TEMPERANCE.

Southland Times, Issue 19357, 24 September 1924, Page 7

TEMPERANCE.

To the Editor. Sir, —In to-day's issue the Ghost writes truer than he meant, when he says “Hhamets” (leaven) is applied to fermented fruits, which he naivly confesses are “very bad to eat and not to be offered to the Lord? Thanks, we are agreed on that. However, he ae&na to regard the process of fermentation as something which purifies, giving a product which may be partaken of “before the Lord.” To test this statement, let up compare the analysis of:

01 all fruits grapes stand second in food value (being beaten for first place by bananas) and in countries where largely grown they form a staple food, being eaten raw or as grape juice freshly pressed, or boiled down as a sort of jam. called “dibs/ or dried as raisins. It will be noted by comparing the analysis, that in the port wine, the juice has changed: the food constituents have largely disappeared and in their place has appeared a new substance alcohol, a poison, not a food. To intoxicate is to poison: In a book on my shelf “Poisons and their detection,” 27 pages are given to alcohol, and theft? are 230 pages concerned with poisons that may be extracted from plants, a number of these are mentioned in the Bible and their use condemned. Now, can the Ghost explain why these various poisons should become innoxious if eaten "before the Lord.’ In my last letter a

case was quoted where serious harm was done, by believing in that doctrine. The Ghost still clamours for a text which shall specifically mention the Liquor Trade. He is evidently failing in deductive power, and must have a pocket book containing instructions after the fashion of the drill book issued to army instructors, and unable to move or perform any task, until he finds whether it is there or not. In the time of our Lord, the Pharisees had concocted such a set of rules, and Christ condemned these rules as being grevious to be borne, and with, “I say unto you,” he gave us these uncomparable sayings which supply the roots of our duty to God and to our fellow man. It is to be supposed that the Ghost, was taught what are termed the elementary principles of arithmetic and he is surely aware that these lead to4he higher mathematics by means of which the most abstruse calculations are made in like manner to the simple text to be found in the Bible are suited for the solution of the most complicated problems either in high or low civilisations. ,1 am, etc., GEORGE D. MACINDOE. Invercargill, Sept. 23, 1924.

Grape juice Port wine per cent. per cent. Flesh forming nitrogenous matter 0 7 0.3 Sugar 13.0 3.4 Other carbonacious matter 5 9 0.7 Mineral matter 0.4 0J Water 80 0 77.6 Alcohol 17.8 ——-— — 100.0 100.0