THE PERSONAL EQUATION.

White Ribbon, Volume 22, Issue 254, 18 August 1916, Page 8

THE PERSONAL EQUATION.

1 want to emphasise the tremendous importance of the personal equation, the enormous power of personal example, the far-reaching effects of the investment of personal influence. The King sees in the victim of strong drink a degraded subject. kit< hener saw a spoilt soldier; the tear her sees an enfeebled mind; the inert hant vo a commercial loss. Hut there is something more. The Christian sees a man made in the mental and moral image of Cod, a brother for whom Christ died, with his body blighted, his moral manhood marred, the image of (iod effaced, his character corrupted, his soul enslaved—and more, he sees the drunkard perpetuating his evil in an offspring lacking in physical fitness, in intellectual capacity, and in moral vision. We have entered upon a great epo< finicking period in the world’s history, upon on of the great cycles of judgment, in Imperial crisis determining destiny, and believing, as we believe in the Fatherhood of (iod, and the brotherhood of man, and witnessing as we witness the physical, mental, moral, and social havoc wrought by drink and the public denial of all the elevating doctrine of home, church, State, and Empire involved in this vast agency of degradation, 1 do not see how we can be true to ourselves, our home*, our church, our country, if we do 'lot fight for all we are wor»h that which hinders, as nothing else hinders public health, blights as nothing else blights the homes of the people, breeds as nothing else breeds degeneracy and vice, vitiates as nothing e’.se vitiates the moral atmosphere, and opposes as nothing else opposes the establishment of the Kingdom of (iod on earth. The real motive for temperance work is the motive of the cro!>s, the motive of self-sacrifice, which does not underestimate the evil of drunkenness, and does not undervalue the worth of man. Politicians must be taught that they cannot afford to play the publican game against the public conscience. Our representatives are elected to represent us, not to rule as Our statesman are ministers of State, not bosses of the State. Altogether, apart from a referendum, they know that public opinion in this State is overwhelm ingly in favour of six o'clock c’osing, and cn no other subject would they

dare to he so dilatory, so fearfully lax, and so expert in the use of politi cal proverbs of postponement.- Rev. Ruth, in “White Ribbon Signal.”