The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-04-30
WHICH KIND OF WlNEp
Chrtst and the Prohibition Question
Paper By Dr. Lyman Abbott or Fer
men.cd or E~tfernentcd Wine.
CHICAGO Tribune.

Published by request of DR.. Byers.
The article by DR.. Lyman Abbott
in the Christian Union entitled
"Christ and the Temperance ques-
tion," in which he showed thai the
Savior was not a prohibitionist nor a
t%eetotaler, but on the contrary a drink
err Of fcrmented wine, continues to
attract attention in the Eastern states;
and we have been requested to pub
lish what he writes on the subject.
After a long preface d~eploring the
evils that flow from wh,sky-drinking
and showing that distilled liquors
were unknown in Chsist's time, he
says;
The evil of drinking and drunken
ness had been''reeognized from avery
early period, and total abstinence
s%ocities had been organized. A mod.
flied prohibitory tslaw even existed
in Rome; it forbade women to drink
wine, as in our day, in America, a So
cial edict torbids them to smoke.
The Rechabites, organized at an
early period Of Jewish history, were
pledged not only to drink no wine,
bit not ever to eat the fruit of the
vine. The Essences, a sect of consid-
cradle Importance in the time of
Christ, Were pledged to total absti-
hence from the juice Of the grape in
all its forms. The Nazarlte vow
bound the Nazarite to abstain from
every form Of wine as long as he was
subject to his vow; this was some
times for life, sometimes for a linn
tied term. Under this vow John
the Baptist lived, a consistent total
abstainer. In brief, reformers then
as now existed who preferred to re-
deem society from the as yet unde-
yeloped cnrse of drunkenness by the
!. short and easy method of forbidding
c all drinking. They had not, indeed,
endeavored to do this by legal pro-
; hibition to any considerable extent;
: they did attempt to do it by yolun.
tary VOWS.
r Now, this was not the method of
: Jesus. He lived in an age of total
: abstinence societies and did not join
t them. He emphasized the diatinctiou
between his method and that Of John
|, the Baptist by saying that John came
neither eating o drinking; the son
: of mar came eating and drinking
d He condemned drunkenness, but nev
er in a single instance lifted up hiS
e voice in condemnation of drinking
d On the contrary, he commenced hi.
n public ministry by making by a mir
acle wine in considerable quantity
d and this apparently only to add t.
:. joyful festivities of a wedding. II
t apparently used aciae customari{y /
m not h~a5itmaUy.* When he was a
d, bout to die he chose wine as the SYN
be boil of his blood, shed for many 70
es the remission of sins, asked Hi
At Fathers blessing on a cup containin:
'ry wine, passed it to His disciples wit
as the direction, Drink We all of 1t,
". and left this simple service Of tn
'rs eating Of bread and the drinking c
wine as a legacy to be observed b
y His disciples in all future times, an
ri and apparently in all countries. Wit
the faith which | entertain concern
= ing Christ, | cannot doubt that III
did this with a full knowledge of til
future, of the Interpretation whic
would be given TO His example, an
of the evils which drunkenness W.
yet to bring upon other nations an
peoples than His own. lie mad
wine by a miracle; He drank mh1
publicly and before all tie wor1e
and He left as a legacy and examp
for His followers a sacred use {
wine in the most solemn service {
w. His church. 1t is true that the a
est tempt has been made to break Il
MS force Of this example by supposin
ms that there are mentioned in II
Bible two kinds of wine-a ferme'
ted and an unfermented: and tht
Christ made, used, and blessed at Il
Last Supper an u%nfermented win
But there is absolutely no authorit
mhatever for this sneggestion. 1t
a pure invention, made to %reeonci
the example of Christ with mode1
theories as to wine and wine-drinkin
Grape jelly is not wine, and til
:; mustum of the ancient was only
81 kind of grape jelly. 1t did not {
under the name Of wine, and new
was COMPOUNDED with ii. (a) There
absolutely nothing whatever in tt
language of the New Testament
indicate that the wine mentioned
its pages was anything else than Il
simple ,ffsrmentca juice Of the graz
the common drink Of the count
then as now; nothing to justify t
gronndless hypothesis that any 9th
kind of wine was ever used by
!, known to the people. ~ The asst
: ton that has been sometimes ma
that fermented wine was not allo'
able in the Passover supper is equal
groundless, having no other shade
of foundation than the fact that lea
ened bread was forbidden, this n
because Of the minute alcohol pl
u duced by leaven or yeast, but |
cause an unleavenel bread was
remind Israel of the night VIII,
they had not time to wait for Il
bread to rise. (c) This notion of f.
wines, one fermented. and other Il
fermented, nust be dismissed as
pure invention, unsupported by a
sou facts, mnsanctiened by any schol;
IS; ship. There was but aoine hnos
lbs to the ancient-.fernentea grape ui
This was the wine Christ mac
drank, blessed. There was no 9th