Correspondence.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 435, 24 December 1861, Page 3

Correspondence.

TEETOTAL MEETING.

To the Editor of the Colonist.

Sir —In yesterday's sheet you gave your readers a report of the opening of the Temperance Hal', an object every way worthy of commendation. The chair was well rilled by the Samson of total abstinence as of politics; and the speeches generally, were, with one exception, of that plain and common sense character, which commends them to the attention and support of the public. That one exception was the speech of a Mr. Cresswell. I would at first remark, that there is a great part of the speech, which has not the smallest connexion with total abstinence; a great fault, especially, where such extraneous matter was brought forward to prove the position taken up by the speaker : The command of language is great, and had the orator remained within the mystic circle of theology, his .sentiments had never been called in question; but that charmed circle he has overstepped and betaken him to the severe realms of science, where the veriest beggar in its ranks, may, without impropriety, call the word of the monarch in question. The speaker is at great pains, also, to lay hold on the bible, as he does on philosophy, to advance, as he supposes, the cause of total abstinence, but unhappily, with the same non-auccess. The interests of total abstinence are best attained by common sense advocacy, and it signifies not to us whether tho Jews thought it good, bad, or indifferent ; if we see that it has wrought reformation in modern society, and we know that it has—let us welcome if, and assist in its advancement, without going out of our legitimate province, and breaking our heads against the hard and unyielding facts of science ; eschewing all wild and extravagant sentiments, bearing in recollection that all our minds are most easily influenced by the every day interests of our common humanity. I thought that the bible, long ago, had been set aside as a source of total abstinence advocacy, on the acknowleged philosophical axiom, that any book, or instrument, capable of proving both sides of a question, was incapable of proving any side of a question ; and it is well known that both sides of the question under consideration, has been advocated from the bible, times without number. Heie are a few quotations which may be taken as a fair sample of the whole speech:—'There could be little doubt that God could by his power cause the earth to revolve round the sun with the same degree of regularity and exatitude, as it now does, without the law of g-avitation.' Also 'There could be no doubt that God could by .his power cause iiquih'cation, and evaporation, without the means of boat.' ' Animal life, again, might be sustained without the processes of digestion, absorption, circulation, nutrition, aspiration, or secretion, purely by the power of God.' Again, ' The Reformation might have been accomplished without the use of any means!' Did it ever, for one moment occur to the speaker that this last quotation presupposed more thau he could imagine, notwithstanding the fervor of his enthusiasm. Bundles of instruments in the speech, are presented to our notice, and the instrumentalities of several agencies are mixed up in such a manner, in his own language, that cause and effect are confounded. The assertions contained in these fair quotations are crude and uuphiloso|jhical, and evidently the production of a young man; let him studiously contemplate \vhnt they all involve, mentally, morally, and physically. Did it never occur to Mr. Cresswell that he was insulting and libelling the deity, in giving public expression to such extraordinary statements? lias it ever come within Mr. Cresswell'a knowledge to see life sustained without, all or any of those conditions and admirable modes employed by the divine worker, for the accomplishment of his matchless works? I take leave to say no; willing, however, to acquiesce in all that Mr. C. can advance in proof, as with him rests the onus jjfobandi. Many men are fond of indulging in extravagant imaginings to which they place no rational limit, and ascribing much to the author of the universe, that a calm, thoughtful, reverential contemplation would forbid to entertain ; impugning infinite wisdom in asserting that much could have been done otherwise, than it really is; and that such and such glorious works, combining in their existence a legion of infinite attributes, could have been created and sustained, without means, or otherwise, than it has pleased the great Author to employ; forgetting even, that he has in all his works presented them to our mind, as under the operation of invariable law. There is a law in the mental world for every act of the most wayward mind, a law more immutable than any that Mede or Persian ever made, also in the physical world operating; on the greatest, and most remote bodies within our ken, to the tiniest mote that floats in the sunbeam. - I think, sir, that it is needless to notice the many other glaring inconsistencies which appear throughout the whole speech. I have done enough, I think, to draw his attention to it, and if these remarks can in any way assist in his onward progress in the path of truth and virtue, the object in writing them will have been obtained. \ours, &c, CRITIC.