THE REV. GIBSON AND THE DRINK QUESTION.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 283, 9 April 1894, Page 2

THE REV. GIBSON AND THE DRINK QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THK STAR. Sir, — Will you kindly allow me to criticise some of the statements made by the Rev Mr Gibson in his sermon on drink, published in your issue of the 4th instant. Alcoholic drink is not a creation of God but the artificial production of man ; tho grapes, the barley, the hops, the sugar and all the materials used in tho manufacture of intoxicating drinks are the creation of God, and are all excellent things, each having its use apart from that to which the brewer or distiller may put them. But even if alcoholic liquors were natural productions, it would not therefore follow that by drinking them we would be putting them to their proper use, as alcohol, the intoxicating element, has many uses in the arts and sciences. Thoso who argue that alcohol has been provided for man's use, and must therefore be drank, ought to apply the same argument to other things that have been provided by a bountiful creation, and should insist on the duty of drinking kerosene and eating white lead. I must pass over his wonderful statement that "alcohol has done more good than evil in the world," as I believe the knowledge of the good it has done is confined entirely to himself. Ido know a little about the evil it has done, however, and I can only say that if his statement is correct, then alcohol must indeed be a mighty power in the land for good, and therefore I think it is to be deplored that he baa not given us some details in the matter of the good it has effected, that being a phase of the question that is so shrouded in obscurity as to be invisible to the ordinary observer. He states that " the strongest and greatest races in the world use it," from which we are to infer that intoxicants give mental and j physical strength. Now ib is admitted by those who have studied the subject I that just as good mental work can be and is done by those who abstain as by I those "who drink, and this is borne out by experience under all kinds of varying circumstnaces. The theory that it gives physical strength is now held only by the ignorant or prejudiced. Scientists inform us that if a man drinks eight quarts of the strongest ale every day in the year he will at the end of that time have obtained as much nourishment thereby as is contained iv a five pound loaf of bread. The strongest man in the world says " For two years I havo abstained from alcohol and tobneco, which I used to take regularly, and am three times better oft since then. I gained strength to lift seven hundred lbs j more in those two years." In order to J prove that " the nations that don't drink are lagging in the rear of humanity," the Rev. Mr Gibson instances the Turk, calling him " the sick man of Europe," but ho^ignores the fact that in his last war with Russia, the Turk proved himself to be anything but a " sick man ;" and he also ignores the fact that the strongest men in the world are the Turkish boatmen and porters. It is perfectly true that Turkey and and other Eastern nations are behind in the matter of civilisation, but it is absurd to attribute that fact to their abstinence from *fcron^ (Irjuk, n.s they difi'er iv race, religion, and customs, from the people of other countries, and these differences have infinitely more to do with their backward state than what they eat or drink has to with it. Take the State of Maine. Fifty years ago it was the most drunken State in America, and one of the poorest ; now under prohibition it is one of the richest and most flourishing States of the Union, having made extraordinary progress siuce the drink was abolished. In the prohibition city of Quincy during the last year of " license " the number of houses built was twenty four, while during one year of "no license " two hundred and thirty four *were built. Those who are familiar with the history of the Indian Mutiny are aware that the questiou of the comparative merits of abstainers and moderate drinkers was thoroughly tested there, and that the result was most unmistakably in favor of the abstainers ; their endurance under the most trying circumstances, their freedom from crime and disease, being much above that of the moderate drinkers. General Roberts, in command of tho British troops in India, has said that he had thirteen hundred abstainers in his army, and he reckoned these wore equal to fifteen hundred moderate drinkers. Iv conclusion I may state that while in our translation of the Bible the word wine stands for both the fermented and unfermented juice of the grape, in the original there is a separate word for each, hence the confusion in the minds of many as to the teaching of the Bible on the subject of drink ; for while the vnfermented wine may be commended, the fermented or " stroug drink " is condemned something like forty seven times in Scripture. I am, utc., W. JOHXSTOKE,