Christianity V. Liquor Traffic.
The above subject was dealt with by the .Rev. J. Dukes at the Te Aroha Methodist Church on Sunday night. He said in the discussion.of any subject as m the drafting of an Act of Parliament, it is for obvious reasons well to define veraus. By Christianity we mean the body of doctrine and system of precepts taught by Christ, recorded by the Evangelists and Apostles and binding upon wie Church of God for all time to observe. -By the Liquor Traffic we do not mean rjt ® c^erß, The people are responsible for the baneful business, and can at any time they like vote it out of existence. We eliminate from our discussion to-night the men of every grade employed m the harmful business, and by the Liquor Traffic we mean the present licensing system which obtains for the supply of intoxicants, and which is now condemned by a decided majority of the electors of this Dominion. \t the outset we arraing the liquor traffic as the inveterate enemy of Christianity, because its whole course of action is demoralizing and subversive of the interests of the Kingdom of God in the world. The ultimate aim of Christianity is not to | organize a round of services, and artistically observe the Christian festivals, but it is to bring Heaven down to earth, and restore to man those paradisaical blessings lost in Eden. In the home-life its beneficial workings will first be seen, making' life beautiful and gay. Look at an early Christian home, multiplied by thousands, throughout the world to-day. Clement, of‘Alexandria, who lived about the close of the Second Century, gives us a beautiful picture of the family life of the Christians of his tini“. He tells us how father, mother, and children began the day with united worship. How, after reading the Scriptures, praise and prayer, they kissed each other and then separated for the work of the day, and how at the close of the day and before retiring to rest, they again joined together in family worship, and gave to each other the kiss of peace—that is a Christian home, the bliss produced by the abiding presence of God. Look at its contrast, the home blighted by the lijjuor traffic. We have them in this district. We have them wherever the present licensing system prevails, and they stand out prominently and unmistakable, witnessing to the dire effects of the liquor traffic. How can Christianity countenance a system or look with any favour upon a traffic which is devastating the bomcs of the people and making tbetia in many cases worse than beargardens
2. We impeach the liquor traffic as antagonistic to Christianity and innimical to the well-being of Society, because it stands condemned as the greatest offender of the moral law. If you will bring the traffic to bear upon the Decaloque or Ten Commandments or upon the Sermon on the Mount, you will find that there is a never ceasing conflict between the one and the other. The traffic is a violator of every principle underlying those Divine injunctions, lake the Ist and 2nd Commandments, they forbid idolatry either by making graven images or by bowing down to worship them. The traffic enthrones Bacchus as its Gol, and leads multitudes of souls to its altar. Its temple is the flaming bar, its idols the beer-barrel and the whisky bottle. It has for years said “ our trade is our religion.” The 3rd Commandment says, “ Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord my God in vain, etc.” But the traffic is the chief inspirator of blasphemy and indecent speech. The 4th that men “shall keep the Sabbath Day holy,” but the traffic turns the Sabbath into a day of revclery and crime. The sth enjoins children to honour their parents, but the traffic more than anything else is leading sons and daughters to dishonour and disgrace their parents, and bringing down their grey haira with sorrow to the grave. The 6th says, thou shalt not kill, but the drink traffic is not only directly, but indirectly a murderer of bodies and souls. The. 7th forbids adultery, but the liquor traffic more than anything else is feeding the animal passions and disqualifying men for the exerciee of self-control. The Bth forbids theft, but the traffic is robbing poor victims of their manhood and everything conducive to nobility of character, moreover it is robbing ■wives and children of the comforts, yea, even of the necessaries of life. The 9th forbids false witness, but the liquor traffic is the patent incubator for hatching lies both in and out of Court. The 10th denounces covetousness, which is the evil genius at the back of the whole business. Because there is money in it the blackest moral strata bears a gilded exterior, and those fn the trade are liable to moral opthalmia, and do not see or will not see the havoc produced by the nefarious business,
Analyse also the sublime social morality of the Sermon on the Mount, and the kernel of the whole is here, “ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,” But the whole trend of the liquor traffic is in the direction of the basest selfishness, the most wanton and unblushing cruelty. 3, We arraign the liquor traffic as the inveterate foe of Christianity because it continually places a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in the way of the people. Take tfye stumbling blocks out of the way of my people saith the Lord. Coming to Apostolic teaching we find it to agree. Let no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way—for it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak. Abstinence for Christ’s sake and our brother’s sake weighed heavily with Paul and brought him in the exercise of noble selfrdenial to such a' manly resolution. The Church may well bestir herself and watch over her sons and daughters - some venomous reptiles wriggle along the ground and are incapable of raising themselves to fasten very high, others will coil themselves up treacherous, poisonous fang will strife the upper parte of the body. The bite of this serpent is often given to the highest, noblest natures. How many blighted university men have X found in this Dominion, who carried off high Academical honours at Oxford or Cambridge, They could twenty years ago revel in their classics. They could hold converse with those glorious Grecian orators, and famous l<atin poets, but the drink has left them with but a very smattering knowledge, for every classic knows how much easier it is to forget than to retain it 1 in his mind, These men became splendid draftsmen or eminent artists, but the - brain has become muddled, and is no longer suggestive, and the hand shaky and untrustworthy, and when a man keenly feels at the first his intellectual incompetency to repeat what he has done, he very frequently gives up to the pursuit of the baser passions. The vitiating tendency lowering a man’s tastes, circumscribing his mental vision, reducing the possibilities of bis being, closing up the avenues of high intellectual pleasure, and hedging
him in to a few low, base, grovelling pleasures. This is to my mind one of the saddest effects of the drink, and one very deeply to be deplored as a national loss. But the loss the Church of God is > sustaining of this evil is still more de- , plorable. It is a common thing to be i told by a Church member I have changed my views on some points of doctrine and the claims of present church life do not appear to me as exacting as | they did. My experience of 40 per cent, of these cases is that antecedent to any • change of views of doctrine and church polity there was a * lowering of the spiritual tone, a relaxing of the moral fibre, a dulness of soul sensibility brought about by the stupifying effects of liquor.' If the man would deal honestly with himself. He would acknowledge that the evil strikes deeper than mere variation of opinion. He is backsliding from God. He is a moral delinquent. As a Methodist Church, although we stand throughout the world in the forefront of the Crusade against the traffic, yet we have terrible annual lapses and losses through this evil. It is very distressing to me that 5 preachers with whom I laboured for nearly 14 years in the Old Country went down to drunkard’s grave-’. Other churches at Home can show no better record. If you want sad illustrations in our Dominion hundreds could be furnished. They have confronted me in every circuit i have laboured during the last 30 years. 5. The liquor traffic antagonizes the
work of the churches, because it hinders multitudes from stepping into the Kingof God. To such it might truly be said. One thing thou lackest—quit tbe saloon, give up the drink - and the victory is won for Christ. Now, when you see that just one thing is keeping a man from decision for God, land that one thing if not given up will mean the man’s eternal ruin, can you wonder at the earnestness of an aroused church on this matter, and when we see that even when a man has crossed the threshold, and joined the church, it will then imperil his stand, and sometimes promote his fall. Can you wonder at the enthusisin of those who have ny love for sonls rising to a white heat. It is the work of our common Christianity to re-erect the man it finds down and bound with u chain. It snaj • his fetters, and in sa> ing j “ rise He calleth thee ” it extends a I helping band, and lifts him up. It b*- ' comes a prop to lean upon, a wall of . defence to save him, a tower of refuge to run into.
Leaves no unguarded place No weakness of the soul But—takes every virtue, every grace And fortifies the whole: and so it continues its beneficial work until the work is complete, and God has made a saint out of a man. In contrast with this it is the common daily work of the liquor traffic to knock a man down—in more senses than one and then to keep him down. It chains him as its devotee. It mocks him in his efforts to rise. It crushes him until all moral and physical features are woefully disfigured, and the poor slave divested of the image of God in which he was made is left to perish. Fellow electors, I don’t know, nor care to know what your sentiments are respecting Nolicense. But I do say this, that the present licensing system which permits a poor weak fellow who has worked hard and obtained £42 18s Od, to come to an hotel in a town of considerable size, to be kept there for more than a week in a state of chronic drunkenness, to be fleeced by the hotel-keeper of the whole amount, to be so maddened by drink that he sells his coat, vest, and shirt and returns to his lonely tent penniless, and on the verge of delerium tremens. Now, I say straight, that a system of licensing | which makes it possible for one man to ■ despoil another to this extent and to do it within the last few weeks, does not in the estimation of decent people deserve to exist.
6. The Liquor Traffic is antagonistic to Christianity for it not only robs her of some of her choicest souls but it monopolizes much of the wealth that ought to flow into her philanthropic • channels. All the organisations which exist for the physical, social, and moral betterment of the people, would have ample funds to carry on their Christlike work but fur this insatiable horse leech which is draining the body prolific of its life’s blood, and crippling it to support these necessary institutions. At tbe present rate of supplying tbe world with bibles it will take 600 years before every human being in the world possesses one, If the people of Britain alone would abstain from intoxicants every human being might have a bible in six months. We are contributing in Christian England less than three millions annually to Foreign missions and spending 145 millions of money upon the drink. Still we are hopeful, for the temperance cause, thank Gol, never looked brighter throughout the world than it does to-day. When Carey was asked what were the prospects qf Foreign Mission work, he replied > f As bright as the promises of God.” Never were all sections of the Christian church so united as on this Licensing Bill at Home. The bishop and the lay reformer arc standing shoulder to shoulder for the truth is emblazoned on the minds of our spiritual leaders of every church, Protestant and Catholic, that of all the hindrances to the spread of the Gospel and the betterment of the people, none is so potent for evil as tho liquor traffic, Much has ■ recently been made by the trade of the opinion expressed by the late respected Vicar of S. Mark’s. As a free man he is entitled to his opinion, but he certainly, belongs ' to the few vanishing clergymen who will accept the responsibility of voting! continuance. It is cheering to us that five out of six Anglican bishops and probably the whole of them have declined <o accept that very serious responsibility, and one of them declared that he would sooner lose his right band than vote for continuance, We are frequently given to see—as an anonymous correspondent has shown us during the past week—that the trade is very largely oblivious of moral issues, it lives, moves and has its being in the realm of finance, it is blinded —morally—with gold dust and cries out from the area of sordid interest “ Let us alone,” We as Christian patriots are well aware of the wretchedness it is producing, the fruits of shame, wickedness and woe growing on this mighty IJpas tree, and we are in solemn league with God, and with each other, to bring its towering head to the ground and to lay it low as speedily as possible.
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Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43380, 1 October 1908, Page 3
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2,409Christianity V. Liquor Traffic. Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43380, 1 October 1908, Page 3
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