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RECHABITISM AT PONT.I KEWYNYDD.…

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RECHABITISM AT PONT. I KEWYNYDD. ] ADDRESS BY THE HIGH CHIEF RULER. An interesting meeting in connection with the "Lily of the Talley Tent, 1428, of the Order of Rechabites, was 1..JùM at Merchant's Hill Chapel (kindly entior the occasion), on Monday evening. Prior to the public meeting, a social tea meeting W'á.8 held, and was well at- tended. The Rev. ¡¡. Edwards, D.D., presided at the subsequent meeting, and was supported by the Rev. G. Watts, and Mr. Henry Sharpies, High Chief Ruler, Manchester. There was a gooa audience present, notwithstanding counter-attractions in the neighbourhood, and the proceedings proved interesting. After the singing of a hymn, the Rev. J. G. Watts offered prayer. The Chairman said they were very pleased to meet together once more to advocate the claims of temperance, and to speak of those things that tended to their own and their neighbours' wel- fare. He was very pleased to find that the High Chief Ruler of the Order was present. (Hear, hear.) They had heard of him before, and were glad tofind that he had been able tol come into their neighbourhood. They rejoiced to meet Mr. Sharpies, who had been placed by the Society to which he belonged in the highest post of honour. (Heat, hear.) They rejoiced that the cause of temperance was making pro- gress. Sometimes they were depressed, and thought that the world was going back, but when they took a wider survey of the situation they found that the cause of temperance was making very great progress, and that, considering the number of the population, there was more sobriety to-day than there had been in days gone by. Legislation, too, was going on in the riglit direction They had reaped a good deal in that direction during the years, that had gone by, ana some of them were looking forward to a rich harvest in the years that were immediately to follow. A good deal in that direction had yet to be done. He was very glad that the efforts of some who wanted to give compensation to the publicans had been thwarted, and he had no doubt that a good many who were engaged in it were disgusted with the trade, and would be glad to get rid of it if they could get what they con- sidered proper compensation. The voice of the country made itself heard, and those obnoxious clauses were withdrawn. (Hear, hear.) He was glad also that the magistrates had done very good work in closing during the late brewster sessions some 220 or 230 publichouses. Had the „ compensation clauses been carried it would have meitnt three quarters of a million ot money being handed over by the taxpayers to thepubii- cans. They were glad that that sum had been saved to the country, and they looked forward to the time when a still larger number of public houses would be closed, as there were by far too many, even if any at all were required. He was glad so many were working in the cause of tem- perance. In that respect the Rechabite Order had done exoellent work, and he wished them every success in the future. (Cheers.) Bro. He my Sharpies, H.C.R-, who was re- ceived with applause on rising to address the audience, said he was very glad on behalf of the noble Order he had the honour to represent to bring them the greetings of the High Officers, the Board of Directors, and those who under • took the management of the Society in their interest. They had heard continually of the success which had attended the labours of their Rechabite brothers in the Principality of Wales and in the neighbouring counties. On that question they knew neither creed nor nationality. The question was one of the widest importance, and wherever they were they felt they were on a couutoon platform—the platform of humanity; aNdwhether in the public lvall or in the House of God, as they were there that night, they un- furled the standard of Rechab under the shadow 6£ the Cross of Christ. The Order embodied principles which they desired to represent in their every-day life. From the circumstance consequent upon the assembling of the tribe of Xlechab in the ovter courts of God'-s House, and when the injunction wa-s laid upon them to abstain from strong drink, as recorded in the Book of Jeremiah, one incident came out into bold relief, and it was that there was no place, or circumstance, or person that could rob in-j toxicating drinks of thftir deadly power. The injunction lrid upon the sons of jfeechab was one that affected the whole-of the family relations— the father, mother, and child and they could not to-day dissociate the importance of that question from that which surrounded it in the early days to which h» had referred, m-co-un-ao-, tioa witii tne men, women, and children of the country; and they desired, by God's help, to make their Older an organisation which would he a great moral lever, and, if they liked, a great spiritual lever too, that should lift up humanity and help to develop the truest and best types of humanity. (Hear, hear.) The establishment of the modern society dated back some 55 years, and he cafhe from the very Bethlehem of the society, because he came from Manchester, where he believed God put it into the minds of some of their working brothers to form an organisation which should secure the working men and the young men of their towns and villages from the deadly influence of the liquor traffic. In the times when the gospel of temperance had been preached for the first time, by the 6arly pro- moters of the temperance movement from Preston, it pleased God to give great success to their labours, and they were rejoicing mheart, feeling that the new cause would take root all- over the country from-one end to the other., and that the truths they told were so self-evident, so far-reaching, and so necessary, that the people had only to have their attention called to them in order to accept them. As Mr. Joseph Livesey, the father of the temperance movement, to id him once when he went to visit him in, his old age, When we started out on this mission we felt that in a few years the drinking customs of society would all well-nigh, be abolished. But," he said, we were too sanguine. We had not estimated the deep-root- edness of the evil. We had not taken into account the various forms and various interests which were rniied 'up in this traffic, from the (xovernmfiut which draws its revenue from. it, down to the people who had invested their thousands and their millions of money in the trade, and the power of evil habit over the minds of men." However, the early promoters of the] temperance movement — some of them their Rechabite htilers-saw and traced out the rea- son why numbers who had embraced temperance principles declined and returned to their old companionships and associations. They saw that the working men of the country not only in their homes had been cursed by the diink, but; thafc in their better associations, and in connec-j cion with institutions founded in good intent for their succour m times of difficulty or sickness or accIdent-they saw that these societies were so wedded to the public-house interest as to render it imperatively necessary^to establish an organi- zation of total abstainers, the members of which would be altogether removed from their former unfavourable and dangerous Clrcumstances and associations. So they determined to establish a self-help and brother-help society, a great tem- perance brotherhood, in order to anticipate and provide against those contingencies which came to all .more or less—times of sickness, old age, accident, and death. That was the origin of the society, and to-day they had a great brotherhood represented by 106 districts, some 2,800 branches, adult brothers and a number of sisters, and 50,000 in their juvenile Order. (Cheers.) There were also some thousands of members, like their chairman, who gave the Order the prestige of their potion and the benefit of their advice. The Bisnops of London, Newcastle, Sodor and, Mac, numbers of other dignitaries in the Estab- lished Church, ministers in all chches,leading men in all professions, and influential men and women in all parts of the country had come to their help, and had given them the benefit of their position, name, and influence. They had a grand army of thorough-going total abstaining brothers and sisters numbering m all something like 160,000. (Cheers.) Whilst they had regard to their members' higher interests, they had also taken steps to place their society upon a sound financial basis. They had an accumulated capital of and he was glad to say that their members enjoyed a larger share of good health than obtained among their fellows who were not total abstainers. (Hear, hear.) In addition, their Orcier had been a great propagan- dist society, helping on the great temperance movement of the counts y. It had also been a great educational influence, proving that though jfcheir members were drawn from all ranks of society, and did their work under the ordinary conditions of life, there was one-third less sick- ness amongst them than amongst those who were not tovul abstainers. During the past two years their members drew from their capital account ±128,000 to meet the claims of sickness accident and death; and after paying that out of the capital account, they were able to pass onto teir reserve funds £74,000 as a balance of proiit upon their two years working. (Applause.) They would therefore see that their society was in a. very good position indeed. It had been established on the vtjry best financial basis. They made it their boast—-not a boast in an evil J nse—but they rejoiced to know that so sound 1trf> the finances of their Ordef that the tables Of nts and benefits had been found equal the one to other, excepting in a few cases where speda^rirc^^068 had obtamed.Duriiig the last two years, after making good all lapses from every was a question which Occupied the &q thoughts of all friendly society men who r@ r? h trlIé interest of their societies—they had made a Bet gam of 28,000 new members, taking the juvenile and adult sections together. (Cheers.) After expressing the hope that the members would adopt every legitimate means to increase their numbers, the speaker resumed his seat amid applause.. „ The Rev. J. G. Watts, who delivered a brief address, thought the members of theOraer could do a great deal more than they at present attempted for the dissemination of temperance principles, especially in connection with the members of the Band of Hope, who might be induced to join the juvenile tents. The speaker concluded by expressing the thanks of the officers and members of the "Lily of the Valley Tent to Dr. Edward-, and Mr. Sharpies for their attendance and addresses. A hymn having been sung, the proceedings terminated.

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