A (grown from the seed of a sweet orange) is several years later in coming into bearing than the budded tree, but it makes in the end the largest and best-formed tree, yielding its rich harvests, under favoring conditions, for a century or more. fine tree, still green and youthful, in the northern part of the State, is known to be over eighty years old, and the "Grand Constable," in the orangery of Versailles, is four hundred and fifty years old. A number of old trees in the State yield from five thousand to eight thousand oranges annually, and thus furnish their owners an income of from fifty to one hundred dollars per tree. The orange is a hardy tree, with fragrant evergreen foliage, pure white odorous blossoms, and is extremely sensitive to care and neglect. The orange business was not really undertaken in the State until within the last fifteen years. The commercial panics and other misfortunes in the country during the last few years have turned thousands to Florida to engage in the orange business, which, when conducted with personal industry, is attended with few risks, giving promise of permanent reward. It is now conceded that Florida is the finest orange-growing country on the globe. Trees transplanted from any other orange country to Florida are noticeably improved, showing conclusively that this peninsula possesses just the climate and soil for its rarest production. The orange-tree grows vigorously on suitable soil all through the State, but in the northern counties the cold injures the crop a part of the time, and on the extreme southern point of the peninsula the climate is a little too tropical for the rarest growth of this queen of fruits. It is a sub-tropical tree, and succeeds to admiration about midway of the peninsula, in the belt we have before described. It is not easy to estimate the number of groves; these are scattered all through the State, and are receiving large annual additions. Hitherto Florida has furnished less than one in twelve of the oranges consumed in our own country, so that over-production is not probable. The increase in population and wealth will more than keep pace with orange production. The lemon tree grows wild also in Florida, yielding a fair fruit, and this tree, by budding, is susceptible of the same improvements as the orange. The lemon is one of our most use ful fruits, its oil, essence, or acids, finding place in our food and medicines, in the arts deepening or discharging colors, and in acidulated beverages suited to every stage of sickness or health. The lemon-tree is not as beautiful as the orange, nor has it here received the same attention. Its study is now, however, being vigorously prosecuted. The Sicily lemon-tree thrives here, and as the lemon comes into bearing sooner than the orange, it is now considered equally profitable. The lime grown in Florida is pronounced by old travelers the largest and finest grown on the globe. Several varieties are cultivated. The fruit is smaller than the lemon, but it is more acidulous, contains little pulp, and is covered with a very thin peel. It is in no sense inferior to the lemon, and seems almost destined to supplant it. The tree comes into bearing sooner than the lemon, is astonishingly prolific, is perfectly vigorous and healthy, and forms one of the richest ornamental trees in Florida. Planted closely in rows, it forms a perfect hedge against man, beast, and fowl. Its cultivation for the production of citric acid alone would be profitable. It is almost a tropical tree, and thrives best in the Lake Region and a little southward. The shaddock and grape-fruit trees are akin, prodigies of rapid growth, yielding rich fruit of great size, not much, as yet, understood or prized in commerce. It was certainly meet that Florida, so long neglected, misunderstood, and concealed by untoward providences, should finally excel all her sister States in the modest beauty of her scenery and in the wealth of her numerous and exquisite productions. ART. III.-JESUS A TOTAL ABSTAINER. [FOURTH ARTICLE.] 3. Third Specification: Jesus USED intoxicating wine, and COMMANDED IT TO BE USED until the end of time. It is assumed that he used such a beverage at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, and as he sat at the table with publicans and sinners; although no mention is made of his personally partaking of wine of any sort in these or in any other instances, save in the two about to be considered.* And as we have already examined these other cases, we may omit any further reference to them. The two occasions on which it is recorded that Jesus did make use of wine, and on which it is asserted that the wine used was fermented, are (1) the Last Supper and (2) the Crucifixion. We shall separately consider them. I. Chancellor Crosby,† Dr. Moore, and Professor Bumstead, all claim that Christ employed fermented wine at the Last Supper. Dr. Moore frankly says, "He instituted the Holy Supper in wine on which unworthy communicants could get drunk, (1 Cor. xi, 21.)" We have to examine this charge, and see whether it can be substantiated. All the evidence bearing upon the case may be gathered from three sources, namely, (i) The circumstances under which the Supper was instituted, (ii) The language in which the event is recorded, (iii) The practice of those by whom the rite was perpetuated. i. The circumstances under which the Supper was insti tuted. The celebration of the Jewish Passover was the occasion of the institution of the Christian sacrament. (Matt. xxvi, 19; Mark xiv, 16; Luke xxii, 13.) The elements of the former furnished the emblems of the latter. The drink of the one constituted the drink of the other. But what was the drink of the Passover? There is no mention of any beverage in the many statutes concerning the festival, or in the frequent references to its observance found in the Old Testament. It had become an established custom, however, to use wine at the Passover," at all events in the post-Babylonian period." In none of the allusions which the Old Testament makes to the use of wine for religious purposes, is a fermented article indicated ;** and in the only reference which it contains to the use * It is taken for granted that Christ himself participated in the meal of the Passover and the Last Supper. This is settled, we think, by Matt. xxvi, 29, etc. Vide Meyer, "Comm.," in loc. "A Calm View," etc. "Presbyterian Review," January, 1881, p. 88. § "Bibliotheca Sacra," January, 1881, p. 87. The same, of course, is true of the bread, and for ourselves we should not hesitate to follow out the argument to its legitimate consequences. Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," art. "Wine.” **Two terms are employed in the requirements and references concerning drink-offerings. They are the generic yayin (Exod. xxix, 40; Lev. xxiii, 13; Num. xv, 7; xxviii, 14; Deut. xiv, 26; Hos. ix, 4) and the generic shechar, (Num. xxviii, 7; Deut. xiv, 26.) The first drops that reached the lower vat of wine at any of the great religious festivals an unfermented sort is distinctly specified.* The practice of the Jewish Church in this particular, during the transitional period between the close of the Old Testament canon and the opening of the New Testament dispensation, is illustrated by a passage in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus. Speaking of the high-priest Simon, probably that Simon who bore the surname Just, (B. C. 310-290,) † this book says, (1, 14, 15,) "And finishing the service at the altar that he might adorn the offering of the most high Almighty, he stretched out his hand to the cup, and poured of the blood of the grape, (ès aïμaтоç σтaρνλns :) he poured out at the foot of the altar a sweet-smelling savor unto the most high King of all." All the analogies of the case, therefore, would lead to the conclusion that the wine of the Passover was an unfermented drink. But we are not confined to analogies for our argument. It was the law of this feast, enacted at the beginning and never annulled or amended, that nothing fermented should enter into its observance. It was called the feast of "sweetnesses," or of " unfermented things." (Exod. xxiii, 15.) Its law ran thus, (A. V. :) "Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters," (Exod. xiii, 6, 7.) Nothing could be more emphatic or explicit. Not only were unfermented things alone to be eaten during the festival, but every thing that had been fermented, or that was capable of producing fermentation, was to be rigidly excluded from sight. That this was the import of were called the dema, or tear (A. V.) "liquors," and formed the first-fruits of the vintage, which were to be presented to Jehovah, (Exodus xxii, 29.) This was unquestionably a perfectly fresh and unfermented article, like the Latin protropum. *Neh. viii, 10. The Feast of the Tabernacles is referred to, and the fact that this occurred during the grape harvest confirms the unfermented character of the sweet," mamtaqqim, already noted. + Vide Lange, "Commentary on the Apocrypha," Introduction, p. 279. tion, eth-chag ham-matzoth, does not signify "the feast of unleavened bread." That requires on, lechem, "bread," to be expressed, as in Exod. xxix, 2. Cf. challath matzoth, "an unleavened cake," Num. vi, 19. Vide "M'Clintock & Strong's Cyclopedia," art. "Leaven." the command, and that it covered liquids as well as solids, wine as well as bread, appears from the following considerations: a. The word twice rendered (A. V.) "unleavened bread" in the passage just quoted is nie, matzoth. It is the plural of , matzah, (r. 1, matzatz,) which signifies "sweetness, concr. sweet, i. e., not fermented."* It is used indefinitely and substantively-there is nothing in the text corresponding to "bread"—and means "sweetnesses," or "unfermented things." b. The word twice rendered (A. V.) "eat" is the verb 5, akal, which is frequently used in the same general sense as the English eat, including the taking of all kinds of refreshments, both meat and drink, (e. g., Genesis xliii, 16; Deut. xxvii, 7; 1 Sam. ix, 13,) and may be rendered in this instance, “to partake of." c. The word rendered (A. V.) “leaven" is, seor, (from the obsolete root, saar, cognate with the verbs, shaar, , sir, to become hot, to ferment, and akin to the AngloSaxon sur; Germ. sauer; and Eng. sour.) † It means literally "the sourer," and is applicable to any matter capable of producing fermentation—to all yeasty or decaying albuminous substances and so may be translated "ferment." d. The word rendered (A. V.) "leavened bread" is on, chametz, from a root of the same form, and signifying to be sour, acid, leavened. It denotes, generically, any substance which has been subjected to the action of seor. Like matzoth, it is used substantively and indefinitely, with nothing in the context corresponding to (A. V.) "bread." "bread." It may be translated" fermented thing." That it is as applicable to liquids as to solids is proven by the use of the kindred form chometz, vinegar, or sour wine. § * So Gesenius, "Lexicon," s. v. But Fürst assigns to it the idea of thinness; Kurtz, of dryness; Knobel and Keil, of purity. Gesenius' explanation, however, is most generally accepted. Sweetness, in this connection, has the sense of uncorrupted or incorruptible, and so is easily associated with the idea of dryness and purity. The Arabic word having the sense of pure, to which Knobel and Keil refer matzoth, is a secondary form. The root has the same meaning as signed by Gesenius to matzoth. (Vide "Speaker's Commentary" on Exodus xii, 17.) "In Num. vi, 3, chametz is applied to wine as an adjective, and should there be translated fermented wine, not vinegar of wine."-M' Clintock & Strong's Cyclopedia, art. "Leaven." |