Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-04-04

and vine is medicine. Drink no
longer water, but use . little wine for
thy stomach's sake and thine often To-
firmi,iss. I'll. Timothy ", 20. Here
the use rs medicine Is so plainly indi-
Gated that comment would be an imper-
thence.
But saith "Phis," Christ our Saviour
converted water into wine. And he
concludes, therefore, that Christ in
tended to teach that we may freely drink
wine as beverage. This is . gross
non seqaitur. God the Son wrought
miracle. When God works miracle
lie transcends at once all our sphere OF
teaching and Of action. We have no
warrant whatever TO attempt to follow
Him or initiate Him in that sphere oil
miracle. The miracle authensicates
His divine mission and power. 1t gives
us no lesson to initiate Him-rather the
reverse. Christ permitted demons to
enter into two thousand swine, and they
IAN down into the lake and persisted.
Are We TO attempt TO initiate Him?
Christ said to the fig-tree which had
green leaves but no fruit: Let no
man eat fruit OF thee hereafter for
ever" And the fg-tree withered
away. Shall We attempt to initiate
Him and fall TO pronouncing anathe-
mata on fg-uees Christ tasted in the
wilderness forty days and nights.
Shall we impiously seek to initiate
Him? Christ walked on the sur
face OF the waters Of the Lake
of Galilee. Shall We undertake to
do likewise? An impostor did at
tempt something of the kind once and
went under the water. Whenever
miracle is wrought we may be sure that
there is an element therein which is en-
tirely hey ond our sphere Of duty or in
struction. Elijah called down fire from
God in heaven which consumed two
captains and q hundred soldiers Of the
King Of Samaria. 2 Kings, i. Shall we
draw any lessons from this miracle to
warrant US in seeking sudden and vio-
lent death for our enemies! Ii is time
that this absurd argument from mira
Gle of Christ should be abandoned.
And on this subject Of "wine" and
" strong drink" we are to remember
that those words in Holy Scripture
never mean distilled spirits. Distilla-
ton was unknown until many centuries
after the opening of the Christian Era.
The analogy Of faith " clearly teaches
that some deeds and usages which were
permitted by God in patriarchal ages
and even under the Jewish dispense
ton permitted because Of "the hard
ness Of their hearts were really
against the moral law as Christ ex-
pounded it. Instances Of this are found
in the practice of polygamy, in the
right to divorce wife without cause by
a bill of enforcement, and in the Ter
tdlion,s-the law Of retaliation--"eye
for eye" tooth for tooth" All these
wrong usages were expressly repudiated
by Him.
Even in instituting the Lords Sup
per " we have 10 proof that iermented
wine capable OF producing intoxication
was used. 1t is very significant fact
that not one Of the four inspired mar
Tatiyes Of that Neutrality-suspicious. Mat
thew xvii, 1870, nor Mark xiv,
1926, nor Luke xii, 7-39, nor Paul
in ]. Corinthians Xi.--ever uses the word |
wine" (oinOs) as having been the bev
erage used. They all speak of "the
cup" and Christ Himself, instead of
say ing wine" spoke of the " fruit OF
the vine," which assuredly may have
been the uniermented "juice Of the |
grape" now so common and so con-
stantly used in an increasing number of
Christian churches in celebrating the !
Eucharist Therefore no inference ia
yorable to the use Of wine as beverage |
can be safely drawn from the ascer-
tanned facts as to the institution Of the |
" Lords Supper"
Thus we have the teachings OF Scrip
ture as TO "wine" and "strong
drink" Now we come to Christian
principle, which is an immortal and
eyer.expanding germ Of direction
" Abstain from every form of evil
]. Thessalonians W., % revised ver-
sion). "Let not then your good be
evil spoken Of" 1t is good neither to
eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor any
thing whereby thy brother stumbleth
or is made weak. "-Romans xiv, 10,
81.
When we look at the facts attending
the use of wine, distilled spirits, and in
toxicating liquors in Christian countries |
during the past two centuries and con-
template the gigantic, far-reaching, and
soul. destroying evils they have wrought,
we cannot doubt that all the teachings
of Holy Scripture condemn their use
as a beverage as being immoral and |
sinful. Therefore the sooner this moral
crime is made legal crime the better
for the good of man. TRUTH.