BAPTIST ABSTAINERS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14993, 13 June 1914, Page 16

BAPTIST ABSTAINERS.

Tho proceedings of tho Baptist Union last month closed with a well-attended temperance meeting in the Bloomsburv Church, at which Sir Alfred Pearce Gould presided.

Sir A. P. Gould took for his text tho fact that almost every minister of the Barvtisfc denomination and every student in the colleges was an abstainer. Addressing himself .ayinen, he urged that what was good for the minister was good for tne layman. Tnoy iiad not demanded it of their ministers, but tliev themselves had found that .total abstinence enabled them to do more for tho Kingdom of God than they could do otherwise. Alconol interfered »'v. the highest developments of a man's power—his efficiency. .Referring to missions, he asked with what voice was the Christian church going to speak to 'Mn peoples of India, China, and Africa. It was no use for the teetotal minister to speak with one voice and the moderate drinking layman with another. They had to settle this Question and 6neak with one voice. The Rev. A. C Morgan Fletcher, of Camberwell, put first amongst the tokens of encouragement the conversion of the doctors. In consequence of that it was not co easy to die to day as it once was. Ho regarded that conversion as little short of the entire capture of the citadel. There was also tho testimony of the insurance companies—a testimony altogether unprejudiced, based upon the ledger and the counting-house. Testimony came oven from Dartmoor and Portland. There was a higher standard of health amongst convicts than any other class. Only one thing could be urged against total abstinence —it was not conventional in some circles, and conventionality was the fad of society. Referring to the increase in tho drink bill of last year, he said the Legislature had done practically nothing to promote sobriety. The Rev. J. Morgan Gibbon delivered a brilliant address on "Temperance and Progress. ,, Amiel had described progress as the aroma of life. But how much more could religion do for man than mere progress 1 Mr Gibbon traced the leaps of civilisation in tho past in Christianity, in tho Reformation, and in other great movements.' What was to bo the next great leap ? A national leap into sobriety and sanity, and peace would bo a leap far on the road to where the great city stands. But the drink traffic blocked the way. They could not have tho best fatherhood and motherhood because the way was blocked. Drunkenness in an hour could undo the progress of endless ages. It put back the clock of tho world; it got at the. worst in man. But what were they to do to clear the road to where the great city stands? Mr Gibbon went on to reckon up tho forces that were with them— the economist, the doctor, sports, legislation, the Band of Hope, but neither of these were the main thing. They wanted something more—they wanted to get at the root. The natural man would always bo an evil man; there must be n cuiiuge in nis nature. _'iney wanted that something that religious people called conversion. The question ultimately came back to the Church of Christ. And it must be made a Church question.