Litchfield enquirer., 1871-04-06
For the Enquirer.
 TEMPERANCE.

CT be injured by an untenable argument.
 Such a cause is that of Temperance, and I
 am quite as earnest. I am sure, in my de-
 sire that that principle known as "total
 abstinence from all that can intoxicate
 should prevail, as my friend and ministeri-
 al brother can be. the writer of the recent interesting articles on TEMPERANCE in
 your paper. With the object of those ar-
 ticles I heartily sympathize. With much
 that he has said in them, sincerely con-
 cur. and am glad that cause so dear to
 all the lovers of public order and sound
 morality, to say nothing of the higher in
 terests of Religion, finds 80 large place
 and so welcome an advocacy in the columns
 of the Press.
 l am all the more anxious, therefore,
 that the argument for temperance should
 not be weakened by what seems to me in.
 valid reasoning, advanced by your cores
 pondent in one or two positions in his last
 article on the Scripture aspect of the ques-
 tion. My criticism will have reference
 chiefly to the view he takes of the transac
 tion of the "water made wine in the
 miracle of Christ, as recorded in John
 2l-11 and of the Lords Supper in the church at Corinth, 1st Cor. 2. His view is that the large quantity of wine there mir aculously created, would, if it were fsrmen- led wine, have been too much, as much smaller amount would have suficed for the purpose of moderate drinking" But suppose that the question of moderate or immoderate drinking was not all ques- tion before the Savior's mind on that oc- casion, but rather how He might the more manifest forth His glory" and to this end, by the very superabundance of the quantity of wine made. showed that glory, and silenced the cavils of the Jews? A smaller quantity, say five or ten gallons, Mey might have said, could from some neighboring house have been easily imported to supply the deficiency; not so. when hundred and sixty gallons" had to be accounted for.
 But more serious criticism turns on the Greek word which, in the passage referred to in the account given of the miracle at Cana, is rendered swell drunk" This word in the original is the same verb with that nsed by Paul in lst. Cor. II :21, in his rnb,,Lo of Aboca :x, xha No.;oxb:o, ol,.~nb who abused the Lords Supper to gratify their own appetites; or, at least. verb cognate with that, and exactly the same in meaning. The verb, also, occurs in Matt. 24:49, in the clause rendered in our version ''and 10 eat and to drink eOih the drunken" as, also, in Acts 2:l5, translated 'these are not d,'unken, as ye suppose;" and, again, in the words of Paul in lst Thess. 67, 'they that De drnnken are drunken in the night" where both forms of the verb occur. Now your correspondent asserts that i've need not suppose any drunken ness here, in the case at Corinth, and that from the wine used at Cana 'sno harm could flow" He quotes Archbishop New come, Dr. A. Clarke, Mcknight and Bloomfield as saying that the Greek word, on which so much depends, means, or may mean, ito have abundance" "to be filled, or to have ''satiety." Does not the writer know that these are not mow first.class au- thorities on the meaning and use whether of classical. or New Testament Greek? T take distinct issue with him on the mean ing of the Greek words nsethusko and methuein, and affirm that the highest au- thorities allow no such signifcation in ony one instance to these verbs. Passow, the greatest of Greek photographers. whose work is the basis of the standard classical Lexicon now in use, gives as the sole ''to get drunk" ''to be made drunk" and, actively, ''to intoxicate. " So Liddell and Scott give it, with no per- mitted signidcation of mere ''fullness, y abundance" " or ''satisty." Dr. Edward Robinson Q standard authority on New Testament Greek, gives the same definition. quoting all the texts in which it is used, and algo,os no othsr nssasaing. Dean Afford, whose equal as an exegete on the Greek text cannot be mentioned, says "there is no need of softening the force of this word ''msthuei, and asserts Shat at Cana the wine did undoubtedly intoxicate, as the verb could meaning nothing else. So, too, Dr. Lange, with whom Dr. SchaAf and . host of other eminent scholars agree, give this and only this signifcation to these words in various places in the original.
 What is quite conclusive, Imay add, and onght to settle the matter, is, that the root of these verbs. ''methe." signifies ol- sOays 'strong drink" and then, in sec ondary sense. drunkenness. It is vain. therefore. to argue, as your correspondent does, that the wines at the miracle in Cana. and that used in the church at Corinth at the Lords Supper. would not intoxicate. The uniform indis- putable usage of the plain Greek words is infiexibly against any such interpretation. There is not the slightest doubt in my view, that some of those sensual members Of the Corinthian church whom Paul re- bukes got aCtuallv flrs,nk shauoofnl oe ;&