The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1888-10-26
DRUNKEN ESS.

For he .EGiS AMI IattLiigeacr.
II Christ made moderate use of alcoholic be-
! Verages, then the moderate sale of them is not
wrong, and therefore it is not right to prohibit
! such sale. As was shown in the last paper on
prunkennGss this is the clearly expressed judg-
ment Of Rev. Geo, G. Haddock, the brave
! man who gave his life in the maintenance of
| Prohibition. He did not believe that our Lord
! did use what could intoxcaie, BECAUSE as he was
| persuaded, there were in Christs day two kinds
| Divine, the one commended, the other forbid
| den in any quantity" being poison as is shown
! by IN dgrn science II this forbidding had been
| shown IN the words of Scripture there would be
| no room for disputation. But unfortunately for
| the theory the Bible uses the very same terms in
! defining what was used in Gods service and in
/ the service of the devil, through drunkenness
! In as much as the teachings of science were re
lied on by the Reverend gentleman equally with
his own convictions that God could not have com
mended that which all human experience shows
to be harmful; there was given to the reader the
testimony OF Prof: Atwater that in his opinion
| the theory that Bible wine did not contain aIco-
hol lis without any basis to support it in the
opinion OF the student OF science"
Mr.. Haddock shall speak further for himself
He lays Says ,sno o,,,,, .,o, c,.,.. -.
alcoholic wine say in effect that He deliberately
rejected wine that was innocent and that He
sought out aud GdalcOhol, the deadiiest enemy
OF man. for its own sake, and that He took pains
10 recommend this deadly thing to mankind /
regard This as profanity of the worst kind. |
think as much of u man who swears or is a pirate
as OF one VINO Will take such position and seek
to maintain II. This view applies with particular
force 10 the wine made at the marriage feast at
Cana those VINO claim that this was alcoholic
wine say in effect that Christ took special pains
to create alcohol in order to poison His friends
and neighbnrs. The base of this wine was water
which, OF course, contained no alcohol. If Christ
transformed this WINE lwater.l into the rescmb-
lance of fresh grape juice just as it flowed from
the crushed fruit of the vine, there was no alco-
hol In 1t. for II would have required some time
before this poison would naturally have made lis
appearance, according to the law OF fermentation
so that il this wine was alcoholic Christ must
have purpOsCly created a deadly substance
which could be of no benefit to His friends, and
could not add to the flavor or healthfuneis of
the beverage which He wished 10 be taken by
them, but rather could be only detrimental
Now, did He, knowing, as He must have known
me deadly character OF alcohol, create or intro
duce into this wine alcohol, for the purpose of
poisoning the guests of the wedding feast or
did He simply add to the water by His divine
power, the ingredients necessary to make It cor
respond to the freshly expressed Juice of the
grape, IN which there could be no alcohol Let
others maze answer to this question as they will.
For my part, 1t seems as clear as mathematlcal
demonstration, that the wine which answered
the Givine call at this particular occasion possess
ed the same nature rs that which the same dvi-
nlty had brought into being through ages
ANA TINS theory explains the words of Christ
to MS mother, when she indirectly asked Him to
provide wine Tor the feast by a miracle and thus
display His divine power. He said to her, Mine
hour Is not yet come Now, | have never seen
words. To my mind the true explanation is
this Wedding feasts lasted several days-at time
which with US would be week. II Christ had
made enough wine Tor the entire feast at the time
His mother spoke to Him, II would have ferment-
Ell and been intoxicating towards the close of he
feast in that climate. In order to avoid this diff
fculty, He said to His mother Mine hour is
not yet come In other words. this is not the
time do not be in hurry; the wine will be
forthcoming when II Is needed much Then He
ordered jars to be filed with water. and as fast
as the water was drawn out of the lars for the
use of the guests, it was transformed into the
perfect unfermented juice of the grape which
was consumed before 1t had time to ferment-
Ihi', oelieyr, is the true theory and accords with
authorities l have quoted. These authorities
are not given in the Life The Governor said
Thou hast reserved the good wine.' And Pro
tessor Jacobus, himself Jew and an eminent
Hebrew scholar, says those wines were esteem
ed the best which were the least strong"
The suppositon that the water was not all at
once turned into wine, but that the change took
place only as drawn from the vessels, has been
attributed to an English painter Of this genera
ton. Any one may indulge the conceit. II was
never suggested 10 them of old. As regards Mr.