COMMUNION WINE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9568, 26 October 1892, Page 3

COMMUNION WINE.

TO THE EDII'OK. Sin,—With your kind permission, I would like to say a few words on Communion wine now that the Presbyterian Synod is sitt'ng, in the hope that it may receive greater consideration than was given to it last year. Being a subject of growing importance, I do so, not with any intention of commencing a correspondence, but simply to urge the gyncd to legislate on the matter without further delay. The point to be settled is : Was the wine used at the institution of the Lord's Supper intoxicating 'i Everyone will admit that there was both wine and strong drink, and that people got drunk in those days. Wo are all familiar with the story of Noah and his vineyard. It will, however, bo remembered that the Last Supper was really the Passover (see Luke xxii). All the commands given in Exodus xii with regard to leaven must havo been observed at this feast. It therefore follows that no intoxicating wine was used, because alcohol is and was then regarded as leaven, and the penalty for breaking those commands was " that soul shall be cut off from Israel" (verse 15).

Some few weeks ago when in conversation with a Jew who has lor many years been converted to Christianity, I questioned him closely on the manner of celebrating the Passover, the wine used by Jews, &c, and received the following emphatic reply:—"Amongst ail the nations through which the Jews are scattered over the world the feast of the Passover is observed on the same day, and in the same manner ever since they left Egypt. The wine used is made on the day of the feast. In countries where grapes cannot be had or where people are poor the wine is made from Muscatel raisins, which are bought at the grocers' shops. Christ being a Jew could not have used alcoholic wine then." The analogy to bo drawn from the Last Supper seems to be: as this food and drink sustains life and health to your bodies, so does Christ's body and blood given and shed for the sins of the world sustain spiritual health and life ; but there can be no analogy between "the most deadly thing in all creation" (see last year's report of Synod) find the greatest of all gifts. What a grand thing it would bo if the- Presbyterian Church would lead the van and immortalise itself by settling the question ! —I am, &c, October 25. Deeply Interested.

— There is culture—the vegetable, not the educational variety—even in the slums. In some parts mushrooms are extensively grown in cellars, while rhubarb is commonly obtained in like conditions.