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

ant(,! PAt of Sprilpziie to Social Evils.
tdac'/ 7ypcr;zi/ z!. Bishops and others, we are reminded,
were waraned, not against "a ll" wine, but against "much"
wine. The true meaning of Apostolic testimony on this
subject will shortly be examined. On'the objection as
above stated, it may be remarked that a similar sanction
may be claimed for many things which the Christian
world has agreed to reject. Neither Christ nor his apostles forbade polygamy,* or gladiatorial shows, or domestic
slavery, or Romian suppression of Jewish independence,
or an absolute form of government; yet are these things
sanctioned in the Scriptures? It was not the intention
of Christianity to weave a network of regulations applicable to all possible circumstances, but to breathe into
men's hearts a spirit which would, if cherished, lead at
length to a correction of all abuses. The early Church
was far from perfect in knowledge or practice; and the
apostles themselves were too sincerely conscious of imperfection to set up their own lives for imitation, except
so far as they imitated the Lord in the spirit of his life.
The design of God was the progressive holiness of the
Church, and its increasing conformity to his laws, physical and spiritual. The plea that because this thing
and the other were permitted, therefore were sanctioned
once, and therefore are sanctioned for ever, is an attempt
to nullify and reverse the intentions of Providence. All
light is light, but not always equally luminous; all goodness is goodness, but not equally free fronm alloy. The spirit of love in the ancient Church set its brand on the cruelty associated with slavery; and now (with the fuller knowledge of the evils inherent in slavery as such) it sets its
brand upon slavery itself. It would be useless to ask
why ancient Christianity did not expressly condemn
* A " bishop" wras to be "the hus'band of one awife"; hence it has been
argued "other Christians w-ere permitted to have more than one," a mode
of reasoning worthy of that vwh:och is brought against total abstinence principles.
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