THE FALSE BIBLE LESSON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 55, 30 March 1909, Page 4

THE FALSE BIBLE LESSON.

To tlie Editor. Sir.—Sir Dyce Duckworth. M.D.. LL.B, F.R.0.5., writing on "Eddyism," miscalled' ''Christian Science/' remarks: "As regards this new doctrine, we find, first, -that it comes ironi America. That, to my mind, arouses a suspicion as to its origin. It conies from Boston, a city i know well—a city which is a perennial source of false doctrines, which produces and contains more unstable men and ■women than any other city I know."' Had Sir Dvce known the whole of the Xew England States as well as lie knows Huston, She might have said the same 1 king of them all. Morally and intellectually the whole of the Eastern States may be described, as a seething mass of faddists and new' religion-mongers. Anil Iroin them the English-speaking world, and some other places, have been cursed with the teetotal .semi-religion which threatens to eat out all our Cbrislianity and leave the churches faithlcs-. i The same eminent physician points out the demoralising effect* produced by Christian Science—so-called—on its votaries, in destroying the mental capacity of its adherents to appreciate plain facts, "even to differentiate truth from falsehood/' Had he been teetotallers he could hardly have been more accurate. Nearly all 'tlu- advocates of this cult appear "to lie incapable 01 understanding the difference between false quotation or statement and a true one. One of themselves has pointed out that a great weakness 'that underlies their efforts ''is its failure to follow to a final logical conclusion (he law of truth.'' That from a life-long abstainer and sympathiser. One can go much nearer the root of the matter and assert that as an exponent of truth the whole syst-m termed "Christian Temperance" is based on error and supported by misrepresentation. W:' have seen how entirely this is the case with this "International Simday School J.esson." which is "faked ut>" for t'lie purpose of deceiving th ( , children in those Sunday schools where it is used. T now wish to call attention to the improper way in which so-called texts of Scripture are used, not onlv in this lesson but very commonly by I total advocates like your correspondent "A Sunday School Teacher,'' while, .is has been pointed out, there is not a single passage in the Bible which condemns tV temperate use of wine er strong drink, either personally or in iii" way or hospitality. By quoting fig it words from a passage of nine lines in ( V. loth and 10th verses of Habakknk : I. this general teaching of Scripture '< made to contradict itself. Th,. vo, :- quoted ill the lesson by your coitc-mi (lent, and not infrequently by others if the persuasion, are: "Woe' unl" In n that giveth 'liis neiglilwr drink" vln !i. if it were an honest quotation, v.-or.'d lie, as the Sunday school teacher describes it. "a very sad word.'' Bu! a< it is far from being an honest the sadness is only for those wlm are

guilty of the sin described and for Ilio---teetotalers who thus misapply it. Th.• sin against which this woe is pronouuci ! is that of making one drunk "that lh'-a mayest look on their nakednc—"— to

-mock them as Hani did X'oah. or. 1 imagine, to take any undue adrantug,. of them. The person who thus acts is thus apostrophised: ''Drink.thou also and Id tli}" nakedness !m uncovered." etc. This passage in no way condemns drinking, but only treacherous conduct under the guise o't hospitality. A-.iy ordinarily honest teetotal advocate,' one would •think, would be ashamed thus to 11*0 part of a sentence in tbe dishonest way described; and yet it is frequently so ■wrested from its Teal meaning. Xo longer eince than the last elections a sermon was delivered on those word* in New Plymouth, as if they contained a direct command not to girt- a friend a drink. What can one say of such conrluctf And what sort of a system is it •which requires such continual deception In be practised to give it countenance? Xo system thus founded on falsehood should be buttressed by penal enactments. It must sooner or later fall. as'do all systems based on the «amls of untruth.—t am. etc.. B. KXROTII.