RELIGION AND HUMBUG.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16848, 26 September 1922, Page 6

RELIGION AND HUMBUG.

TO THE'EDITOR. Sir,—A pamphlet entitled Prohibition Unchristian came into iny hands the other day through the post. It was published by the authority of the National Council of the Licensed Victuallers of New Zealand. The fact of the liquor trade interesting itself in the matter of correct dogma is too ludicrous for words. It irresistibly brings to minci these lines—“"When the Devil was sick The Devil a saint would be ; When the Devil was well A devil of a saint was he.” Your correspondent “ Old Port ” seems to have browsed in the same theological field. He is satiated with the same arguments. It is a nauseating fact, and a tragedy of the Bible, that almost every great evil of modern times has been defended on Biblical grounds. The slave owner found a salve for his conscience in Noah’s curse upon the children of Ham; the utterance of Christ, “ The poor ye have with you always,” has been used to defend the worst elements of our modern capitalistic system. Such crude literalism would justify anything. I am content to leave the defence of Prohibition on scriptural grounds in the capable hands of your other correspondent, “ Grape Juice,” and to confine my remarks to “ Old Fort’s ” sweeping charge of Pharisaicism, and to his own personal relations to the evangelism he so strongly advocates as the solution of social problems. The charge of Pharisaicism and its supporting text is no more applicable to prohibitionists as a party than it is to the members of the Zoological Society. Pharisees can be found in every walk of life, secular as well as religious, and to argue that the Pro-

monopoly of these gentry is sheer “ moonshine.” It would not be an overwhelmingly difficult task to find some Pharisees in the school of you** correspondent’s persuasion. Before aiming stones at a neighbour’s windowlie ought at least exercise a care that his own is not in tho way. W hen your correspondent urges, with such fierce dogmatism, that legislative enactments can. be rendered unneces sary by the effective preaching of the Gospel it is a tair question to ask him what his own evangelistic record ip. Has he reclaimed the drunkard? Has he filled the halls of the city with people anxious for their soul’s salvation ? Cun he conduct religious meetings that do not have that “vacant look”? If not, then where is tile consistency in asking other men to accomplish that which he cannot himself achieve? Is precept his and practice the other fellow’s? Let him supply proof m hie own life of tho truth of what he affirms, and we will listen to him with reverence and respect. “ Old Port ” is either ill-informed on the subject of prohibition and religious services or he displays an amazing lack of candour. Prohibition sermons are comparatively rarej and many of the prohibition ministers are intensely evangelical. No one would more quickly resent the subject being overdone, but it is the duty of tho preachers not only'to preach the Gospel but also the implications of tho Gospel. Social reform and evangelism are intimately re lated and cannot with success bei divorced by “Old Port ” or anybody else. The fundamental mistake of your correspondent is that he affirms that drunkenness and ail oilier social evils can bo wholly cured by the preaching of the Gospel. He asks the preachers to do what Almighty God (I say it reverently) could not do, unless he altered the whole nature of man and made him an automaton. So long as men possess tho power of free will of free choice, some will deliberately choose evil rather than good, and under such circumstances only legislative enactments will save the weak and vicious from themselves, and the innocent from the effects of their wrong-doing-The law can often cage the wild beast if it cannot tame it. Prohibition will never of itself make saints (that must' ever be the function of the Gospel), but it will give men. women and children a better chance to live decent lives. "\Ve respect sane evangelism, but let the limits of both evangelism and social reform he clearly defined. If a man's religion means anything at all he will explore all avenues, evangelical. legislative, or any other, for the means of the social, moral and spiritual uplift of his fellow men.—l am. etc., A NT I-CH AMP AON E.