Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-03-17
THE SCRlPTURAL ARGUMENT CON
CORNING RUM.


The evil of drunkenness is as old
as the art Of making wine, which
certainly dates back as far as the
time of NoAH-and it ia probable
that the antediluvians possessed it.
There are many references to vine
drinking and to drunkenness in the
Bible-tlle former without censure,
and the latter always with reproach
and condemnation. Down through
the circling centuries it has always
been SO, as regards the latter. Yet
at the present day there are men
who attempt to "steal the livery OF
Heaven to serve" the Rum Devil
in.
These drinking Christians "seem
to make the religion they profess a
bulwark for the giant vice OF the
nineteenth century, which is the
cause of more poverty, suffering,
crime and death than any other.
They forget, IN SO doing, this one
great tact:
Distilled liquors whisky, brandy,
gin, rum, etc. were not known at
the time the Scriptures were writ
ten.
The great ally OF the devil, the
still, was not known. Wine was the
only intoxicant. Suppose that the
modern doctored and drugged whis-
ky had been the drink upon the ia
BILE at the Cana wedding instead of
weak wine; do these foolish ones
who think CHRIsT's first miracle an
argument for the use of alcoholic
drinks think for an instant that He
would have turned a jag or two of
water into "fcrty rod" whisky 2
Do they suppose that He would
have sanctitied what would neces.
sarily have been drunken orgy by
being present and thus, tacitly at
least, giving con,tonance to it's use
Had whiF', and :" whole list OF
internal compounds Of which the
worm OF the still is the fruitful par
ent, been known when the two tab
les of stone, craven by the finger Of
God, were delivered TO IsrasRs law.
giver amid the thunderings and
lightnings of Sinai, can any one
doubt that among the list of "Thou
shalt nots" there use would have
been included?
1t is a fact-and none more clear
in the pages of history-that
drunkenness was one Of the minor
vices up to the time that the art of
distilling was invented. There was
nothing which could intoxicate save
wine alone. Whisky and its congo.
MES we're unknown; and the art of
brewing connecting nauseous Ii.
guilds containing alcohol through a
process which involves the partial
rotting of grain--was practiced, if
practiced at all, only among barbar-
ic people. None of the civilized ma
lions of antiquity used beer and SIM
liar compounds.
Wine was the only lntoxicant.
There are some good people who are
really troubled by the SO called
+" Biblical argument for the use of
wine, who have gone to al infinite
deal Of trouble to prove that the
wine made by JESUS at Cana was
the freshly-expresscd juice OF the
grape, before it had undergone the
alcoholic fermentation, and there.
fore it was as incapable of producing
intOxicatiOn az the fresh Juice of ap.
pies" sweet" cider. We do not
think it profitable to waste time on
such q trivial discussion. In point
of fact, the case is incapable of act
ual proof, one way or the other.
That intoxicating wine was known,
is absolutely certain, both from BIZ
BILE passages and from proiane his.
tory that non.intoxicating-freshly
was also used as beg.
erage, is equally clear. Who can
tell which it vast
And, after all, what does it really
matter which it vast There are
many passages of Scripture which
condemn intoxication. Bear in
mind these facts:
THAT wine was the only intoxi.
can't known;
2.-That it was the pure juice Of
the grape, generally diluted with
water; it was not " tortifiedn with