BAPTIST MINISTER

Hokitika Guardian, 12 December 1919, Page 3

BAPTIST MINISTER

HIS APPEAL. MAN’S MORAL NATURE VIOLATED PROHIBITION DENOUNCED. 20, Sherborne Road, Mt. Eden, Auckland 20th November, 1919. _ (Extract from N.Z. Times, 3rd December, 1919.) ’ Allow me to congratulate you for the stand taken by your paper on the question of Prohibition. lam satisfied that you are right in opposing Prohibition for several reasons: First, the purchase sale and beverage use of v. inn and strong x drink are authorised iu tile law of God: ‘‘And tliou shalt bestow the money for whntsover thy soul desireth, for oxen, or. for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whntsover thy soul asketh of thee, and thou shaft eat these before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine household.”—Deuteronomy 14, 26. No subsequent writer in Holy Writ has gainsaid this law, given through Moses. Christ repeated- , ly endorsed it, and Himself made, used and! dispensed wine; and, in comparing 3 old wine and new. He said: “The old ;is better.” —Luke 5 ,39. Paul wrote to Timothy, (5,39): “Be no longer a drinker of water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.” I challenge any man to show warrant for Prohibition from the Bible. Again, PROHIBITION IS AN ATTEMPT TO VIOLATE MAN’S! MORAL NATURE. In the scripture we learn that man was created a free. | moral agent. He is endowed by nature : with the power of contrary choice. God | respects the freedom of the human will, and in nothing does He coerce | man: He reasons, appeals, commands j but He does not force even to do what is right. We are commanded to be - imitators of God ,as dear children; but - the Prohibitionist would force others to go his way regardless of What may be their conscientious convictions. This is an act of tyranny which no true man will endure. I Futliermore, Prohibition is a violation , of the great law of love of the golden I rule. Because I do not desire alcoliolie beverages is no reason for denying | them to those who do. It is untrue and j unchristian to hold that because a man drinks at all therefore he cannot, like Christ, drink to the Glory of God, , Christ was a moderate drinker, but the j ; bigots of His day-dubbed Him a “winej bibber,” as though he drank to excess, jßy all means let us have Christian ! j Temperance, but may we he delivered . from the bigotry, fanaticism, and intol- ' erance which masquerades under that name.—l am etc., i J. G. HUGHES, Th.D., . Baptist Minister. | ■ ■ ... i