TEMPERANCE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 691, 29 May 1885, Page 6

TEMPERANCE.

SIR ANDREW CLARK'S LECTURE. The cause of true temperance is in the ascendant, and will be greatly helped by such speeches as that of the Bishop of Peterborough and Sir Andrew Clark. It is greatly to the credit of the bishop that he has sided with the Church Temperance Society, and so far done what he could to counteract the influence of that little smart epigram into •which he fell a few years ago, and which, though in senses true, was in its main application highly questionable. The teetotalers will put themselves entirely in the wrong if they do not meet the bishop half way, and endeavor to make common cause with all who try to increase the sobriety and abate the drunkenness of the nation. Absolute abstention is a moral necessity for those who cannot observe moderation, and a medical necessity for a large number of cases of alcoholism. What we want is “ earnest advocates ’’ of “ temperance ” in the sense of the Apostle who “reasoned” about it, men -who can admit, like Sir Andrew Clark, that •while “ not necessary, for health,” there are »many persons to whom it has not yet been proved that certain small quantities of alcohol, taken at stated times, at dinner and supper, are injurious. Let us abolish casual drinking, tippling, public-house drinking, and careless social uses of alcohol. This -will cut off nine-tenths of the disease which mow desolates families and disgraces British 'Christianity. —Lancet.