WINES OF THE SCRIPTURES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 170, 20 July 1908, Page 8

WINES OF THE SCRIPTURES.

TO <T£B IDITOE. , Sir, —May I again ask for space' in your columns in order to reply r,o '* Union -Jack, Jim." ? Having taken ' not© .of ,your femarks I will reply as ; "briefly- as possible, and endeavour to j ' keep to the point. Regarding the ' ■judging of wines, -my right of proof' ,'thab the wine was so judged (by its .alcoholic strength) will be found .in ,Luke v., 39, ",No man also having: aruftk o,ld wine Straightway desireth new; for he saith, the old is better." Non-alcoholic wine would' not imferove by age; the alcoholic would. .Pliny's mention ol 385 varieties of drink, and thatl only one frquld burn, is no proof that the [majority of the other drinks'i were not more or less fermented, therefore alcoholic. At jthe present time there are scores of varieties of wines strongly alcoholic which will not burn. Even many of the so-called temperance drinks of the present day are more or less alcoholic, viz.y hop beer, ginger beer, herbal beer, etc. " Jack " says (and rightly too) that wine in the Scripture means either alcoholic or non-alcoholic, and ihe context appears' to him to be the only means of discrimination. In' the passages I have quoted tbe'ebntext would then most decidedly lead one to infer that'they were'alcoholic. " Jack '' evinces a great'a'ntipathy to my pointing him to1 French wines. Well, to;oblige." him I came to.'-'soiße* of +he yarietjies :he mentions. ' Dr. Smith says:' <v The "allusions to effects of ' tirosh ' are CQnfined*to 'a singlffe passage; but this a,< most decisive one, namely, Hosea iv.j 11: "... and ' wine (yazin) and new wine tirosh take away the heart." Our Lord's comparison, Matt, ix., 19, is well-nigh conclusive—and if exception be taken to that,' none can be made to Job xxxii., 19, where new wine is described as likely to " burst new bottles." Further, Dr. Smith cays: " Special notice has been taken of the two words which occur most frequently in Hebrew for wines. A similar proof might be offered in regard to the other words. For example, the' power of intoxicating is scribed to ' asis' (Isaiah lix., 26), and indeed we- may reasonably infer that if some kinds of wine produced intoxication while others did not, then a distinction would be made in the Scripture warnings, whereas, instead of allowing one kind as innocuous, and censuring another as dangerous, the prohibition is in all ca3gs the same against excess/ I defy Mrs Lee to disprove the statement made by M. Pasteur, that ferment germs are to be found on the surface oi the grape, and that alcoholic fermentation is produced upon their coming in contact,with the juice of that fruit or any saccharine liquid I am willing to discuss Rom. xiv. with "Jack" at any time. Being, irrevelant, I waive his personal remarks.

If Mrs Lee will kindly N refer to the foregmiig reply to "Union Jack, Jun., she will find an answer to most of the statements she makes in her tetter of Saturday night's issue Mrs; Lee. will find my contention was that the wine mentioned in the Scriptures' was alcoholic. Mrs Lee contends- that the wine of the Old Testament was typical of hell and death, and goes on with a string of texts in her endeavour to prove the same. If she will: please read the passages again she will find that it was the excessive use of the wines that called *ori^ n? reprimand. The moderate use of alcoholic wine is nowhere forbidden ,in the Bible,, except to the priest when he enters, into the inner court. I have no doubt grape juice and other drinks, mixtures, etc, were used, "in those days, but when mentioned in the Scriptures they cannot well be mistaken for the alcoholic and vice versa. Mrs Lee quotes me as saying grape juice that is fermented produces alcohol and carbonic acid gas. I did not call them deadly poisons as Mrs Lee has classed them. From experience by thousands, alcohol in moderation (if a poison) is a remarkably slow one. As to carbonic acid^gas being a deadly poison when taken in drink is quite news to me. Perhaps Mrs Lee is not aware that ■there is more of this "deadly poison" in a r-lass of lemonade, soda water, etc., than in a glass of beer. Many

of the good things of this life are the products of wliat "Mrs Lee* calls "rottenness and. decay "—-wheat and other for instance; the seed grain has to become "decomposed to produce its' like. Her reference to

''the nation physically deteriorating through drink" is worth a thought. Is, it nob rather through environment, closo-crowding in large cities, etc? We still lind in the oountry districts men and women as good mentally and physically as ever their ancestors were', -xad non-abstainers, too.. Mrs Leo quotes Romans xi., 21; this is not relevant to the. subject being discussed. I have no intention of becoming a baker to please Mrs Lee. Presuming I did, "fermentation, alcohol, death and corruption " would enter into a batch of bread as it does at present.—lours, etc., S. J. HEFFER. '