THE BOTTLE THAT CHRISTENS A SHIP.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 249, 18 March 1916, Page 15

THE BOTTLE THAT CHRISTENS A SHIP.

V henever * c hip has been christened with a bolile of wine, those of us who believe most s, ongly in prohibition have been ap to rejoice in the fact that another bottle of wine had gone inff) the water. “A good place for it,” we have said. And some of us have said: “What difference does it make whether a is christened with water or with wine? It’s a mere formality: a rite. Why fus* about a little thing?” But comes along the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and puts a new light on the matter. Consider, it urges, the root meaning of the word “christening”: “One of ine dictionary definitions of to christen is: *to name, .1- .1 ship, b> a ceremony likened to baptism.’ Always baptism in the Christian ceremony has been with water. If in days gone by spirituous liquors were supposed to give long life and to bring good luck, the revelations of science have thoroughly exploded that theory. Water is a symbol of life; alcohol, a symbol of disease, destruction and death, the enemy of life and of efficiency; hence the christening of

any ship with champagne is an absurdity and an anachronism.' 1 Many will stand corrected by this same view. We do, and we are glad to take off our hats to the clever mind in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union that conceived this excellent argument. -“Ladies’ Home Journal,” January, 1916.