A Lecture On Temperance.

mentioned by Isaiah , or the wine cellars of David ? Do they forget that when the Israelites were threatened with plagues , one of the severest was abstinence from ivine ? " Thou shalt plant vineyards , but thou shalt not drink of the vine , nor

gather the grapes , for the worm shall eat them . " Do they forget that when the Prophet reproved the hypocrisy of the Jeivs , he called that a moral drunkenness ? " But they are drunken , but not with wine , " intimating that hypocrisy was the most

debasing vice . All these prove that the wine was intoxicating , consequently fermented . It is remarkable that of the two fruits abundant

in Palestine—the grape aud the fig— -the vine is always spoken of with favour , and the fig not so . The fig tree was cursed . God likens himself to "the vine . " I am the true vine . " It is also asked , " Can a vine bear figs ? " In the same sense as

in another part it is asked , can a fig tree bear thistles ? showing the superiority of the vine . All these go to prove that God not only created the vine , but that he intended the wine , the fermented liquor from the grapes , to be for the use ,

• advantage , and benefit of man . Every thing to be learnt on this subject from our sacred laiv , ancl the example of its good and holy men , and of our Lord himself , goes to prove this , that it is God ' s pleasure that we should use wine , but with

Temperance . Temperance , however , is equally to be practised with regard to meats . Man may , ivith equal reason , condemn all food , because it may lead to gluttony . One of our greatest lights among Christians , ¦ rebukes the Corinthians for " being drunken at

their feasts ; " but in the very same chapter he demonstrates the difference betAveen temperance and total abstinence , by taking ivine himself at the last supper ; and it is this holy man ivho includes meats with drinks when he commands them to be

temperate . Is not Judea called the Lord's vineyard ? Did not God Himself recommend the putting of new wine into new bottles ? Then can wine be forbidden to man ? He who made and drank wine and encouraged others to do so by filling six water pots ivith wine when men had well drunk—He who introduced ivine as one of the

elements of the most sacred rite of our religion , declaring not only that it shall be used to the end of the world , but that it shall be drank in the kingdom of God , cannot but have done wisely . And the pledging of men to abstain from that which 'God has made for man , and ordered him to use , is

a direct insult to the Lord of Heaven and Earth by a violation of His commands , a renunciation of His example , and the setting up of our own wisdom in opposition to His most holy

decision . The Sacred Law has it that the principal things for the ivhole use of man ' s life are water , fire , iron , and salt , flour of wheat , honey , milk , and the blood of the grape , and oil , ancl clothing ; all these things

are good for the Godly , but to sinners they are turned into evil . Our lodges are consecrated ivith corn , wine aud oil ; ancl the custom is of very early times . The Holy Temple was so consecrated , aud to us bears a lesson of no little import . Cora

teaches us to feed the hungry , Avine to cheer the distressed , ancl oil to poor balm into the ivounds of the sick and afflicted . The three teach us to seek out and to relieve the poor , the naked , and the sick , in one Avord , to practise Charity .

I cannot conclude Avithout reading the ivords of one of our celebrated Divines . When speaking of the professors of total abstinence , he says : —¦ " They are temperate certainly , but it is a physical kind of temperance . Temperance does not

consist in mere abstinence from ivine , or from spirits , but in abstinence also from any thing that conduces to unhinge the mind , ancl to unfit it for the society in which it moves . This is too much to be seen

iu teetotalers . They are characterised by a sort of moral intoxication , if we may so call it ; ivhen once their passions are excited , they know no bounds ; they irritate , oppose , and denounce ; which is all foreign to the precept and principles

of our sacred writings , They object to alcohol ? Then why do they not object to sugar ? Their common sense is at fault as well as thoir chemistry . " In order to explain the mention of wine iu scripture , they try to make out that it is uufcrmented

wine ; instead of perceiving that the great principle of scripture is that is the abuse , not the use of a thing in which the sin lies . I think teetotalers are in

some sort morally intoxicated upon this point ; and judging from their conduct , on too many occasions , I might almost say , they were labouring under a species of delirium tremens . " This reasoning of the good man ' s is consonant with religion .

Lastly , I think I may say that ive have divine authority for using all the means that God has given ns to render ourselves happy and cheerful—¦ to our enjoying the goocl things of life , in Temperance . And may that enjoyment teach us to think of the wants of God ' s poorer creatures ; and whilst