The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-11-16
LESSON STORY.


We have in our lesson passage
striking. graphic picture Of the natural
effects of strong drink. While the drink
habit could, in IsraePs time. scarcely
have been in the aggregate 80 stipend
GUS and fearful as it is in our day In
favored America, it was nevertheless
then such an evil in Judah as to merit
Israels severest characterization and
most penetrating invective.
The prophets temperance-teachlng is
more comprehensive when we take into
view the background of his picture. lie
presents the ruin of the Divine work
which this evil has wrought in judah.
He figures Judea as vineyard which
God himself had planted. My areA-oe-
loved, he said, had vineyard an q vefy
fruitful hill: and he made trench
about 1T, and gathered out the stones
thereof, and planted 1t auth the choicest
zine, and built q toner IN the midst OF
1T, and also heaUed out q aUinepress there
in: and he looked that 1T should bring
forth grapes This represents an ancient
vineyard which had received every ben
eft it's owner was able to bestow. in the
expectation that it would bring forth
grapes. 1t was the custom in the ARID
East to use new grape juice as COM
mon beverage; and this, in that climate
and country, may have been harmless
and beneficial. For expressing grape
juice press was placed in this model
vineyard But the owner, after waiting
for his vintage, is surprised at the yield
which comes to him. Although he had
planted vines of the choicest variety IN
his hillside vineyard, he gathered in the
harvest only worthless acild grapes. 1t
produced no better fruit than the ada
cent untitled fields or the desert.
This figures Jerusalem and judah
lapsing into an unrighteous condition
no better than that of their idolatrous
neighbors. Noao, says the prophet in the
name of Jehovah, Judge. 1 pray you. be-
taUict me and mig viaaeyard. What could
haze done more for mig vineyard, that
I haze not done 1T? The fault there
fore was not in the owners neglect or
wrong judgment. Wherefore, achen 1
looked that 1T should bring forth grapes,
brought 1t forth acild grdpes9
The condemnation pronounced upon
the Jewish people for their deficiency of
good fruit, was such cor demnation as
the owner would pronounce on such an
unnatural vineyard. He would not care
to keep enclosed and guarded vineyard
whose grapes were no better than those
which grew spontaneously on the un-
closed spaces about it. ariH tell you
achat aciH do to mig vineyard: I aoiH
take aaoay the the hedge thereof, and 1T
shall be eaten up; 1 aeiU break doacn
the fence thereof and 1t shall be trodden
do,on: and aeiU lag it aoaste; 1T shall
not be pruned or hoed; but there shall
come up briers and thor7ls. l aoiU also
command the clouds that they rain no
rain upon 1t.
This, under thin veil of imagery, de.
scribes the ruin which was coming upon
Judea because Of its lapse into intemper-
ance and luxury. Already in Isaiahs
day, the Northern Kingdom, the King
dom of the Ten Tribes, had, because it
had become besotted with indulgence,
fallen into moral ruin and become cap
tive to foreign oppressor. The prophet
says that Judah is now pursuing the
same downward way. He leaves no room
for doubt that by his picture of the
worthless vineyard he means his own
people. For the vineyard of the Lord
of hosts, he says. is the house of Israel.
and the men of Judah has pleasant
plant: and he looked for Judgment but
behold oppression; for Righteousness,
but behold a cry.
1t is in delineation of the woes which
eliminated in the nations ruin that the
prophet writes our lesson passage.
1. The Drunkard Enslaved,
VS.. 11-17.
Those who rise up early IN the morn
ing that they mag folloao strong drink,
are the men who have arrived at con
Stunning desire for artificial stimulation.
At first their desire for drink was felt,
mainly at the time of the night-spree. 1t
increased until it was raging early in the
morning, and continued undated till
the late hours OF night. We recall that
at one time, when we we're in the sum-
mer tarrying at country hotel in the
Prohibition State of Maine, a traveller
who arrived one evening rose early the
next morning to seek his accustomed