A FALSE BIBLE LESSON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 43, 16 March 1909, Page 4

A FALSE BIBLE LESSON.

To the Editor. Sir,—Sonic kind person of tho teetotal persuasion luis sent me, iu cuttings from "The Christian Jlerald," a copy of the "International Sunday School Lesson for, 2Utk November, 11)08." It i& based 05i the first six verses oif Isaiah xxviii., and a more reprehensible attempt to wrust the Scriptures and falsify history could not easily be found. It is another •sad illustration of the fact that those people who are obsessed with the craze that total abstinence is the panacea for all the ills of life and absolutely necessary as a modem improvement on Christianity stick at nothing in the way of misapplying Scripture in order to buttress up their contention. They appear to be given over to a strong delusion to believe a lie; or, if not deluded themselves— which is the more charitable view—they certainly are doing their best to deceive the children of our Sunday schools wherever this outrageous travesty of history i> introduced. The lesson is mainly founded on these words: "Woe to the crown of pride, to the of Kphraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading llower, which are at the. head of the fat valley of them that are overcome of wine." Although throughout the Bible pride U much more frequently condemned than drunkenness, we have nothing in this International Lesson against that deadly sin. which we are taught is an abomination to the Lord. In the true spirit of teetotalism, no sin is thought worth notice but the one. The sin of drunkenness, we are taught in this lesson, was the cause of the carrying into captivity of the ten tribes, "because its people were so given to wine.*' This teaching is utterly contradictory oi' the inspired historian. The reasons for their captivity are set forth at length and with judicial exactness in 11. Kings, xvii., in a series of charges too lengthy for quotation in. full. It was because ''they left all the commandments of the Lord their God and made them molten images., even two calves, ami made a grove and worshipped all •the hosts ot heaven, and served Baal," 'that God gave them over to the Assyrians to doport. So far from their ruin, being brought about by intemperance. as is taught' in this lesson, it is not. even mentioned as one of its causes. It is characteristic of the mental twist, amounting frequently to an aberration of intellect of the teachers of teetotalism. that all through this lesson no al- j Install is made to any otiher sin than j that of drunkentness out ot all the long I catalogue given in the Bible. The ehil- ' dren Who have been dosed with this falsification of history must have an | entirely erroneous conception of this remarkable fact. Not only are the reasons of the Divine, wrath thus hidden and the fulfilment of various' prophecies from iloKes downwards ignored, but wc have in this precious* International Lesson an- i other llagrant misuse of Scripture, one [ only too com'mon among teetotal advocatcs. As a quotation front llabbakuk we have the words, "Woe unto him that j givcth his neighbor drink!" given as | condemning a practice that is frequently commended in the Bible. The wickedness of thus taking a few words only | from a sentence and thusi making the prophet apparently say an entirely different thing from what he really does, eay has been so scathingly denounced by a recent writer that one marvels at the hardihood of anyone who dishonestly makes use of this quotation in the same spirit of deception. There being not one passage of Scripture which, honestly given, supports the teetotallers, they every now and then deceitfully misquote this, in order to give to their cause that Biblical sanction which it lacks. That it should now have entered into the authorised curriculum of our Sunday schools is an added atrocity tliat deserves the strongest condemnation. We are sometimes ant to speak in laudiatory terms of our educational system; but how can on-e look with other than dismay on the future elfects of such false teaching as this iu those schools in which we expect Biblicil truths to be inculcated? How many of the children thus deceived will, on. coming to mature years*, be tempted to repudiate Christianity itself, on discovering the fraud that has been perpetrated on them? A cause that needs to be thus, founded on deception cannot be a good one: and on this point much might be said l . 1 content myself with calling attention through your columns', sir, to the falseness of this International Lewson. All Christian people, even though teetotallers, must be anxious that pure and truthful seed should be sown in the minds of our Sunday school children; as I have shown, this lesson contains neither the one nor the other. — I am, etc.) B. ENROTH.