CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVIII, Issue 152, 28 June 1883, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the '»Evbnin4 Mail/'; Sib— Httmaii .patience, like India-rubber; will bear a good, deal ofy stretching. But I there are litriitsto the- endurance b'f both,i [ and I must admit, as a terkpcrate man, I<hat i I have been sorely tried by the intemperate a ßlue Ribbon,"' which appeared in your Monday's issue. So long as the 'advocates of total abstinence— a very different and much poorer thing than temperance — confine themselves to the redemption of that very small fraction of humanity whict cannot touch intoxicating liquor without ending by wallowing in the gutter, their efforts, under , whatever naime they may be Carried on, whether Teetotaller, Rechabite, Good Templar, or Blue Ribbon man, have my heartiest sympathy. And those who 1 think with me, whose numbers are, I believe, legion, how•ver they may wince, will refrain from sneering at the tomfooleries that too often ding to the skirts of a beneficent and vary serious^movement, much as the clown peeps out amid the grimmest Shakespearian tragedy. For the work's sake we are willing enough to overlook the cap and bauble that seem to kb bo painfully prominent. The bands and the banners— the ribbons and the sashes— • the empty titles that exhaust the scanty resources of our twenty-Bix-lettered alphabetall these we can freely pardon to earnest and well meaning men, who think that some of their feebler brethren may be caught by such simple devices, and dragged out of the foul slough in which they were sinking. ' It ia when the total abstainer, quitting the comparatively narrow field ia which alone his labours are valuable, carries 6n an aggressive warfare against that vast majority of hie fellow men whose motto and whose daily practice alike are Temperance, that it becomes an imperative duty to sternly bid him Hands off ! Few wordß will suffice to illustrate what I mean. "Blue Ribbon" says, "Hence the clear Christian obligation: No man or woman claiming affinity with Christ— the world's regenerator -can consistently' touch, taste, or handle strong drink." Indeed! 1 Then "Blue Ribbon" must draw his knowledge .of the doctrine— and what is more to the purpose on this occasion— the practice of our Saviour, from some other source than the record to which all Christendom has hitherto appealed as decisive on Buch questions—the Bible. There I find that the conversion of water into wine— and heady wine, as the context shows—was Christ's first miracle. There I learn that his cheerful but moderate indulgence in the pleasnres of the table (which is not denied) gave rise to the calumny that he was " a glutton and a ! wine bibber." There I learn, finally, that at i the Last Supper, as if to mark the harmless-

ness of the gift of God, which the nineteenth century fanatic will not allow his fellow Christian "to touch, taste, or haudle," it forms a full half of the simple banquet of which the founder of Christianity partook, ! enjoining its continuance, in the same form, ! to all his followers for ever. '; I am &i\, '• TKMPKKAN'CE. I