CARDINAL MANNING ON TOTAL ABSTINENCE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5108, 7 August 1877, Page 3

CARDINAL MANNING ON TOTAL ABSTINENCE.

On Whit Monday last the Roman Catholic “ Total Abstinence League of the Cross” held a great demonstration in the streets of London, and then proceeded to the site of the proposed Westminster Cathedral, where a meeting was held. The Times says :—“ The processionists, were of Irish nationality, and included men, women, and children, who had taken the pledge at the urgent wish of Cardinal Manning. The result of the abstention from drinking habits was to be seen in the very marked difference between the Irish population of London of this time in dress and manners, compared with the same population when there was no restraining influence, for then they were ill-dressed and disorderly as a rule, while now they are clean and well behaved.” On arriving at the meeting ground, after some introductory proceedings, Cardinal Manning, who was received with deafening cheers, said it was very little he could say, and still less that that great throng could hear ; but first of all he bade them heartily welcome to that fine piece of ground, which he did not call his, but theirs. They bad come where he hoped one day a great cathedral would stand for the diocese of Westminster and the glory of Almighty God, (Cheers.) The ground upon which they were standing belonged to the. church of Westminster—to the people, who were the Church, and himself, as their pastor. He hoped they would come there year after year to make their holiday upon what he said was “our land”—their land and bis. Rather Lockhart had told them that they came there for one thing—in the cause of temperance. (Cheers.) He knew what tem-perance-total abstinence—meant, and he was glad to know in those thousands present—he did not know how many thousands, but there was a great multitude—the great majority of the people were total abstainers. (Cheers.) He was glad to lead any temperance movement, because all Christian men were' temperance men by baptism, but he knew that if the great crusade was to be kept up against intemperance there must be the bear-skins—the Guards —those who would never give way—and the Guards of the temperance movement were total abstainers. (Cheers.) He knew that some who had come there were not total abstainers, but he hoped they would go away such, for ho had laid a sort of trap for them. Ho had them here upon the ground, and if any man went away without giving up all intoxicating drink altogether he himself should bo exceedingly sorry. Was there, he asked, any man present who had not given up drinking habits ?—he did not mean drunkenness, but drinking habits, —for they had, of course, all given up drunkenness long ago. The man who was still addicted to the nee of intoxicating drink and went to places where the drink was sold was within the temptation. He liked the taste, and the man who loved the taste of drink in his mouth had got the Devil’s hook in his lips. (Cheers.) The way for a man to get away from that was to give up intoxicating drink altogether. It was for the safety of a man’s soul that he should give up going into tile company of those who used intoxicating drink, for the occasions of drink were the occasions of sin. The only way for a man to save himself, hie wife, and his children was to give up drinking altogether, and to break the chain by which the sin of drinking held him. (Cheers.) Many who listened to him—the ma jority, he hoped, of those there—wore people who had not tasted drink for years, and some had not tasted it in their lives. To them he said—Persevere ! To those who were ready to give it up he would say, “ Do so, not only for your own sakes, hut for the sake of others ; do so in love of God—to help your neighbor by giving him strength and courage and a good example.” Some said they could not give drink up, as the condition of their health forbade them doinn- so. The doctors—and he spoke of them with*all respect, for if they got him into their hands they would punish him (a laugh)—had done a groat deal of harm by telling people they could not do without drink. (Hear, hear.) People could do without drink ; for alcohol was not necessary either as beer, wine, or spirits, and was not natural food. He then appealed to the women, and said that if the woman took to drink her home was wrecked and her family was ruined, and he urged the wives, daughters, and sisters to give up drink

in order te sustain their husbands, fathers, and brothers. He urged all to take care of the little children, and not permit them to drink, laying that if the people who were drunkards to-day had bad sober parents they would have been sober in their youth, their manhood, and womanhood. The Cardinal concluded as follows, —Father Lockhart has told you that our Holy Father, by the special providence of God, has lived on to bear the warfare of the world against the Holy Catholic Church and against himself as its head. The 3rd of J une next is the day upon which he will complete his fifty years as Bishop of the Church of God. (Cheers.) I therefore ask you, dear children, by the shout you will raise, to tell me that you desire to send your congratulations—your devout love—to our Holy Father, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, from the League of the Cross of Total Abstainers, upon which, you will remember, he has destowed his special benediction. (Cheers.) I ask of you, as many thousands as are here, to send by me a special message to the Holy Father, and ask him to give you his apsotolical benediction.