BLUE RIBBON UNION.

Western Star, Issue 962, 4 July 1885, Page 2

BLUE RIBBON UNION.

The following is the full text of tho Rev. Mr Hodgson's address at the public meeting held under tho auspices of the local branch of the Blue Ribbon Union on 26th ult. The address will be found well worthy of perusal,

and is an able statement «f the case from a Scriptural point of view :

"Wherefore, if meat raaketh my brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh for evermore, that I make not. my brother i o stumble." —(I Corinthians, viii, 13.) This noble resolution is characteristic of the clear-headed, large-hearted man who formed it, and a first-rate way of coming to issue with t!ie class of people he had to deal "with. St.. Paul's expostulation was with those selfish, unfeeling persons who strike out n method of living which seems awful 10 themselves, coring not that by ifthen'weaker brethren are maimed and made to si umbie. The quest ion needing settlement amongst the. Corinthian Christians was this : How far h it, right for Christian men to eat meat which has been offered to idols ? It may be necessary to say that the lion's share -of the sacrifices offered to heathen gods fell as perquisites to the priests, who, having much more than they could use, sent the surplus into the markets to be said, and of course it was sold and found its way to the tables of the people and became part of their common food; It thus became an occasion of pain and sore perplexity,to,the sensitive Christian convert, inasmuch as it was alnioSt impossible, without totally abstaining from it, to .avoid eating 'iti How can I; eat flesh offered to idols without polluting myself and giving countenance to idolatry? Such was the question he asked, and found it hard to answer. Others, with clearer' heads and thicker skins, saw no harm in eating such flesh, and therefore scrupled not to oat it. What is an idol more than apowerless blook of.marble or of wood? How, then, can a thing so'insignificant render the victim offered to it unfit for human food, or cover the eater with pollution f It can do no such thing, and, therefore, we need not shrink, through fear of self-cor.demn-ation, to'eat the flesh offered to.it so long as <re hold | aloof from . its i worship. . St. Paul acknowledges the validity of their premises but'completely repudiates the conclusion they draw from them. He substantially says :" I admit th it an idol is nothing, and that eating the flesh offered to it is harmless, and that in the abstract you have liberty to eat it, but when circumstances render the eating of it perilous, to the well-being of others, it is wrong and.a sin against Christ,to do it. The only right thing, therefore, for you todo is to concede your liberty and 1 abridge-your- pleasures that the integrity of the consciences of your brethren may be maintained." Then, with a touch of indignation at their selfish clinging to'what they were pleased to call their rights, lie makes (ho emphatic but generous avowal: -"WhereforoVif meat maket.h ynj brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh for evermore, that ■I make not my brother to stumble." The conviction here stated is, that whatever tends to relax tho moral principles and imperil the moral safety of others;'however right it may be in itself, is wrong to me because I am a Christian, and in a pre-eminent sense the guardian and promoter of my fellow .man's well-being. And wrong to me, it is my iiity to completely break with'it.; This conviction is the vital principle of out? subject—the religious aspect of the temperance question. My task, therefore! will be (1) to determine the nature of intemperance, and (2) briefly define'the character of the ;Christian, position. Our appeal is to fact and experience. Intemperance is known by its fruits. vVhat it is is seen in -what it-does. Its issues are common/ enough •to be recognised the moment they are mentioned. It impoverishes the purse, corrupts the body, and enfeebles the brain. It blasts the reputation of its poor victim, saps the strength of his character, tears his constitution to pieces, destroys his self-"* respect, upturns the,deep foundations of his personal, domestic! social ; arid r.duious joy, and throws around him the shroud of moral ,md spiritual death. It.is tho> fruitful source; of two-thirds of the strife and starvation, the misery and'squalor, the ignorance a'ndJbrutality which mar our social life. Again and again has violated the sanctity,'of the marriage vow, and turned the hearthstone into a scece of contention. It has severed the sacred bonds which bind fresh young hearts together, and blighted many a fiiir domestic prospect. • It; lias given, birth to thousands of imbruie'd fathers, and' bioken-f periled mothers, -and starving children.' It has; degraded ; dqlieate daughters into harlots, audi hopeful sor.s into sots. It has driven many a poor creature' to despair 'and death. More than -once havo wo seen these enumerated ; results realisod. It has ofton been our painful lot to watch tho sure retrogression of moral character, and the growing fixity of dissipated habits. It^h'as.'hee'n, ! .wo;jregrpt. to gay, no infrequent sight to see men troad the downward path by whioh confirmed .drunkenness is reached,,and to witness the personal degradationlahd,domestic misery inspparable'from such a course. These are pal palSle facts' of" everyday experience, and their mute, pathetic testimony is, that the natural tendency.of intemperance is to effect'the complete ruin of every hapless victim I who falls beneath its power. 'That it is a destructive vice is, too, I plain to require further proof or admit denial. We are now in l a position to consider the

second salient feature of our subject,, which is the nature and functions of .personal, religion,—or the characteristics of individual 'Christian life. A Christian may bedescribed as one who embodies and expresses'the convictions and principles, the disposition and aims, tho instincts and qualities' and tastes which constitute the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Personal Christianity signifies to be as He was, and to do as He did. A man is a Christian just in the measure in which He is like Christ in character and conduct. Now, the essence and genius and highest law of the Christian life is the spirit of selfsacrifice—the daily, hourly losing of the selflife in the lives of others—the willing consecration of all our powers to tho weal of men. i The following is its authoritative description: " Lot this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him tho form of a servant, and was made in tho likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man ho humbled himself, and becamo obedient unto death, even tho death of tho Cross." This selfgiving, self-abnegating spirit when possessed in any fair measure, becomes tho master impulse of tho believer's life, and secures a conduct too uoblo and generous to permit of indulgence obtained at the cost of another's shame. The mau who is actuated by that, holds himself in readiness to mako, when called upon, the sacrifico of his case and pleasure and many other lawful things, iu order to shield a weaker naturo from harm.

Wo cannot coneeivo Christ refusing to abstain from anything tho practico of which wo'uld start a feeble human creaturo down

the dark path of ruin and disgrace. Wo know how.He would act in tho presonco of this great social curse. And wero modern Christian life as self-sacrificing as it ought to bo, wo would know with almost equal ecrtaiuty how every Christian man would act in this matter. Tho spirit of this lifo would shape it* reflections thus:—"My attitude amid tho present circumstances is clear: My brothei 'a perils fix my duties. What ruins him cannot bo right to mo, and shall not,

ihercfore, have my support." Such is-the iompcr of the Christian life iu its best condiiiou. Analyse that temper, and it will yield a

ioh fund of qualities, evory one of which is rrocoueilably hostile to iutompcrauco and

every othor vice. It will yield among other things a deep-seated reverence for the human soul, an all-absorbing interest in its prosperity, and a sacred passion to effect its present and everlasting weal, it will yield, as Emmanuel Kant would say, principles of action which will bear to bo made laws for the whole world. There can, therefore, bo

nothing in common between intemperance and the Christian position. Tho man who over-indulges in intoxicating beverages does so not because, but in spite of his Christianity. Such indulgence is as inconsistent

with the spirit of the Christian life as is the prautiue o$ any other vice, ami never fails to

hamper the exercise of its runofcions. Has it power to aid any struggling soul? Will it bear to be made a law for the whole ■world ? These questions answer themselves, and that answer ought to bo in itself sufficient to determine the attitude of every Christian person to it. Moreover, the greatest practical value of the Christian life is found in the sustained energy of unconscious personal example. We are none of us ignorant of the fact that the best human exemples are cardinal factors in our moral and spiritual development. They invest tho great master principles of life and duty with all the charm of vital interest, and thus make us-indebted to them for our strongest moral impulses and purest inspirations. It is not so much what men say, but how they live, that tells most potently upon us. Truth spoken from the life strikes home with greater force than when uttered from the lips. But this very influence of personal example may become a snare to us. The ease with which it wins our confidence may become the ready means of throwing us off our guard, and of working our moral disaster. Tho obliquity of our moral judgmeuts and tho hesitancy of our moral determinations aio caused by tho iufluenco not of the worst lives, but of tho best. Nothing, morally speaking, is harder than to resist theinfiuonco of the best example in debatable matters of .conduct, i It is nevei" easy to believejahy thing wroDg whickr.oceiyes'ago6d"man's practical; support. There is no class of pcoplo under heaven wlio have more 'power fto'i imake. '.evil appear good than those of acknowledged goodness of life. Let their practical Sanction be given to, any , specific evil, and it will be, strange if • it' 'dries' not very l soon take rank amongst the . good...things of .life. The toughest' piece' of work, therefore,''in' temperance reform is that of convincing men that intemperance is a vice so long as it enjoys.'the prestige, *f! t tho. obtest 3Christian: characters." Tt pains ''fa's' 'to''admit that oiir' brethren, members of. the same .Living Head, have set" us bur" hardest' tasks/'They* hive put the strongest arguments into the mouths of our adversaries, they have lent the whole force of their goodness to the cause we are resisting, and they have raised huge barriers in the way of the reform of their degraded fellow men. We are, therefore, now, I think, prepared to truthfully affirm that intemperance is not only inconsistent with, but opposed to, the spirit and functions of the Christian life.