Historic Records to Guide.

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Solomon, and the prophetic and historic records of the nation's decline, are full of pictures of the evils of wine-drinking; and their statements are illustrated, as well as amplified, in successive Greek, Latin, and modern European translations, in the comments, during successive ages, of Hebrew and Christian scholars, and by modern Hebraists. The long line of Greek and Roman classic writers, poets and moralists, physicians and naturalists, statesmen and horticulturists, present testimonies as varied and as impressive as those of Byron and Cowper, yet all conspiring. The New Testament example and teaching of Jesus and of His Apostles, and the testimony of men in succeeding ages and differing divisions of the Christian Church, such as Clement, Jerome, and Aquinas, as to the meaning of those teachings, is the central and authoritative Christian guide. The Talmud and later Hebrew traditions as to Old Testament customs, the statutes of the Arabian prophet, borrowed from Christian precepts as well as from experience as a legislator, and the medieval corruptions of Jewish, Christian and Muhammedan festivities, bridge over the dark period that ushers in modern progress. Lastly, the multiplied studies and encyclopedic treatises of modern English and American advocates of social, moral and religious reforms, often controversial and even partisan, but pro

found in thought and scholarly in research, demand long and calm consideration, that the balance of truth may give just weight to opposite opinions and to apparently conflicting statements of fact.

CAUSES OF DIFFERING CONCLUSIONS.

In the almost interminable labyrinth of historic records relating to the use of wines, not only the map of the field just outlined, but also some clues to lead the student out of the necessary intricacies in which some explorers have become involved, seem to be needed. A few hints, gathered through readings of nearly half a century from earliest childhood, may give aid to some perplexed inquirer.

First. The broadness of the field of survey compels the selection of central points of ob servation, and a grouping of minor details under leading principles. Many now ask, as if the suggestion were a new one," Why, if the wine of Christ's employ were unintoxicating—why has not the fact been sooner brought out and a purer practice been maintained?" Among those familiar with the discussions on almost every point of Christian truth now existing, such as divorce, slavery, etc., which are but the reverberating echoes of centuries and ages, this suggestion in the first place awakens a conception

Causes of Differing Conclusions.

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of the limitless field of survey. Modern science in every department invites division of labor; a single branch of the great study, if exhaustive, demanding a life employ. It is the work of a collator of such multiplied and minute observations to search for the common principles, and to aim at an analytic grouping of kindred facts, whose undigested presentation confuses instead of guiding.

Second. The fact that the eye must furnish the only fully apprehended facts for reasoning on any subject, intimates that personal observation may modify impressions gained by mere reading. This is preeminently noteworthy in the profound researches of German scholarship. While Egypt and Syria were shut up by Muhammedan prejudice, Von Bohlen argued the late origin of the books said to be those of Moses; because, while these books refer to wine in Egypt, Plutarch states that the Egyptians did not drink wine before the time of Psammiticus, and at that time did not offer it in sacrifice. Hengstenberg, replying when the French invasion revealed the culture of the vine and the making of wine as existing in the days of Abraham,--even Hengstenberg but half comprehends the import of Plutarch's statement, and positively denies an apparent statement of Herodotus that "the vine was not cultured in Egypt." Thorough personal obser

vation would have revealed the fact that in the Valley of the Nile, reaching like Italy and the American coast through hundreds of miles from north to south, with every variety of soil and product though not of clime, Herodotus is speaking only of lower Egypt; while Plutarch refers specially to the priests, or learned class, and means by "wine," in that connection, intoxicating as distinct from the unintoxicating products of the vine. Again, the limit of the special explorer's field, the age in which he lives, and the local and popular meaning of terms, may restrict his view, and prevent the comprehensiveness of a conscientious reporter. The differing reports of Rev. E. A. Smith, in the mountains of Lebanon, and of Rev. Mr. Homes, at Constantinople, made within two years' time, 1846 and 1848, recall the fact that the ancient Israelites had varieties of wines; that Jerome, living for thirty years in Palestine, describes intoxicating and unintoxicating wine (vinum); that the Arabic lexicographer Freytag and the French vocabularies give the common name, “vinum" and "vin," to "khamreh," the fermented, and to "sherbet," the unfermented product of the vine.

Third. The fact that the influence of social custom, and especially of personal habit, causes an unconscious overlooking of facts conflicting with prevalent opinions and observations, must

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be overcome before all the facts and principles brought before an inquirer's mind can be rightly judged. Any Any thoughtful reader of Horace, Athenæus, Byron, and kindred votaries of luxury and frivolity, must weigh against them the sober statements of Virgil, Plutarch, Young, and like calm reporters of truth for the sake of men's instruction; or the spirit of recent English treatises on the use of wine will be sure to mislead. The important truth to note is, that both classes alike picture the law and its penalty: while the one class make the law their sport during the hour of indulgence, and its penalty their curse when too late it is fastened upon them. The recent meeting of such a mind as that of the Rev. A. M. Wilson, of Bathgate, England, with such a testimony as that of Prof. Moses Stuart, of Andover, New England, is a marked illustration of the effect of different moods, the serious or sarcastic, in viewing the same facts.

Fourth. The fact that the practical judgment of men of differing temperaments may fail to appreciate the extreme leanings to which conscientious conviction may lead wise and good men, indicates the necessity of deciding what is the law of duty as to the use of wine. Without doubt, the Nazarite vow of total abstinence not only from intoxicating wines, but from any nutritious product of the vine, appears at first extreme and