The Use of Wine by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Sep 11, 1879

The Use of Wine.

By Editor

WE have freely given our opinion of the impropriety of admitting alcoholic wine to the communion table. We now speak of its use as a beverage. Because it is a “home production,” and contains less alcohol than whisky, many suppose it is allowable to use it. Perhaps there is no part of our country in which this idea more extensively prevails than in California, where grape growing and wine making are carried on so extensively. But it is a deception.

As early as 1832 (we think), when the temperance movement in America was yet unpopular, Louis Phillippe, King of the French, said, “The drunkenness of France is upon wine.” It was, to many, a startling announcement, for at that time, more than at the present, it was supposed wine was a temperance agent,—a harmless substitute for whisky and brandy.

The Bible does not so regard it, “Wine is a mocker.” Prov. 20: 1. Therefore a woe is pronounced against those who “continue until night, till wine inflame them.” Isa. 5: 11. Men do indeed become inflamed with wine. The following description is that of a silly sot: “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? they that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red. When it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”

This is but a part of the description of the wine-drunkard, and of the effects of wine drinking, but it is sufficient to put the wise on their guard against this subtle “mocker.” For such it is truly.

Those scriptures sufficiently show the intoxicating nature of wine, and the danger of its use. But, it may be asked, is the wine of the present day of the same nature? It is. According to Chambers’ Cyclopædia the percentage of alcohol in various wines varies from 9 to 23. Port wine contains from 20 to 23 per cent. alcohol, while brandy contains from 50 to 53. Therefore he who drinks two gallons of port wine takes nearly as much alcohol as he who drinks one gallon of brandy. Yet some delude themselves with the idea that they can drink wine and abstain from alcohol! Twelve per cent. of alcohol may be taken as the medium quantity in all wines; which would be nearly equal to a mixture of one part of brandy and three parts of water, which is probably about the proportion in which ordinary topers take their bitters! Is it any wonder that wine is a mocker, and that men become inflamed thereby? and that contentions and babblings arise from its use?

The United States is honored in the person of Mrs. Hayes, in the “White House,” in Washington. She alone of all the inmates of that house, since the foundation of the government, has had principle or fortitude enough to banish wine from the receptions held by the President. It was sometime supposed that she would yield to the force of custom on the occasion of State receptions, when foreign ministers were presented, but she did not. Speaking of such a reception the Washington Star said:—

“Mrs. Hayes is being strongly reinforced on the wine question by all who attended the entertainment on Tuesday evening, since the universal comment is that the order preserved in the supper rooms was in such agreeable contrast to the indecorous behavior at many parties, even small ones at private houses given during this and other seasons where wine was served.”

Such receptions ought to be decorous, therefore wine should be banished from them. Wine should be banished from every household. It is the curse of the aged, and the snare of the youth. Unknown legions lie in drunkards’ graves whose appetites for strong drink were formed by sipping wine at the fashionable side-board. Parents, give this mocker no place in your houses, lest you mourn the ruin of your children. Christian friends in California, this land of wine, stand firm to principle, and give no place to this emissary of the evil one.

THE outbreak in Afghanistan proves to be serious. The British Embassy has been massacred; about seventy lives were lost. England is paying dear for inaugurating war in that country. The trouble in Burmah is also increasing in magnitude.