Dr. ALEXANDER WHYTE ON THE CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE AND THE DRINK TRAFFIC.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43083, 23 April 1907, Page 1

Dr. ALEXANDER WHYTE ON THE CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE AND THE DRINK TRAFFIC.

Most of onr readers are aware; of the unique influence wielded by Dr. Alexander Whyte, 6fi Free St. George’s, Edinburgh,In a recent utterance on the nectioE wiffi' n Kk"%War oA fe Bunyan’s “ Grace Abounding,”, the famous preacher made the following characteristic reference to the Temperance question:— “Take another illustration* from another side of our daily life. Many men among,us have| an uneasy conscience, aye, many;

among us have a yery angry] conscience, over their self-; condemned habit of taking'.; strong drink in these days.; The awful ravages that strong drink is making among our . Scottish people, the fearful state of our Edinburgh slums, and all owing to strong drink—; these things come home to the, consciences of many men who; still resist and silence their jj consciences. ’ *1

“ £ I thought it did not become • religion,’ says Bunyan. And! again, 1 Now, all the time my . conscience would smart at every touch.’ Yes there are thousands

of men in Scotland who feel. , exactly like Bunyan. They feel in their conscience that in the present distress they ought at ;'-; once to give up all comsumption of it at their tables and all'; indulgence in in themselves.; But then they like it r and their ", quests like,and interest and habit ? and fashion of appetite are so. strong that they brow-beat and. 1 silence conscience. But all the time all the elation of all the strong drink of Scotland and : France and Spain will silence the f murmur, and sometimes the roar Z of ail offended and an angry conscience. It is a matter for gratitude that ,; consciences of so many Christian people are alive and quick with | regard to this subject; but at \he same time it is open to doubt'

whether the conscience of religious community as a whole i is yet as active and alert as it ought to he with regard to in** dulgerce in alcoholic liquors, ,-y

If qualms are fell by the average middle-class churchgoer, they are, in many cases, effectually stifled.

It is still quite common for really Christian people to partakeof intoxicants, and to fail to recognise any necessity for abstinence from them. The arguments they use are somewhat stale, but when “interest aud habit and fashion and

appetite” are allied in favour of any proceeding, a very little logic or reason is sufficient to prove .convincing as & defence

of such proceeding. “There is nothing wrong in

drnking m odera tely • So m u ch, ” they say, lf is incontestable.” Excess they deplore, and profess to yield to none in their detesta-

tion of drunkenness. But they know very well that many —how many it is impossible to say—-

cannot draw the line, cannot be moderate, do not, in the current

phrase, “know how much is good for them,” This fact they ignore; yet it is this that makes all the difference. If everyone could avoid excess in drinking, the reason for the Temperance movement would not exist.

By closing their eyes to lie gigantic evils of the drinking habit, they seem to be able to couviuce themselves that. ;s

Christians, they have no duly to their fellows in this m,t:Jr so the decanter is still on the i. sideboad and the wine glasses on the table in many a Christian home, the inmates.of which view the drunken workman who_^

passes down the street^-^

be eontin-atTO