NO-LICENSE AND CHRISTIANITY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 274, 13 November 1908, Page 3

NO-LICENSE AND CHRISTIANITY

DEBATE IX THE THEATRE ROYAL, The Theatre Royal was well tilled last night, when the Rev. L. At. Uitt and -Mr. B. Enroth met on the sta.'e to debate the question: "U .WLieense in-1 coiwstcnt with n.rUUau citizenship and Bible r Mr. Enroth took the ailirm.v tive and Air. Jsitt the negative The conditions were opening speeches of thirty minutes, the,, twenty minute* i. ?"?,' y ,ml "* of tm "»'»"« each! Air. J. B. Hoy presided. Mr. Enroth affirmed that the Jewish religion as well as the Christian r>ligioa demanded the constant use of wine as the large part of it o rites T o prove this he quoted Xumbers, eli 15 where wine was ordained as part of the' sacrifice. then, foreseeing the hcrcsv ot leetotalism, the Lord ordered stronwme to be used at morning and evening : W,ll »S '0 the Chroniel.'s" 'B»'/a. gallons of wine were used by | David m certain festivities. In the OH | testament it was shown that provision' was made for storing of wine in the temple. Coming to the New Testament, he quoted St. Paul, amd also the words of Jesus Christ at his Last .Supper when lie commanded His disciples to drink wme in remembrance of Hiui. the day seemed to be coming when even sacramental wine would be abolished. At best the unfermented sacranient'il

wine was a miserable decoctioa. Mr tnroth remarked that frequently in the | Scriptures, when wine was eoniinanded i to be used, it was referred to as Hi« blessing, as was corn and oil. The first ol the wheat, oil, and wine was ordered to <be retained for the priest, and the Lord said, "It shall be holy unto thee," not accursed, as some people would tell them now. He referred to a recent local case in which a man was convicted for supplying two .Maoris with a drink. He heard a man say at that time that any man who would give a Maori liquor should get seven years. That statement showed that they were now face to face m New Zealand with a spirit of fanaticism such as had sent men to the stake and to the thumb-screws. (Applause.) Mr. Enroth failed to understand the statement of the teetotallers that the commands given to the Jews did not apply to the Christian peoples. "Take a little wine for thy stomach's sate,'' said St. Paul to fimothv.

Mr. Isitt here rose, saying that in the I interests of Mr. Enroth and the audij ence he would remind Jiim that lie had missed his thesis.

The meeting declined to hear him, and Mr. Enroth continued. He affirmed that wine was used by all Biblical characters, with one or two exceptions. He mentioned Xoah, Daniel, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Boaz, Samuel, David, Jesus Christ (who made wine at the marriage feast), and others. The, teetotallers said that -these wines were non-alcoholic and npn-intoxieating, but the falsity of that was proved by quotations. He quoted an authority who stated tha,t up till recent discoveries of antiseptics it was impossible to make uafermented wine, and this when made was poisonous.

The Rev. Mr. Isitt, replying, refused to discuss the question along the lines laid down by Mr. Enroth. He had ad-

vanced many statements concerning the Old Testament that the speaker was quite prepared to admit. But he had not come there to discuss whether the Old Testament justified the use of wine, but "whether No-Lieense was incon-

sistent with Christian citizenship." Mr. Enroth had talked for half-an-hour a mile from the subject. But he would follow him in his wanderings. He reverenced the Bible, but he would not take it as a text-book v .uodcrn social reform, and Mr. Enroth should not take all those Biblical characters as authorities on secular questions of to-day.

They did not know as much about the effects of alcohol as a nineteen-year-old youth of to-day. (Applause. )Was Mr. Enroth honestt If h-' was prepared to be bound by the Old Testament on this

question, would lie accept it on polygamy, slavery, concubinage, and so on? He had cither to take the Old Testament wholly or not at all as an authority. The speaker quoted eminent medical authority that alcohol was a poison, as showing that Mr.'Enroth was wrong in saying teetotallers had invented the theory. Was a eommonsense modern audience to believe that Marthew, Mark, Jacob, and all the others knew more about the effects of fie alcohol than these leading professors .">f medicine and physiology iu the present day, with all the centuries of research and experience to guide them. Now, to return to the question, No-License was not necessarily teetotalism. His frie.nl might say the ultimate purpose of the No-License party was absolute prohibition. No man knew their ultimate purpose, but there were hundreds of thousands of people prepared to go with

them in closing the liquor-bar and prohibiting the sale of liquor. Was Mr. Enroth prepared to argue that that was

contrary to principles of true Christian citizenship? Could he prove that the modem liquor-bar was a Divinely-ap-pointed institution. Mr. Enroth had to prove that the IC.OOO liquor-bars for the supply of patent still whisky and New Zealand beer to the people of New Zealand were Bible institutions. He contended that pure womanhood and clean manhood were our finest possessions, and nothing undermined manhood and womanhood more than the liquor-bars. The building of home life and the marriage of young people were to I>C' the salvation' of our social life, and the liquor-bar militated against that. Mr. Enroth, in his second speech, opened by stating that the subject, besides the' words quoted by Mr. Isitt, included the question whether "NoLicense was contrary to the teachings of the Bible," laying particular stress upon the latter question. Mr. Isitt had sneered at some oi his Biblical authorities, but he was pleased to see he had not sneered at the name of Jesus

Christ. He declared that many of the doctors had spoken against alcohol merely because it -was popular, and they wanted to get a good practice. He quoted Mr. Anetey, a Connecticut chemist, who averred that 08 per cent, of alcohol passed into the body was of use to it. "Thou shalt not steal," said the Scripture; but any man who struck out the top line was assisting in stealing the property of thiesc people as much as if he had gone into the hotel and annexed the silver spoons. There was no word in the Bible in favor of total abstinence. He had everything to say in favor of the liquor-bars. The Eev. Mr. Isitt said he could prove that Christ never made or countenanced intoxicating liquor, but the abolition of this traffic was written upon every pa;;c of the New Testament. He made r.n indictment against the Trade; which i.e said produced much of the crime and lunacy, lit stated that in seven years it tad been shown 'that over 35,000 first-offenders had been convicted for 1 drunkenness in Xew Zealand, and that the convictions for drunkenness were in the ratio of one in every 21) of the population. -The Heresy of Tcetotilism" was written by one of t'ic niost unmitigated liars ever born. Tho NO-

License party was not fighting tli» hotels, or tlic hotclkecpers '"' t,ic ta ' moil, but the stuff they sold. To say that, doctor- favored teetolulinm because tllev would thus build up a good clientele wa» absolutely and diametrically opposed to the truth. The surest way of losing a fashionable practice was to declare for total abstinence. He could not see how any man could urge people, in the name of the Christ, 10 enjoy the luxury that brought misery to so laaav of his fellows. True Christianity denied itself for the benefit of the weakest and most miserable. Entering on his final speech, .Mr. Enroth said prohibition could not improve the morals. The Turks who massacred and outraged the Armenians, and the fanatics who .perpetrated the massacre at Cawnpore. were total abstainers. Tli© whole teaching of the Bible was in favor oi moderation, lie was not here in the interests of any faction, but to discharge a duty of citizenship God's AVord was made for to-day as well as for the dav when it was written. The whole methods of the Xo-Tacense party were opposed to the tenets of Christianity. The Iter. Mr. Isitt staled that the medical profession had come right over to the side of opposition to the use of al-ohol as a beverage, and were also largely opposing it as a medicine. The Turks' .were fanatics on religion, not temperance people, and they would le woi-e if tliev lire.! their passions with alcohol, lie hated-this thing ' because he loved humanity. lie would rather have the man who said "1 stand by this thin" because I make money out ot t than" the man who bedecked himself with Bible tags in seeking to justify the prepuce of t'"' li'iuor-bars and their result-. Could any man «<y that strong , lrillk did the work of ~ Clm-l. rafh,r than the work of the devil .< Af -r. 1 ~:-;„.» -c-vci-il eases that had .onie under ' his ,K,ti,r. the speaker said he was confident that he had Hod's approval for u r„ii„, them to Strike out the top line. Vofes of thanks to the speakers and to the chairman concluded a very interesting gathering.