27 NOVEMBER 1915, Page 12

rTo THE EDITOR OP TUE "SPECTATOR. " ] Silt,- You have taken

up the cause of temperance, and who could gainsay such letters as appeared in your last issue P May I suggest to your readers a study of the seventh chapter of the Book of Joshua P We fail if we do not flee before our enemies. We are called to repentance, but the word of God to Joshua was : " Get thee up ; wiry bast thou thus fallen on thy face P Israel has sinned.!' The special sin, hoarding of gold and valuables, was discovered and punished. Surely we need another. Joshua who will deal vigorously with the accursed thing. Our Achan is "the trade" interest, which for ever ties the hands of feeble statesmen. It is not the sin of drunkenness, but the worship of gold, which is our national