[To TUB EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR. '1 a life
abstainer and non-smoker. I read with some interest the correspondence now appearing in your columns on the subject of " Drink." I spent two years as secretary of a junior branch of the 0.E.T.S. with some four hundred members, and feel that at such a time it is well to recall BOUM words uttered by Richard Oobden on the subject of tem- perance. He said: " Every day's experience tends more and more to confirm me in my opinion that the temperance cause lies at the foundation of all social and political reform. They are therefore the tritest friends of the working millions who are labouring in the cause of temperance." They seem very appropriate for our day. The present Government is to be heartily congratulated on passing a measure curtailing the hours at which drink can be sold—the abuse of drink being one of the evile in our midst to-day—causing, as a great statesman once said, more harm than war, pestilence, or famine. A public analyst has told ue : " Alcohol is a false spirit which has the reputation of warming the body, whereas it only starves it." Aud Sir Charles Tarring, one of our Magistrates, said some time ago: "Since the public-houses have closed early we have had very little business; when they are closed altogether we shall have no business at all." I feel very strongly myself that it would tend towards the highest good of the community if all Christians, as well as others, could see their way to abstain from intoxicating drink, if not entirely, at least during the continuance of the present terrible war, and thus follow the example of our King and learn to sacrifice something for the sake of their weaker brethren who fall in this way, not forgetful of the example of our brave soldiers who are sacrificing their lives for us, and, above all, of Him, our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, who came not to be ministered auto, but to minister and give His life as ransom for man.—I am, Sir, &cr., JAMAS WRITE. 17 Ham Park Road, West Ham, E.
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