SACPAMENTAL WINE AND TEMPERANCE. .

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 175, 25 July 1881, Page 1

SACPAMENTAL WINE AND TEMPERANCE. .

London Telegraph,

Temperance is a virtue which Btanda deservedly high ia public estimation throughout the civilised world, although we tear it ia more generally extolled than practised. But it ia proverbially pos-i sible to have too much of a good thingand the Legislature of Kansas, by prohibiting under heavy penalties the consumption of sacramental wine to partakers in the Holy Communion, haß in the exuberance of its teetotal enthusiasm, overstepped the limits of discretion and good taste. As might have been expected, the episcopal clergy of the State have taken the lead in vehe-> mently denouncing this ill-considered enactment. A lew days ago Dr Beatty the officiating ecclesiastic of an episcopal church at Lawrence, belore administering the Sacrament to communicants, addressed his congregation from the altar in the following terms; "The new law" he observed "iorbids to us the use of wine at the Communion Service, decrees a punishment of two years' imprisonment to the priest who shall infringe its edict?, and declares that every church in which wine shall be served to the communicants shall be ekmed as a public nuisance. I need not tell you that I shall pay n 0 heed to any such enactment. Wo priests, at our ordination, solemnly undertook to administer the Sacraments according to the laws aud customs ol our church. Be assured that we will never submit to an earthly Legislature's attempt to annihilate the chief Sacrament of the Christian Faith." Having thus delivered himself, Dr. Beatty forthwith performed the Communion Service with unmaimed rites. It remains to be seen whether o? not the total abstainers who at present predominate in Kansas State will venture to enforce the penalties of a law which smacks of Pagan despotism rather than, enlightened Cumitatiooa-