prescription without consuming a drop of alcoholic liquor. Even if he partook of some weak alcoholic wine, and derived benefit, no general conclusion in favour of using alcohol even in disease-much less in health-could be philosophically deduced; and recent investigations have shown a great decrease in mortality where alcoholic liquors have been discarded from the treatment of the very diseases supposed to be best affected by their administration. Allowing-what is beyond proof that St Paul advised an abstainer to use a little alcoholic liquor as a medicine, the records of sophistry can hardly produce a match to the monstrous conclusion" Therefore, alcoholic liquors of all sorts are fit to be habitually taken, by persons of all conditions, whether they are well or whether they are ill"!! CHAPTER VI. VERSE IO. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1. This passage has been strangely cited in opposition to the statement that strong drink is the source of much of the evil which afflicts and demoralizes Society. But no text of Scripture can disprove a fact open to universal observation; and it is doing dishonour to the Bible to bring it into even apparent collision with the experience of mankind. 2. There is a further misapplication of this verse in quoting it as if ‘money' were referred to as the root of all evil, and not the love-of-money, which is expressed by one word in the original philarguria. Hence there is no true parallel between money-which is the passive object of undue desire and abuse— and strong drink, the physical action of which on the nerves and brain begets that craving and appetite for itself which is at once a taint to the body and a tyranny to the soul. 3. It may be strongly doubted whether the apostle intended to assert what the A. V. ascribes to him—that love of money (the amor sceleratus habendi of Ovid) is really the root of all evil. (Dr Hammond paraphrases—' what a deal of mischief.') Covetousness is certainly not the root of all moral evil, nor is all, or a major part of, human misery attributable to it. St Paul's words are-rhiza gar pantōn tōn kakōn, 'for covetousness is a root of all the evils'-i. e. of all the evils just mentioned in the previous verse,—but not the exclusive root of even these; a much more moderate proposition, and one confirmed by universal observation. 4. Not the least glaring illustration of the accursed love of mammon is painfully exhibited by the colossal and retail traders in alcohol. Except for this philarguria, that traffic would not exist. The retailers 'go into' the 'public house' trade to make a profit; many expect (to their disappointment) to gain a fortune; and the same inducement is the mainspring of the wholesale manufacturers and dealers. They may not intend to do harm, but though they see the infinite mischief inflicted, they continue to trade in the waters of death. The effect upon themselves and their families is frequently deplorable. John Wesley said of the drink-dealers of his time, "All who sell spirituous liquors in the common way to any that will buy, are poisoners-general. They murder His subjects by wholesale, neither does their eye pity or spare. They drive them to hell like sheep; and what is their gain? Is it not the blood of these men? Who, then, would envy their large estates and sumptuous palaces? A curse is in the midst of them. Blood, blood is there; the foundation, the floor, the walls, the roof are stained with blood. And canst thou hope, O thou man of blood! though thou art clothed in scarlet and fine linen, and farest sumptuously every day-canst thou hope to deliver down the fields of blood to the third generation? Not so; for there is a God in heaven; therefore, thy name shall be rooted out, like as those whom thou hast destroyed, body and soul; thy memorial shall perish with thee." (Works, vol. vi. 129). THE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO TITUS. CHAPTER I. VERSES 7, 8. 7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; 8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. V. 7. NOT GIVEN TO WINE] Mee paroinon, 'not near wine'= not a banqueter. [See Note on 1 Tim. iii. 3.] V. 8. SOBER] Sophrona, sober-minded.' TEMPERATE] Enkratee, ‘temperate'= self-restraining (as to the appetites) = abstinent. This word seems to answer to neephaleon in 1 Tim. iii. 3. [See Note on I Cor. ix. 25.] CHAPTER II. VERSE 2. That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. SOBER] Neephalious, 'abstinent.' [See Note on 1 Thess. v. 6.] These variations of translation in the English version are much to be regretted, since they hide the nice and just distinctions of the original, which point at once to a more comprehensive and more specific form of temperance than the world is willing to practice. These are, (1) the general virtue of temperance as self-restraint; (2) that moderation of the soul called 'patience,' or 'gentleness'; (3) that subjective virtue called sound-mindedness, compounded of right seeing and right willing; (4) the personal and specific practice of abstinence from things evil; and, therefore (5), the discountenancing of drinking-fashions and feasts. To confound all these under the vague and modern meaning of 'temperance,' is as absurd in criticism as it is injurious in morals. CHAPTER II. VERSES 3-6. 3 The aged women likewise that they be in behaviour as becometh, holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. V. 3. NOT GIVEN TO MUCH WINE] Mee oinō pollo dedoulōmenas, 'not addicted to much wine.' W. H. Rule, D.D., in his ' Brief Inquiry,' admits—“ Grape-juice was chiefly known in antiquity as the casual drink of the peasantry; when carefully preserved, as the choice beverage of epicures. The Roman ladies were so fond of it that they would first fill their stomachs with it, then throw it off by emetics, and repeat the draught" (Wetstein in Acts ii. 13). We have referred to Lucian for ourselves, and find the following illustration :-"I came, by Jove, as those who drink gleukos, swelling out their stomach, require an emetic” (Philops. 39). [See Note on 1 Tim. iii. 8.] V. 4. THAT THEY MAY TEACH THE YOUNG WOMEN TO BE SOBER] Hina sophronizōsi tas neas, in order that they may cause the young women to be soberminded.' V. 5. TO BE DISCREET] Sophronas, 'sober-minded.' V. 6. TO BE SOBER MINDED] Sophronein, to be sober-minded.' CHAPTER II. VERSES II, 12. 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. SOBERLY] Sophronos, 'sobermindedly.' The apostle most appropriately and expressively connects the denial or suppression of worldly lusts with the design of living 'sober-mindedly, righteously, and devoutly in the present age.' The connection of intoxicating liquor with such worldly lusts and the absence of sober-mindedness, rectitude, and piety, is too prevalent and flagrant to be denied. The grace of God-the Divine favour embodied in the Divine precepts, and impressing their holy dictates on the heart— ́ is beautifully said to be 'teaching us' the denial of those lusts. Yet 'teaching' is too weak a rendering of paideuousa, which signifies 'training' or 'disciplining.' The office of Divine grace is not to sanction unsafe indulgence, and then prevent the natural consequences, but to train the soul to the avoidance of all illicit desires and fleshly tastes, and, in short, of whatever is found in practice to interfere with the highest development of the Christian life. Though drunkenness never be exhibited, yet an appetite for alcohol may exist, pernicious to both body and soul, In the United States, a few years ago, this text was a favourite argument for the toleration of slavery; and the criticism employed might be exactly paralleled by the arguments of English divines in favour of strong drink. The claim for gratitude and obedience made by God upon His people—and allowed in their triumphant songs—was for deliverance from slavery-deliverance from the house of bondage; and the mission of our Lord was announced as that of opening the prison-doors that the oppressed might go free. Is it credible that the Christian apostle could mean to approve the institution of slavery? Is it a correct inference that, because, in the then state of the world, when the people had no political power to wield,-when it would have been sheer madness to attempt to disturb the social framework of political despotism,―therefore Paul held that people, under constituted governments of their own, ought not to abate an infamous and inhuman system? He was preaching another Gospel, which, however, held seminally in its principle the doom of all slaveries; and even then, in the exhortation to Onesimus to exercise patience, Paul does not forget to teach Philemon that, in the light of Christianity, fraternity and fetters are incompatible. |