MORAL SUASION, NOT FORCE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIX, Issue 1083, 8 December 1910, Page 22

MORAL SUASION, NOT FORCE.

An American minister of high standing is responsible for the following, which is a true statement of the causes of the failure of Prohibition wherever tried: —

“The prohibitionist has made a brave start toward covering the field of moral law with civil law. The inevitable logic of the movement is to annul the sphere of reason and conscience, and to try to enforce upon all the people the practices ‘l’ think good for them, and so ‘maintain at all hazards the highest well-being of all the people’ by police power“If America is to prove to the -world the capacity of men for selfgovernment, we must learn where to curb our impatient desires to coyer the whole field of morals .with civil law. This practice is bound to bring all law into contempt. ‘lf the church and home are to fulfil their mission of creating in man the reason and conscience which alone fit him for self-govern-ment, they need speedily to find and occupy the field of the gospel. Their work is to appeal to the reason and conscience of man/ and thereby develop him into the image and powers of his Creator.”

If our Alliance friends are wise they

will cease to be politicians, and return to their true functions. The pulpit was never intended as a rostrum for political organisations—temperance, freetrade, protection, Labour, Conservative, Liberal, or any other. The churches must suffer at the intrusion of a quasi-political subject into spheres of pure religion. If our “temperance” friends buckle to and make their propaganda an attempt to influence the individual by appealing to his moral side, then they will receive the support of all. . It is notable that the Catholic Church adopts this attitude, and has never in Australia allowed its pupils to be used for politico-temperance propaganda.—“ Fair Play.”