TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3888, 18 September 1928, Page 9

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

(Published by Arrangement with United Temperance Union.) CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND DRINK. “Alcohol more than any other agency was robbing Ihe church of her effectiveness by destroying efficiency and pulling down where tlie church sought to construct. Alcohol was weakening the will of man and .making the appeal of Christ to the souls of men absolutely abortive.”— Rev. E. S. Tuckwell, 8.A., State Conference, Kew, Victoria. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE. By the Rev. George Zukc ur. Pastor St. Vincent’s Church, North Evans, New York. The Catholics who in recent times influenced public opinion for good, were the total abstaining Archbishop Ireland, in America, Cardinal Manning in England. Cardinal Mercier in Belgium, and Father Rosmini in Italy. The best churchman Australia ever had was Cardinal Moran, a strong advocate of total abstinence. The greatest advocate of temperance since the time of the apostles was Father Matthew, whose success inspired Neal Dow to undertake the Ainericon prohibition movement. Pope Gregory XI wore a Father Matthew total abstinence medal. His successor. Pius IX, urged the Canadian bishops to be abstainers for the sake of their flocks. Leo XIII, in a letter to Archbishop Ireland, defined total abstinence as “ the truly efficacious remedy for the pestiferous evil of intemperance,” and urged pastors to “ shine as models of abstinence.” His successor, the saintly Pius X, urged Catholics to get in “ the forefront in the battle against alcoholism.” It is time to rescue the Holy Bible from the unholy hands that misuse it .for liquor propaganda. The Latin Vulgate, the authorised version used in the Catholic Church, favours prohibition. “ Seven days (of the paschal week) nothing fermented shall be found in your houses.” Ex. 12: 19. “Nothing fermented shall be seen in all thy confines for seven days.” Deut. 16: 4. If the Jews at the beginning of spring had any grape or fruit juice that had fermented during winter, they had to dispose of it before the- paschal days. They were thus prepared for a long period of prohibition. Nothing fermented was left in their houses or within ‘ the confines of their country. Our modern translators of the Bible, Catholic and Protestant, English, French, and German,-have no right whatever to substitute the words leaven and leavened, for ferment and fermented, giving a false impression that Gcd prohibited only leavened bread, but not fermented drink.

Fermented drinks were rigorously exeluded from the temple premises. “Thou shalt not. sacrifice the blood of My victim upon anything fermented,” Ex. 23: 18. “ Every oblation that is made to the Lord, shall be made without anything that is fermented. Neither shall anything fermented or of honey be burned in the sacrifice to the Lord.” Lev. 2: 11. Wine mentioned favourably, as in Ex. 29: 39, 40, was not fermented, because nothing fermented was allowed in the sacrifice. “Fermentation is the emblem of sin, corruption, and death.” (Corn.a Lapide, Comment in Lev. 2: 11.) God, the Author of life and holiness,- must refuse to accept as a sacrifice anything rotted by fermentation, for alcohol is invariably the product of decomposition and rot. ALCOHOL. Some say—- “ Alcohol gives strength.” If so, why do athletes abstain while training for a contest which will require all their strength to win? “ Alcohol gives endurance.” If so, why do employers always require absohite abstinence from those who are to engage in long and difficult tasks? “ Alcohol gives heat.” If so, why do travellers in the Arctic and Antarctic regions abstain from it? “ Alcohol steadies -the nerves.” If so, why do marksmen, surgeons, and men .whose living depends upon a keen eye and a steady hand let alcohol severely alone? . . “ Alcohol sustains health.” If so; why do abstainers have less sickness than drinkers? “ Alcohol lengthens life.” If so, why do many insurance companies charge a lower premium to total abstainers? “ Alcohol brightens life.” If so, why are the darkest and dirtiest places always those where drink shops are most numerous? And why are the worst crimes, the most brutal assaults, and the most terrible murders always mixed up with drinking? The fact is: Alcohol is a mocker —promising one thing and giving another, and whosoever is deceived by it is not wise.— Eastern Tribune.

WHAT SPOILED HIS SLEEP. There is a little, fancy, but a large amount of sobering fact, in the following anecdote fold by Canon Wilberforce:—■" A little boy in the north heard his father, when he came down to breakfast, muttering and feeling very uncomfortable, as most men feel after drinking over night. “ I had a dreadful dream last night,” he said, “ and I can’t get over it. All night long there seemed to be three rats sitting on my chest. One rat was a fat one, one was a thin one, and the other was a blind one.” “ Father, I can tell you what that dream means,” said the lad. “ You can?” asked the father. “ Yes, I can,” he replied. “ The fat rat was the publican, the blind rat, father, was yourself, and the thin rat was mother and me.” - We consider this interpretation faultless, and the fact which the dream illustrafes is the greatest and most unaccountable paradox of the age. The many suffer penury and starvation, and dress in rags, in order that a few may have plenty and wear fine clothes; and ’ government permits the exchange for a portion of the proceeds; and then spends many times what it receives to care for the products of the whisky mills., - .