Wine in the Cup.

White Ribbon, Volume 15, Issue 176, 16 February 1910, Page 9

Wine in the Cup.

Not long since the Bishop of Manchester stopped a communion service because he discovered that the wine was not fermented. He then sent to a public house and obtained a fermented wine. The probabilities are that, as we live in an age of adulteration, there was not one drop of grape juice in the wino tli us obtained.

The same week Mr John Lewis, speaking at a meeting of the British Temperance League in Lees Hall, said : “Reference had been made to a service being stopped until fermented wine was provided for the sacrament. It recalled a story related to him on the previous Thursday by a minister. His father was also a minister, and for many years thought it right and proper to have fermented wine at the Communion. One evening he was tlie means of preventing a young man from committing suicide. Kind words and practical sympathy led the young man to a better life. I Mink had ruined him and robbed him of a situation worth £6OO a year. Sobriety gave him a lift upward ; he entered heart and soul into Sunday-school work, and at the end of two years thought himself tit for church membership. Iho minister who had rescued him fiom death saw with deep thankfulness the new member about to make bis first Communion, lie passed him the cup containing intoxicating wine, and pronounced a blessing, little dreaming that the sip of w ine bad awakened an old craving for drink in one of bis best workers. The new member left the church to obtain more drink, and in four month? was a dead man. Strong drink had conquered him, and found an entrance into his life where above all places in the world he should have been absolutely safe from attack. It was such a lesson to the minister that he banished fermented wine from the Communion, and neitht r he nor his son had ever used it since. Sucli an incident ought to stir up every Christian to rest not until all thesci vices in the house of Clod were safe fer everyone to take part in.”

The strong man never fears care; but he flees from fret.