The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12Brann, William Cowper
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The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 12
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
When driven to the wall; when it is clearly demonstrated
that their doctrine does not accord with the genius
of this government; when it is amply proven that wherever
tried it has proven an expensive failure, an arrant
fraud, the Prohibs fall back upon the Bible. You may
prove five hundred different religious dogmas by the Bible,
but Prohibition is not one of them. Bro. Homan declares
that the Old Testament prohibits the drinking of wine.
It does not; but it does not make circumcision obligatory,
and a sin of omission is as bad as a sin of commission. If
Bro. Homan proposes to be guided by the Old Testament I
beg to suggest that he is overlooking a very important bit.
The Old Testament commands no class of people to
abstain from wine, except the Jewish priesthood, and
they ONLY WHILE PERFORMING THEIR SACRED OFFICES. An angel
of the Lord did command the barren Manoah to stay sober
awhile and she should conceive and bear a son; and I
imagine that something equally as miraculous might happen
to Luther Benson under similar circumstances.
David recounts as one of God's mercies that he giveth
water to the wild ass and wine to make glad the heart of
man. Solomon sings to the wine cup with all the ardor
of Anacreon, while the prophets kept the morals of Israel
toned up by threats that a lapse from virtue would prove
disastrous to the vineyards. St. Paul advised bishops and
old women to take but little wine. He also suggested to
the first that they should not fly into a passion, and to the
latter that spreading false reports about their neighbors
was not considered good form. The Prohibs, as a last
resort, insist that the wine of Biblical days was very
different from our own--a kind of circus lemonade; but it
seems to have gotten in its graft on old Noah in most
elegant shape. If the wine of Biblical times was so harmless
why did the sacred writers consider it necessary to caution
people against drunkenness, bid them be temperate in all
things--while avoiding teetotalism? The only beverage
I can find mentioned in the Bible that affected a man like a
Prohibition drink, was that given Col. Lot in the cave by
his two daughters. It accomplished what medical men
assure me was a miracle--and the Prohibs run largely to
the miraculous.
* * *
OLD GLORY.
(Address at San Antonio, July 4, 1893.)
FELLOW CITIZENS--I have done pretty much everything
that a man may do and dodge the penitentiary, except run
for office and make Fourth of July speeches. Eulogizing
the Goddess of Liberty were much like adding splendor to
the sunrise or fragrance to the breath of morn. She needs
no encomiast, star-crowned she stands, the glory of
America, the admiration of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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