Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-14
Monday Morning, Feb. IA. 1881.
A QUESTION OF FACT.

Z Some of those engaged in pushing tn q temperance reform have been in the habit o
 & &asserting that in certain places in the BibI
 where wine is spoken of unfermented win, 8 is meant. The discussion of this matter ha,
 # been quite active of late, and New Yorl
 # #paper has done the public service by ob q taining the views on the subject of number Sof distinguished divines. Bible students and #philologists. Not single one of the learned Representative of Bible study interviewed i. #wilhng to confirm the claim set up by some 3of the temperance workers that the Bible
 wines were merely the juice of the newi, #pressed grapes or the must of the ancient
 zRomans.
 '4 The Rev. pr. Potter of Grace church, who lis himself 8 teetotaler, says he has no more %doubt that Christ drank fermented wine o1 Fan exhilarating quality with His meals than She has of his conforming to any other of the
 prevailing habits of the people among whom 7He was born and brought up- To the ques Stion: ''Is not the fact of Christ's example OF sthis point of some value p he replied ss"None whatever. Christ did not wear stock Rings and He went bareheaded. Is that any Treason why I should not wear any stockings #and go bareheaded? Christ eschewed in His &dress great many things which I use. 5BsChrist did not eat pork. Is that a reason 4why should not The habits of the East land of that time are not to be held admissi- sble in our climate and at the present period. Flake, for instance, the question of eating $pork. That was one of the sanitary rules naJ- T ~ scated Jew should hold myself emaneipated sfrom that rule. simply because I live here Hwhere pork is not necessarily unwholesome. '' A very eminent Catholic clergyman, who $declined to allow the use of his name, gave Athe Catholic view of the subject. ''Of course Fall good Catholics believe that the Bible Hwines were wines and not milk or water, T Ssaid the reverend gentleman. ''Our Savior stook the ordinary wine of the country with eHis meals. as did all the men of His time" Professor Short, who is the instructor in sLatin in Columbia college, said that while he sdid not care to touch the question of inten1- speranee itself, he was certain that the wines| sof Palestine in Christ's time were of an intox- Heating quality they were light and pure, no| sdoubt, but intoxicating if used to excess. It was country of light wines, just like Italy :! EFraace and California, and it was the com ;mon practice to drink them with all meals The Savior, no doubt, did the same Profes- |sor Short admitted that there was distinct tion in the Bible between the na1statna or 7aeons which the Jews undoubtedly drank and thej fal1y fermented wines, the Jews bel ing generally fond of drinking swedish newS wine in it's first state Nevertheless, thes |wine which the Savior produced in Cana of
 Galilee, and which is generally alluded to bys the ordinary Greek word for wine (oizos) wasA undoubtedly fermented and of the usual in H toxicating quality.
 Dr. Roswell D. Hitchcock, president of thef
 Union Theological seminary, is of the opin- ion that the only wine spoken of in the Bible, just as the only wine now known in theF Orient, the fermented juice of the grapeE and is therefore Intoxicating. He also said: "That our Lord in the miracle at Cana produced an intoxicating beverageF seems to me perfectly clear. This opinion
 hold on pathological and historical grounds,
 without any regard whatever to it's bearingE upon the temperance question as now dis 5 cussed.''
 Other learned and devous men who were interviewed expressed similar opinions.
 These opinions will not. we suppose, please certain class of temperance reformers, nor, perhaps, will they have much effect on their < mode of working Nevertheless, it is well toa9 have them in the interests of truth, and they# will not hurt the best temperance work; for, as Dr. Potter says s'The whole discussion of the character of the Bible wine is unim-# E portant in the great question of temperance If people are to be made temperate the apos ties of temperance must settle the question < on higher ground than that"