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

Bible Support of A bsli'zciice.
deny, then, miost emphatically, that the apostles ever
extended a sanction to alcoholic drinks; but what they
did-as in the case of slavery-was to enunciate a rule of
action, and to inculcate a spirit of judgment, carrying
with them, in embryo, all that was needful to lead, in the
one instance, to the overthrow of the institution and
instruments of slavery, and, in the other instance, to the
avoidance of all the causes of intemperance, whether
residing in the nature of strong drink, or in the drinking
usages and traffic of our age.
I I. —THE SACRED SCRIPTURES GIVE SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMIENT TO THE PRACTICE-OF TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
I. They show the consistenzcy of total azbstlinence with the
highest health and zo'or. Thle sojourn of the Israelites for
forty years in the wilderness without wine or strong
drink (Deut. xxix. 6); the abstinence rule of the Nazarites, with the picture drawn of their physical vigor
(Lam. iv. 7); the prescription of total abstinence to Samson, and, before parturition, to his mother (Judges xiii.
4, 5, 7); the great age attained by men who, like Samuel,
were Nazarites from birth (I Sam. i. I I-25); the physical
benefits enjoyed by the Rechabites for three centuries,
down to the time of Jeremiah (Jer. xxxv. 7-IO); the refusal of Daniel and his'friends to take the king's wine, and
the results (Dan. i. ii-I6): these are so many Old Testa -
ment proofs of the greatest strength and longevity without the use of any inebriating drinks. The case of Samson alone is a crucial one; for no one can suppose that,
if alcohol had been conducive, in a peculiar manner, to
the development of strength, it would have been denied
to him. The striking extension of this inhibition to his
mother while she bore him in her womb, was also in
accordance with all that science has disclosed as to the
influence of the mother's diet upon her unborn offspring.
The language of the chorus in Milton's Samson A4gonistes
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