THE TEA ROOMS QUESTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13995, 2 September 1909, Page 2

THE TEA ROOMS QUESTION.

To the Editor ot the "Tiniaru Herald."' 4sir» your very moderate artic-hs on the tea ruoms question are ftcbly attacked. It is a marvel to uie sir. how yrju ran •untrol the editorial pen so calmly and in so dignified a jnaoarr. ii m niy hands it wuulJ be imperative upon me as a simple Christian duty to >mito the twtlilt-fS • atehtlOips «'! ail uuscriptural J>abOath lup and thigh. It i> surtly tiutf collie truth ami tacts vnre brought before the people, and the Press liuids this Kni'd responsibility. The real iu"anlai'ss 01 tile situation about.tile tea . rooms ts in having iwr.it notions about the SabbatU. I ti>- people- art? beiu^ ♦ uiighteneil. and th.-re i> a - uoi-o gvuig »n tue tree tops. ' As Abraham said: *■* on may »ii-tTivi' soiue |m.vi>pie all tiio time, aim" all the pe-ople-lor some time; but never all the people all the time. ' Ihe J'resb\iery ura l' *i*l» tie subjeet, but be\oiiti iho*ing the effects ot training and prejUUkt, there was 110. attempt at argument, or reply to what had appeared in public- print. Too well they know * lien it is a matter ot explaining the attitude ot the Heformers, the Early Fathers., the Apostles and the Divine Master, they are beset with barbed wire entanglements, and are lit'lpand driven into the morl»d opinion of Huntanisni. yet in a dishonest way «ill yet talk * of the Sabbath as if it were elad in 'J* iron raiment of inexorable law. Hm i» received ojily by those who have m»t stirred from 'limaru. Those who know the work! and yet remain true to Uw CTimiian behet will wink the •pPT cre T for they too well know that Sabbatarian views are merely a matter SWff'fhy- It is resolved into a question of latitude and longitude; and that conscience on the matter is a. very variable quantity. To those who sincerely love 'the Church this i» the saddesTt part of tho whole thing: 'l hat, toy painting toe Chnst&n in drabs, bronoF. and du<l greys, and trying hopelessly to enforce the .Puritan sabbath. a bad effect, is the result. People who will ntotbe coerced stand on the footpath on Sunday—look both *"ays and slip quietly into the back of an hotel. Others L go _tre*pa<sing with a gun and shoot * olb Paradise duck out'* of srasun. Others congregate on the riverbeds and with a riflo plant a bullet ii|. a 10lb trout. twenty or thirty otlier yopng fellows will maybe squeexe into a oncroomed cot ori the terrace overlooking the Hused L-a rooms, and play t\reU P- Oh. t.'iv shallowness suu lolly cf 11 all! The law mak-.s ciin>iuals hv «rrating artifical sins in Irecard to tho Sabbath, which is a fungus outgrowth »t t*miijni>ni. aiatl tne oosolete laws r King Clurits. Ueir is tin- intuit — it t* always, dangerous to miiitiHy r*-tri - Hons and requirements U*yoml what is istcnLal,- tkcdnar men leeiing tueuihemmed in break the artificial tinier, bat breaking it with a sense of guilt, do thereby become hardened in conscience, and prepared 'for tranvpwwon of commandments wliich are fflfiae and are of eternal obligation. Hence it b that the criminal has to often in his confessJons traced his dcterioratkiß in crime to the ftrst step the Sabbath-day-; and no doubt with accurate truth. Let nse say right hrrp, so as not to be mismdentuod, that the utterances of the Presbytery and others in the columns of ;ow[ paper are at bottom jexoeedingly pernicious to the morals of this district. It a*ems ti> me it is the duty of the Herald *' to he even more outspoken ta thk matter, as you stand on safe and solid ground in jtlw Near Testament truth that " man wAs not mad** for the Sa birth, but Sabbath for nan.'' This is excellent, for, the breadth and the height and the depth of it are. equal. Any opponents yon may have must be hampered by tho task of protecting a huge Puritanic baggage train .packed with obsolete munitions and a mixed assortment of M""!"bows and arrows and j itt hatchets. Their Sabbath cannot, bo defended on moral grounds fur it is too chort in the fibre, and is not founded on the needs of man. —l.am, etc., JOHN BLUNT.