CHURCH OF ENGLAND TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10777, 3 October 1900, Page 3

CHURCH OF ENGLAND TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

♦ The usual monthly meeting of the Adolt Branch of St. Matthew's C.E.T.S. was held on Monday evening, when ninety-three were present, the small number being accounted for by the attraction in the city to temperance people, vis.: —Band of Hope Union Competition, the prize-giving taking place to those who were successful during the past week in the contests. This we do not regret, as we wish the Band of Hope Union every success. The Rev. H. Williams, President of the Branch, took the chair, and in his address stated thai as he went round his parish he heard of the good work the Society was doing, and as the Archbishop of Canterbury had joined the Moderation side, and then became a total abstainer for a better example, he also had studied the question, and had i come to the conclusion that total abstinence was the best for all. Therefore, he had become a total abstainer himself. This statement was received with great applause. Hβ then read the following portion of the Archbishop of Canterbury's address at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, viz.: —

THE SIN OP INDIFFERENCE. "In London, of which I was the Bishoj not very long ago, and in which I still live the evil that comes from intemperance ii past our calculation, and the one thing thai I have perpetually to say to Christians i< this—whatever else you might cay, whatevei your conscience might lead you to do, whe> ther you choose to join with the total abstainers or not, there nevertheless is one course which we beg of you, as Christians, not to take, and that is to be indifferent! (Applause.) I listen ■while a man argues with roe that his way of dealing with this great matter is better than mine. I never should make myself a measure of conscience of any other man—(Hear, hear) —and I hold the more we respect men's consciences the more certain it is in the end that their conscience will say what is right, and will influence their conduct to do it. But, if a man says, 'This is a thing which I have no concern with. Ido not even get intoxicated myself. Ido not see that I have got anything to do with my neighbour. He ought to look after himself, just as I look after myself, and to mc it is really nothing. . To such a man I say, 'You are professing in plain words what is the very antithesis of all true Christian sentiment. (Applause.) You *re declaring that you are quite indifferent to that for which the Lord came on earth, and the Lord died ,for men.' (Applause.) We are told by our Lord that we are to love one another. It is a difficult matter very often to interpret such words how we can make our heats turn to one another so as to fulfil such a command as that • but in this matter we are not left in doubt, for we axe told by an apostle—by St. Paul— that one way of fulfilling the law of Christ is to bear one another's burdens, and if a man say, I iuve nothing to do with the temptations which beset other men; I have nothing to do with tho spiritual burden that they havo to bear, they are refusing to accept the precept of fcft. P au l. They are refusing to accept it even when he tells them in such plain language that it is a way we are to fulfil—l do not say the only way, but oik, of the ways, and a very important way—the supreme command of tho Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He has marked out for us what is the course that we should follow. He has told us that we should love one another, and St. Paul explains it that the thing which, at any rate, it, is certain we can do, w to bear one another's burden. What burden is greater to bear than the temptation which on the one hand has been proved by experience to be so terribly strong, and on the other hand has equally been proved by experience to be so terribly mischievous? I do not mean to say that there are no things worse than intemperance, that there are no crimes that a man might commit worse than getting drunk. I do not mean to say that there are no greater biota on some men's character than the fac that they sometimes drink to excess. Tha. is not the question; but Ido say that though intemperance may not be so"bad a: many other things, yet, for all that, if yot look to its consequences, there is no othe: sin tihat can be put by the side of it, t( which must be assigned a larger share o; the unhappiness and misery, of all the suffer ings both of the sinners themselves and o, all those who were connected with them There is no other sin which has so lar<r< results as this sin of intemperance.— (Ap plause). For any Christian to say that h* has nothing to do with it—l have heard' it I sa*d so often—stirs my strong indignatior when I think of it; that a Christian should say he cares not, Hhat each man should look after himself, and the like. There is a sense in which it is quite true that a man must look after himaetlf, but nevertheless each man is bound to look to Jus influent* others. "Let this mind be in you whack was m Jesus CDirist our Lord " Thai is the precept of the Christian, and the man who refuses to regard! it oil, how can Iμ call himself a Christian in any real sense? nl T A°\ff Z* <a3l UPOD meU to d ° this or to do that but we do call upon men to help one another's burdens, andvou may depend upon it, if there is anything that SwftS^"" 1 **>«««■ is that you help them to escape from such dreadful sin that you help ttem to cling as they evS did, to the Lord, who bought them Sinai's £*" t£em, 7 efc mch me * do they not make a greater claim upon us than most others that can be named ? How it «Mc for t,h« Chrhtiaa to W of SS things and not be stirred within hwS 2J that *"» *** Dot agreTwith the met&ods that we adopt, by all means let hun take methods of his 6W rg plause.) Ido not caE upon him to fofflw mc. Ido not call upon a man to follow m conscience who has no conscience, but I say that Jus conscience must b≥ strange!v perverted ,f he tihinks that he has a rSt to do nothing at all. (Applause" I£J *? SP"***!* in ""J work you can do of ttoa land, the fir*t consideration ttj*ha,t you can do yourself, fc your own There are those who are willing sometimes to glV e money for useful purposes, but what are you doing in your own itfe, m your own -way of exhibiting yourself among your fellows? How oreTou showing that you are really Christian, that yon have a deep sympathy with weak men, who are co temblytampted? It is sometim*. said to mc, "What difference can I make? I am only a mere atom in the great mass of humanity. . Well, nothing is nwe absurd than any question like tfcat. What difference can you make? I say the answer is, whether you make a difference or not is not the question. The question is what jnH most nearly copy the example of your Lord and Saviour; what most nearly brine rou to the level of those who follow His ;xaraple set before men? Why did He :ome and why did He die? Was it not r or His fellows that Hβ came and that He tied? Iβ it not for Him that each one of is is bound to make what effort he can to ,ift -op, if he possibly might, some small ■hare oi the burden that now is pressinz leavily upon Christians, struggling Christians, weak, weak fallen Christians md pressing them sometimes to their dcsTuction? (Applause.) My friends, my nenda, let tibis euA. into your very souls hat we have no rigfat to be indifferent in uch & case."

Tha above was attentirely listened to and loudly applauded air the conclusion. The following programme was then gone through in a most satisfactory and pleasing manner, and each item well received:-— Piano due*, Mies Forwocd and Mr Buchanan ; song, Miss Heslop ; song, Mkss Buchanan ; eong, Mrs Francis; song, Miss Forwood; song. Mrs Blank; song, Mr Butler; hymn 157, and collection, amounting to £1 2s Bd, after which the choir gave two glees and Mr Gordon gave a comic readling. A recitation was also giv«n by Mis* Norrie. A pleasant evening was tirouglrt to a conclusion by the singing of "God Save the Queen." 495Q