QUERY FOR PROHIBITIONISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 275, 20 November 1899, Page 2

QUERY FOR PROHIBITIONISTS.

(To the Editor)

Sir,—A Mr Earl, under the above heading, has asked for comment on the miracle recorded in Cana of Galilee where water was made into wine. I read his letter to a person in !his 78th year, nearly all his life an abstainer. He expressed surprise _at such ignorance of the subject existing at this day. I think it is an objectlesson for "the friends of total abstinence that more efforts are not being made to educate the people by spreading information on these subjects by the distribution of literature. I should think it is more than 30 years since that the eminent Biblical scholars, Dr. Lees and Dr. Dawson Burns, of England, published works on "The Wines- of Scripture." In them they give in detail every text where wines are mentioned. They abundantly prove that intoxicating and unintoxicating wines were in existence. The Greek words ayin and tirash speak of one kind of wine as a blessing, and the other as a curse. How Any intelligent Christian can be in doubt .as to the wine made at Cana I cannot understand. To suppose that He who was the Light of the World, and was in the beginning with His Father and equal -to Him could posisibly have made anything of an evil tendency is bordering on blasphemy. Distillation was not discovered until the 16th century, and the wines now in use are doctored to suit the Anglo-Saxon palate. From Oporto many years since the English Consul reported that the port wine exported was largely mixed with brandy, very different to that used by the natives there. Old- crusted port, prepared to appear long bottled, is made extensively in London, logwood being used to give the colour. The governor of the feast was deeply impressed with the great superiority of the miraculous-made wine; doubtless it was, like all the works of our Creator, very good. ,Pharaob. s butler pressed out the juice for the king to drink his wine.—l am, etc.,

J. PECKOVER,

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Mr Earl does not state the connection between the miracle referred to and the prohibition of the liquor, traffic by fhe vote of the people, so he need not be surprised if it had been thought too unpractical to need notice. I would like to ask Mr Earl if the liquor traffic known to us to-day was known in Palestine. in the days of our Lord? And had it been so, what, in his opinion, would have been His attitude towards it in the light of Matt. vii. 7—14, and Luke x. 25—37? The latter portion of Mr Earl's letter shows a lack of clear perception! Of several of our Lord's acts it is true, "it is finished." Principles are eternal, and so are admonitions founded on them, one of which is that we are to shun that wine which is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps.—l am, etc., s

A PROHIBITIONIST,