CATHOLIC TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 35, 31 January 1846, Page 4

CATHOLIC TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

Ou Sunday evening last, at the Roman Catholic Chapel on West-terrace, the Bishop delivered a very impressive discourse on the vice of intemperance* preparatory to the formation of a South Australiau Catholic Temperance Society. Dr. Marphy selected for his text part of the 12th, 13th, and J4th verses of the 13th chapter of the Romans. After a few introductory remaiks, Dr. Murphy observed that if he were successful in establishing the projected Society it would,; be hoped, become the means of undermining one of the strongest fortresses of vice ; for it must be evident to all who had witnessed the dire effects, that drunkenness changed the whole face of society, converting fathers and mother* into raging lions, servants into robbers, and insidiously decoying to their destructon those of the female sex, who suf- r fered themselves to be allured by it, from the safe paths of virtue : and even the church itself, had too often to deplore the havoc and alienation attributable to this vice, amongst her unfortunate children. If any of his hearers were addicted to vices caused by drunkenness, though he might almost despairof reclaiming them, they would at any rate know the horror in which the Catholic Church holds this brutalizing vice in any of her professing members, depicting as the Church did in the most forcible language, the sinfulness and many evil consequences of intemperance. Drunkrnne.ss was the scourge of humanity; it rendered almost abortive the labour of ministers; it made servants squander their masters' money; and and as to their secrets, they were equally unsafe; for liquor was the key to the drunkard's heart. In almost every instance, drunkenness made empty pockets aching heaits; hut the domestic evils entailed by it upon families were still greater. Not to speak of the obscene language and behaviour which were so often superinduced hy if,even were habits of decency ordinarily prevailed; wives and children frequently dreaded the return home of the drunken husband and pat-en* more than they would a visitation from a. wild beast, which they might possibly shut out ? for alas ! at the drunken and brutal husband's return, cruel privations were frepuently succeeded by savage infliction. The ruin of many females whose hearts were once asp,ure as angels', was owing to Iheir having broken down the barrier of temperance. After leaving their parents' roof and fleeing in o some populous town where they were unknown, they had first drowned remorse in drink, and then betook themselves to dens of infamy, until the arm of God flung them into hospitals and Magdalen asylums, as so man/ monuments of Divine vengeance. Often had he (Dr. Murphy) heard at the death beds of such victims, the recital of their fall, aii'l its bitter consequences; and whilst reading over their corpses the service of the church, he had occasionally lifted the coffin lid, and beholding their changed countenances had pictured to himself the frantic shrieks which such a sight mu-t have drawn from a tender mother, could she agaii behold the sad remains of a lost daughter. Addressing himself to those youthful females who had never addicted themselves to intoxicating liquors, the Bishop said, " You may fall, if you don^t avoid bad company, dancing houses, and late hours ; and then farewell to innocence, farewell to purity, and farewell to this altar. If a drunken man was a brute, a woman was a monster ! " To the young men who heard him and whom Jesus looked on, and loved, they who were now a, joy and would he hoped, be a crown of rejoicing to their parents, and on many a one of whom God was waiting to bestow some virtuous Rebecca, he would say, Avoid the beginnings of intemperance or you too will fall. For many years he (Dr. Murphy) had been chaplain to prisons and jails, and had attended robbers and murderers to the scaffold. He had asked the murderer " Why did you murder the wife of your bosom, the Mother of your children ?" And the answer was, " I flung her from me when maddened by drink, and regardless of her shrieks and importunities, I suffocated her, I stilled her cries for ever In my sober moments would not have done so for. all the world." It was drunkenness that helped to bring down fire upon Sodom and Gomoriah ; for an unchaste man or woman who is not a drunkard is a sort of prodigy in creation. Belteshazar, when drunk, called for the sacred vessels, and in his impious and libidinous carousings, there came forth the handwriting upon the wall which irrecoverably sealed his doom. King Herod, too, when heated with wine, made the rash promise to a dancer which pleased him, which caused the death of holy John the Baptist. He (the Bishop) need not quote more instances of the like baneful eltects of intemperance in times past. The Scriptures declared that they whojdosuch things and have pleasure in them shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But he would tell them something more immediately applicable to themselves. If the ministeis of the Catholic Church were called to visit a person who had manifested no lucid interval subsequent to an apparently fatal debauch, they were forbidden by their Church to give him absolution : indeed, were they to do so, they could not be guilty of a greater sacrilege. And why ? Such a person was in a state of mortal sin ; and if he died in such a state, there was no hope of salvation. But how could he get out of it? — By repentantance. But there is no repentance in the absence of reason ; and if the debauchee died in that state he was lost for ever. A man who has become suddenly bereft of reasou, is, in law, declared to be no longer accountable for his actions ; and at whatever subsequent period, however remote he might be removed from this life, his accountability to his Almighty Judge would only have ceased at the hour of the awful visitation which had deprived him of reason. Jn conclusion, the Bishop urged it upon every one who heard him to set his face against the damning sin of drunkenness ; but if any members of that Church chuse to go to desti urtiou by the high and broad road of intemperance, they would do so at their own peril; he at least was clear of their blood. Saint I'aul exhorted them to avoid all intercourse with such characters, not even to eat or drink with them. Still they were not to forget the drunkard. He is the prodigal son, whose return might some day be wel coined by the killing of the fatted calf: a strayed sheep whom the Shepherd of Souls might ere long carry back to the fold. And, for their comfort and encoui axemen t, he would remind them that Samt James had said, that if any man were the means of reclaiming a sinner from the error of his ways (let them not be be terrified at the extentof the promise), he would cover a multitude of sins. He trusted the pi uposed society would flourish, and be instrumental not only in the reclaiming- of one sinner, but, (by the Grace of God) of thousands. Finally the Bibhop besought his hearers to unite their energies with his, for the achievement of this great moral leformatiou, so much needed and so fervently desired; and in doing which they would be conferring a lasting good upon the colony and upon their adopttd country. On the following evening the Catholic Temperance Society was founded, under the patronage of the Bishop. The Rev. James Watkins occupied the Chair, and will be President of the Society. VicePiesideiit : the Catholic clergy of the province. Fifty one persons took the pledge. It was agreed to meet at the School-room, every Monday evening at seven oi luck.