PRESIDENTS LETTER

White Ribbon, Volume 17, Issue 8, 18 September 1945, Page 3

PRESIDENTS LETTER

My Dear Sisters, “Praise (io<i from Whom all blessings flow.” How we praise Him that the most devastating war ever experiv >:ed m the world has come to an end. “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, ‘The Lord hath done great things for them.’ The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad.”

As wc praise the Lord tor our great deliverance, we continue to pray for thi bereft, the sick and the destitute, and surely this is the time to seek to dedicate ourselves to serve our Lord m this great field of Christian temperance. What will He have me to do?

Has our work any connection wiih the work of reconstruction? Yes, assuredly it has. What reconstruction plans can be perfected as long as drink remains insidiously pulling down the best-laid plans of man ? Time and again drink frustrated the Allies in their war efforts. France and Pearl Harbour are two glaring examples. We have the organisation a!! ready to take a wonderful part in reconstruction. As drink played a disastrous part in delaying victory, then we are doing world service in striving in the name of our God to break this power of evil. “He not weary in well doing,” my sisters. In due season God will give the victory if we faint not. In the midst of our thanksgiving our hearts were filled with dismay when we heard of the disgraceful scenes enacted in some of our N.Z. cities to celebrate Peace. The Rev. J. J. North says: “The utter failure of the Government in connection with the Y\J. celebrations can hardly he too vigorously condemned. With the debauchery that attended the V.E. celebrations fresh in memory, they suffered the brewers to prepare tons of beer and left the bars ajar. The dangerous trade had its way . . . irreparable harm was done. It need not have been. A Government that had revelled in restrictions could have secured a decorous thanksgiving, hut it did nothing but make a very idle gesture. We condemn their inaction.” Let us have long memories, and make appeals against such indecency in our streets. There is to he a victory day in the future. There is no time to waste for it, that it may he celebrated with joy and thanksgiving and with no disgrace on the good name of N.Z. Fear not the hosts against us. The Captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ, the all-conquering Saviour, has promised all the help we need. “My God will supply all your need.” Yours for real victory, JESSIE HIETT.