THE POWER OF PREJUDICE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 603, 30 November 1909, Page 4

THE POWER OF PREJUDICE.

The Rev. W. Ritchie preaching in the Presbyterian Church on Sunday night, took for his subject, “The Power of Prejudice,” basing his remarks on St. Luke’s Gospel draper 23, verses 18 1023. He showed how the prejudice and opposition which was shown towards our Saviour, both by the. people and priestly or ruling classes, was due not merely to Jewish fanaticism, but to His frequent attack on. the vested interests of some tough old vices. “Once begin to touch men’s pockets, to affect their incomes, call in question their vested interest,” said the preacher, “and you must look out for yourself, for you have fired a mine.” Consequently the setting up of a high standard of righteousness and holiness and His denunciation of everything that was a pretence and a sham, was the crime of Christ, a crime for which He was made to die the death of a common malefactor. But there are some, who, being horrified at such a termination of such an unselfish and selfsacrificing life, aver that if Christ were to come to this world again people would listen to what He said and give Him a better reception. One evening at a small literary gathering at which Carlyle was present, a lady who was somewhat noted for her “muslin theology” was bewailing the wickedness of the Jews, in not receiving Christ and ended her diatribe against them by expressing her regret that He had not appeared in our own time. “How delighted” she said, “we would all have been to throw our doors open to Him and listen to His devine precepts ! Don’t you think so Mr Carlyle ?” Thus appealed to the Sage of Chelsea said “No, madam, I don’t. I| think that had He come very fashionably dressed, with plenty of money and preaching doctrines palatable to the higher orders, I might have had the honour of receiving from you a card of invitation, on the back of which would be written “To meet our Saviour” but, if He had come, uttering His sublime precepts and denouncing tfie Pharisees, and, associating with the lower order as He did, you would have treated Him much as the Jews, and have cried out ‘ Take Him to Newgate and hang him.’” Consequently, said the preacher, what happened to the Saviour in His day, is happening and will happen every day to all who are carrying on His work in the world. He stirred it up also, in equal and even in greater intensity along the opposite lines. The world of evil was roused to its lowest depths. We are not, said Mr Ritchie, without evidence in these days, even in this Dominion, that a sharp conflict is going on between the forces of good and evil, and it is a hopeful sign. when we are forced into close quarters .with evils and wrongs of our times. Wherever we find at work the advocates of Temperance and of civic and social purity there we find scores of men, steeped in prejudice and intent upon defending some vested interest that they do all they can to oppose and vilify such advocates. We ought, therefore, at all times to stand by those brave men aud true whose heroic and self-sacrificing efforts in the cause of Temperance Reform have aroused the satanic elements around, and who have consequently been bound and boycotted, and bespattered with all sorts of opprobrious epithets. We are in honour bound as Christian men and women to challenge every attempt of the enemy to foist upon us that death-dealing drink, which is working such awful havoc in so many lives and homes. Peace at any price we cannot have if we are to be true to ourselves, true to the best interests of our fellow men and true to our Lord and Master. Who has commanded us to remove the stones of stumbling that lie along the paths so many of our young people are treading : We learn to scorn the praise o men, And learn to lose with God ; For Jesus won the world through shame, And beckons thee His road ; For right is right since God is God, And right the day must win ; To doubt would be disloyalty, To falter would be sin.