NO-LICENSE ARROGANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 202, 5 December 1910, Page 7

NO-LICENSE ARROGANCE.

To the Editor. Sir,—Mr. E. Bishop's first cartel, or challenge to the Rev. Mr. Osborne, reminded one of Landseer's picture of "Digr nity and Impudence," in which a little insignificant dog threatens with his teeth a splendid mastiff, whose foot is nearly as big as his little challenger. The idea that a revered and aged clergyman should be asked in 'heated terms to d<escend from his 'high calling to bandy words with his challenger, df it were not so impudent, would be a little humorous. It was with much sorrow one noticed, by the way, that advancing years, or other causes, are inducing this servant of Ms Master to res'gn his position, wliieh, if carried into effect, 'Wall be a sad loss to New Plymouth, In this sad age of the delusion of pure Christianity, when ministers of all sorts appear to worship the golden calf and pander to public opinion, instead of "daring to be Daniels" and boldly proclaiming the fact of the sufficiency of the Gospel to correct all the sins and failings of humanity without such nostrums as the No-license Party offer, it is no small thing for a community to be blessed with the presence of men of Mr. Osborne's stamp, all the more precious because of their scarcity. Mr. E. Bishop does not inform us as to what the rev. gentleman said about the sinfulness of No-license; but it was probably a reminder that, however heated and distorted our views may become as to the greater sinfulness of drunkenness as compared with other sins—a favorite though mistaken idea of that party—it does not abrogate the command', "Thou s'halt not steal" of the old law;, or that other of the new, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye also unto them." Put shortly, No-license means forcibly taking our neighbor's business and property without payment, none the less an infringement of both of these commands because it is done by a majority vote. A more cruel, dishonest and unchristian measure can hardly be conceived, and if all Christian ministers ihad the courage to speak the truth on the matter, as I imagine Mr. Osborne did, some more honest method, by moral suasion—Which is proving so effectual in England in lessening tibe evil of excess in drinking—would be applied here. Then we should not have such spectacles presented to us as we have this very day in New Plymouth, when an old and respected colonist is being carried to 'her grave, whose life was shortened and its end darkened by her anxiety as to the last no-license vote and its probable effect on one or two of her children. If Mr. Osborne pointed out the extreme sinfulness of doing evil that good may come, he was acting the part of a true pastor. Such men are the salt of the earth, and probably keep from us - many outpourings of God's wrath, when we see so many literal fulfilments of the prophecy of Micah, "If a man walking in wind and falsehood' do lie, saying I will prophesy to thee of wine and strong drink, he shall even be the prophet of this people." Mr. Bishop's second letter is an object-lesson as to what a depth human nature may fall, when carried away by a distorted mind, which loses all sense of the proportion of things. It is sad' Teading, and exhibits a phase of degradation 'Which the votaries of Prohibition may fall into by trusting in their own endeavors and losing faith in that Heavenly Father who has for his own purposes permitted the existence of sins of all sorts. One has had occasion to point out in your columns the great temptations of this cult as to untruthfulness, and the growth of evil-speaking, and various other sins which deaden the graces of Christianity. But here we see, by the writer's own confession, how it also may produce ingratitude such as would disgrace a savage heathen. Is our race doomed to the loss of all that is noble and best in the characters of our fathers? If so the future historian will doubtless account for its decadence largely through the spread of this prohibition craze and its usurpation of the seat of pure Christianity, which, before its blighting influence arose, made our race one of the noblest in the universe, and, had it been adhered to, would have raised us still higher in the scale of humanity.—l am, etc., B. ENROTH.