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

HoIJo yeszis Di]4' redgfoml yowlii.
3. A divine sanction is claimed for the use of intoxicating drinks bces, bczsc, is -avccud, /he S'zz'vtr (ifercd fromiz
7/ohiz /e'azilst izZ'ts-ilz, l7 "x,'ize" a slAd "stro,l (b:zilk
fl-oli z,hz'ih the latler was exclzuded.
But Jesus differed from John as a non-Nazarite, and
John as a Nazarite was interdicted from the use of everything that came from the vine; so that by using the fruit
of the vine in any state, the Lord made this difference as
clearly marked as it could have been by the use of fermented fluids. The life of John was that of a solitary,
waiting till crowds came to him; that of Jesus was as
strikingly social, and where men abounded he wended his
way -to bless and to save them. For this purpose, and
not from any disposition to self-indulgence, he visited the
houses of all classes, and occasionally went to dine or sup
with those who could thus be most intimately reached.
Yet, through all, he pleased not himself; he did not
gratify, even to the extent he lawfully might have done,
his corporeal appetites; he was not the man of sensuous
delights, but of sorrows; and his self-denial as far exceeded John's as the greatness of his mission exceeded
that of his forerunner's. That "he came eating and
drinking" is but another form of stating that he was
social in his conduct; and if he was called a glutton and
a wine-bibber (Ahag,os kai oizofiolees, literally "an eater and
a wine-drinker"), the accusation implied excessive use of
meat and drink, and not the intoxication arising from
alcoholic wines. To suppose that the Saviour used any
wine bccztlse it was alcoholic, and therefore sanctioned its
use as such, is an assertion without the vestige of proof,
nor does the Gospel history supply a fraction of evidence
in support of the theory that he used the wine forbidden
to the priests in their temple service-the wine forbidden
to kings and judges-the wine employed by prophets to
symbolize the wrath of the Almighty. To argue that lie
did so because he speaks of new wine being put into new
log