THE BREWER AND THE BISHOP

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 5366, 10 December 1885, Page 2

THE BREWER AND THE BISHOP

The Ohurch of England Temperance Chronicle publishes the following letter, which the Bishop of Rochester has received from a Newcastle Brewer. The copy of the letter is a literal one, eve^ to the spelling : — Newcastle-on-Tyne, August 24, 1885. Rev. Sir, — I saw lately in the papers that you had been speaking of the Disestablishment of the "Church of England,' and I observe there i 3 a considerable flutter in the clerical dovecote at the threatened attack. I myself am a Conservative, and have, up to now, been a Churchman, an belong to a family in which has never been a dissenter. I say up to now, for I am about to sever my connection with this so-called " Church of England," and transfer my annual subscription of 3 guineas a year to the Liberation Society. And the reason is this: I am a brewer, and your Church is now a huge Teetotal Society, and bent on the destruction of an important and honourable branch of industry. You are perverters of the Scripture, and dishonour your Saviour by your dogmas, and by instituting an 11th commandment you place the laws of man before those of god. As an instance of the hideous deformity of the Teetotaler mind, a Clergyman (?) lately told me that if our Saviour were to revisit the earth again He would be a Teetotaler! I very believe that if He were to come on earth now He would be waited on by Teetotaler deputations, and on refusing to suscribe to your wretched dogmas, your Church, like the Pharasees of o d. would denounce him as a friend of sinners and a wine-bibber. In fact this is what the Church (?) does now, for did He not give us wine both for our bodily pleasure and as the emblen or our redemption 1 ? He said, Drink of it. Your Church (?) says Drink none of it. You have no more right to preach Teetotalism in your Church than you have to preach vegetarianism or vaccination. Therefore, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. You make a terrible screach when the Church is attacked, but you have no scruples in attacking us. Will you apply the same ation to your own side? I know many clergyman who are a disgrace to their specie?. Do you advocate sweeping the church away in consequence, or are they even removed from their charge? No. But because one man in a hundred takes too much, you say sweep away the entire trade. Well, all I can say is, I would like to see the broom with which you are to do it I You see the mess you have made in Wales by your. tinkering, and you would

press your Sunday Closing stiTl'-'further, but Bishop's cellars are still to be 'Ojpen, and Bishop's horses groomed, arid. Bishop's diuner3 cooked, whilfi the poor man has nowhere to get his modest pint of beer to his dinner. Do not believe the people whom you seek, to domineer oyer will be driven into your churches — this is a delusion — they resent your priestcraft and ultimately smash you. Nor need you lay the flattering unction to your souls that you will fall in a good cause. You will fall unregretted and despised, denying your Saviour, and oppressing your fellow men. I can well minister to my own religious wants without belonging to any sect, and therefore. I remain, sir, A Brewer First, and a Churchman After.