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THE VICAR- OF GLYNTAF AND…

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THE VICAR- OF GLYNTAF AND THE BLUE RIBBON MOVEMENT. H LETTERS AND SPEECHES. » 1.1-OWI • A paragraph which appeard in Monday's Western Mail stating that the Rev. S. R. Jones, vicar of Glyntaf, had on Sunday preached against the Blue Ribbon movement, that he condemned the practice of putting reformed drunkards to speak on tem- perance, &c., gave rise to considerable discussion in the town and neighbourhood. On Monday afternoon we received the following communication: — SIB,— Being an old reader of Sermons, and an older listener, I was much pleased to see the announcementsome weeks ago, that we were soon to have the gratification of reading in the Chronicle a few of those sermons delivered in our local •pulpits. Much as I regretted that you bad not seen your way clear to open your columns for this purpose weeks ago, that regrétwaS. much intensified upon reading in the pages of one of your daily contem- poraries that the Vicar of Glyntaff had yesterday thought proper to give his hearers a discourse on Temperance. As I do not think it is wise to t depend solely upon newspaper reports when a great authority speaks upon any question of impor- tance, I will for to-dfty content myself with asking whether what? appears in to-day's Western Mail, as the expression of our Vicar's opinion upon the work which, has been carried on in our midst during the last few weeks, is correct or not? Willour Vicar Limself reply; or are we to depend merely upon the evidence of those who were so entranced with the preachers' outbursts of oratory and indignation, that for the moment they did not know what our vicar was likely to do next. I am yours truly, Jan. 30th, lssa; CAMERON. At the Blue Ribbon meeting at Sardis, on Tues. day evening, The Rev. W. I. Morris said: I have heard during the past two'days of three or four strange things that had been mentioned in one of the pulpits of this town. The first was a definition of the "temperance" of the Bible Now, I maintain that the "temperance" of the Bible means total ab- stinence from all that is injurious, and a moderate use of that which is beneficial. (Cheers). I have also heard from the same authority that in the same place on Sunday it was said that it was wrong to put reclaimed drunkards to speak to others on temperance. If that principle had been carried out we should have had no Gough, no Booth, or others like them. (Applause). Why? Because they were reformed drunkards. (Loud cheers). If such principles were carried out we should not have allowed those grand temperance refotmers to ascend a platform to speak to their fellow-men of the evils of intemperance, to give their own ex- perience, and to give to the temperance cause their Support. (Applause). If that principle were carried out no sinner should be allowed to preach the goepel, and even the gentleman who made use of thn expressions I am now alluding to should not have taken to the work; and it was one of the greatest blunders imaginable to have called the Apostle Paul, himself the chief of sinners," to preach. (Loud applause). We should not be allowed to utilise the talents and the vo ces of hearty, healthy, eloquent men to take up arms against our foe; they are not to give us a helping hand. Really, I cannot allow such a statement to pass without protesting against the conduct of anyone who tries to stigmatise a cause in such a manner. (Hear, hear, and applause). then, the same speaker said that none should sign the pledge but drunkards. Well, who is to take the lead ? kLet those who said do so start a moderation (society, and they would probably want abstainers ■to aid them out of their difficulty, for the very "members of such an organization might ultimately get drunk themselves. (Laughter). But, I am not willing that any pulpit in Pontypridd, or indeed in Wales, should promulgate such ideas. (Hear, hear). The pulpits of Pontypridd in thepast had bef-ll healthy in doctrine; but if such doctrines as those were preached we should only keep the drun- kards down. We will ask drunkards, if we can get them to become sober men, to preach sobriety, and so long as we have pulpits and temperance plat- forms to contradict such remarks, such declamations against our cause shall not escape our notice and our emphatic protest. (Loud applause). And w- will send back our reply that we think that the gentleman who spoke those words should blush to think of the un-Christian expressions he made use of. (Prolonged cheering.) We have our pulpits and we have our platforms), and we are going forward, and it anyone thrusts himself before the machinery he had better look out lest he be crushed by the wheels. (Applause). I am glad that we have with us reclaimed drunkards, and it seems to me that seeing one who was branded the deepest, perhaps, and stigmatised by the gentleman, whom I have referred to, after eighteen monibs' trial of total abstinence stand faithful and true, and doing his utmost to bring other drunkards to paths of sobriety, is in itself a temperance speech powerful enough to electrify a whole audience. (Loud cheers) On Thursday morning the following appeared in the Western Mail from the Vicar :— In yesterday's issue of your pap r, you state that, in a sermon preached by me on Sunday last, at St. Catherine's Chureh, Pontypridd, I referred to the Blue Ribbon movement." Permit me to inform you and your readlrs that I have never in my life made any public allusion whatever to the above movement, either in a sermon or otherwise. You also state that I condemned the practice of employing men who had been drunkards to speak on tempiranee;" and, at the same time, that I submitted that none but drunkards should join the movement.' Now, cnn anyone for a moment believe it possible for any man possessed of ordinary common sense to have given utterence to such an absurd sentiment ? I never eaid anything so contradictory and inconsistent with reason. Whilst I explained that the word temperance, which occurred in my text, did not necessarily mean total-abstinence, but self- government, self-restraint in all things, I took particular care to say, more than once, in the course of my remarks that I had not a word to say against total- abstinence. Nay, I strongly urged it as a duty, and as the only path of safety for those who feel the slightest tendency to excessive drinking. But I added that I could not join total abstainers in their condemnation of sober people who bad never been drunk in their life, for declining to sign the pledge of total abstinence. I consider that it borders upon impudence for a man who has spent the best part of his life, perhaps, in the gutters of intoxication to lecture and severely condemn those who have never been guilty of excessive drinking if they respectfully demur to submit to their demand to put on the strait jacket of total abstinence. By all means let reformed drunkards speak on the subject; no persons have a better right to do so in my opinion, but let them exercise a little decency and discretion, and confine their arguments and labours to drunkards. Possibly they may do more good among that class than those who do not know by personal experience what excessive drinking is. But if temperate people are to be won over to the side of total abstinence, I feel satisfied that reformed drunkards, however sincere and eloquent, are not the persons to do it."

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