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

i I 8 ScripplAle anid l,ie 7ct,ipecra'lce lOucstiorl.
known to the sacred writers, but they knew that y,ayin
and shaZkar when fermented were no longer innocent as
before; and instead of the modern epithet of " good
creature" bestowed on alcoholic drinks, they used the
most powerful terms they could employ to describe the
evil character of that property in wine and strong drink
by which they seduced and demoralized mankind.
(r.) In Proverbs xxiii. 3J, the Aheonozena offernzenztation
aredescribed, and in verse 32 the result is declared-" At
the last it (such wine) biteth like a serpent, and stingeth
like an adder." Such wine is possessed of the serpent's
nature, and instils the serpent's poison.
(2.) Ilz referriz, to strong drzizk there is a,eizarkaile use
of "khamah," a word translated in the English version
"poison," "anger," "fury," "heat"; but the sense of
which is lost in two important passages, where the colorless rendering " bottle " is given to it. In Hosea vii. 5,
"the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine,"
should be, by consent of all critics, "the princes have
made him sick with poison (or inflaming heat) of wine."
And in Habal-kuk ii. 15, "that puttest thy bottle to him,"
should be, "that puttest thy poison (or inflaming drink)
to him." The same word occurs in Deut. 32, 33, "Their
wine is the poison (khamazath) of dragons ": a text which
throws light on Prov. xxiii. 32, where the red bubbling
wine is compared to the serpent.
(3.) The nature of zomze and sIro;tg drink is disfblayed by
use of eli~thts wtih a mzoral sense. Prov. xx. I1,"Wine is a
mocker, strong drink is raging." So Habakkuk ii. 5,
"he transgressethl by wine "-or rather, " the wine is defrauding " —is a defrauder or deceiver. The Vulgate renders it, "wine deceives the drinker." Other translators
give, "wine is treacherous." So Doddridge and others
consider that in Eph. v. 7, the apostle ascribes "excess"
(dissoluteness) not to being drunk with wine, but to wine
itself —" in which (wine) is asolia." The epithets used
iI