President’s Message

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 1, 1 February 1949, Page 5

President’s Message

Dear Friends, Please accept my very best wishes for 1949. May it be a very happy year for each one of us, made so by the amount and quality of the service we give to Christ our Leader. As the year opens w r e find that vye must enter a pitched battle to retain 6 o’clock closing of the hotel bars. Many of you may not remember the evils attendant on 10 o’clock closing and so will, perhaps, find it difficult to realise what the earlier closing hour has meant to our towns and cities. Young or old we know that the later closing hour means greater facilities for drinking and, as the promoters of this evil- ti*ade well know, more young people will be taught to drink alcohol and at least some, if not many, will through those later hours alorte lose their health and honour, spoil their homes and bring shame and sorrow to those who love them and to those who shall come after them. Do not for one moment forget that alcohol is still a poison no matter at what hour or under what conditions it is sold. Do not forget, either, that those who do less than their utmost to banish the liquor trade are helping to keep it in power. Just think what a difference it would make if all the people who consider themselves “ good Church people ” would vote solidly for the earlier closing hour. “ Fight the good fight with all thy might Christ is thy strength and Christ thy might.” So we go forward undaunted to the Victory that lies ahead. Hoping to meet many of you at Convention. Believe me, Your friend, C. E. KIRK, Dominion President,