The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

ut4ll of Boblicl Iizterpretfationz.
fection neither of individuals nor the nation; and some of
these permissions take the form of distinct arrangements
and regulations. Slavery, polygamy, facility of divorce,
a visible monarchy, together with much ignorance of the
more spiritual elements of religion, were permitted, age
after age; and what was said of one question was true,
doubtless, of the rest, that this was done on account of
"the hardness of their hearts." It need not surprise us,
therefore, that they were also permitted to use intoxicating drinks, nor are we warranted on account of this permission to infer a divine sanction from the imputation of
which every one would shrink in the other cases. As
this point will afterwards recur, in regard to New Testament times, we shall proceed to consider those marks of
divine sanction which are supposed to be conferred in
Scripture upon the use of intoxicating drinks. One remark it is necessary to premise —that the words "wine"
and "strong drink," which occur so frequently in the
English version of the Bible, and which have certain fixed
significations in our common speech, must not be considered as necessarily conveying the proper sense of the
original terms. Excellent as is the current translation, it
cannot possess the authority of the original Hebrew and
Greek; and the present movement in the highest quarters for a revision of this version is a sufficient rejoinder
to those who quote it, on this question, with a confidence
that could not be surpassed if they held in their hands the
autographs of the sacred writers. The argument, as wev
shall sketch it, is not an elaborate one, and with a little
candor and patience it can be mastered by those who have
never been trained in Oriental or classical erudition.
I. A sanction is claimed for intoxicating drink because
w7zie atzd stro;i drink are associated in Scrizture wit'h the
tc'z.Aoral blessinzgs froizised to the yews in their possession of
the lanz. of Canzaan. So Isaac's prophecy concerning
Jacob (Gen. xxvii. 28) of "plenty of corn and wine"; so
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