PRIMITIVE METHODISTS AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10970, 26 January 1899, Page 6

PRIMITIVE METHODISTS AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE.

The Primitive Methodist Conference on January 17 (as briefly announced in ft telegram which appeared in the Herald at ihi lime) debated a motion to the effect Mint total abstinence from intoxicating liquors should be required as a roudilion of membership from all applicants for admission to the Primitive Methodist Church. The speakers were apparently all total abstainers personally, but considerable divergence of opinion was expiessed as, to tile wisdom of making ahi-ti- I nonce binding. The supporters of the motion look the position that strong drink was :: curse, and I hat tee standard ol conduct of church members could not be put too high. The Christian Church should aVoid even lb? appearand' of evil, and if the matter was left alone for fear of giving offence to certain leading families lielonging to the Primitive Methodist Church, that church would not be presenting a united front to evil. A young minister said that he would like to add gambling and dancing to tho scope of the motion- both serious evils. By parsing tinmotion, the Primitive Methodist Church had a good opportunity of earning kudo* for itself. On the Other hand, it was contended that if it was admitted that moderate drinking was not a sin. then moderate drinker* could not rightly he excluded from membership. There was also no need lor the proposal, the church members being ilreadv very generally total abstainers. Total abstinence should be a free offering to God. and not enforced by a binding law, which the inde-pendent-spirited would he inclined to resist. Jf all use were interdicted on account of abuse, one might cut off his head at once. They should Christianise any man, no matter what liis habits might be. A member who owned to hilling been a hard drinker for years, said that all the efforts of the temperance societies had done him no good, until he had found strength through conversion to God. This was the way they should lead people. Another speaker thought that no measure short of total abolition of liquor was of any avnil. An amendment that I lie motion should apply only to applicants under 21 years of age was proposed, but not pres-ed, and the motion was carried by 26 voles to 11, amid prolonged applause. It will lie noticed that the resolution is prospective only in its effect.

Referring to the above decision of the Conference (lit? Lyttelton Times states:Tho Primitive Methodist Con fore nco, representing a Nonconformist body which is neither numerically weak nor uninfluential, adopted a very extraordinary resolution at its meeting yesterday. The resolution is deserving of notice, if only as showing to what length the " Nonconformist conscience" will sometimes carry its possessors. The effect of it is to make total abstinenco an indisiwnsabie condition of church mombership. It declares, in so many words, that the man or woman who touches intoxicating liquor in .any shape is unworthy of admission to the inner circle of Primitive Methodist worship. The Primitive Methodists not only declarod a principle, which they had a perfect right to do, but they proceeded to closo tlioir doors against all who differed from them, and against each and ever)- individual addicted to participating in the " curse." One of their number went a good deal further, and suggested drastic .legislation, with ft view to excluding from membership everyone who was not willing to forswear gambling and dancing. His ecstatic zeal did not convince his fellow members, although he was merely carrying to its logical conclusion the principle which they had enunciated. If a man who drinks a glass of beer is unworthy of church membership, it is difficult to discover the fitness of the man who speculates on the totalisator, or who succeeds in amusing himself in the intricacies of the dance. The matter, as we said, is one of interest, as showing how far extremist views are at any time liable to be carried. It is more than likely that tha great majority of the Prohibition party will see much to commend in the resolution arrived at. The public, however, and even the moderate section of the temperance party are likely to look at the matter in quito another light. For our own part, we have always woloomed any reasonable scheme for minimising the evils of intemperance, but we have little hope that the resolution adopted by the Primitive Methodist Conference will do anything towards this end. It can scarcely fail, indeed, to react unfavourably, not only upon the church that passed it, but also upon the temperance cause as a whole. It is a direct set-back to the modern and humanising movement which aims at making church membership wider and more universal, and which is opposed to intolerance in any of its forms. It the principle of the Primitive Methodists were adopted by other bodies, it would be impossible to say where the end would be. If a glass of beer is immoral, there is no guarantee that the coffee-drinker, or the theatregoer, or the man who wears a silk hat, or carries a red pocket-handkerchief, may not find himself severely reprimanded. The deduction may appear to be far-fotchcd, but when once an arbitrary principle is adopted there is no limit to the extent of its future application.