The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-31 00:00:00

"DENY THYSELF."

The Archbishop of York, speaking at a meeting held
in the Church Institute, at Sheffield, on Saturday
night, for the purpose of forming a branch of the
Church of England Temperance Society, referred to
the drinking practices of the country, showing the
great necessity for reform therein.
His Grace observed that "in 1869 the nation spent
112 millions in drink, and since that period the quantity
had been considerably increased, especially on the in-
crease of wages. There was no doubt that in this
country there was spent in drink more than twice the
amount if the revenue of the country. They might
mark this fact that not only was the money spent in
drink a great waste but.the Legislature had put it on
record that it was waste. What he meant was this.
One half the revenue of the country was raised by
drink, and while the people insisted that the taxes on
tea or sugar should be reduced or taken off, they knew
it was perfectly useless to insist that the whole of the
malt-tax, or wine and spirit duties should be remitted.
Why was it? If the one was as wholesome as the
other the case for reducing taxation was equally in
point. The people had the right to insist that their
beer should be made cheaper as well as their tea, but
the Government was aware that the nation wiwatihamed
and half-hearted about its drinking propeneitiee, and
that it wouta make a &amour 36013, is. W hat a
great goose the aggregate working-man was. He paid
the moot important part if the great drinking tax
without grumbling, but if a single penny was putupon
him in the shape of an extra tax he would make an
outcry from one end of the land to the other. If he
wanted relief from taxation was it not in his power to
obtain it to a wonderful extent? By simply abstaining
from using drink, from which the nation raised half
its taxes, he might reduce taxation without consulting
the tax-gatherer at all.
" Then they might consider the question from
another point. They might take the case of a man
who spent £2O a year in drink—not an extraordinary
case by any means—and then take the case of a
man who subscribed £2O a year to a building society,
from which he would by and by get a house. For
the £2O spent by the man in drink at the end of the
year he would have nothing for his money, even sup-
posing the drink did him no harm, which, however, he
maintained it did. But how did the case stand with
the member of the building society? He had £lO
towards a house or shop, while the other had simply
wasted his money., and had nothing to show for it.
Then it was manifestly unfair for a man to spend his
, money in drink, for he did not take it home to his wife
and children to swallow—rather agood thing by-the.by
—but drank it all himself. In doing so he took away
from them food and clothing, and that which went to
make home prosperous and happy. The man who
belonged to a building society was morally taller than
the down-looking, hang-dog creature who had wasted
his money in drink. Sheffield men had to a great
extent to work in hot places, and he had been told this
was a great temptation to drink. He did not deny
that temptation from the nature of their employment,
but he did deny that it was a temptation which oughu
not to be withstood. It required a great quantity of
water to quench the thirst of one of these men, but
then he drank beer in the same way as he drank water,
and the consequence was that in the long run the effect
on his health was very severe. He would certainly
advise the working.men of Sheffield to find some other
means of quenching their thirst, not because they
I would find it effectual at once, but because it would
be better for them in the future. So long as this
practice of beer-drinking prevailed to such a terrible
extent, they might preach from their pulpits, erect
schools, and make elaborate social arrangements' but
they would never be a prosperous people, for they
would never be able to bring the people to the moral
height they desired.
"It had been stated that the rich were always
lecturing the labouring classes about what they ought
to do; but he did not place his confidence in such
efforts of reclamation. His hope lay in diffusing serious
and sober thought upon that subject among the
working-classes; but it was impossible to make the
people sober by pressure from legislation. At present
the working-classes did not know the case in its real
' enormity ; but education was spreading so rapidly that
in a short time there would scarcely be a person who
had not been educated to souse extent, and to these-
they ought to speak as man to man, and show them that
they were their own worst enemies, and that the
, difference between the two classes was due to the fact
that in some people there was more prudence and more
calculation than in others, and that if they were prudent
alike they would alike prosper. For this object he at-
tended to encourage temperance in their midst. There
was a time when he thought the Church of England
itself was the great Temperance Society, inasmuch as
there could be no relkion without temperance; but it
had been found necessary to have a special society to
promote that which it was the object of the Church of
England to promote. The Church of England was a
great missionary society, but there were other mis-
sionary smieties ; and as a matter of convenience if
they wished to promote a special object he was bound
to my that it was well to have a special society.
Therefore, they were glad that a few adventurous
people had formed a society for them, and inked tor
thew assistance. It was a very difficult subject • in
fact, he doubted whether there was any problem in the
world more difficult than to reform a drunkard. It
would have been thought impoleible fifty years since,
but it was not so now, for hundreds and thousands
even of drunken men had been reclaimed. They did
not half know the power they wielded when they had
the Gospel in their hands, and the miracles going on
In this century were as great or greater than in any of
those wrought centuries ago. The real need was to
learn how to deal with the matter. In the first place
they must convince the man of the harm and evil
which emanated from drink, and how grossly unfair
it WM that his poor little children should be grow-
ing up neglected in their miserable home because
he was addicted to it. But, although man was fallen,
that did not mean that he was utterly destroyed.
He had 3 conscience; and relying on that con-
science his reformation might be obtained. After eon-

wincing ma of the evil they must do more, and show I
him that he had their sympathies; that they had not I
left him alone to struggle with the temptations around
him. There must be some centre from which this
sympathy and interest must emanate, and that centre
would be found in some society formed in the parish
for the purpese—eome society whose members would
give support to the man in the face of opposition, and
say 'Old fellow, we think you are quite right. Come
to us.' (Laughter.) Then, he did not see why a man
should be obliged, when he requited refreshment, to
take it in the form of beer. Therefore, he urged the
establishment of British workmen publichouses, in
which a man could obtain refreshment without im-
bibing strong drink; places where they could not
drink intoxicating liquors even if they desired; publk,
houses where they could read the papers, have con-
versation, and drink things which were good for them.
Putting the matter on the lowest ground, if a man
preferred to have that kind of refreshment the Legis
lature ought to encourage such houses, lusts-ad of
those in which the appetite was prejudiced by drink.

" Then, as to the moat important bearing of the came,
the common conception was that in times past the
minister of religion WU simply the exponent of certain
tenets which he wished to impress upon the people;
but he disclaimed, for his own part, on behalf of the
Church of England, all such narrow exclusiveness, for
he would have nothing to do with it. If they, as
members of the National Church, bad only to teach
mn from the pulpit certain tenete without being
ministers to them through life, then their day, if it
had not passed, as the Established National Church,
should be passed, because they did not the work for
which they enjoyed that high and estimable position.
They ought to show themselves interested in all that
concerned the people, audio the name of education they
ought to promote temperance as well as in the name of
religion. The re was no one present, whatever his polities,
who felt the word freedom more than he did, or who
valued it more, lie wished to see the people Ices; but
what was the use of talking about the £lO franchise
when they sat contentedly with a chain ten times
riveted round their own necks? Was that state of
things freedom? Ile did not think any man free who
enjoyed none of the blessings of freedom. Therefore,
in the name of education and freedom, they wished to
destroy this great evil of intemperance. They were
ministers to the souls of men and would do well to
write on the groandwork of their Christianity the
words 'Deny thyself.' It might be argued that the
poor had less to deny themselves than the rich. No
one wished to speak harshly on that point; but the
words applied with equal force to the poor as well as
the rich. They wished to see the spiritual, moral, and
physical condition of the people raised above its present
level, and, whether they succeeded largely in Sheffield
or not, they felt bound to make the attempt. There
were a great many large employers of labour in the
town who had gained their wealth from the labouring
, classes; and he hoped they would do something to
diminish the temptations to drinking among their
workmen by putting a stop to drinking inside the
workshops, and also putting a stop to the payment of
foot ale' and that sort of thing. Let there be
especially working men's clubs and publichouses in
which they could not be incited to strong drink, but in
which men should feel happy without it."
_ „. .

The Archbishop concluded by affirming that with
the establishment of these clubs and the spread of
education the next tide of prosperity which swept
over the colliery districts of Yorkshire would find the
men more thrifty and temperate, and that some of
them would by their frugality and temperance rise
from the labouring to the higher elastic-3 of society.
(Applause.)