THE CRIME OF DRUNKENNESS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 10, 5 July 1873, Page 11

THE CRIME OF DRUNKENNESS.

A rbcbnt publication by the Sisters of St. Clare, Kenttwre, says : " If people would onlj try as earnestly not to commit siu, as they try to make money, or to do their daily work, they would certainly succeed r for God gives His holy graoe to those who ask it ; but we must keep out of the way of temptaliou. If a man who is tempted to drink goea into a public-honse, he puts himself in the way of temptation, and he has no one to blame but himself if he commits sin. Listen to what our holy biehop3 say to us in their pastoral letter : — " How the Church mourns for thousands who in Ireland render fruitless all her constant care for their salvation by their persistence in the awful crime of drunkenness, which it the fertile source of so much sin." Do vre not v\l know how fenrfully true this is ? Where is tho bishop — where is the priest — who has not to mourn over many members of his flock who are lost through this dreadfully dangerous vice ? Do wa need to tell you of the misery which it causes, of tho evils to which it gives rise? Even if drunkenness were not in itself a deadly sin, how many sins it causes. It might be said — it is said frequently — that crime would be almost unknown it Ireland, if it wore not for sins of drunkenness. It is the shame of the Irish people that , this should continue. Why should we bo reproached with such a fault? but what matter what men think of it, let us think of how fearful a crime it is in the sight of Q-od and His holy angels. God has given man the noble gift of reason, and man of his freewill deprives him*<?lf of it. He becomis like a beaat; he becomes worse than a beast : for a beast ha* at least instinct, and never loses that by its own fault. How can a man feel that he is a man, when he degrades himself so deeply ? ' . Surely we have need to make reparation to God for this crime. Let us implore God's pardon for the past ; let those who have been guilty of this crime make tho best reparation by t iking the pledge ; let those who have been tho means of enticing others to sin remember that they must answer to God at tliej|Last Great Day for tho evHs they have caused. Above all, let us tako euro of the young ; let us give them no bad example : and lot those who are not tempted to this deadly sin do all in their power, by worJ aud example, to help those who are in danger.