MR STANFORD IN REPLY

Evening Star, Issue 3626, 6 October 1874, Page 3

MR STANFORD IN REPLY

To the Editor. "■ j Sift,—l mast ask “ Abstainer ” J tq excuse* my " not answering all'/his questions, or accepting his Somewhat humorous challenges.! To do so. fully would occupy too much of your valuable Space. I sincerely ! hope thsit he will not misunderstand my silence. Two points I wish to note : first, my speech was raisreported, both as to words and meaning; iu the sentence quoted. X was very far froin “ arguing that the rules'laid down iu tj>« New Testament were in direct opposition to abstinence.” Second, as to the wins created in the first miracle being intoxicating, I have failed to find one single commentator who does not distinctly assert that it was so, while Matthew Henry, 'Alford, Trench, Bengel, and Dr Tarrar, in his “ Life of Christ.” plainly declare that it was intoxicating. This for what it is worth. Many other corroborative methods of sub atantiating my statement occur to me, did time and place suit for the discusrien. It might, 1 think, be sufficient answer if I were to say that it is extremely doubtful (something more indeed) whether any nation of antiquity understood the art of keeping wine in any ttate except that in which it intoxicates. It has always been held impossible grape juice from, fermen tation, and the difficulty has only very lately been overcome by a process unknown to the ancients, of “bottling in vacuo." At the present time, the wines used in the East contain from 10 to 18 per cent, of alcohol. I prefer, however, to draw the obvious inference from the fact that in the repeated warnings against intemperance given in the Epistles, the|same word is used { oinon) to express wine as is used in John ii., 1-11., Only once in the New Testament is the word varied, viz , Acts ii. 13. I will simply refer “ Abstainer” to Kph v., 18; I. 'limothy in., 3; I. Timothy, v., 23 ; I. Peter, iv,, 3 —the instances murht be multiplied. A perusal, will be sufficient to convince him that wice such as that created by Our Lord in Cana of Gal ilee must have been intoxicating, since so many repeated warnings are given against excess in it.—l am, &c. ■ _ • . R. L. Stanford. Dunedin, October 6.