not represent
to us the experience of the poor, besotted drunkard, who is plunged in
degradation and ruin because he has put the bottle to his lips, and who says,
“I will seek it yet again”? The curse has come upon such a soul
through indulgence in evil, and Satan has control of his being. “And it
come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in
his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine
heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the Lord will not spare him, but then the
anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the
curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall
blot out his name from under heaven.”
With the awful results of indulgence in intoxicating drink
before us, how is it that any man or woman who claims to believe in the word of
God, can venture to touch, taste, or handle wine or strong drink? Such a
practice is certainly out of harmony with their professed faith. “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. Woe unto them
that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 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. 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.” “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. Therefore my people are gone into
captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are
famished, and their 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.”
“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. . . . Ye that
put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that
lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the
lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; that
chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music,
like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief
ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore now
shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them
that stretched themselves shall be removed.”
“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy
princes eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son
of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for
drunkenness.” “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to
drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink, and forget the law,
and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.” These words of warning
and command are pointed and decided, and let those in positions of public trust
take heed, lest through wine and strong drink they forget the law and pervert
judgment. Let rulers and judges be in a condition to fulfil the instruction of
the Lord: “Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou
afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their
cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your
wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.”
The Lord God of heaven ruleth. He alone is above all
authorities, over all kings and rulers. The Lord has given special directions
in his word in reference to the use of wine and strong drink. He has forbidden
their use, and enforced his prohibitions with strong warnings and threatenings.
But his warning against the use of intoxicating beverages is not the result of
the exercise of arbitrary authority. He has warned men, in order that they may
escape from the evil that results from indulgence in wine and strong drink.
Degradation, cruelty, wretchedness, and strife follow in the wake of drink. God
has laid out the consequences of taking this course of evil, in order that
there may not be a turning upside down of his instituted laws; that there may
not be misery on all sides, through the increase of evil men who for the sake
of gain shall selfishly heap to themselves riches, even through selling strong
drink and putting the bottle to their neighbors’ lips. The liquor traffic
should not be legalized in any of our towns or cities.
The Lord has given special directions in regard to what is
to be done in the case of a vicious ox, which injures or causes the death of
any person. He has said: “If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die:
then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the
owner of the ox shall be quit. But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in
time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him
in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his
owner also shall be put to death. If there be laid on him a sum of money, then
he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. Whether
he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall
it be done unto him. If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he
shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be
stoned.”
Remember this instruction in regard to the vicious ox, and
apply the principle involved to the man who deals out poisonous alcoholic
drinks to his neighbors. Not every man who engages in the liquor business is
ignorant of the numberless ways in which it results in degradation, misery,
poverty, cruelty, and death. The liquor traffic is a terrible scourge to our
land, and is sustained and legalized by those who profess to be Christians. In
thus doing, the churches make themselves responsible for all the results of
this death-dealing traffic. The liquor traffic has its root in hell itself, and
it leads to perdition. These are solemn considerations.
The man who has formed the habit of drinking intoxicating
liquor, is in a desperate situation. He cannot be reasoned with, or persuaded
to deny himself the indulgence. His stomach and brain are diseased, his will
power is weakened, and his appetite uncontrollable. The prince of the powers of
darkness holds him in bondage that he has no power to break. For the aid of
such victims the liquor traffic should be stopped. Do not the rulers of this
land see that awful results are the fruit of this traffic? Daily the papers are
filled with accounts that would move a heart of stone; and if the senses of our
rulers were not perverted, they would see the necessity of doing away with this
death-dealing traffic. May the Lord move upon the hearts of those in authority,
until they shall take measures that will prohibit the drink traffic. By Mrs. E.
G. White.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 8, 1894
“The Liquor Traffic Working Counter to Christ”
Jesus came to our world to dispute the authority of Satan, who claimed supremacy over the earth. He came to restore in man the defaced image of God, to impart to the repentant soul divine power by which he might be raised from corruption and degradation, and be elevated and ennobled and made fit for companionship with the angels of heaven, to take the position in the courts of God which Satan and his angels lost through their rebellion. But men have failed to cooperate with Jesus in his divine mission, and have placed themselves under the black banner of the prince of darkness, giving themselves up to be the agents through whom the powers of darkness work for the destruction of humanity. It is Satan’s purpose to counteract the work of Christ, and in his counsels he lays plans by which to convert every soul into a channel of darkness. The earth is the field of battle in which the powers of light and darkness are in controversy over the human souls for whom Christ died.
When Jesus was upon earth, he announced his mission and the character of his work. He said: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”
Thus are pictured the mission and work of Christ and his co-laborers; but how different is the work of the prince of darkness and the work of those who labor on his side of the controversy. Those who are united with the prince of darkness in degrading the souls of their fellowmen, many times cloak their iniquity under the garb of religion; but of them the Lord says: “When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.” There are many who spread forth their hands in Pharisaical self-righteousness and self-importance, who yet deny the principles of the law of God in their daily actions. Let not those whose hands are full of blood think to find acceptance with God because of their forms of worship. Those who sell intoxicating liquor to their fellowmen come under this reproof. They receive the earnings of the drunkard, and give him no equivalent for his money. Instead of this, they give him that which maddens him, which makes him act the fool, and turns him into a demon of evil and cruelty. He exchanges his reason at the bar of the liquor dealer for a glass of rum or brandy; and under its influence he may cruelly beat his wife and children, and may even kill them outright, or do so by piecemeal, through neglect, through failure to supply them with the necessities of life. Because of a lack of proper food, of sufficient clothing, because of discouragements and degradation, sickness and death come upon his family, and at last their misery is over. But angels of God have witnessed every step in the downward path, and have traced every consequence that resulted from a man’s placing the bottle to his neighbor’s lips. The liquor dealer is written in the records among those whose hands are full of blood. He is condemned for keeping on hand the poisonous draught by which his neighbor is tempted to ruin, and by which homes are filled with wretchedness and degradation. The Lord holds the liquor dealer responsible for every penny that comes to his till out of the earnings of the poor drunkard, who has lost all moral power, who has sunk his manhood in drink.
Christ came to our world and suffered reproach, mockery, and insult. He was maligned and maltreated, and at last put to the shameful death of the cross. He suffered all this that he might rescue man from moral degradation, and restore to the soul the lost image of God. But the liquor dealer, under the prince of the power of darkness, is working in exactly opposite lines, counter to the work of Christ, and is obliterating every trace of the image which Christ would restore. Look at the drunkard. See what liquor has done for him. His eyes are bleared and bloodshot. His countenance is bloated and besotted. His gait is staggering. The sign of Satan’s working is written all over him. Nature herself protests that she knows him not; for he has perverted his God-given powers, and prostituted his manhood by indulgence in drink.
If a man has a vicious beast, and he allows it freedom, knowing that it will work injury to men, women, and children, he is brought before the law to answer for his carelessness or malignity. But how much better it would be to let such a beast loose than to license men to deal out poisonous drinks, to rob men of reason and manhood. What common sense in there in licensing men to sell that which destroys men, body and soul, claiming that this infamous business brings into the treasury a revenue by which the orphan children of the drunkard can be cared for? The world knows that intoxicating liquors rob men of the brain nerve-power, and send them into society bereft of reason. The world knows that most horrible crimes have been committed under its influence, and that drunken men have been led by Satan to do as he dictated, and stain their hands in the blood of their neighbors. The law authorizes the sale of liquor, and then has to build prisons for its victims; for nine tenths of those who are taken to prison are those who have learned to drink. They are those who have spent their earnings in the saloon. What revenue from this traffic can pay for the loss of human reason, for the loss of the image of God in men, for families reduced to suffering and degradation, for children made paupers, who grow up in ignorance and vice, to perpetuate in their posterity the inherited evil tendencies of their drunken fathers? Such is the outworking of this dreadful liquor traffic, and thus it perpetuates misery and crime, until the sum cannot be told by human voice or portrayed by human pen.
The hands of both liquor dealers and liquor drinkers are full of blood; yet the word of God comes to them, “Wash ye, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow;” and he adds this gracious invitation, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” “How is the faithful city become a harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water [and poison]: thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.” Rulers and lawmakers are not ignorant of the misery and degradation, the horrible and unceasing crime that pollutes the world through the influence of the liquor traffic. But though they are not ignorant, they do not take measures to stop the terrible traffic; but will they escape judgment? Hear what the Lord says: “The destruction of the transgressors, and of the sinners shall be together.” Those who legalize sin, and those who are dealers in whisky, and those who are defiled by it, will be destroyed together. Let not the man who indulges in drink think that he will be able to cover his defilement by casting the blame upon the liquor dealer; for he will have to answer for his sin and for the degradation of his wife and children. “They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”
In Europe and America drinking gardens are made most attractive, and musicians are hired to play on instruments, to lure in the young and the old; and all classes patronize these resorts where all kinds of intoxicating liquors are prepared to tempt the depraved appetite. But the time will certainly come when the prophecy will be fulfilled: “For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.”
The evil consequent upon the indulgence of depraved appetite is widespread, and the earth is corrupted under the inhabitants thereof. The earth withereth under the curse of its sin, and the very cattle are diseased. What is the trouble? Why is this? It is because the people have forsaken the law of God, and the earth is cursed under its transgression. Notwithstanding the warnings of God’s word, transgression has increased since the days of Adam, and more and more heavily has the curse pressed upon the human family, on the beasts of the earth, and on the earth itself. Continual transgression of the law of God has brought its sure results. With all his hellish arts, Satan has sought to lead men into practices that would destroy and debase, and destruction is sure to him who does not repent and turn to God for his healing grace. The soul that has not the grace of God can make no efforts to resist Satan, but will cooperate naturally with the Satanic agencies, and disregard and oppose the law of God; and the sure result of such a course is that men become the willing slaves of Satan, and work with him in influencing others in the way of disobedience.
The character of true obedience to God is brought out in the instruction of the Lord to his people. He says (Isa. 58:6-10): “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drouth, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be as a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” By Mrs. E. G. White.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 15, 1894
“The Oblation of Evildoers Is Vain”
“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, the offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.” What could have come upon the sons of Aaron, that they should thus transgress the requirement of God? The sacred fire which God himself had kindled and preserved was at their hand. Direction had been given concerning it, and God had said: “The fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”
It was from this altar that the fire for the censers should be taken to kindle the incense that was to ascend before God. But the sons of Aaron had not taken the required precaution, but had put upon the censer fire that was not called sacred or holy. The reason why they were so neglectful of God’s requirement, was that they had been indulging in the drinking of wine, and were confused, and so far stupefied by its influence that they had no discernment as to what was the difference between the sacred and the common, the holy and the unclean. The wine had affected these young men who were officiating in a holy office, in the way it affects everyone who indulges in its use. It had benumbed the moral sensibilities, and had confused in their minds the distinction between the sacred and the common. But the Lord made it manifest that he would have the distinction well defined. “And the Lord spake unto Aaron saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations: and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.”
The two young men went into the tabernacle to offer this strange fire before the Lord while they were under the influence of drink; and “there went out a fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified.” In the experience of these two young men, the Lord has set up a danger signal to warn the youth and those of mature age against the use of intoxicating liquors. There is no safety in tampering with wine. The voice of this history comes down along the lines of our times, warning everyone that has any connection with the work of the Lord to beware of touching, tasting, or handling that which will contaminate the morals, deaden spiritual life, and bring confusion in regard to the difference between the sacred and the common.
A most serious and terrible punishment was visited upon these young men who dared to enter into the presence of the Lord in an intoxicated condition. They had been solemnly consecrated to the service of the sanctuary, and it was necessary to make an example of them before the children of Israel. But shall this history of God’s dealing with them be passed over by us, as though it was a matter in which we have no concern? The Lord has manifested his displeasure with a course of this kind, and sets before us the principle which he would have us heed. Everyone who is connected with the service of God is in sacred office, and the words that Jesus Christ spoke from the pillar of cloud and fire, are to be regarded and put into practice by us. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.”
The Lord has a controversy 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 prohibitionists, and they hold their peace concerning the curse of drink, fearing lest their salaries should be diminished or their congregations 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. They know that the drink appetite lowers man to a condition below that of the brute creation. Have these church-goers a conscience? Have they not lost from their hearts all love of humanity? Has not the love of gain so paralyzed their senses that, like Nadab and Abihu, they have no remembrance of the “Thus saith the Lord”? His anger is not only kindled against winebibbers, but against him who opens the door of temptation to the poor, wretched creatures who have lost their moral power, and have destroyed their God-given manhood. His anger is kindled against those who seek to make their disreputable business attractive, and who use every possible enticement to lure souls into their saloons, in order that they may rob them of their money; for liquor dealers give no equivalent, but only that which works a curse upon the victim of the drink habit, and spreads misery and crime in his household and neighborhood.
The heart-broken women who have inebriate husbands, if they do not die of cruel abuse or of outright horrible murder, do die from the effects of starvation, insufficient clothing, and a continual sense of degradation and shame through the poverty, want, and suffering that are consequent upon the drink habit. These poor women see their children suffering, despised, abused, debased. They see them hooted at because of their relation to their drunken fathers, and even the liquor seller is not careful to refrain from adding insult to injury. Everything,–clothing, food, comfort, home, self-respect, happiness, and peace,–is swallowed up, and at last life itself is practically laid down, a sacrifice to the liquor dealer. But every circumstance consequent upon this drink traffic is accurately traced in the ledger of heaven.
The churches that retain members who are connected with this liquor business, make themselves responsible for the transactions that occur through the drink traffic. The drunkard has no knowledge of what he is doing when under the influence of the maddening draught, and yet he who sells him that which makes him irresponsible, is protected by the law in his work of destruction. It is legal for him to rob the widow of the food she requires to sustain life. It is legal for him to entail starvation upon the family of his victim, to send helpless children into the streets to beg for a penny or to beseech for a morsel of bread. Day by day, month by month, year by year, these shameful scenes are reenacted, until the conscience of the liquor dealer is seared as with a red-hot iron. The tears of suffering children, the agonized cry of the mother, only serve to exasperate the rum seller. He knows not, nor cares, that the Lord has an account to settle with him. And when his victim is dead, his heart of stone is unmoved. He has not heeded the instruction. “Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.”
The liquor dealer will not hesitate to collect the debts of the drunkard from his suffering family, and will take the very necessaries from the home to pay the drink bill of the deceased husband and father. What is it to him if the children of the dead starve? He looks upon them as debased and ignorant creatures, who have been abused, kicked about, and degraded; and he has no care for their welfare. But the God that rules in the heavens has not lost sight of the first cause or the least effect of the inexpressible misery and debasement that have come upon the drunkard and his family. The ledger of heaven contains every item of the history. The world and the church may unite in eulogizing the man who has tempted the appetite, 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 is virtually effaced; but God looks with a frown upon him, and writes his condemnation in the ledger of death. The world may have approval for the man who has gained wealth by degrading the human soul, by leading him down step by step in the path of shame and degradation; but God notes it all, and renders a just judgment. He may be termed by the world a good business man; but the Lord says, “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work; 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 closeth thyself in cedar?
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 drunkard? It is stained with the blood of souls, and the curse of God is upon it. God says, “For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering.” The church may praise the liberality of one who gives such an offering; but were the eyes of the church members anointed with heavenly eyesalve, they would not call good evil and iniquity righteousness. The Lord says, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?. . . .When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me.” “Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of Judgement?” By Mrs. E. G. White.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 29, 1894
“Lawmakers Required to Be Public Benefactors”
When the lawyer asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life, the Master said unto him, “What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.” In order to be a recipient of eternal life, it is necessary to love God supremely and our neighbors as ourselves. We are to be our brother’s keeper, not his destroyer. We are not to lead him into false paths. The Lord Jesus made the sacrifice of his own life in order to restore man to his first uprightness of character. But Satan is working with every possible device, using his trained confederacy of evil agencies to draw men away from obedience to God’s law, and cause them to transgress even as he caused Adam to transgress in the beginning.
There are men who have taken high positions of trust, who have put themselves under solemn vows to work for the good of the people, who are untrue to those vows, who are not acting the part of brother’s keepers; but who are violating the principles of God’s law, and failing to love their neighbors as themselves. Lawmakers are permitting breweries to be planted all over the land, thus defiling the earth, and supplying to saloons that which they know to be a deadly evil. Drinking houses are scattered all over the cities and towns inviting the traveler to stop and water his horses at the troughs which are so convenient for the purpose, and also to come in and spend his money for a glass of some intoxicating drink. The water in the trough is a blessing to the thirsty horses, but what a curse is the liquor to the man who enters and drinks. The traveler enters the public house with his reason, with ability to walk in an upright manner; but look at him as he leaves. The luster is gone from his eye. The power to walk uprightly is gone; he reels to and fro like a ship at sea. His reasoning power is paralyzed, the image of God is destroyed. The poisoning, maddening draft has left a brand upon him so evil that nature rebels, and refuses to own him. He is the slave of depraved appetite; and his brethren, instead of coming to his help to break every yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, bind him the faster in his chains. They rob his wife and children of his money, and take away from them a kind and sensible father and husband, by dealing out to him a potion that makes him a madman. Body and soul he is in slavery, and he cannot distinguish between right and wrong. The liquor dealer has put his bottle to his neighbors’ lips, and under its influence he is full of cruelty and murder, and in his madness actually commits murder.
He is brought before an earthly tribunal, and those who legalized the traffic are forced to deal with the results of their own work. They authorized by law the giving to this man a draft that would turn him from a sane man into a madman, and yet now it is necessary for them to send him to prison and to the gallows for his crime. His wife and children are left in destitution and poverty, to become the charge of the community in which they live. Soul and body the man is lost,–cut off from earth, and with no hope of heaven.
But there is a higher tribunal than that of earth, and in that tribunal the effect is traced to the cause, and the man who put the bottle to his neighbors lips is charged with the sins of him who committed murder through the influence of the draft that robbed him of his reason. The blood of souls is found upon the garments of those who legalize the liquor traffic.
The victims of the drink habit become so maddened under the influence of liquor that they are willing to sell their reason for a glass of whisky. They do not keep the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Their moral power is so weakened that they have no strength to resist temptation, and their desire for drink is so strong that it eclipses all other desires, and they have no realization of the fact that God requires them to love him with all their hearts. They are practical idolaters; for whatever alienates the affections from the Creator, whatever weakens and deadens moral power, usurps his throne, and receives the service that is due to him alone. In all these vile idolatries Satan is worshiped.
He who tarries at the wine is playing the game of life with Satan. He it is who has made evil men his agents, so that those who begin the drink habit may be made into drunkards. He has his plans laid that when the brain is confused with liquor, he will drive the drunkard to desperation, and cause him to commit some atrocious crime. In the idol he has set up for the man to worship is all pollution and crime, and the worship of the idol will ruin both soul and body, and extend its evil influence to the wife and children of the drunkard. The drunkard’s corrupt tendencies are transmitted to his posterity, and through them to the coming generations.
But are not the rulers of the land largely responsible for the aggravated crimes, the current of deadly evil, that is the result of the liquor traffic? Is it not their duty and in their power to remove this deadly evil? Satan has formed his plans, and he counsels with legislators, and they receive his advice, and thus keep in activity, through legislative enactments, a multiplicity of evil, which results in much misery and crime of so terrible a character that human pen cannot portray it. A demon power is at work through human instruments, and men are tempted to indulge appetite until they lose all control of themselves. The sight of a drunken man, were the sight not so common, would arouse public indignation, and cause the drink traffic to be swept away; but the power of Satan has so hardened human hearts, so perverted human judgment, that men can look upon the woe, the crime, the poverty, which floods the world through the drink traffic, and remain indifferent.
When a ship is wrecked in sight of shore, and the people look on powerless to help, they are shocked and pained beyond measure. They talk of every possible means whereby they might save those who are perishing; and after the ship has gone down, and the lives are lost, they still try to think of some means that might have been successful in saving the perishing. But there is a deadly evil in our land, which is sanctioned by law. Day after day, month after month, year after year, Satan’s death traps are set in our communities, at our doors, at the street corners, wherever it is possible to catch souls, that their moral power may be destroyed, and the image of God obliterated, and they be sunken in degradation far below the level of the brute. Souls are imperiled and perishing, and where is the active energy, the determined effort on the part of Christians, to raise a warning signal, to enlighten their fellowmen, to save their perishing brothers? We are not to talk of devising methods to save those who are dead and lost, but to move upon those who are not yet beyond the reach of sympathy and help. We are to present to these souls who are guilty and polluted, the truth that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.
Will souls always have to struggle for the victory, and the doors of temptation open before their very faces? Will Satan always find agents to tempt those who are weak in moral power? Drawn into these dens of vice, will he who has resolved to quit drink, be led to seize the glass again, and in the first sip of the intoxicant, find every good resolution overpowered and gone? One taste of the maddening draft, and all thought of the suffering, heart-crushed wife has vanished. The debauched father cares no more that his children are hungry and naked. By legalizing the liquor traffic, the law gives its sanction to the downfall of the soul, and refuses to stop the traffic that floods the world with evil. Let lawmakers consider whether or not all this imperiling of human life, of physical power and mental vision, is unavoidable. Is all this destruction of human life necessary?
How many frightful accidents occur through the influence of drink. Some one at an important railway station fails to give the right signal, or sends an incorrect message. On comes the train. There is a collision , and hundreds of lives are lost. When the matter is investigated, it is found that the man at his post was drunk. A steamer at sea meets with a disaster, and when the matter is traced to its source, it is found that the engineer was drunk, or that the captain had taken too much liquor at supper. What is the portion of this terrible intoxicant that any man can take, and be safe with the lives of human beings? He can be safe only as he abstains from drink. He should not have his mind confused with drink. No intoxicant should pass his lips; then if disaster comes, men in responsible places can do their best, and meet their record with satisfaction, whatever may be the issue.
Let every soul remember that he is under sacred obligations to God to do his best for his fellow creatures. How careful should everyone be not to create a desire for stimulants. By advising friends and neighbors to take brandy for the sake of their health, they are in danger of becoming agents for the destruction of their friends. Many incidents have come to my attention in which through some simple advice, men and women have become the slaves of the drink habit. Physicians are responsible for making many drunkards. Knowing what drink will do for its lovers, they have taken upon themselves the responsibility of prescribing it for their patients. Did they reason from cause to effect, they would know that stimulants would have the same effect on every organ of the body as they have on the whole man. What excuse can doctors render for the influence they have exerted in making fathers and mothers drunkards? These fathers and mothers transmit their appetite to their children, and thus the evil is perpetuated, and crime and misery are increased. Thus it is that degradation, poverty, and woe are filling our world. Thus it is that ignorance and evil are widespread, and that the records show increasing hunger, nakedness, wretchedness, and transgression.
The end of all things is at hand, and if the days were not shortened, there would no flesh be saved; for iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold. The world is becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah, like the world before the flood, and terrible scenes are before us. What will be the record that lawmakers will have to meet? The judgment will sit, and the books will be opened, and every man will be judged according to the things written in the books. Jesus says, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Lawmakers and liquor dealers may wash their hands as did Pilate, but they will not be clean from the blood of souls. The ceremony of washing their hands will not cleanse them when by their influence or agency, they have helped to make men drunkards. They will be held accountable for the millions of dollars that have been wasted in consuming the consumers. No one can blind himself to the terrible results of the drink traffic. The daily papers show that the wretchedness, the poverty, the crime, that result from this traffic, are not cunningly devised fables, and that hundreds of men are growing rich off the pittances of the men they are sending to perdition by their dreadful drink business. O that a public sentiment might be created that would put an end to the drink traffic, close the saloons, and give these maddened men a chance to think on eternal realities! By Mrs. E. G. White.