The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-11
BY THE REV. W. !. sINxor.r.

| Palestine, the home of Israel. abounded in vines whose fruit (grapes) was pressed and it's tuiee drank by the people. Such juice by law of nature becomes in a short time wine tfsr- mented), vinegar, tsour vinegar) or .'putrifactive fermentation" uhless Ar- tificial means are used to prevent. Wine judiciously used was spoken oi as a blessing and was used In uods worship; its excessive use and abuse is denounced. This is It's history from the day of Noah through ali Bible his- tory, through the times of the Chris- tfan Fathers, and untif about 100 years ago. Tn the 18th Century an easy and lazy way of advocating Temperance was invented by the theory that all good wine was unfermented. grape juice, 9uice which contained no aico- hob, and that all wine which con tained alcohol was bad, and its bad ness consisted in the presence of alec. hol, which is affirmed to be poison any use of which is a sin. Thus we have the "two.wfne theory" in ac- cordance with which true wine tfer- mented grape juice) was not used al the Jewish Passover and should not be used in the Lortrs Supper.
 | About sixty-seven years ago Moses Stuart, the father of Biblical scholar ship In America. advocated the two wine theory, though he conceded tha, wine (fermented) was used in "the Supper st Corinth, Cor. 11:z1. After thorough examination this view has been SO thoroughly rejected by practi- cally all. the best scholarship of the world, as to justify Dr. T. w. Cham bers in declaring In 1894: This view Is not held by any respectable schoi- ar now living in the world"
 F. Delitzsek, who died in 1890, the worlds greatest Hebrew scholar in his day. declared: What Moses Stuart writes in the Bib.. Sac. In 1S43. page 59S, is incorrect. The wine of the Passover has at all times been fer mented wine which according to the prevalent custom was mixed with wa ter. The best scholarship among Lutherans, Presbyterians. Episcopal fans. Baptists and Jewish rabbis give similar testimony. though Dr. Bru- ehl states that in counties which do not produce wine the stricter Jews use raisin wine and are indifferent about fermentation. This wine Is cheap. is quickly and readily made. and espe- cialiy is it Kosher" (cermoniaily clean and not defiled by Gentle hands.)
 That this view of scholarship Is cor- rect the following facts prove:
 1. The Hebrew language abounds | in synonymous terms to express shades of related thoughts. The Hebrew Bible has only 5,642 different words, and yet has eight words for darkness. eleven for rain. fourteen for confi- denoe in God. twenty-five for obser- vance of the law. ten for its different drinks that may have contained traces of alcohol. but not one that is restrict- ed to undermined grape juice. The Greeks and the Romans used pro- cess by which they could keep for a while but not longer than year, unfer minted grape juice. to which, however, the Creeks gave the name at-gienkos (always sweeO and the Romans semper nnustum (8lways must). and modern chemistry shows us how to keep 1t for years, but no satisfactory evidence has been shown that the Jews ever did this. At the Passover which our Lord Jesus changed to the Sup per" for the Church in the new dis pensation. our English Bible, which here correctly translates the Hebrew, tells us that leaven was forbidden and Jewish writers tell us that "not vim ous but farinaceous' fermentatfon was forbidden" also. is e. fermented drinks made of grain were forbidden, but not that made from the grape; and in the days of our Lord wine was used at the Passover.
 The following reasons show this wine to be true. real wine (fermented grape juice); (a) Grapes were gathered from July to October. the Passover was observed about six months later Gin March or ApriD. and wine among the Jews required the presence of some alcohol for it's preservation this long (b) the color. red, which ntted wine to symboiize blood came not from the color of the juice itself. put from the action of alcohol in fermentation. ex- tracting color from the purple skins of the grapes. Co Probably the slight ly stimulating power of the presence of a small percentage of alcohol. and its power to save the grape Jdice from pu- trification, fitted 1t also to be a symbol of the life and the salvation which came through the blood Of Christ.
 2. Syria is country whose customs have changed very little in 1000 or more years. and its natives. like Bishop Galiat and others, laugh at the idea of an unfermented wine there today.
 Missionaries of the very highest standing for scholarship and veracity, like Dr. W. NJ. Thomson. author of The Land and the Book: Dr. Van Dyck. translator of the Bible into Arabic; Dr. Jessup, Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly; Dr. William Wright, Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, men who have given the best portion of their lives 70 this coun- try, testify that they have never been able to find any "unfermented wine" there.
 This much. of course. is admitted: As a farmer speaks by prolepsis or anticipation of his growing corn, the corn In the barn, the meal or ground corn as his bread" though 1t Is not strictly bread until cooked, so a Jew might speak by anticipation or ms srares and their expressed juice be- fore its fermentation es his "wiue.'
 Much unfairness and twisting of Scripture have been indulged in on the subject of Bible wine. To be spe-