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

Scr;ipft.,re Guideance SzffcieAi.1
Lord's Supper, an article which is unquestionably "the
fruit of the vine," rather than a liquor that is, at best, the
fruit of the vine partially perverted, and that may not
contain a single drop of the juice of the grape. The
reader must judge for himself whether this preference is
contrary to the example and will of the Redeemer in the
institution of the Holy Supper. *
2. It is said "th at if total abstinence had beez a iracl/ce
uivizzer-sally r'6lht and needful, Scriit?re leachhiz/ zvooild haz,e
bcen so -Plaii as to hzave admizztted of no dozubt uJoit the qztestia,n."
It might be enough to reply that if the use of intoxicating drink were right and desirable, Scripture (on the
objector's principle) woluld have given a declaration to
that effect impossible to have been mistaken. The objection proceeds on the assumption that God will place our
duty before us in a form to render misconception i;mfiosszble; but this assumption is contradicted by all experience. In another form this objection is directed against
Christianity, the evidences for which it would require to
have been made impossible of denial; and it is in replying to this objection that Bishop Butler remarks: "The
unsatisfactory nature of the evidence with which we are
obliged to take up, in the daily course of life, is scarce to
be expressed. Yet men do not throw away life, or disre gard the interest of it, upon account of this doubtfulness.
The evidence of religion, then, being admitted real, those
who object to it as not satisfactory, that is, as not being
what they wish it, plainly forget the very condition of
our being; for satisfaction, in this sense, does not belong
* It will be observed that the objector is met on his own ground, though it
might be retorted fairly on him that as the temperance reform aims to remove the evils of strong drink, taken as a beverage, the occasional use of
wine in the Lord's Supper has never been made a bar to temperance association. An earnest desire is, however, prevalent that what is discarded as
dangerous from the domestic board should not be retained at the table of the
Lord.
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