WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 9, 1 October 1947, Page 9

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

By MRS BESSIE LEE COVVIE When it was suggested that Joseph be killed, some of the brothers demurred; when it was proposed to SELL him, they agreed. We don’t like bare, bald murder, but we license drink, and the deaths resulting therefrom mount up rapidly; and we placidly rub our hands, and aver we could never do without the revenue so obtained. We will not kill the lads, but we willingly take the price of their lives. Here is a parable: Two men went

up to the booths to vole on the liquor traffic, one a deacon, the other a drunkard. The deacon said within himself, “I am glad I am not as other men are —liars, thieves, corrupters, or e\en as this drunkard. I go regularly to church and to prayer meeting. 1 help to pay the preacher. 1 send money to convert the heathen, I have no appetite for drink, and the bar-room

is no temptation to me, so I can give .my vote for its perpetuation, and it will bring no danger to me, but will give

me favour with the men who trade with me.” And the drunkard stood afar off while the deacon voted, for he was ashamed to be seen by him in

his rags and filth. But, when the deacon was gone, he slipped up to the ballot-box and said within • himself, "Lord, be merciful to me in my helplessness, and to my family in their misery, and I will cast my vote for my deliverance, and the saving of others.” I say to you, the drunkard went down to his house justified in the sight of God rather than the deacon. —From "National Voice.”