INTEMPERANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 79, 2 April 1878, Page 2

INTEMPERANCE.

The Yen. Archdeacon Thorpe preached on this subject at Chiist Church on Sunday night, taking as his text the words: "Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." The sermon was so excellent an one, and was listened to with so great interest, that we have asked and obtained permission to copy the following extract from it: — -

"In general, « temperance ' and ' intemperance ' are supposed to refer to drunkenness. It is to be regretted that the terms should have so restricted a meaning. Many who are temperate in drinking are most intemperate in other matters — intemperate in temper, in love of dress, in anxiety about worldly affairs, in pleasures, in seeking wealth. Indeed, there is no pursuit, no liking, in which we may not be intemperate. Eor temperance or moderation refers, strictly speaking, to the mind, not to the subject occupying the mind. I hare another reason, too, for wishing at the outset to remind you not to restrict intemperance to drunkenness. It will, I think, appear in the course of our enquiry that with regard to this egregious form of intemperance all the crusades against drink which from time to time electrify society, have failed to produce any lasting effect because they have not addressed themselves to iutemperance of mind. Because they have treated drunkenness as a distinct vice, instead of, as it is, one gross form of a vicious state. Let us take this one form of intemperance and folio w it to its beginnings. Putting aside those plain cases in which alcoholic drink is resorted to in order to drown remorse or from simple swinish propensities, thi9 startling fact meetß us that many men and ■women, excellent in other respects, have become the slaves of this vice— that, notwithstanding the increase of refinement, and multiplication of interesting pursuits of the present day, this form of intemperance has spread so alarmingly that society has been driven to call out for protection against itself. Be assured there must be a cause, and a deep seated cause. Take your gifted man, your man of tender sympathies and cultivated mind. What pleasure does he find in stimulating his brain thus viciously ? Is it not that his mind is quickened for the momeut, his perceptions rendered more delicate, his powers of expression doubled ? He is more than himself. He is excited to undertake more than his strength can lawfully sustain. He renews his strength artificially. Nature at last revenges herself, and he discovers when too late that he has become powerless to do good. And it appears to me as plain as that the sun shines that we are living at too great a rate. No one is satisfied with the moderate enjoyment of the blessings within his reach. Everyone, whether he is fitted or not, is daily striving to get above his present position. The fact that a pound can buy a greater quantity of luxuries than it could a a hundred years ago but whets the appetite, and we are actually poorer because wanting more. The discoveries of science, the increase of books, the means of rapid communication, the opportunity of making a fortune at once— all tend the same way, and from the boy clerk, who has recourse to wine to keep up his wit, to the man of genius, who tries to take a higher flight, or sustain a passing reputation — we all live too fast. Politically, we need to be exhorted to moderation. Within the last two or thre6 years this little colony of ours has made rapid strides. By the introduction of foreign capital, public works have been undertaken, and an impulse thereby given to trade. But the works are confessedly out of all proportion to the" existing population ; therefore, the scheme provides for a large number of persons being brought at once into the country. They are to help to pay the taxes, and to travel on the railways. But many of them are for the present consumers and not producers, and, meanwhile, not only is taxation increased, but in the large places

the cost of living is much greater, and seeing that in. a short while its public works must be finished, and seeing that a great deal of the opening tip of . the country is purely speculatirej it ia plain to any thinking mind that the fioloay has to face a grave crisis, and that it will need alt tlie judgment on the part of the rulers, and all moderation ofl the part of the colonists, to pass this crisis safely. I repeat— 'all moderation on our part/ for this is my plea for 1 ef erring to politics: Who have committed the Government to so great a scheme ? We,- Who have cried out for railway^ through barren ravines and over all but inaccessible mountains, whether or not they are found to pay ? We. Who will presently forget all this, and should the next few years prove the colony to have been intemperate in its political course, will lay all the blame upon that great scapegoat the Government ? Again I say, we. So that I take it that we need to be exhorted to the same moderation in public ? flairs as, in private, to show in our conversations j writings, sind Speeches that tnind which becomes those who believe that righteousness more than trade etfalteth' a nation. The Church herself, and by Church I mean here all religious bodies, I confess needs to be exhorted to temperance. There is a great temptation to try and develope fast. Therefore artificial means are resorted to. Instead of being content with doing our duty as a witness, we appear to wish to forestall God, and build our churcfieS, arid gather congregations at the cost of a weakened constitution. It is, I am convinced, of vastly more importance that we should use the right means to attain our end than that we should be in the popular sense successful. If we are in haste to reap we shall sow carelessly, and consequently leave the next generation a great deal to undo. It is the same with education. The age asks for results that can be expressed in figures. Sharp clever boys and girls are turned out by hundreds, but humility, reverence, honor, and virtue are outside the systems. The essential elements of true greatness are too intangible to be taken into account — of too slow growth to pass the stated examinations. Intemperance, I repeat— the want of the moderation of our text — is the prevailing feature of the age. Tearfully has one described the tendency of our times as 'an age of light,' but ' light without love.' "