CHRIST AND DRINK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3196, 21 September 1917, Page 6

CHRIST AND DRINK

•Sir,—l must express my appreciation of the letter sent in reply to mine by Mr. H. C. Thorns-en, of Carterton, concerning the drinking habits of the Saviour. Mr. Thomsen says: "It is unite truo that Christ tnrned water into tirstclass wine that would hove undoubtedly made the guests drunk if they had used it to excess." That is what happens when first-class wine, or any other alcoholic liquor, is used to. excess.' v ßnt the effects of drinking to excess are Jjot to be considered in connection with Christ and His personal relationship to drink. The point is that Christ made first-class wine, which, if drunk to excess, would have made men drunk. If any follower of Christ, any minister of the Gospel belonging to tho Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist, or AVesleyan were to make first-.ilass wine they would bo denounced as strong, ly by some other Prohibitionist parson ai lir. Gibb denounced and abused the National Government and the Prime Minister. It would be. useless to plead that.the minister who made first-class wine after tho manner of-'Christ was following the example of the Master, for tho makers of first-class wino and all other alcoholic liquors are anathema maranatha to the modem- Scribes and Pharisees known as the Prohibitionists. Mr. H. C. Thomsen is not content with describing Christ as' a manufacturer of first-class wine; but he proceeds to tell us something of Christ's personal habits. Mr.' Thomsen says: "Christ invariably followed the practice of taking wine with his meals, whenever wine was to be had." But anybody who follows the example of Christ in this respect-is called a moderate drinker, and the moderate drinker (according to the Prohibitionists) is the worst kind of drinker. By ths Prohibitionists of His own time Christ, the moderate drinker, was called a "wine bibber," and if He come to New Zealand to-day and took drink with His meals— which is the custom of many in this Dominion—Ho would be denounced by the modern Pharisees ns a moderate drinker. These modern Pharisees 'would also oxclaim: "He that is ■ not with us is against us,'\and they would refuse admittance to their churches and to their milpits to the Son of Man, who was a friend of publicans and sinners. But why was Christ a moderate drinker? JJr. Thomson give us tho answer to this question also. He say* that Christ made this first-class wine, and invariably followed the practice of taking wine with His meals whenever it could be had, for the purpose of showing the Pharisees that it was not recesshry to be a total abstainer to be a Christian.

Hero we are both in agreement. But outf Prohibition friends argue that any person. who buys wine and drinks wine, or any other alcoholic drink, is a patron of the liquor traffic. And bo a new standard and test of Christianity haa been established by the modern Pharisee. As Christ denounced the Pharisees in their time for their humbug and hypocrisy, so all right-thinking men must denounce the Prohibitionists for their insincerity and intolerance. Following the example of Christ in the matter of drink, many Christians hare no timo for the narrowness and bigotry of the Prohibition party. They repudiate with score the self-righteous-ness and the autocratic bearing of that party. They see that the methods of the Prohibition party are not the methods adopted by Christ. The Prohibition party is attempting to make clean the outside of the platter (the practice which Christ denounced). As a' Britisher, I have come to the conclusion that the men who preach Cristianity in one breath and Prohibition in the 1 next are only humbugging themselves and endeavouring to deceive the comm unity.. i The truth is not in them. —I am, etc., ' . BRITISHER.