TOTAL ABSTINENCE (To the Editor of the Tuapeka Times. )

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 145, 17 November 1870, Page 3

TOTAL ABSTINENCE (To the Editor of the Tuapeka Times. )

Sib, — I aae in your last issua a letifer from the Tevio'- signed " Total Abjcainer, ' commenting upon the platform association of abstinence and re.igion. I cordially a_roe wih the writer tiiat this association is a mistake ; but I think so, not because I fear tlie injury which religion wiil do to abstinence, but because f fear fha i"j ur y \h oh abst:n3nce will do to religion. I believe teetotalism to be a plaudioxd to Christianity Jt is hell to be, as I think Dr. Copland called it, tha bridge over the gulf of sin. I believe our Redeemer holds that place in the Christian scheme, and not abstinence. Certain I am of this, that a little more examination and study would have r 'strained the ministers of the various religious denoniiijatons at Lawrencj from coining to the front of the movement. 1 still truat fiat th»»' will reconsider their position, preach the grace of Grod more, and human means less. They may rest assured that the inconsis- { tency ox their position will "become more ' evident as the movement pro^ressep, ! Your Teviot Correspondent has been- the first here to state that wnich has become perfectly plam at home, Viz., that abstneuce and Christianity are rivals,, not allies. Abstinence is in itself a religior. Monks, Faquirs, Mahometans, have proved its power. It has many moral and social virtues, but chrisiian it is not and those who would amalgunate them will fi;»d oat their mistake— that they ; have been doing the work, not of the goape', but the law, not of Christ, but of Ant - christ. — I am, &c, CasisTiAir. Tokomairiro, November 14.