Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1879 — "Take a Little Wine for Thy Stomach’s Sake.” [ARTICLE]

"Take a Little Wine for Thy Stomach’s Sake.”

ESSATRHADBTMR.FRANK W. BIBCOCK AT THE TEMPERANCE MEETING, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 80. It seems to be a rule of human thought and conduct that for every act of doubtful propriety we seek justification in tome respestabie authority. The popular notion is, not whether the thing is morally and abstraclty right or wrong, but “can I find some respectable justification for it?” Especially do men try to justify their acts, bad as well as good, by authority of scripture. Atheist and Christian, believer and unbelievers, alike are content to fall back upon some one or more isolated passages of holy writ in defense of some questionable habit or dubious conduct. Those who boldly deny the divine authority of the bible, and refuse io accept its moral code as the rule of true moral conduct, or its revealed plan of salvation as the true way to eternal life, still dare, before a Christian world, to rest their ill seeming acts or manifest, vices Upon some declaration of the scripture. Following tliis rule, whether sincere or not, we frequently hear bibbiers, and the conservative friends of bibling, quoting of Paul’s suggestion toTimothy, “take a little wine for thy stomach’s sake,” as scriptural authority for dram drinking; and as for further conclusive authority from the same source, is cited, the miracle of Jesus converting water into wine at the marriage feast in Caana of Gallilee. It would be difficult to do greater violence to the scriptures upon any one rule of moral conduct than to assume that they teach or even tolerate the use of intoxicants as a beverage, in the way they are ordinarily used. The scriptures are consistent with themselves in teachings; always harmonious when understood. Therefore let us briefly examine this subject. What were the circumstances under which the suggestion was made by Paul to Timothy, “Drink no longer water bu t La ke a liLt 1 e wi n e f6r thy s(om ach’s sake and thine often infirmities'’? For many years Timothy had been engaged inllie work of an evangelist, spreading 4‘ihe good news of the kingdom.” He had traveled from place to place; had suffered over-fatigue, hardships and deprivations; he had been bufl’ VteffTUoffed,' per Sec UVtd, rtespis ed, stoned and imprisoned. Those were not days of steamboats and state rooms; railroads and palace cars. That was not the enlightened age of the 19lh century nor the cultivated civilization of present Europe or America. They were the days of donkeys and fool travel, camels and small crude sail boats on the Mediterranean. They were the days of Jewish persecutions, of Christianity in its infancy; the age of Asiatic ignorance and supersti tion and of Roman misrule and tyranny. They were the days to Christian evangelists of sandals and bread and water; of persecutions, mobs, violence and no salary nor quarterly collections. Timothy had borne 'it all in meekness and patience and persisted in the word of his master’s kingdom. He had risen to the highest office in the church as much on the account of his exemplary habits as for his devoted energy to the work. He was noted for his abstemiousness. His habits were guarded with austerity. But he had now become infirm; he was wearing out with his nerveexhausting labors and needed some simple remedy to assist nature to rally the physical powers. Paul knew him thoroughly.",,They had been companions in travels for many years and together had suffered the trials and hardships incident to /their evangelical work. Thusintimately knowing Timothy, his rigorous temperate habits, his strong resolution, his, safe self control, Paul, could safely and properly say to him, “take a little wine for your stomach’s traktrand your many infirmities.” But Paul did not suggest 'Any such thing to the world generally nor even to his fellow Christians; but on the contrary, as we shall see, he left many direct and positive injunctions against the use'.of intoxicants, and exhortations to temperance and sobriety. " ' wine for the wedding? Jesus em-

braced many opportunities to manifest God’s power in hl,in. The miracle of converting water into wine was only one of these many manifestations. He did not recommend the use of wine nd a beverage. Himself or deciples never found drunk, we do not eveq find any record of their visiting saloons, buying by the quart or favoring a license of the traffic. The bible permits one to take life in self defense, but it does not allow murder. So the spirit would suffer Paul to recommend wine purely as a curative remedy to the rigidly temperate and abstemious Timothy, but it never winked at drunkenness nor in any manner authorized dissipation. “Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging,” declares the wise man by inspiration, “and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” Again he warns us: “He that loveth wine shall not be rich.” “Whohath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that seek mixed wine.’’ “Look not on it when it is red in the cup.” “At last it bilgth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.” “Gj.ve strong drink,” he says, “to him that is ready to perish,” but again, “be not among wine bibblers.” Isaiah says: “Woe unto them that rise up in the morning that they may follow strong drink; that they may continue until wine inflames them.” “Harp and wine are in their feasts but they regard not the work of the Lord.” Again be tells us: “They also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way.”

Paul to the Ephesians says: “Be not drunk with wine.” ylnd in his first epistle to Timothy be warns him that a bishop must be “not given to wine.” lie repeats this to Titus, writing that co-laborer: “Not given to wine. * * Sober, huly, temperate. • The prophet Hosea gives as one as the idolatries that caused the estrangement of the Jews from God, that they “love flagons of wine.” The same prophet declares “Wine and new wine taketh away tl e heart.” • Habakkuk, speaking of the condemnation which shall overtake the wicked, says: “Yea also because he transgressttli by wine?’ Soloinotu declares the dangers of strong drink again to Lemuel: “It is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert judgment.” Paul to the Gsllatians classes drunkenness w’ith the vilest offenses and says: “They that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Solomon compares strong drink to a thorn: “As a thorn goeth up in the hands of adrunkard.’ v This is a forcible illustration. How many thousands who have ignored this wise hint have found to their sorrow that this indulgence has become not only a painful jagger in the stomach but that the thorn has sprouted, grown, scattered its seed and spread its roots until its irritating barbs are wrecking a thousand nerves in all parts of the body. The scriptures teach no such dangerous or destructive habit. The bible teaches not only Christianity to Christians and to all who would be such, but it teaches good moral law, correct physical habits, sound business principles and common sense generally. Quotations might be multiplied almost ad infinitum condemnatory of the vice of intemperance, but in all the teachings of holy writ there can not be found one license to indulge the destructive passion nor palliation of its practice. Away,' then, with biblical quotations justifying dram-drinking. Tne bible teaches temperance as a part of Christianity, as a rule of morality, as a maxim of hygene, as a business necessity, as a prerequisite to success in any enterprise of life. It condemns intemperance in all its forms and under whatever pretense or guise. ‘ T The arrears of pensions will, 11 it is estimated, distribute about two - '