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

1871.] of Bible Lands, and of the Lord's Supper.
may be a blessing in it, as in the Word and ordinances universally, in spite of defects in their human administration.
Pious Romanists, who are denied the cup altogether, may yet
receive a blessing through the bread received in faith. The
Friends may receive spiritual grace, though so misguided as to
reject the Sacraments, and not suffer fatally, though they suffer
loss thereby. We do not suppose that in two cases personally
known to us, in which the officials in charge provided currant
wine unknown to minister, session, and church, until it was over,
they forfeited the blessing because of a substitution of which
they were not cognizant. Still, we believe that the normal elements for this feast appointed by our Lord are those which
ought to be used, and alone have the promise of blessing. They
cannot be intentionally changed on account of any supposed
evil in them which we think we see, and our Lord did not see,
without directly reflecting on him. We would not be a party
to such a procedure, or look for the Master's blessing upon it.
But the doctrine that all alcoholic beverages of whatever kind,
in whatever amount taken, are poison, and that, as such, their
use is always condemned in Scripture, enforces the exclusion
of what the world and the Scripture knows as wine from the
Lord's table, and the exclusive use of unfermented liquor at the
sacred feast. Nor can the doctrine that all making, sale, and
use of intoxicating stimulants as a beverage is a sin, be logically
carried out without forcing this issue. Indeed, everywhere the
men who are urging the one are urging the other-the banish ment of fermented wine from the Lord's table. If it is always
a poison, which it is a sin under any circumstances to taste, why
not here? And are we not, in logical consistency, to look for
attempts to insure the banishment of it from the Lord's table
by the authority and discipline of the church? We are not
quite come to this yet. Nor shall we, as we trust.*
* We have already brought before our readers the resolution of the New
York Temperance Society enjoining the church to " abjure the use of ferment ed wine at communion." We also find the following, in the circular issued by a
maker and vender of what he calls non-alcoholic wine for communion, put forth
as an argument to church officers to purchase the article he makes. He nat urally sets it out in its full and unqualified strength, as follows: " In 1869, when, as Recording Steward of the M. E. Church of this place
591