ment in the Portland dailies in answer to the question, "When Can I Start to Drink, Dad?” O f course they said "NEVER ,” and described vividly the results in the lives o f all too many who take their first drink, which never is the last. It was most courageous for this church to publish, in unequivocal terms, its stand in con nection with this degrading business. O f course, in a sense it was the only sensible thing to do. It is sad, however, that churches by the hundreds did not take up the challenge, declaring their own position regarding the whiskey industry and its diabolical effects upon our civilization. The advertisement o f this distillery is one o f the most flagrant examples o f insincerity which has ever come to our attention. What possible interest can the makers o f a death dealing and mind-destroying beverage take in the welfare o f young or old? It fills one with righteous indignation to read in so many places these days about the "evils o f the prohibition days.” The liquor forces have sold the United States on the idea that prohibi tion was an evil thing and it was wonderful when the whole pro hibition era ended. I f the facts were known, they would reveal that actually prohibition was an outstanding success; that drink ing decreased to a marked degree and the evils o f the drink were greatly minimized during those prohibition years. O f course there were the rum-runners, the speakeasies, the moonshiners and bootleggers. But we have those same conditions existing today in addition to the open sale o f all kinds o f alcoholic beverages. It is to the everlasting shame o f this country that certain politicians were ever allowed to turn back the clock and restore the whole liquor business, giving it an aura o f respectability. The facts are that during the Prohibition era an untold number o f homes were blessed because the fathers could not secure liquor, so they had enough money to take care o f the necessities and some o f the lux uries o f life. There was less crime and fewer patients in mental institutions. Streets were safer at night for women and children during the days o f prohibition, and the whole economy was enriched because there was vastly more money for the legitimate enjoyments o f life. Apparently no one dares to speak up and champion the cause o f prohibition in this so-called enlightened age in which we live, so all that we hear has to do with the evils o f prohibition. N o one today would dare to suggest our returning to prohibition because it would deprive an individual o f his rights! Those "rights” are to destroy one’s morals, one’s mind and one’s home! Alas, as a nation we are moving along to what appears to be a certain doom in defense o f individual rights. The evidence seems perfectly clear, however, that we as a people are nowhere near mature enough in our thinking to be able to handle individual rights and so we go merrily on our way to our own destruction. We who name the name o f Jesus Christ and who try to live according to His leading, as revealed in the Word o f God, can scarcely hope to change the direction o f the thinking o f our Continued on p. A3
FROM A CHILD THOU HAST KNOWN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES —2 Timothy 3.15
years,,§padHill today the ScdfKures hate power, for yp^najkinf^di^lbke, i make thee wiseuntS sivltjdn.” r nearly four hundredyetds — iger than any odtfM ff Cambridge Uffiversity Pres§jfiasheld the privilege, the responsibility of publishing the greatest book of all, the Holy Bible.
DECEMBER, 1966
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