THE FALSE BIBLE LESSON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 58, 2 April 1909, Page 4

THE FALSE BIBLE LESSON.

To the Editor. Sir, —Ah a stranger in New Plymouth, my last thought would be to intermeddle •with any matter of local controversy. But two letters under tlie above heading have so strongly challenged my combative feeling as to impel me, by your .permission, to point out the unwarranted inferences in your correspondent's argument. Tlie first of these letters commenced with the extraordinary statement regarding some Sunday-school teacher who had asserted that pride ■would mot keep a person out of Heaven. Certainly a singular type of Sundayschool teacher this must be. But my surprise at this assertion was as nothing to my amazement, ofn reading further on, that your correspondent. B. Enroth,

I deliberately identified tlie ethics of teetotalers with this Sunday - school teacher's untenable dogma. Sir, I am a .eetotaler ol neaorly forty years' staining, anil not only do I disclaim beiiol n any such monstrous doctrine, but I never knew a teetotaler who evinced illy idea of entertaining such/ a conception. Therefore, in the interests of truth, 1 am justified ill denouncing 15. Kiiroth's allegation as regards teetotalers as a body (for possible indiritlual cranks ou lhat_ subject are no rule) as a senseless libel. In his letter of the 30th, after an attempt to apply Sir Dyce Duckworth's .■ensures on Christian Science with the teaching of teetotalers, that have no bearing -with each other, his deductions Jeing simply gratuitous assumptions, laproceeds to charge teetotaler* with mispiotation of the famous passage in Ilabbakuk regarding the sin of one giving his neighbor drink. As the completed sentence is "that lie may look on his nakedness," the charge seems literally correct. It strikes me, however, that more than teetotalers misquote, at least by inference, as 1 will show. Docs 1!. Enroth actually assume that making mother drunk is only sinful when such is done for a scandalous purpose? What, then, about the denunciations against the drunkards of Ephraim in the Old Testament, and the solemn sentence i? the Xe\v Testament that no drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? Is 15. Enroth not aware that all the books of the prophets are highly, poetical and that poetry is regardless of prosaic definitions? Therefore, in that view, the .phrase but reasonably expresses all that is repulsive in drunkenness, and is utterly unlikely to have any bearing on the sin of Ham, as there is not another such action referred to m all the Bible. And in strict connection with this view that nakedness of miml is inclusive in that phrase, ltet the following examples show. In Clutha. where I hail from, I was once credibly informed' of the occurrence of two unspeakable actions by two couples. This was years before prohibition had been dreamt of. Now tto one had made these parties drunk. They had simply made themselves so. What, then, of this exposure of moral degradation when imbruted with drink? For of these parties, one couple at least .were, when sober, kindly, weil-meaninj) people. 1 need hardly refer to the frequent instances brought to the notice of the puhh'c of exposure of mental nakedness, under the influence of drink, in the filthy utterances that make the proximity of a drunken man so abhorrent to any respectable person. Or as the touch of blasphemy I was subjected to by a fuddled blackguard who chose to take umbrage on seeing me awaiting the opening of the church-door on a prayer meeting night lately at iPaeroa. Your correspondent holds there is not a passage of Scripture that condemns the temperate use of wine or strong drink? He might haje added that neither would teetotalleiW condemn the "temperate" use of wine or strong drink but for its prevailing "intemperate" use; that has be"ii the sole cause of teetotalism, under all its various denominations, having called into existence; and who then from proof of the wide-spreading evils frofu its insidious effects, determined to abolish its temperate use for that reason alone. And to let B. Enroth see that this is no suppositious case, I would inform him that when in Gisborne some few months ago I heard the Presbyterian clergyman, in his pulpit, disclaim his consciousness of sin attaching to any one who used spirits in a temperate manner, though he, that is, the minister, was conscientiously striving for the furtherance of the no-liquor cause all the while from the crying evils in connection with the liquor trade.- Final I} - . I would remark that it is a pity for the cause of the liquor party that'it could not be defended better than by arguments ,of such flagrant assumption as characterised by the letters, I have dealt with. •, For such ridiculous attempts to caricature and libel their opponents but demonstrate the fact that a desperate cause is made manifest by the desperation of tile arguments in its vindication. It would serve them much better to frankly admit the deplorable ovils inseparable "from their business and endeavor to reform ihem than by dragging in Scripture to approve what the whole context of Scripture condemns. Th<r slave-owner did the same, there being no absolute condemnation 'of slavery in the Bible. But the evils of the system obtained such an intolerable rate till the public sense of right had it finally suppressed in Britain and America. And the liquor traffic an conducted in "the past is simply a parallel case.—l am, etc CLUTHA KESIBENT. '

STREET LIGHTING, To the Editor. Sir,—l observed from your report of the last meeting of tlie Borough Council that Councillor Bellringer raised some objection to the increased cost of street lighting, us a result of which the matter was remitted to a committee to investigate. It may be interesting to&now the cause of the increase, but what [concerns thfe general public more is the anomalies or absurdities that exist in the distribution. Taking but one instance, and comparing the street in which I reside (Hine Street) with that wliich is graced by the presence of the Borough Electrical Engineer (Liardet Street), I find that from the Esplanade to Belt Eoad, the better part of a mile in length, Hine Street boasts the '•steady glare' of two carbon-lilament .lamps, each of which was once ;(2 candle-power. True, there is a third at ,the intersection with ilorley Street, but that "passed out" some time ago and there seems no immediate prospect 01 its replacement. To make matters worse the footpaths nave as many ups and downs as the average man's lite. ,ln Liardet Street, on the other hand, from Devon Street to the Recreation Ground—about half the distance of the case stated above—there are one 'are lamp and fourteen metallic-filament lamps of 100 candle-power each, or a total of over two thousand candlepower. A short time ago the engineer presented a report showing the.great .reduction in current consumption "by the use of the new lamps; but in the case of Liardet Street it works out something like this, that each 32-c.p carbonlilainent lamp, consuming approximately 130 watts, has been replaced by two Osram lamps, consuming over 200" watts. To the lay mind the economy is not quite obvious. I would also ask what justification there is'for four of the last-named lamps at Liardet Street .bridge, where there are good asphalted footpaths and a perfectly safe footway over the bridge. Then again, on no single occasion during the last two or three months have all of the arc-lamps been lit after midnight, and on many occasions not more than two oft all Hie are lamps (which includes the muchboomwl tlame variety) in the town area are alight at one time'. As the ratepayers' contribution towards street lighting is based on maximum demand, rather than assessed by meter, the reason for the main street of the town being allowed to resemble that of a baekbloeks settlement is not quite clear to A JUNE ST. UEHIDEXT.