Blue-grass blade., 1891-10-31

But not only is there no ex
preston of Jesus against win
drinking, but his own languag
indicates that he was a win
drinker.
In Matthew 11;18-19, we hav
the following; "For John cam
neither eating nor drinking, ant
they say, He hath devil.
The Son OF ssman came sseat;n,
and drinking, and they say, Be
hold a man gluttonous and a win
bibber".
There is but one answer to thi
statement that Jesus made win,
at Cana, and that is that he neue
did it. This is the answer O
truth and honesty, and the ont
that Christians must learn t.
make, if they ever succeed in in.
fluencing the broad-minded ani
honest and intelligent.
IF there is not in the beautiful
life of Jesus and in his heroic de-
fence of the pure and good that
caused his death, nothing to excite
ones love and admiration of him,
and if there is not in the beauti.
full code of ethics that he taught
nothing that commends them tc
us, no belief in miracles can ever
implant the true Christian spirit
in the hearts of the people. "An
evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after sign, Tor miracle,)
but the man who is fully imbued
with the sentiment of the great
teacher, only cares to love his
neighbor as himself, and to do to
others as he would have them do
to him.
Grant that Jesus worked the
miracle of turning a few jars OF
water into wine, what would it
amount to compared with the
magicians of Egypt that simply
held out their wands and all the
waters of the Nile. and every lake
and pool and spring and rivulet in
Egypt was turned into blood?
Think of Niagara pouring
warm blood that .thundered in the
depths below and flew into Grim
son spray on the hoary rocks, and
then seethed and boiled in the
whirlpool below, then foated all
the shipping ON Ontario and rushed
down the Rapids of the st. Law
renee and bloodied the Atlantic
ocean clear across to Ireland, and
rolled in the tide up the English
channel and the Thames until it
washed with CORY waves the base
of the parliament house in London,
and yet every drop ofall this food,
under a magnifying glass, just the
[same-thae comes from our cut
flesh, and then you may imagine
what occurred in Egypt, when at
the wave of the magicians wand,
the whole Nile, from its proverbi-
ally unknown head to its delta at
the Mediterranean, poured blood
that rolled over its wonderful
cAtaracts as the water now peurs
over Niagara.
What is the miracle of turning
1872 gallons of water into wine,
compared with that magician's
miracle in Egypt that made such
foods of blood that any one of the
seven mouths of the Nile would
have foated the present British
navy in blood as true and genuine
as ever flowed from the veins of
martyr or patriot?
But who believes this Bible
story of Egyptian magic? Not a
single sane and intelligent man
in the State of Kentucky.
What else then can we expect
than that our churches should be
filed with people that we can not
influence by argument and moral
suasion, when we appeal to them
in behalf of Prohibition and other
measures to promote morals, when
our learned clergy are teaching
the people that belief in such
stories is the great and main
feature in Christianity?
In all the cycles of the universe
there never was one drop of water
turned into blood or wine, by
magic or miracle, and every edu-
Gated man and woman in the land
knows this.
Why then will true and honest
Christians who are trying to ac-
complish the greatest reform that
has ever been attempted in the
annals of Christianity, give to
their enemies and the enemies Of
good morals, this evident advan-
tage over the true spirit of Chris
tianity, simply for the sake of de-
Tending an unreasonable dogma
that had its origin in intellectual
darkness and religious super
stition, which demanded that no
moral code could be binding on
our consciences until attested,
confirmed and ratified by mir
acles?
If the smallest dewdrop that
glistens upon blade of bluegrass
were, by miracle converted into
wine, the result would be a wreck
of matter and crush of worlds,
and the universe would crumble
into chaos. 1t would as truly re-
verse and overthrow the laws of
nature as to arrest the earth and
the planets in their orbits around
the sun.