The Wine of the Bible, of Bible Lands, and of the Lord's Supper [pp. 564-595]

The Wine of the Bible,
Dr. Laurie adds what he had already proved. The word
"wine," according to the best lexicographers, means "the fer mented juice of the grape." However they may differ on other
points, all agree in this. To these witnesses Rev. J. IH. Shedd,
missionary at Oroomialh, Persia, a most ardent advocate of total
abstinence, adds his unambiguous testimony in an able com muaication to the [nterior of July 20. He says: "We have not found the true position to be what some call
the advanced Bible ground, that fermented wine is a thing in
itself unclean and accursed. My experience of nearly eleven
years in the East has not furnished the least basis for the dis tinction made between fermented and unfermented wines in
the Bible, or in Bible lands. At least we should find it utterly
impossible to argue such a point with men who speak the
Arabic and Syriac languages. They would reply that the very
name of wine-a word from the root H~hamr, to ferment meansfermented. The Syriac version, too, was made very near
the time of the apostles, and this is the word used. The most
diligent inquiries of those on the ground, and most familiar
with the people in Turkey and Persia, can find no unfermented
wine. The people know nothing of the luxury spoken of by
classical writers, and nothing of any method of preserving the
juice of the grape from becoming intoxicating. The testimony
of all familiar with the East is the same."
Thew Wine Proper to be Used at the. Lord's Supper.
We think the evidence conclusive that the "fruit of the vine"
used by our Lord, and appointed by him to be used in the sacrament of the Supper, which is to show forth his death till he
come, was in the form in which it was known to the people as
a drink, i. e. wine proper, or the fermented juice of the grape.
Such has been the nearly unanimous judgment and practice of the
Christian church from the beginning. We believe this, not any
adulterated counterfeit of it, but the pure juice of the grape in
the form known as wine, the proper and divinely-constituted
element for the cup in the Lord's Supper, and that without this
there is a circumstantial, though not necessarily fatal, defect in
the mode of its administration. Notwithstanding this, there
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[OCTOBE,R,