In October 1890, the Rechabites of Exeter celebrated fifty years of their Order. They met in the Royal Public Rooms. The Bishop of London, Frederick Temple, and Mrs. Temple , wearing the Rechabite regalia, were guests of honour. Frederick Temple was a Devonian who had been Bishop of Exeter and who would go on to be Archbishop of Canterbury. He said to the assembled Rechabites:
"I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to me to find myself once more in Exeter, and once more in hearing what is so sweet to my ears - though not perhaps to all ears - the Devonshire accent. I cannot tell you how pleasant it is to me once more to find myself in the city amongst those with whom I lived when I was a boy and afterwards when I came back here as the Bishop of this Diocese."
The Rechabites were first and foremost a temperance society. The good bishop gave them what they wanted:
"What is the great evil that causes little children to shiver with cold in the winter because they cannot be properly clad; that causes children to cry out from the pinch of hunger which cannot be satisfied; which causes unhappy wives to wish to the bottom of their hearts that they had never married; what is the great evil that drags men who, in their moments of sobriety love their families, down to such degraded neglect? What is it in nine cases out of ten? It is drunkenness and nothing else. It is the use of this intoxicating drink and nothing else."
Source: The Western News, 1st October 1890.
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