Temperance Column

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1187, 23 September 1882, Page 3

Temperance Column

Sjibscriptioxs arc-Invited to the regular ipublltMnif :'• v Tenjperatico-matter.in Vh'a column.-and; will bo •Bttjly received b'j» C.D'o.,' i)iil,v Office. All tub■cripttons will ■ ' Slnivjlit Path j'oi' Your Feet," ' ;'\.r A SEUMON ' -By the.itev Frederick W,. Furrar, D.D., F.R.S;,' Canon of Westminster, ami Chap--lain in Ortlinnry tp tlio.Qucen. . ; If thk pulpit bo intended in any way to have ; a uationul.as weil a3 an iudivitjiml influence.. ■ ■ ~if wernust look ,to the lessons learnt hi our Churcht'S to ameliorate the condition of our country, and of thoyholo world, tlicn no apology can lie needed fur pleading to-day the causo of the Church of .-England Tempermice Society. The great oi.ject of the Society is tO attack ono of the dcadicst evils : which afflict mankind—the curse of drunken : ncaa, -.a curse which poisons the peace m : homos, undermines to prosperity of nations, and saps the strength of races, a curse which results to:myriads in crime,madness, s! amo, . , disease,,aml death—ruins their life here, and flings a lurid shadow over the life bevond r^'.ftagtave, V 1, It is possible that some of you, who 1 ' have never studied this subject, limy here 1 ■^ ; stumble, as it were, at the very thn shold, ' ■ ' and call this " exaggerated language." - My fricmls, exasgoratcd language is always •' ' wrong ; it is the,surest injury to any cause in which it is adopted;, but it is no ■ exaggeration, it is a plain and simple fact, . -that alcohol, for generation after generation, - . has been a source of ruin to mil ions of mankind.,- Tlie prcscntl'iime Minister of England faid in I'at'.iament.iu March, 1880, drink lias been the cause of a curse more terrible, becausemore continuoui, than war, pestilence, and famine, combined. That statement lias never even been so much as challenged'.' Everyone who lias, studied even the rudiments of the subject knows that itis rigidly and liter illy trim. Now, it- !' ' .thousands were perishing in war, if pestilence were raging, if men were dying of famine, would not a mau be as base as lie would be senseless if lie declined to work for peace, if lie would, not stay the j.csti enec, if he gave no-bread to the hungry, because the friends of peace ami health aim plenty exaggerated the numbers of the dyinu and the dead ? If I ask you, then, as sensible aud honest men, whether it is a sufficient justification for standing wMi foWcdarms in the face of this gigantic evil, because (i f such be thccase) somo of these in whose soul) Go 1 has kindled the Haines of an in-ense desire to deliver their fellow-men, have stepped beyond the limits of conventionality, possibly even of wisdom . and of charily, in.trying to awaken their countrymen to a sense of errors which they dep-ore ? 2- But pause, my friends, before you join in the charge that the language us d is intemperate or exaggerated. Warm language, language spoken from the luart—language ■ which tliri Is and I'i.imes with the passion that has kindled it, may (nil with offensive force upon the minis of tlio.-in who ha\c a strong interest in the nmint -naiiee of abuses, or who hate to be dUu bed in their Epicurean ease; yet i.e wel .wired that no reform canbeearricd. no abuse overwhelmed, no citadel of immoral custom battered lo the . dust, without the force of moral enthusiasm and honest indignation. "Revolutions are not to be made with rosewater." Luther would never have reformed the apostasy of Christ- ' endom if he had weighed his words in jewellers' scales. A politic man, says Lord Bacon, may write from his brain; biit that ■deep feeling' of evils which is necessary to ■effectual conflict with them, and which marks Clod's most powerful messengers to mankind ■cannot bre ithe itself in soft and tender ■ accents,. Did not Moses speak strong language? and Saniuel?and the Prophets ? Did not they awaken the lierce reclamations aud furious anger of their contemporaries? Were not St. Paul's words half battles in that long tumultuous controversy of his iifc ? • Did not St John in the Apoc-dypse, did not St Judc in his Epistle, speak thunders? Nay, more, when th? need was great, when religion was corrupted at its source, when vice po;»d as virtue, and . Pharisaism as religion, did not Christ blight that hypocrisy with the flash ol .denunciation? Let it be forbidden to all me.i to speak with malice and bitterness Let itbt ,i law, rigid as adamant, that no man should say one I syllable that is not true. He who serves a good cause with an exaggeration, burns unhallowed incense; he who would further it with a lie - oilers swine's flesh upon the altar. Bui when the world is offended, only because it i 3 content with things as they .are, when it i.-: enraged that any should be stung by pity into the passion of prophets, let it know that " There burns a truer llglitof Clod In them. In their vexed, bcaiinjj, stuffed, andstopped-np brain, Heart, or white'er else," than can be seen iu the .whole universe of slothful sympathies and fastidious neglects. " I have ner i.i be all on fire," said a modem reformer, ''for I have mountains of ice all about met* melt."3. It is th; object of the Church of England and of other Temperance Societies, to grapple with the curse of drink, to grapple with it by legislation ; to grapple with it by individual influence; to grapple with it by personal example; to grapple with it by rousing public opinion; to grapple with it by bringing home to the hearts of their fellowcountrymen theconviction that it is possible, thit it is expedient, that it is necessary, that it is a plain and imperative duty to reined} the horrible and manifold evils which it ia ' -causing on every side of us. To any one who has imaginat'on to grasp those evils, I do not think it is possible to exaggerate them. For myself, I sink appalled before their magnitude and their ramifications. It is not possible to bring before you one thousandth part of them. I will keep my. self on this occasion within the narrowest limits. I will not attempt to trace the history of this scourge of humanity. I \>ill not touch upon the manner in which it has effected the nations of the world. Iw'll not pause to show how the mission work of England lias been disgraced, hampcrei, and sometimes ruined by the curse of . drink, which has followed the footsteps of her sons. All this I will leave on one side, and ask you to glance at England only, and only at one fragment of the sin and shame, which, as any newspaper will show yon, drink is causing around us every day of our lives. . . 4, In the year 187!), the last year for which leturns have been made up, 310,000 persons : drunkenness, Taking au "aggregate of ten'years I find that the arrests for drunkenness and disorder rerchcd • the appalling totalofl,Ofrl,3Bo, 'j' r y, -friends, tograsp what that tremendous nu'm- • her means 1 But do notthink that those awful figures give you any concept on of the frequency of the vice, for not one case of drunkenness in a hundred comes under the cognisance of law. I'ut now, can you at a'l grasp the shame, misery. pauperism, disgrace, ruin, anguish, disease, and death indicated by the bald statistical fact thatin ten years nearly two millions of our fellow-conntrymcn have come under the hands of justice for this sin? Take drunkenness simply as drunkenness, without entering into all its graver and deadlier i:sues, and-think for one moment how it degrades the dignity of manhood. Noah discovered wine—that is what yon ' road in oiic vase; in the next you rei the consequences. Unloopthe curtain of the Pat' iarch's tent and enter. What is the sad and shameful sight whiili you isco ? A gobd man's fall j a saint's disgrace; a Patriarch's degradation ; a father angercd and agonised; a sen andagrandsonsniittcuwithma'cdiction ft fresh curse into a world jnst by the waters of the flood. First, IHere is the silly stage of the drunkard. A foolcould make sport of hiin ; a. hoy could push him over; the little children gather . round him with looks of wonder: and con- " , tempt; he stumbles and totters; he ' shouts and babbles.; he is a spectacle of ignomy. Then follows the wild-beast stagij in which a man will lift up his brutal hand against wife or child, or. having entered the public ■ house an honest ni'ui nnyhavoita fc'on"or a . homicide. And then follows the (lead stago : in which the man becomes heavy f htHnseiiaibleasalpg. . ,■ , vAndthjs isa man l-inan, the oroxu -ami , ... flow.rof creation;.man,.vvith.thedi.-iiityof : "" "Go'd"aiiiMge'Hp6iihiiff^aii: , S:ft"i<.yi vr-n=f>jn-ed and ennobled ;iri;in, «made i S : iit 7 litt c ■ •" lower than the ange's, crowned with glory ' undhonttf";man,'whom God loves- man' •• for whom'Ch'iSt died lln his true gory » a '- 1 little lower than the angola,"but ne a drunk- ,. ard a great deal lower than the beasts! , ■ To be continued) ■'