WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
A POLECAT AND A SKUNK?

Of course, the answer to my* question is, nothing! as far as the smell is concerned, they*re both in the same stinking business. Do you know the modern definition of a skunk? It*s a streamlined, two-toned kitty with a fluid drive. Well, we asked this question because we*re asked so many times the difference between "legal" liquor and illegal. There is no difference either.

You can examine a fruit jar full of moonshine liquor made against the law up in the mountains and sold by a bootlegger down in the back alley* and then take a bottle of Buddummer beer or Four Noses whiskey sold on Main Street by a "respectable" liquor dealer and find, the alcohol in both to be the same. Yes sir, not a speck of difference in the alcohol sold legally or illegally.

Haven*t you ever noticed that legal whiskey will cause a man to wreck his car, putting his wife and children in the hospital just the same as bootleg whiskey?  Legal liquor will cause a man and wife to fuss like cats and dogs with the marriage blasted on the rocks of divorce and the children sent off to an orphan*s home just as will liquor sold against the law. The crimes that men and women commit under the influence of legal liquor are identical to those committed who*ve imbibed "mountain dew:" Murder, rape, robbery, etc.

When I was a young man in my* early teens, I used to play with a boy who lived up the street. This playmate*s mother and dad were unsaved and loved to go to the bars and night clubs and whoop it up. One morning about 2 a. m. they* were returning from the tap room in their automobile and began to argue loudly. Only a few blocks from home the mother turned to the father in a fit of rage and said, ‘I*ll show you what I*ll do." And cursing, she rolled down the window beside her and threw her little tiny baby out on the sidewalk. It*s skull was crushed and died instantly. Listen, legal liquor (that*s what she*d been drinking) has the same deadening effect on the brain as illegal.

I don*t want to get bitten by either a copperhead or a rattle. snake. It*s not the color of their skin, or the spots on their back or how many rattles they have or don*t have I*m worried about. It*s the poison in their fangs. One will kill just the same as the other. 

IS IT BETTER TO HAVE IT LICENSED?

In "Wet" and "Dry" elections, the "All-Wets" always cry, it*s better to have it licensed and controlled than to have bootleggers. Let*s see if it is! If you call up a bootlegger and have him deliver whiskey to your door, you drink his liquor, turn out to be a drunkard (millions have) die in your sins and go to Hell. There*s not a legal liquor dealer in the land that won*t do the same thing.

If your son patronizes one of these off-the-beaten-path whiskey houses and shells out his money, the bootlegger will sell him booze that he knows will wreck his life, harm his body, damn his soul and bring sorrow and shame to you but I*ll tell you friends, a legal liquor dealer will do the same thing. Now you know that*s right.

Say your daughter goes out some night for a big time with the crowd and they stop at a bootleg dive; that bootlegger knows when he sells them the whiskey that before morning your girl under the stupor of drunkenness will he the victim of the evil passions of those men and perhaps become an unwed mother. But, if your son or daughter goes out to dance in one of these swanky night clubs or cocktail lounges and drinks liquor sold "legally" by a bartender who is a member up at the Fuss Church, that booze will do the same identical thing to them as the moonshine, and you know it*s so.

As far as I*m concerned if there*s going to be skunks or pole-cats around, I want them down by the creek or behind the barn or in the back alley, not in my kitchen or living room. A man that will peddle the rotten stuff through the week in these "Animal Clubs"—Elks, Moose, Eagles, etc. and in these Veterans Clubs—V. F. W, American Legion, Amvets, etc. besides the City Clubs, Country Clubs, and all the others, I don*t want to see singing in the Church choir on Sunday or teaching a Sunday School class or sitting on the official Board. These rascals are more hypocritical than their bootlegger—brothers. It*s the alcohol they both sell that kills.

Some smart-aleck remarked, "The beer and liquor business is just the same as any* other legitimate business." Is that so?

Did you ever hear tell of a fellow getting drunk on buttermilk? I never heard of a man being untrue to his wife because he ate too much ice cream, did you? Can you ever recall hearing of a husband pleading with his wife not to leave him because he ate too many of her biscuits? I tell you, there is a difference. The beer, ale, wine, gin, rum, vodka, whiskey business is a dirty, rotten, filthy, selfish ungodly business that does nothing but ruin, wreck, blight, damn and destroy: homes, marriages, businesses, bodies, and souls.

If this curse is sold against the law, without my approval, in defiance of my vote and the majority of others and awful tragedies occur as the result, I*m not to blame. But if I vote for legalization. give my approval of this wicked traffic, I become a party to every broken home, twisted body, and damned soul and God will hold me responsible. By the grace of God I shall never let my name or influence be used on the side of America*s No. 1 blight, BOOZE!

"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby* is not wise." (Proverbs 20:1).

 SERMON STARTER FROM DR. BOB BEVINGTON

Site created by Tom Walker