THE SYNOD AND PROHIBITION.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9188, 20 August 1895, Page 6

THE SYNOD AND PROHIBITION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS.

Sir,—Will you allow mc space to say, in reference to •' Country Churchman's" letter, that your correspondent does not; at all events represser the universal teeling o; Churchmen in the country. In regard tt the rev. gentleman whom your anonymous friend so pointedly names, I myself chink that the expression used by him describing prohibition as a fad was, if anything, not strong enough. At any rate, being inysel* a parishioner of the clergyman alluded to. I entirely endorse all his remarks. "Country Churchman" appears to have confounded temperance, which has the sympathy of everyone, with prohibition, which is the f_d, "and a very mischievous one, of a minority. 1 can only compare the methods of prohibitionists in New Zealand to those of W". T. Stead elsewhere. Your correspondent may possibly approve of such methods. That they do infinitely more harm than good is the firm conviction of— Yours, Sec, Another Country Chcrchman. to the editor of the press. Sir, —la common with many opponents of the drink traffic I deeply regret that the Anglican Synod did not accede to the courteous request of the Rev. F. W. IsitC, to hear his statement regarding prohibition. Perhaps chose members who voted against him will take the trouble to read the enclosed remarks by Archdeacon Farrar. Loyal Churchman as he is he would not consider it infra dig. to hear the speech of a Wesleyan minister on the sacred floor of the Synod. —Yours, Scz., Country Parson. The extract is rather too long to re-print in full. The following, however, fairly represents the gist of Archdeacon Farrar'a remarks :—" Hitherto the forces of hell have been too strong for us. The poor perish in multitudes, siuking into the lowest depths of shame, misery, and crime ; and no man layeth ie to heart. Drink-selling millionaires, the owners of houses where this work of death is done, are turned into titled and hereditary legislators, and the wretched continue *to lie in the hell like sheep,' while death gnaweth upou them suddenly iv the morning in the sepulchre out of their dwelling. Aud 3till half the clergy are icily apathetic aud Laodicean in the matter, though tbe air all around them is tremulous with the sighs of the perishing. A few are doing something, but the work is very slow, and the powers that make for evil and for the destruction of the human race will not give up their master iv the moment of destruction without efforts far more wholehearted and unanimous than any which have yet been made. After all that has been said aud done and suffered, the conscience of the nation is unaroused, and I for one fear that England may trespass too long on the forbearance of God, aud suffer too many to perish ' for whom Christ died ;' until at last the cup of her crime in this matter will be full, when ' Vengeance will leap upon the stane,' and the tragedy will be short, though the hideous comedy has been so long."