No. 10.

NOTICE.

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THE NATIONAL DIVISION SESSION.

The full and detailed account in our last number of the annual session of the National Division must have made the membership more fully cognizant of the business transacted, than had been possible in the previous history of the Order. It is true that we have always had a full record of resolutions and amendments, with the names of the brethren; but, faithful though that has been, the running note of business from hour to hour, with incidental reference to brief leisure occupations of the representatives, is far and away more likely to interest the ordinary reader, and bring him into personal contact with the living forces of the organization. The opportunity for its publication marks a definite stage in the history of the organization-the more definite, because the opportunity is of the Order's own making, and without the diversion of money subscribed for beneficial purposes. Next time additional fulness will not detract from the utility of the report if a faithful summary of the opinions expressed might find its way therein.

There is this great satisfaction associated with enlarged opportunity for publicity-the session itself was one of the most successful ever held. The attendance was large and constant-the close of the session finding at least seven-eighths of the representatives in their places. The reports were well received; and the suggestions, whether adopted or not, met with rational treatment at the hands of the Committees, and subsequently of the whole assembly. Our Most Worthy

Scribe's figures expressed substantial progress in finance, fair advances in the matter of missionary effort, and decided improvement in the point of numbers. To crown all, the representatives applied themselves most vigorously to the work, not only in session and committee, but in outside effort, which latter was perhaps more pleasantly and generally effective than ever before at a National Division session.

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Then to make the session more notable, a decided advance in debating financial principles was made. It is true the representatives did not adopt compulsory centralization. But that was not because an whelming majority was not in favour of the principle in Grand Division districts. Hesitancy to enforce it arose rather from two other causes. Many of the brethren were satisfied at the development of local option in the matter. Others whose satisfaction was not so complete, held their hands from compulsion simply on the ground that several districts had and have local difficulties arising from diversity of risks, and these would require careful handling before purely agricultural or town members could be brought together with workers in mining districts upon an equitable basis. Some of the brethren were prepared to go beyond the London proposal, and wanted centralization of the whole of the beneficial funds of the Order. However, their zeal was cooled, certainly not quenched, by a general resolution recommending the districts to work the principle out locally. What they had to say in its favour they will probably repeat in our columns, so our readers will be able to judge of the feasibility of the project.

One great drawback to progress formerly was the confusion which prevailed between things essential and things optional. There was a great antipathy to what was called "dictation" from the central body. Brethren were desirous of belonging to the Order, and in their way would make great sacrifices for what they thought "the good of the Order," but were not the less determined to make their own sweet will the local law of the Order. Last session of the National Division was a memorable departure in this particular. The brethren appeared to clearly grasp the idea that there must be a common basis of action-that there were certain matters of principle upon which usage should be invariable throughout the Order. These are not many, but they are of vital importance; and when

they are the expression of the experience of the Order their compulsory adoption involves no practical forfeiture of local liberty. Thus for example the form of pledge is the same throughout the jurisdiction. Then we are now agreed that while local option may find expression in the amount of benefits paid, whether five, ten, or twenty shillings weekly, the basis of calculation shall be common to the whole country, and age and occupation shall have due weight in determining the contributions. We are agreed too, as to the limit of age at admission, and have now adopted a uniform method of procedure where wives are regarded as part of husbands' risks. But at the Chester session advances were made to uniformity in other directions. At the suggestion of the South Wales brethren the N.D. endorsed a proposal to appoint inspectors of accounts from Grand Division Members, to act at the call, and under the direction of the G.W.P. Their functions will be to advise and instruct where necessary with the view of securing a sound system of bookkeeping. As a reasonable addendum to this resolution on the motion of the same brethren, the N.D. Committee of Management were authorised to draft a set of account books, forms of admission, and forms of notices, in short to develop out of the experience of the Order such materials for our officers as will be most likely to make their work methodical and easy, and our records clear and reliable. Their adoption is not yet imperative. Still their preparation is a step in the right direction and promises substantial progress as the outcome of consolidation.

Thus the issues of our last meeting lead us to expect success in greater measure. This is certainly their legitimate tendency. If the members will only bend themselves to the work, the present may easily be made the best year in our history.

THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE JUBILEE.

The present year is a notable one in the history of the temperance movement. Apart from extraordinary evidences of progress on every hand, this year is notable as the jubilee of teetotalism. Fifty years since in the Lancashire town of "Proud Preston" Joseph Livesey and his six coadjutors signed the Teetotal pledge. Their example proved effective, and thanks to their energy the number of pledged disciples speedily increased. Few of the present generation can appreciate the difficulties which presented themselves, or the greetings which bigotry. ignorance and interest provided for them in their missionary enterprises. Now, an erratic. deliverance from a bishop, statesman, or scientist, is a phenomenon; then, the authority of church, state, and science, spoke apparently with one voice against the movement, Yet the pioneers persevered, for their faith was strong. They knew the fearful issues of tippling; each day deepened their conviction of the personal profit of teetotalism. In their own plain way these points were made clear to many a drink-cursed victim, and the number of "brands from the burning" was daily augmented. Spite of prejudice and contrary influences the voices of humble men prevailed. Today their leader lives to see success all along the line. Though physically feeble from the infirmities of age, yet with clear mental vision, Mr. Livesey has been enabled in the providence of God to look upon a gathering of Temperance workers in his own town, and

to greet again a few of those who with him learned to suffer and be strong when struggling for the truth. What a retrospect! What a cause for gratitude! What ground of certain hope of final triumph! The despised simple remedy for national intemperance, the heaven-sent notion of a few humble men, once the butt of every witling, the scorn of reputed leaders of public opinion, has become the virtual saviour of society from its greatest physical curse. No longer the hobby of a few so-called fanatics, this simple principle now commands the support of the leading workers in every branch of the church, numbers adherents in the Cabinet, and compels the modern scientist to admit that its earliest apostle had a firm grip of practical science. The seven have become almost millions; their influence has traversed the continents and oceans of the world; while the aggregate of gain to religion, health, and morals, will never be known until the rendition of the great account. The jubilee of such a work demands celebration, and no organization has more claims to initiative than the National Temperance League.

This organization had been practically foremost in all suasive effort. It is indeed difficult to name a sphere where the League has not been originator or prime mover. Take the church. To-day every section has its temperance society. But a few years ago this was the conspicuous exception. Then it was the League which introduced the subject to church meetings, pressed it home upon the leaders, and scattered the literature of the movement through the parsonages of the land. The outcome has undoubtedly been a large and flourishing society in the Church, and smaller societies in other Christian denominations. These share now in the work, and compete with the League for support, but in view of what they owe to the League and the special character of the coming celebration, their support of this fête should be a grateful and wholehearted effort to ensure its success. What has been said of the churches applies with equal force to scientists and the members of the medical profession. The latter have been systematically missioned at their annual gatherings by the League. The celebrated medical declaration was the work of the League. The doctors' temperance society is the acknowledged issue of League labours; and so on through the range of professions and institutions, the efforts of the League are significantly to the fore. In public colleges and schools, in training colleges for masters and mistresses, among the children of National, British, and Board Schools, in training ships and industrial schools, have the representatives laid the foundation or given an impetus to the progress of the movement. And what shall be said of the work in the army and navy? Who has been the mainstay of Miss Robinson and Miss Weston, and of our good Bro. Samuel Sims in their efforts? Mainly if not entirely, the National Temperance League. And, coming to ourselves as an Order, we too have experienced directly the courteous and generous aid of the League. More than once the Palace fête has been made an opportunity for our advantage, especially in London, and frequent publicity has been given to our work in the columns of the League's excellent organ, The Temper ance Record. So the League's work all round places it highest in the esteem and love of temperance folk, while the steady and reliable character of all its operations compels respect from those who cannot give up their occasional tipple to gain a place among the saviours of society.

Fortunately it falls to the lot of the League to arrange the National Temperance Holiday this year at the Crystal Palace. The executive have wisely determined to make it worthy the Jubilee year. There will be concerts by two choirs of 5000 voices each; a jubilee conference; temperance gatherings to be addressed by representatives from principal temperance organizations, musical procession of temperance orders, a special session of the Grand Lodge of Good Templars, and other ordinary and extraordinary attractions. Such an occasion and such a programme should compel the attendance of all temperance folk. There should be at least 100,000 present. That number would be but a fraction of the temperance community. And it would be easy to secure it, would the various societies and individual teetotallers but make their joint efforts to that end. For once let us see whether pulling together is possible, and show the world an aggregation of temperance people in keeping with a jubilee so full of evidences of success, and of promises of final triumph.

THE "STANDARD'S" VIEW OF THE MOVEMENT.

The Annual Jubilee of the Temperance Societies of the United Kingdom is held to-day, and for many reasons it is likely to prove a complete success. There is no movement which divides the ministers and members of different religious communities so little as that organised by the Temperance Societies: there is none which appeals more powerfully to the moral sentiments, as well as to the comfort and convenience of the public. The time has long since passed when local Bands of Hope were considered appropriate subjects for cheap jests. Every great popular reform in this country usually passes through three stages. First, it bears the brunt of derision and ridicule; then it is acknowledged to be no laughing matter; and finally, it is recognised as a useful and wholesome agency. Long before Father MATHEW preached his crusade against strong drinks in Ireland there was an agitation against their unlimited consumption in England. But it was an agitation of a sporadic and a local character. It was indebted for whatever strength it had to the energy and influence of individuals in particular districts; and it lacked the cohesive force which a common central machinery alone could supply. Barely a quarter of a century has elapsed since J. B. GOUGH made a series of rhetorical pilgrimages in the cause of total abstinence throughout the United Kingdom. His harangues were melodramatic, overwrought, and were open to many objections on the ground of taste. But they were effective; they collected large audiences, and they lent an amazing impetus to the propaganda. What CRUIKSHANK had done in some of the most popular of his drawings was done scarcely less effectively by GoUGH on his platform. At first these demonstrations were coldly received and contemptuously spoken of, not only by the masses but by their highest spiritual teachers. During some years subsequently "Teetotalism" was disparagingly associated with Nonconformity, or with the most extreme and intolerant type of Evangelicalism. The prejudices and oppositions which it created have now been left far behind. No stigma of a narrow and exclusive sectarianism is stamped upon the Temperance Societies of the country. Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Wesleyans, loyally co-operate in the same cause. Low Church clergymen of the Establishment, like Canons FLEMING and ELLISON, combine with Cardinal MANNING, and with General BOOTH of the Salvation Army. Ritualists and Evangelicals stand side by side. The Church of England Temperance Society has very nearly half a million members; the Roman Catholic Society is proportionately flourishing; and the same may be said of the various Congregationalist, Baptist, and

Wesleyan organisations. If the Temperance movement had done nothing more than cause the chiefs of rival religions to merge their differences in a combined antagonism to the greatest of all social evils, we might congratulate ourselves upon the result.

It is only natural that the speakers at the meeting to be held to-day should be disposed to magnify their mission and its fruits. Yet, however enthusiastic the language they may employ, it will be strictly justified by facts. The consensus of opinion in favour of the principles and practice of Teetotalism which exists just now is overwhelming. From every side a fresh testimony to the virtues or necessity of absoluto abstinence from intoxicating drinks, or of greater moderation in their use, is constantly forthcoming. The revenue collectors, as well as professional financiers generally, even the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER himself, tell us that the growing diminution in the yield of the Excise will probably necessitate a new kind of taxation. We drank ourselves out of the Alabama difficulty; we are not likely to find the same means of escape from any similar complication which may arise. The dominant influences of the day are uniformly hostile to copious, and not too friendly to moderate, drinking. Many of the leaders of the medical profession are opposed to the use of stimulating fluids. The suspicion of the employment of alcohol in hospitals for purely medicinal purposes raises as much outery as would have been produced a year ago by the untoward accident of a pauper being starved to death. The loving cup is still an institution at civic feasts; but the day may possibly come when it will be filled with nothing more potent than lemon juice and sodawater. Coffee taverns and working men's clubs grow up side by side with public-houses and gin-palaces. There are few refreshment rooms in places of public resort, or at the railway stations, where glasses of milk are not supplied, and are not largely in demand. The amount of wine drunk at the great London dinner parties is much smaller than it used to be, and in every company of a dozen diners there are certain to be two or three who touch nothing stronger than some aerated or effervescent water, and at least as many more who dilute liberally their champagne or sherry with the same blameless fluid. For much of this the doctors may be responsible. But, whatever credit may belong to them on that score, they must partly attribute it to the anti-alcoholic tendencies of the day, which are unquestionably derived from the action of the teetotal or temperance associations. These Societies were originally started to reclaim the working classes from their addiction to intoxicating liquors. But as they have grown their authority has spread over an area which it was never contemplated they would cover. Their austerely soberly influences have, in fact, spread upwards from the lowest social stratum to the highest.

What is the explanation of these phenomena ? There can be but one answer. It is to be found in the simple fact that the virtue of abstinence or temperance is its own reward-in plain English, that it pays. Men do not become total abstainers for the sake of an idea. It is not from any profound moral or intellectual conviction of the truth of the Pindaric maxim, "Best of all things is water," that there are some fifteen thousand total abstainers in the navy, and nearly twice that number in the army. One of the most cogent reasons why the habit of drinking to excess has become obsolete among the upper classes, and why it is a tabooed vice even in what may be called the Bohemian circles of society is, that it has been proved by experience not to contribute to the sum of social enjoyment. The Baron of BRADWARDINE, in "Waverley," drew a famous distinction between the words "ebrius" and "ebriosus." It was not sufficiently severe, perhaps, to suit the modern taste, but it had the merit of hitting the true point. Persons who perpetually relapse into what Scorr's hero called the "category of inebriety" are intolerable nuisances both to their fellow-creatures and themselves. They wantonly minimise their own opportunities of enjoyment and the opportuni