and hideous ugliness. But the slave of strong drink has his memory so soaked and saturated with alcohol, that all its reminiscences smack thereof, and are jaundiced thereby.* He lives in an enchanted region, peopled by the phantoms of a crazy, bewildered, besotted imagination, which clothes everything in its own deceitful livery; "calls evil good, and good evil; puts darkness for light, and light for darkness; puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Alcohol is everything everywhere, to the poor, miserable, infatuated wretch. He not only drinks alcohol, but he thinks alcohol, breathes alcohol, speaks alcohol. He sees alcohol in every shifting scene of creation. The dreadest, or the loveliest landscape has no sublimity or beauty apart from it. He hears it in the music of nature's most melodious songsters, as they chant their morning hymn, or evening requiem to God, their Creator. He tastes it in the most luscious fruits, he smells it in the most grateful odors. It envelopes his whole exterior, so that he can touch nothing else. It enters into the most secret recesses of his soul, and constitutes the substratum and frame-work, both of his mind and body.

It snaps the sinews of natural affection asunder, stupifies the conscience, stultifies the understanding, enervates the will, corrodes the heart, drags piety up by the roots, stifles the voice of prayer, insinuates itself into the house of God, and intrenches itself and nestles there, transforming it into "a den of thieves, and a cage of unclean and hateful birds;" and, not content with all this wickedness and sacrilege, it has even the barefacedness, effrontery, and presumption, to make itself one with the precious, spotless, sin-atoning blood of the Son of God! In alcohol, the worse than brutified,—the devil-possessed man, -lives and moves and has his being. It is himself, his God, his all and in all.

*For the primary idea here, I am indebted to Sir Wm. A'Beckett, Chief Justice of Victoria, in one of his speeches. I have somewhat enlarged upon it.

"And in controversy they shall stand in judgment, and they shall judge it according to my judgments;" i. e., Christian ministers and laymen, placed in judicial situations, shall abstain from alcoholic liquors, and thus shall so far be qualified to inquire in litigated matters brought before them, according to God's judgments or laws, and shall decide accordingly; that otherwise, if they should drink wine, or strong drink, they would be liable and likely to "stumble in judgment," is evidently implied: (Isaiah xxviii, 7: Ivi, 9–12.)

"And they shall keep my laws and my statutes, in all my assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths;" i. e., observ. ing the law, against alcoholic liquors, upon all occasions, Christians shall be so far in a fit state of mind and body, to observe and preserve order and decorum in all God's assemblies, (the meetings of His saints,) in accordance with His laws and statutes, and shall do so; and, shall also keep holy his sabbaths.

The converse of these propositions, is manifestly set forth in Ezekiel xxii, 26, compared with Isaiah xxv, 7: Ivi, 9–12, as referred to, when speaking of the law, addressed to Aaron and his sons, under the Jewish economy.

How much might be said, in illustration and confirmation of the truth implied under the last clause-that the use of alcoholic liquors, upon the Lord's day, by so-called Christians, is one of the chief causes of its awful profanation, of the terrific catalogue of crimes committed upon it, and of the insults which God receives during its sacred hours! But shortness of time, and mass of matter upon other topics we have to handle, prevents enlargement. Suffice it to refer to the criminal sta-, tistics of the sabbath, in all the large cities of Christendom, to show that the desecration of that day, is chiefly owing to the sale and consumption of alcoholic liquors, during its sacred hours.

What the effects will be, of the banishment of wine and strong drink from the house of God, as well as from the houses

of Christians, is a problem to be answered in future times, which, if we were to judge only from the tenacity with which the churches, at present, cleave to the " cup of Devils," would seem to be far distant.

We are thus led to a very brief notice of the second head of this branch of our subject, viz: a prediction of the benefits to be derived from universal obedience to this law, during the millennium. May it not be confidently stated that, as have been the evils resulting from the general, nay, all but universal use of alcoholic liquors, contrary to the Divine law, so will be the benefits which shall result from the all but universal disuse of them, and, especially, from their complete dismissal from the house of God, and the table of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ? If nine-tenths of the crime, three-fourths of the poverty, a vast proportion of the diseases, corporeal and mental; and of the curses, desecrations, desolations, abominations and woes, which have ground and afflicted, and still grind and afflict miserable, sin-stricken man, have sprung, and do spring, from the violation of God's law, which forbids the use of alcoholic, and by implication, of all other intoxicants, everywhere, and at all times, by man in his normal state of health-and, especially, at all sacred ordinances; is it not certain that the general observance of this Divine commandment, from sincere conviction and Christian principle, will be attended with a proportionate abatement of these enormous evils? But not only so ;-Is it not obvious, also, that if Christians have enjoyed, in some degree, (O how wonderful the patience and forbearance of God!) the light of Jehovah's countenance, although they may be said to have cut off one of the wings of the eagle-eyed, true-hearted religion of Jesus, even temperance, (by means of which, when restored on the one side, with faith on the other, love and hope occupying the centre, she is destined to soar with single aim, straight and rapid flight, and unruffled pinion, to the highest heaven, and bask forever in

the quenchless sunshine of Immanuel's glory!) they will have much more of the light of His gracious countenance upon earth, when they receive implicitly, and follow steadfastly, "the truth as it is in Jesus," respecting wine and strong drink, so plainly revealed in Scripture, "that he may run that readeth it,”—although, hitherto, alas, it has been buried in a heap of superstitious garbage, and made of none effect by the tradition of the elders? We may rationally and scripturally expect, that much of the blessedness and prosperity of the millennial age, will be connected with the universal observance of the law which we have been considering, and which has, hitherto, been treated as a nonentity by the christian world!

"If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it:" (Isaiah lviii, 13, 14.)

I have yet to endeavor to re-echo the voice of the apostles, upon this subject, if God permit, but not in my present letter, which is, already, of unusual size.

Believe me,

My dear brother in Jesus,
Yours affectionately,

JOHN MAIR.

MY DEAR SIR,

LETTER XII.

The next question, to be considered, is:-Do the writings of the apostles confirm the doctrine of "Moses and the prophets," (as we have viewed it,) that it is unlawful for Christians-a "holy priesthood"-to drink of alcoholic liquors, in their normal state of health? If so, then we may reckon it established. If not so, then it must follow that our rendering of the texts, which we have examined, must be erroneous; for it is impossible that the inspired writers can be at variance, on a moral problem, of such unspeakable importance, involving, not only the happiness of man, but the glory of Jehovah. Let us proceed, deliberately and prayerfully, to investigate this subject, in the following order:

I. The texts, in the Apostolic writings, which enjoin abstinence from wine, &c., upon Office-bearers of the church.

II. The texts, in the Apostolic writings, which enjoin abstinence from wine, &c., upon Christians generally.

1st. The texts, in the Apostolic writings, which enjoin abstinence from wine, &c., upon Office-bearers of the church.

There is an apostolic precept, (I Timothy iii, 2,) forbidding the use of wine to bishops, (presbyters, or pastors,) not only when engaged in the sacred ordinances of God's house, but at all times, if we are correct in our interpretation of it, in the original. It stands thus, in the authorized version: "A bishop must be vigilant:" "Dei oun ton episcopon einai, nephaleon;" the last word being thus translated, in a “Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament, by Edward Robinson, D. D., &c., a new edition carefully revised, by S. T. Bloomfield, D. D.:" "Nephalios, ia, on, (nepho,) sober, temperate, abstinent, especially in respect to wine." The word, in the authorized version, quoted above, is translated "vigilant;" for