Dominion President's Message

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 6, 1 September 1952, Page 3

Dominion President's Message

Dear Fellow Members, Spring has arrived and with it warmer days. Our gardens are showing signs of revival, with bulbs pushing up into the sunshine, birds happily building their nests, and a general air of joyousness is prevalent. I was reading the old story of God’s promise to Noah, that never again would man be destroyed by a flood. “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest; cold and heat; summer and winter ; and day and night shall not cease.” Rut —man can destroy himself. We have gained knowledge and power, hitherto unknown by man, but we have lost the sense of depending on God. The world today is confused because He who created man has been ignored and his laws flouted. How lovely is God’s Universe! How beautiful, beyond description, the sunsets painted in the sky; the rainbow after rain; the colour of a rose; the beauty of a kingfisher’s wing. There is beauty «n the symmetry of a cathedral and in the face of a little, innocent child and in the eyes of goldenhearted youth. But nevertheless, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that man, unchanged in heart and out of harmony with the God of Order, of Beauty and Holiness is still as degenerate as in the days so long ago, when only Noah was found righteous in all his generation. Again, we face a staggering Drink Bill of £23,516,597 for 1951—an increase of £2.234,632 over the 1950 figure. The wreckage left behind by those who indulge costs us further millions in repairing the damage to lives, to homes, and to properties. A country doesn’t need altogether “an act of God” to bring about its destruction; it can do it by losing its soul. Gambling, too, is making alarming inroads upon our nation. The fever and lust for money becomes more and more prevalent. Sweepstakes (a fixed habit in many shops and offices), raffles held for everything under the sun, and the open Betting Shop, which is another evil, confront the young and inexperienced. In the face of so much wrong, we must remember that evil can never overcome the good, however blatantly it comports itself, and although we may seem as a voice crying in the wilderness, we must nevertheless cry. That is whal we have pledged ourselves to do and should our voice cease, greater still would be the havoc caused by the Liquor Trade and the Gambling Fraternity. Our goal is the building of happier homes, the safety of our youth, the guarding of little children. We are handed together in the name of God and of His Christ, to remove the stumbling blocks of intemperance and social evils from the path of % those who journey this life with us. Go forward. Yours in Joyous Service. CONSTANCE TOOMER