NBWTA Report 1903-056
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107 106 solution, under present conditions, is to be found in a wide system of Sweden and Norway have grappled strenuously with the drink problem during the past half-century. In both countries a large measure of local option has been the basis of the legislation, and experience has shown that the more directly the opinion of the people has been taken, the more stringently and successfully the traffic has been dealt with, The drunkenness of the people in both countries during the first half of this century was terrible. It was worse than that of any other nation in Europe. Consequently the experiment of giving power to the people to deal with the supply of drink in their own localities was tried amongst a population of notoriously heavy drinkers, and is particularly valuable as showing that it is by no means local control which Gop’s TRUTH HAs Many Asprcts. At no time, probably, in our generation has a more intolerant spirit pervaded every section of religious life ; and surely at no time is this more to be regretted than in this wonderful age of scientific revelati on when the world is on all sides more closely knit, when space is vanishi ng, and the limits that have separated peoples are annihilated by inventi on, when we can speak across the distance and messages come to us over the stormiest sea. _ These things should bring a greater spirit of catholicity to our time, for are not all men brought within spiritual and mental touch ? We recognize that God’s world is varied by hill and valley, mountai n so certain, as some people imagine, that in drunken localities the people would not use the power to rid themselves of the temptations which surround them. In 1855 an Act was passed which gave to local authorities in Sweden power to restrict, regulate and prohibit licenses for the retail sale of spirits. In the rural districts the people had the power to veto the sale by a direct vote. In the towns control was vested in the local authority, but as the local authorities were unreformed bodies the representation of the people on them was unsatisfactory. The result was that in the rural districts the veto was freely used. Out of the 2,400 parishes into which rural Sweden is divided, and not 2,000 abolished and been tried, the conviction evolves numerous and grows plans and methods have that the most satisfactory and river, yet it is the same ours, and that world. May we not come to what we believe is not necessarily the Protestantism as Catholicism, and we shall do well to remember it. We may believe that we have evolved into a higher standard in the school of truth, but let us beware how we despise the kindergarten through which men have been led by God Himself. At any rate, let us reverently respect all other men’s creeds, and, above all, respect their motives. When we differ, do not let us immediately imagine that it is because there is something wrong in someone else that they do not hold our views, but if to us the truth that we have seen is very clear, then let us see to it that by our life, our words, our actions, we uphold that truth so as to make it beautiful to others, and not rush with ruthless hands to endeavour to break down their standards so that we may plant our own. Nor THE Form, spur abt seems to me that these peril. It is not the form of existence of the faith itself. only one per cent. of the male place of worship, and he went In Norway, as in Sweden, the veto power was freely used. Its persistent maintenance in the rural districts over a long period and its immediate adoption on the first opportunity by a large number of the towns, is proof that in the opinion of the majority of the Norwegian people the system is a desirable, workable and satisfactory one. The trend of legislation in Norway and Sweden during the past half-century distinctly confirms that of the United States and Canada, in showing that where the liquor problem has been seriously and with, stream aspect of truth which God means should be forced on all men. It was this spirit that fostered the Inquisition, it was this spirit that led men to the stake, it is a spirit that can as easily invade 14 were at the great fishing stations. grappled slope, therefore, believe that there are different aspects to the great truths of God, that we have not got all the truth, although we may have most of it, that there may be something in what strikes another mind that has spirit licences, and since then 200 more have done so, and the prohibi- tion has continued for forty years. In 1893 there were only 250 spirit licences in the whole of Sweden. Of these, 10g were privileged licences —z.e., had been previously granted for life by royal warrant—and could not be touched; 88 were “temporary” licences for tourists and only permitted sales to travellers during the tourist season. There were only, in the whole of rural Sweden, 53 ordinary spirit licences, of which 28 were “on” and 25 were “‘off” licences. In Norway the control of the spirit licences in rural districts has for a long time been under the control of elected parish boards, and the sale of spirits has been prohibited in them almost universally, except at old wayside inns which can only sell to travellers—residents within three and a half miles may not be served—and whose licences are not subject to withdrawal by the local authority. In 1892 there were only 27 licences issued to sell in all the rural districts of Norway, and of those energetically includes giving power to the people to prohibit. oi THE ExistENCE oF FAITH. are times in which Christianity itself is in that faith that matters so vitally, it is the The Bishop of London has told us that population of the East End attend any on to say that “it may be that eighty per cent. are out of touch with organized Christianity.” And Dr. James of the United. Free Church College of Glasgow, said in June last ‘ at there was a vast and growing population in our centres “ which was (about as indifferent to the Church i i and what was going on in it as to what was going on in Timbuctoo;” and Dr. Horton, writing in May 1890, says: “ For the great multitude of strenuous hard-working men of |