The Wine Duestion,
In the Light of the
New Dispensation.

THE LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
OMNIBUS. ARTIBUS
OF MINNESOT
CLASS 339.8
BOOK El 59w
}
T
G.E.STECHERT&CO
ALFRED HAFNER)
NEW YORK
THE WINE QUESTION
IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW DISPENSATION.
A CONTROVERSY,
IN WHICH THE VIEWS OF HIS OPPONENTS ARE FAIRLY AND FULLY
REPRESENTED IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE.
BY
JOHN ELLIS, M. D.,
D
AUTHOR OF "THE AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE, DEFORMITY AND
INSANITY," "MARRIAGE AND ITS VIOLATIONS,” ADDRESS TO
THE CLERGY," "SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION,
AND "DETERIORATION OF THE PURITAN STOCK."
>>
Five Works in One Volume, namely:
"PURE WINE-FERMENTED WINE AND OTHER ALCOHOLIC DRINKS,”
first published in 1880;
"THE WINE QUESTION IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW DISPENSATION,"
first published in 1882;
"REPLY TO THE ACADEMY'S REVIEW," first published in 1883;
"INTOXICANTS, PROHIBITION, AND OUR NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS
DURING 1884-85," published in 1885;
"DETERIORATION OF THE PURITAN STOCK," first published in 1884.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,
1886.
MAR 1 1 '37
}
E1.59w
GENERAL PREFACE.
In presenting the following pages to the public, contain-
ing a discussion of the wine question extending over a
period of five years, the writer desires to make available
to the intelligent portion of the community, and espe-
cially to clergymen, lecturers on temperance, and teachers,
in a more permanent and accessible form, the results of a
most thorough and careful examination of the whole
question, made under such circumstances as he thinks
were most favorable for reaching correct conclusions.
Having been a total abstainer from intoxicating drinks for
more than half a century, and never having acquired a taste
for them, it will be seen that his ability to see the truth and
his judgement have never been impaired by appetite, or a
love for such drinks; which the reader can see is an advan-
tage that only those thus circumstanced can possess. As
a medical man, his attention was early called to the effects
of intoxicating drinks upon men and women ;
while as
a Professor in Medical Colleges for ten years and as a
writer on the causes of disease, especially of such as can
be avoided, he had occasion to critically examine the sub-
ject as a physician in the light of science, and to carefully
observe the effects of intoxicants upon persons in health
and especially upon the sick. The results of these in-
vestigations early satisfied him that intoxicants are never
useful during health and very rarely useful as medicines;
and that often, as administered, they are very injurious to
patients; in fact, that in almost every instance better and
much safer remedies can be selected by physicians.
Few are aware of the immense amount of labor which
has been bestowed by distinguished scholars upon the wine
question within the last thirty or forty years; and the flood
of light which has been thrown upon the teachings of the
Hebrew and Greek Scriptures relating to wine, and in
3
691361
4
PREFACE.
regard to the wines used by the Ancients and by the early
Christian Church; and the recent discoveries in regard to
fermentation are known to but few; while the wonderful light
that is thrown upon the whole subject by the correspond-
ence which exists between all natural and spiritual things,
processes and phenomena, is seen by a still smaller num-
ber. The works contained in this volume have been
written after carefully reading many volumes bearing upon
the subject, which the writer doubtless never would have
read had he not been engaged in the controversy into
which he was drawn. He has also had the most valuable
assistance and important suggestions from many clergymen,
physicians, scientists and laymen residing both in this
country and Great Britain; he has also performed many
experiments himself, and others have furnished him the
results of their experiments bearing upon the preservation
of unfermented wine.
From all of the above sources he has endeavored to bring
before the reader the most important facts, ideas and argu-
ments bearing upon the subject, and he has always endeav-
ored to present the ideas and arguments of his opponents
in their own language, thus giving the reader a fair oppor-
tunity to understand both sides of the question. The
works, all but the first short one, were stereotyped; and the
present edition is printed from the original plates, without
change, save being repaged for convenience in the prep-
aration of an index.
As in the course of the discussion the writer had to
meet and reply repeatedly to the very same arguments,
assumptions, ignorings and false doctrines, the reader will
necessarily find some repetitions, but generally with addi-
tional light upon the subject drawn either from the
Sacred Scriptures, the Writings of the Church, the writings,
of others, or from his own observations and reflections.
At the end of the volume the reader will find a copious
index, which has been prepared with care.
PURE WINE-FERMENTED WINE,
AND OTHER
ALCOHOLIC DRINKS,
IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW DISPENSATION.
BY
JOHN ELLIS, M. D.,
AUTHOR OF "THE AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE, DEFORMITY AND
INSANITY,
""
"AN ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY, AND OF
"SKEPTICISM, DIVINE REVELATION, AND CALL
ΤΟ THE NEW JERUSALEM.”
Total abstinence from an intoxicating drink, more desirable for the country's
welfare and morality than all the revenue to be derived from licensing the manu-
facture and sale of "So PERNICIOUS A DRINK."-Emanuel Swedenborg (see page 41).
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
1880.
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Preface..
Wine or Total Abstinence..
•
Wine and Alcoholic Drinks-Wines of the Ancients-Prof. Geo.
Bush's Testimony-Correspondence of Poisons-Effects of
Poisons on Mind and Body.....
PAGE.
7,8
9, IÒ
II-22
Bible Wines and Temperance—A Letter from Benj. Kingsbury, Esq., 22-25
Wine and Temperance, by a Sufferer, from N. J. Messinger.....
25-28
Address of Chief Justice Noah Davis on the "Relations between
Intemperance and Crime," from the New York Tribune..
28-31
Natural and Spiritual Drunkenness, and Correspondence of Wine, 31-33
PART SECOND-Art of Distilling-New Wine in Old Bottles-Best
Wines of the Ancients--Wedding Feast-Analysis of Unfer-
mented and Fermented Wines-Testimony of Emanuel Swe-
denborg..
•
Testimony of the Medical Profession- Comparisons by Sweden-
borg and in the Word-Hurtful things from Hell Significa-
tion of Drunkenness..
A Pure Wine for a Pure Faith-A Path of Absolute Safety....
34-41
•
42-50
50-52
Brief Recapitulation-Fermented Wine-Drunkenness.
•
·
53, 54
6
=
PREFACE.
IT is well known to the readers of the New Jerusalem
Messenger, that a few months ago an article appeared in
its columns, justifying the use of fermented wine, to which
the writer replied in a short preliminary article, and then in
a somewhat lengthy essay; and that other articles by other
writers appeared at intervals; and that on January 28th
there appeared four articles advocating the use of fer-
mented wine, and one against its use. The following
notice, by the Editor, appeared in the same number:
"We publish in to-day's issue of THE MESSENGER the promised series of
articles on the 'Wine Question.' These communications fairly represent,
we think, the varied positions of members of the New Church on this sub-
ject of discussion. There is evidently valid ground for an honest differ-
ence of opinion. As each position is in these articles justly presented, it
is our intention to leave the subject with each individual to decide for
himself, and not longer continue its discussion in our columns.”
I must say I was somewhat surprised on reading this
notice, for while in the four articles alluded to there was
not the slightest attempt, so far as I can judge, to meet the
question upon rational and philosophical grounds, in
accordance with the New Dispensation, yet they contained
a number of unwarranted assumptions, arguments and con-
clusions, somewhat dogmatically proclaimed, based upon
them, which it was absolutely necessary should be met, if
both sides of the wine question are to be placed fairly
before the readers of the Messenger. The advocates of
intoxicating drinks having had the first words upon this
subject, I was in hopes they would not be allowed to have
7
8
PREFACE.
}
the last, without a chance to reply to any new positions.
assumed. However, I will not complain, but strive to do
the best I can under the circumstances; which seems to be
to issue a tract on the subject, and ask our brethren of the
New Church, who feel an interest in this great practical
question pertaining to an orderly life in our Church, to
assist in giving it the widest circulation possible, among
New Churchmen.
As this tract, I hope, will fall into the hands of many
readers of our doctrines who do not see the Messenger, I
have thought best to reprint in the first part of it the two
articles alluded to above, the last one with important addi-
tions relating to the wines used by the ancients; also a
large part of an article signed "A Sufferer," and one by
Judge Benj. Kingsbury, of Portland, Me.; and also extracts
from an address by Chief Justice Noah Davis, on the rela-
tions of intemperance to crime, from the New York
Tribune.
Part Second will be devoted to a reply to the four
articles advocating the use of fermented wine, named
above. I have endeavored to meet fully and fairly every
point assumed, and every argument advanced. Both views
cannot be true. Fermented wine is either a good and
useful article as a drink, or it is not. In view of the
terrible desolation around us on every hand from its use, is
there any question more important than this, especially to
New Churchmen? It is a practical question pertaining to
a good and orderly life, and I am satisfied that if it is fully
discussed, in the spirit of kindness, in the light of this new
day, it will, in the end, be clearly seen that there is no
valid ground for a difference of opinion upon this subject.
among New Churchmen. Even though some may not
have the strength to deny themselves, they will cease to
advocate its use and cease to publicly use it, and thus they
will cease by precept and public example to lead others
astray.
+
PART FIRST.
。
WINE OR TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
Editor Messenger:-Wine, when pure and good, cor-
responds to spiritual truth. "Drunkenness is predicated
of the adulterated truths of faith."
Men do not become drunk, spiritually, by receiving into
their understandings genuine spiritual truths, nor does a
reception of such truths tend to drunkenness, but one may
receive them faster than he appropriates them to life, and
may profane them. Nor does pure wine, or the pure unper-
verted (unfermented) juice of the grape, either cause nat-
ural drunkenness or tend to drunkenness; we may use too
much of it and make ourselves sick, but never drunk.
We should ever strive not to confound or mix truths
with falsities, or goods with evils, for the two are distinct.
Of the one we may partake, but the other we must strive
to shun, absolutely, if we would walk in the path of safety.
This is as true in regard to natural food and drink, as it is
as to spiritual nourishment.
There is a most wonderful correspondence between all
natural things and processes, and their spiritual causes,
which we, as New Churchmen, should ever bear in mind.
Natural food and drink correspond to spiritual food and
drink; natural causes of disease and unnatural excitement
to spiritual causes of disease; natural methods for restrain-
ing and curing natural diseases to spiritual methods for
restraining and curing spiritual diseases; and this corre-
spondence extends even to the most minute particular.
9
ÏO
WINE OR TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
The human body is to be developed during childhood and
youth, and sustained during adult age, by a regular supply
of healthy food and drink, and it should ever be such as
enters into the various structures of the body, and supplies
its wants, and causes neither unnatural excitement, nor any
disease peculiar to itself, nor any unnatural appetite. A
man may eat and drink to excess of healthy articles, and
here is the legitimate field for temperance.
In "Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and
Wisdom," Swedenborg tells us that all things that are
poisonous, or "do hurt and kill men," have an evil cor-
respondence-originate from hell. It must be evident to
every one, we would suppose, that when the use of any
article of food or drink, in quantities in which healthy arti-
cles can be used without harm, tends to hurt and kill men,
it is not a suitable article for such use, and is to be shun-
ned as evil. There can be no temperate use of such an
article as food or drink, however useful it may be in other
respects, or for other purposes, perhaps even as a medi-
cine.
It would seem that a lover of his fellow-men, who looks
around him and sees the vast multitudes who are "hurt
and killed" by the use of alcohol, in the various forms of
distilled and fermented drinks, and beholds the terrible
desolation, both natural and spiritual, the wretchedness,
the poverty and crimes, which are constantly being devel-
oped by such use, would hesitate to put forth one word in
favor of the use of such drinks.
If we examine this subject patiently, in the light of
science, the Writings of our Church, and the Holy Word,
we can hardly fail to come to correct conclusions, for the
testimony from all these sources is so distinct and clear.—
N. J. Messenger, Nov. 19th.
JOHN ELLIS.
WINE AND ALCOHOLIC DRINKS.
ÌÌ
t
WINE AND ALCOHOLIC DRINKS.
THE careful reader of his Bible can but notice that
there are two kinds of wine spoken of; one which is
good and useful, of which we may partake freely, for it
is purely from the fruit of the vine-"a good gift of
God;" a "wine which cheereth God and man;" "wine
that maketh glad the heart of man;" of which we are
told to "drink abundantly." The other kind of wine
is manifestly of a totally different character, for it is
compared to "the poison of serpents," the poison of
dragons, and "the cruel venom of asps. On this wine
we are told not even to look, for it causes woe, sorrows,
contentions, babbling, wounds without cause and redness
of eyes.
"It biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an
adder."
We are not unfrequently told that there is no other
wine than fermented wine; but both the Sacred Scriptures
and ancient writers tell us a very different story; and, as
a recent writer truly says, "Common honesty demands.
that we interpret the Scriptures with the eye, the taste,
and the usages of the ancients, and not with the eye, the
taste and usages of the moderns." This we must try
to do if we would understand the letter of the Scriptures
correctly.
"The notion so common in this country that unfer-
mented wines will not keep, that they will soon ferment
and spoil, is a most popular error grounded on ignorance,
and is the exact reverse of the real truth; for the unfer-
mented wines of the ancients were the only wines that
would keep. All the fermented wines speedily became sour,
and the art of distillation being unknown, they had no
distilled spirits to preserve them. It was for this reason
that fermented wines were for the most part looked upon
as spoilt wines by the ancients; they were of little value,
12
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
because they would not keep, and it became an important
object to make unfermented wines and thus to prevent
the vinous fermentation, so that it might almost be said
they would keep forever."-Rev. James B. Dunn.
In the Word we read of "The new wine found in the
cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in
it." "They gathered wine and summer fruits very much."
And we read of "presses bursting with new wine.” Surely
these were not fermented wines.
Horace, born 65 B. C., says that there is no wine
sweeter to drink than Lesbian, and that it was perfectly
harmless and would not produce intoxication. Aristotle,
born 384 B. C., says the wine of Arcadia was so thick
that it was necessary to scrape it from the skin bottles in
which it was contained, and to dissolve the scrapings
in water. Columella, and other writers who were cotem-
porary with the apostles, inform us that, "in Italy and
Greece it was common to boil their wines" (Dr. Nott).
There are various processes by which wines can be kept
without fermentation, which were well known and prac-
ticed by the ancients. First by boiling. Virgil, born 70.
B. C., says:
"Or of sweet must boils down the luscious juice,
And skims with leaves the trembling cauldron's flood."
Pluturch and Pliny also bear testimony to the fact that
it was customary in their day to boil their wines, in the
process of which the watery particles were evaporated,
and, the wines thus concentrated into a thick syrup,
fermentation became impossible. Homer speaks of this
kind of wine, as "wine sweet as honey;" so also does
Ulysses, in the ninth book of the Odyssey, in describing
the sweet black wine which Maron, the priest of Apollo,
had given him, adding "that it was imperishable, and
would keep forever.”
Secondly, by repeatedly filtering the wine, and thus
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
13
removing the gluten, in which fermentation commences
and extends to the sugar. Pliny says: "The most useful
wine has all its force or strength broken by the filter.'
Repeatedly Pliny as well as Varro speaks of this filtered.
wine as being a very sweet wine, highly esteemed, and con-
ceded to the ladies because it could not intoxicate (lib. xiv.,
chap. 3). And Plutarch, born A. D. 60, tells us that such
wine neither inflames the brain nor infests the mind and
the passions, and is much more pleasant to drink.
The third method was to exclude the air. This process
is thus described by Pliny: "They plunge the casks, imme-
diately after they are filled from the vat, into water, until
winter has passed away, and the wine has acquired the
habit of being cold."
Again, we should remember that the wines of Palestine
are very sweet wines, which do not so readily ferment as
wines containing less saccharine matter. Then the climate
during the vintage season is very hot, and the vinous fer-
mentation will not take place at a temperature above
seventy-five degrees, but, instead, we have the acetous and
putrefactive processes, following speedily, when the fresh
grape juice is exposed to the air; so that, in that climate,
it requires far greater skill and knowledge to manufacture
and preserve fermented wine, than to preserve the wine
unfermented by the processes named above.
The Rev. Dr. Herrick Johnson, after referring to the
testimony of Plato, Columella, Pliny, Aristotle, Horace,
Homer, Plutarch, Anthon, in his Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Antiquities, Archbishop Potter, in his Grecian
Antiquities, and Moses Stuart and the testimony of the
Sacred Scriptures, concludes as follows: "There were,
therefore, two kinds of wine in ancient use. The one was
sweet, pleasant, refreshing, unfermented; the other was
exciting, inflaming, intoxicating. Each was called wine.
How natural now to say of the one, 'A blessing is in it—it
maketh glad the heart!' How natural to say of the other,
14
PROF. GEORGE BUSH'S TESTIMONY.
'Deceit is in it—it bringeth woe and sorrow! There is
no difficulty now in the reconciliation of Scripture with
Scripture."
If the reader is not fully satisfied upon the subjects thus
far hastily discussed, let hin obtain the following works
written by distinguished linguists and travelers, some of
whom claim to have spent years in investigating this sub-
ject "Scripture Testimony Against Intoxicating Wine,"
by the Rev. Wm. Ritchie; "The Wines of the Bible," by
the Rev. C. H. Fowler, D.D.; "Bible Wines and Wines of
the Ancients," by the Rev. Wm. Patton, D.D.; "The Bible
Rule of Temperance," by the Rev. George Duffield, D.D.;
"The Action of Alcohol on the Body and on the Mind,"
by Benjamin W. Richardson, M.D.; "The Gospel Temper-
ance the Law of God," by the Rev. J. M. Van Buren, and
"Communion Wine," by the Rev. Wm. M. Thayer. And
clergymen, especially, should obtain Dr. F. R. Lee's and
Rev. Dawson Burns' "Temperance Bible Commentary,
giving at one view, version, criticism and exposition in
regard to all the passages in the Bible relating to wine and
strong drink." It will, in the estimation of the writer,
richly pay the reader who thinks of either commencing
the use of fermented wines, or of continuing their use, to
obtain the above works and carefully read them before he
makes his final decision.
But I cannot close this part of the subject without
giving the testimony of one whose memory and qualifi-
cations are respected by New Churchmen-the late Pro-
fessor George Bush. "Mr. E. C. Delavan, having been
referred to Prof. Bush as a learned Biblical scholar from
whom he might obtain correct information as to Bible
temperance, visited him in his library, and stated to him
his views on the wine question. With promptness he con-
demned them, and, referring to a text, he said: 'This verse
upsets your theory.' When asked to refer to the original,
he did so, and with amazement, said: 'No permission to
CORRESPONDENCE OF FOOD AND DRINK.
15
drink intoxicating wine here. I do not care about wine,
and it is very seldom that I taste it, but I have felt until
now at liberty to drink, in moderation, from this verse.'
Being entreated to make this a subject of special and
particular examination, he said he would. At a subsequent
visit he thus greeted Mr. Delavan: 'You have the whole
ground, and, in time, the whole Christian world will be
obliged to adopt your views.' At the request of Mr. Dela-
van, he published his views in the New York Observer,
(Enquirer, August, 1869). This testimony is the more valu-
able as it is not only the result of a careful examination of
the original languages, but the honest surrender to the
force of evidence of a previous conviction" ("Bible Wines,"
by the Rev. Wm. Patton, D. D.).
But the New Churchman has not simply the letter of the
sacred Scriptures on which to rely for the precepts which
should guide his life, although the letter should give no
uncertain sound, but he has also the spiritual sense, accord-
ing to the science of correspondences, to illuminate the
letter and make everything plain. How clearly it does it
on this subject, I shall now endeavor to show:
Food and Poisons-natural and spiritual. Natural food,
or nourishment, corresponds to spiritual food. Natural
food is composed of such substances as are required to
build up and sustain a healthy body, and these substances
correspond to spiritual food so accurately that Swedenborg
assures us that, when man is eating food, the angels with
him are in the idea concerning good and truth, according
to the species of such food (A. C. 5,915). Goodnesses and
truths are man's genuine food and meat, without which he
cannot live, we are told. How important, then, that we
understand the natural food and drink which correspond to
such heavenly food. Again, we are told that the food or
meat which the wicked want in another life, are the delights
arising from evils, and the pleasantnesses arising from
falses, which are the meats of death (A. C. 680, 681). How
16
CORRESPONDENCE OF POISONS.
important, then, that we shun such articles as food and
drink as correspond to the spiritual food last named, if we
desire to live a true, orderly and heavenly life. "Poison
denotes deceit and hypocrisy in the spiritual sense"
(A. C. 9,013). All poisonous substances which do harm to
man when used by him as food or drink, when so used are
among the evil uses described or named by Swedenborg in
the "Divine Love and Wisdom." He tells us "That evil
uses were not created by the Lord, but that they originated
together with hell."
But the practical question arises, "How are we to distin-
guish poisonous and injurious substances from healthy
food?" The answer is plain, "By their effects on the
body and mind shall we know them." All suitable articles
sustain the body in health, and cause no unnatural appetite
which other healthy articles of food and drink will not satisfy;
neither do they cause any unnatural excitement or depression
of either body or mind; nor do they cause disease either
of the body or mind peculiar to the substance used. The
tendency of healthy food is to sustain both body and mind
in a true, orderly and happy state. Healthy food and drink,
if used to excess, may derange and oppress the digestive
organs and the whole system, but no such article causes
special excitement or a disease peculiar to itself, like drunk-
enness and delirium tremens. How different from all this
is it with poisons. Let us take a few which are, unfortun-
ately, frequently habitually used by individuals, such as
opium, alcohol-including wine and other fermented
drinks—and tobacco. It is well known to every observer
that all of these three articles, when habitually used, develop
an appetite which no other healthy article will satisfy.
Even more than this, opium will not satisfy the appetite
for either tobacco or alcohol, nor will tobacco satisfy the
appetite for either of the other two; and no substance in
nature will satisfy the appetite for alcohol excepting it con-
tains alcohol. How wonderfully does this correspond to
EFFECTS OF POISONS ON BODY AND MIND.
17
the effects of evils and falses upon the soul. The gratifica-
tion of perverted acquisitiveness does not satisfy perverted.
vanity, unless by display it can gratify vanity, nor does even
successful falsehood gratify either acquisitiveness or vanity.
And there is another striking correspondence between
these natural and spiritual perversions—the tendency of
one perversion to lead to another; as the use of tobacco to
the use of alcoholic drinks and opium; like as stealing
leads to lying, and lying to the gratification of perverted
acquisitiveness, etc.
Again, healthy food and drink require only to be taken
in moderate, healthy quantities to satisfy the appetite and
demands of a healthy organization for them. How is it
with the poisons we have been considering? They cause-
either unnatural excitement or depression, and in accord-
ance with well recognized physiological laws, if health is to
be restored (if the dose is not a fatal one), unnatural
depression follows unnatural excitement, and unnatural
excitement follows unnatural depression, inevitably; conse-
quently, in order to keep up the same state of excitement
day after day and year after year, the quantity of the poison
must be steadily increased, or the individual becomes
moody in body and mind for the want of it; for he is
violating the laws of his perverted life. It is just as natural
for the users of such poisons to increase the quantity until
the amount used in a single day would kill several healthy
men not addicted to their use, and until disease and death
result, as it was for Alexander the Great, when told that
there were other worlds in the universe, to weep to think
he had not yet conquered one; and finally to die in a
drunken spree. Perverted appetites and passions can never
be fully satisfied, and the former correspond to the latter,
or the natural to the spiritual. The perversion of the
natural appetites leads naturally to suffering, disease and
death, equally as spiritual perversions do to spiritual suffering
and death. The poor drunkard is to be pitied; the day for
18 ALCOHOL IN THE LIGHT OF CORRESPONDENCE.
blaming him has past; for he is now a slave to his appetite
-sometimes a most unwilling slave, poor man.
Poisons cause diseases, when used so as to act on the
human body, and every poison causes symptoms peculiar
to and characteristic of itself. They even act specifically
upon different portions of the body, as is well known;
some on the brain, others on the spinal cord, salivary
glands, stomach, heart, kidneys, etc. It is safe to say that
there is no one poison which so perfectly perverts the
functions, and causes diseases of so many of the organs
and structures of the body, as alcoholic drinks; and none
which so perfectly perverts and impairs the mental facul-
ties, even causing mental excitement, confusion, loss of
memory, loss of control of the understanding over the will
or affections, insanity, stupor, often as profound as that of
apoplexy, delirium tremens, and, not unfrequently, perma-
nent insanity, thus destroying the freedom of man.
Alcohol and fermented drinks cause various diseases of
the brain, red eyes, "rum blossoms" on the nose and face,
diseases of the stomach, liver and kidneys, and in fact,
from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, even
to the end of the toes, there is scarcely an organ which
does not suffer more or less from the habitual use of alco-
holic and fermented drinks. They, especially wine and
other fermented drinks, are recognized among the chief
causes of that crippling, painful and hereditary disease,
named gout. Need we say more? Does a good tree, or
good, wholesome food or drink, bring forth such fruits as
the above? Never!
If we examine the origin of alcohol in the light of cor-
respondences, we shall see that it is the fruit of, or, rather,
produced by, an evil tree (the yeast fungus); then why
should we pervert its use by taking it into our stomachs.
Alcohol is never found in any living natural substance,
fruit or vegetable. It is always the result of the decom-
position or decay of a good and useful article of food-
FERMENTED WINE A PERVERTED WINE.
19
sugar, which corresponds to spiritual delights; and this
composition is the result of a substance of no doubtful
origin, leaven, or yeast, or ferment, which, Swedenborg
assures us, signifies evil and the false, which should
not be mixed with things good and true. This vile sub-
stance lays hold on the sugar and actually destroys it and per-
verts its natural constituents into carbonic acid gas, which
men cannot breathe without destroying life, and alcohol,
which causes drunkenness, delirium tremens, insanity and
death.
Now I will ask the thoughtful reader if it is not almost
shocking, to say the least, to suppose for a single moment
that the wine partaken of by the Lord and His disciples at
the Last Supper, was a wine which had been polluted and
partially decomposed by this substance of evil correspond-
ence, and that the wine actually contained the poisonous
products which always result from such decay? Was the
natural blood which flowed from the Lord's side at the
crucifixion, fermented blood? Please remember that it had
a similar signification to the wine, and if the latter was
fermented it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the
former must have been. Is it possible that when the Lord
changed the water in the water-pots, at the wedding, into
wine, that He permitted leaven, or ferment, to enter the
wine and decompose, or rot it, for the sake of having
alcohol formed therein? In the first place, we can see
there was not time for this process to take place. But He
formed the alcohol in the wine when He formed the wine,
some one may say. But, unfortunately for this supposition,
alcohol has never been found as one of the good gifts of
God, for it has never been found either in the vine or the
fruit of the vine, and is only found in wine, or in the juice
of the grape or other fruits, when a certain temperature has
been preserved for a period, and leaven has decomposed
sugar. It is always the product of an evil tree-ferment or
leaven.
20
EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL AND EVILS AND FALSES.
There is another remarkable correspondence between the
action of poisonous substances, especially of wine and other
alcoholic drinks, on the body and appetites and sensations,
and the action of evils and falses on the soul of man, which
is worthy of our serious attention, for it conveys a useful
lesson-perhaps few more so.
Poisons, like evils and falses, when we make them our
own by eating and drinking, or appropriating them to our
own selfish purposes, not only excite an unnatural appetite
and specific diseases peculiar to themselves, as we have
seen, but they also palliate the symptoms which they cause;
and for this reason, while their use is continued, the indi-
vidual does not realize that he is being harmed, for he
honestly feels that so far from harming him, they actually
do him good every time he partakes of them, and are just
what he needs, precisely as the evil man feels while he is
under the influence of evils and falses. He does not realize
that he is living an evil life, any more than the user of
stimulating drinks realizes that he is violating the laws of his
physical organization. And if the remains of a healthy natural
appetite, and the love of natural food and drink in the body,
and of goodness and truth stored up by the Lord in the
spirit, cannot be warmed into life by moral and religious
"suasion," the wine drinker may go on with his cups until
drunkenness and even death may result, as the evil doer
may until spiritual death results, without in either case the
man seeing clearly the consequences of the life ne is living.
For the sake of the salvation of the man, that he may have
a glimpse of the unsatisfactory life he is living, the Lord
often permits some physical misfortune, such as a broken
bone, an attack of an inflammatory disease, a fever, or an
attack of indigestion, to destroy for the time being the
ruling appetite, and show how unsatisfactory are the results
of its gratifications, when the "horrors," or delirium tremens
may result; precisely as the Lord often permits some great
misfortune, like the loss of property, friends, or reputation,
EXCUSES FOR USING INTOXICATING DRINKS.
21
to show the spirit of man the little dependence to be placed
on its gratification, and the unsatisfying nature of his ruling
love. It is then that remorse and despondency, even to
despair, may ensue, precisely as delirium tremens may
result, as named above, with the drinker of alcoholic drinks.
Neither suffers with such symptoms while pursuing the full
bent of his perverted appetites and passions. How
wonderful the correspondence in every particular. If in
either case the man sincerely repents and puts away his
evils, it is well, and he may be saved, but he must look to
the Lord for strength, and hold out to the end.
*
It is clearly shown in the Writings of the Church, and
every day's observation confirms its truth, that a man only
sees his falses and evils as he is in the effort to put them
away, and he only sees clearly their real and fearful nature
as he actually puts them away; and this is not less true of
the perversions of the natural appetites than it is of spirit-
ual perversions, for the one corresponds to the other.
How clearly is this illustrated by the members of the medi-
cal profession to-day. The world over, those who love and
use wine and intoxicating drinks, who partake of “the so-
cial cup," are the men who often prescribe them for patients,
and strive to justify their use: and it is wonderful and very
interesting, to see to what shifts they have been driven by
the advancing science of this age. It retards the metamor-
phosis or wasting and repair, or renewal of the structures
of the body, they tell us, when every schoolboy in physiol-
ogy, and every man and woman who has ever felt the
invigorating effects of active exercise, can see clearly that
to retard such changes is the last thing to be desired, if we
wish health and strength. The use of opium, and the tor-
por of hibernating animals, and the sluggishness of lazy
and indolent men and women, retard much more fully the
metamorphosis of the tissues; but is such a life to be
desired when happiness and health depend on activity?
Again, we are told that a small portion of the alcohol
22
TESTIMONY OF DR. WILLARD PARKER.
taken into the system is actually appropriated to some use-
ful purpose, and is, consequently, actually food-" yes,
food, gentlemen." The same is true of a much larger pro-
portion of the opium, tobacco, or deadly nightshade,
which can safely be taken into the stomach, but who
would think of attempting to justify the use of such poisons
by any such argument? These straws are fast being sub-
merged.
Go the world over and the physicians who have either
never used wine and alcoholic drinks, or having used, have
repented and put away their use, will be found to totally
condemn their use during health, and rarely to prescribe
them as medicine. Need more be said?
I will close by simply giving the testimony of a physi-
cian well known in our city, and throughout the medical
world, as one of the foremost. Dr. Willard Parker says:
"Introduced into the system, alcohol induces a general
disease, as well marked as intermittent fever, smallpox, or
lead poison." Again he says: "The alcohol is the one evil
genius, whether in wine, or ale, or whiskey, and is killing
the race of men. Stay the ravages of this one poison,
alcohol, that king of poisons, the mightiest weapon of the
devil, and the millennium will soon dawn." To all of which,
after more than thirty years devoted to the study and prac-
tice of medicine, the writer can heartily subscribe, merely
adding his firm belief that the rising sun of this millennial
age is staying, and will stay, the ravages of this fearful
scourge; for this glorious total abstinence reform, which is
slowly but surely sweeping over the world, is not of the
old age and dispensation, but of the New Jerusalem, now
descending from God out of heaven, teaching men that
they must shun evils as sins against God. The good work
may commence from natural and selfish motives, with fear
and trembling, but afterwards spiritual motives must take
their place if our race is to be regenerated. Shall the
acknowledged receivers of the heavenly doctrines lead or
THE BIBLE AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
23
follow in presenting to the world the higher truths and
motives which are so much needed in this great work at
this very time?
JOHN ELLIS,
-N. J. Messenger.
BIBLE WINES AND TEMPERANCE.
Editor Messenger:-The Bible both recommends the
use of wine as healthful, and yet it also warns against its
use as dangerous; thus it is quoted by both sides on the
temperance question as authority.
Why this apparent inconsistency? This is a serious
question to those of us who accept the Word as the fuli and
plenary expression of the Divine will.
The only solution to which I can arrive after careful
examination is, that there were, in Bible times, two classes
of wines, the one harmless and nourishing, the other harm-
ful and poisonous.
The Rev. James B. Dunn, in a tract on the subject, says:
"Of the passages in which wine is distinctly spoken of as a
blessing, there are thirty-eight in which the Hebrew word
Tirosh is translated 'wine,' 'new wine,' sweet wine,' yet
not one of these denotes any liquors at all, but means wine
fruit, the produce of the vine in the solid form of grapes,
raisins, etc.” When these are changed from solid to
liquid, they become "good wine" until fermentation begins,
and then the intoxicating quality is created.
It is the use of the latter which the Bible denounces.
The Israelites, during their forty years in the wilderness,
"drank neither wine nor strong drink." And as to the
priesthood, we have this emphatic language: "And Jeho-
vah spake unto Aaron, saying, 'Do not drink wine nor
strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go up
to the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; it shall
be a statute throughout your generations.'
24
THE PASSOVER AND COMMUNION WINE.
When Samson's mother was promised a son, she was
warned thus: "Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, and
drink not wine nor strong drink." But why multiply ex-
amples? The Bible is full of them. There was Samuel,
the Nazarite, devoted to total abstinence; Daniel and his
companions who refused the daily supply of wine provided
by the Court of Babylon, that their hearts might not be
defiled by it; John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord,
of whom the angel said to Zacharias: "He shall drink
neither wine nor strong drink.”.
J
But the advocates of the use of wine, such as we have in
these times, refer with great confidence to the miracle per-
formed by the Lord at the wedding feast in Cana. There
is no doubt of the historical fact; but what construction
shall we put upon it? Shall we consider it unanswerable
authority for wine drinking? Or is there some explanation,
consistent with the mission of the Lord, which was to save
men from evil lives and evil habits? Is it to be presumed
that when the company had "well drunk," until the supply
was exhausted, the Lord would, by his Divine power, create
a hundred and twenty gallons more of an intoxicating bev-
erage? I cannot for a moment accept the thought. The
phrase "good wine," which is said to have been the result
of the "six water pots of water," must mean the kind that
is everywhere spoken of in the Word as a blessing. No
other interpretation of this act is reasonable. We are told
that Jesus, by this wonderful miracle, "manifested forth His
glory," which certainly would not have been the result of
such a large quantity of an intoxicating beverage at that
stage of the feast.
I now approach another argument, which I do with great
reverence. We of the New Church believe that the holiest
solemnity of worship is the Lord's Supper. It is argued
that as the Master then used wine, we will follow His ex-
ample. Let us look at the facts. In Matthew we read,
"He took the cup," and said, "I will not drink henceforth
WINE AND TEMPERANCE.
25
of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new
with you in my Father's kingdom." We have almost the
same language in Mark. And in Luke, "I will not drink
of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall
come." What was this "fruit of the vine"? The question
carries its own answer with it. Besides, He was then cele-
brating the Jewish Passover, and drank from the Passover
cup. Calmet says that the Jews in our Lord's time never
used fermented wine at the Passover. The Rev. C. Frey,
a converted Jew, says that on such occasions "Jews dare
not drink any liquor that has passed through the process
of fermentation," and this statement is abundantly corrob-
orated by respectable Jewish authority.
I recently asked an intelligent Jew of this city what kind
of wine his people have used in celebrating the Passover.
His answer in substance was: "We take raisins, cut them
up, put them in water in bottles, and after about a week, it
is ready for use. The orthodox Jews never have fermented
wine at the Passover. It was always so from the begin-
ning." I do not mean to be understood that this would be
an appropriate mode of celebrating the Lord's Supper, but
simply that when it was instituted an intoxicating beverage
was not one of the elements to be used.
The evils resulting from wine drinking are so extensive
and so obvious, that it becomes imperative to take away,
if it can be truthfully done, the Bible excuse for the habit.
Every inebriate begins his sad and downward career by
tampering with the lighter drinks, and ends by joining the
innumerable procession of drunkards who are reeling into
dishonored graves.
BENJ. KINGSBURY.
WINE AND TEMPERANCE.
In the New Church, or at least among New Church peo-
ple, there is the same diversity of opinions as to the evil of
intemperance and the proper way to deal with it, that prevails
among people of other denominations. There is also the
26
WINE AND TEMPERANCE.
same feeling of helplessness and despair in the presence of
the monster that is constantly snatching from us the dearly
loved, and making of those upon whom we had hoped to
rely for strength and support, a weakness and a burden.
A New Church writer calls getting drunk "happening
to take a cup too much;" and he says there are other evils
more deadly thau drunkenness. Perhaps this is true. It
certainly cannot be thought anything very bad for an inex-
perienced boy to take a cup too much once in his life. But
for all that it causes fearful anxiety to his friends; and if
repeated and persisted in until habitual drunkenness ensues,
it is hard to conceive of an evil worse. The only standard
we have by which we may measure the enormity of an evil,
is the effect that the evil has upon the victims of the evil
doer. That is, the extent to which it violates the command,
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." By this stand-
ard who so bad as the drunkard? We cannot judge of his
spiritual condition. We do not know what may be in store
for him in the other life. We hope for the best in his case,
just as we do in the case of a Piper, or a Jesse Pomeroy,
or any other victim of the insanity that flows in from the
hells; but what does humanity suffer from the drunkard?
The assassin kills his victim at a blow, or if he be very bad,
by tortures that endure for a few minutes, or perhaps
hours. The drunkard kills his victim by tortures that en-
dure for years, and that victim the wife of his bosom,
whom he has taken to himself to love, cherish and protect.
Tortures, too, that are as much worse than physical tortures
as the power of the spirit to suffer is greater than that of
the body. The thief steals from those in whom he has no
particular interest; sometimes also from those who trust
him and depend upon him. The drunkard always steals
from those who trust him and depend upon him most;
sometimes even from his own children. And he steals
from them without mercy, without regard for their necessi-
ties. He steals from them all their clothing, all their food,
THE EFFECTS OF WINE ON THE DRINKER.
27
their education, their position in society, their every-
thing, and sends them forth to fight the battle of life weak-
ened by physical, mental, moral and material poverty to
such a degree that it is wonderful evidence of the mercy
and power of the Lord that ever any of them succeed
at all. And he does this simply to gratify his own miser-
able spirit of self-indulgence, in utter disregard of the
rights of the neighbor. He cannot conceive of the duty of
self-denial to shield others from suffering. He has killed
in himself all perception of duty in the matter, by his per-
sistent course of indulgence of his own sensuality. Some-
times, in advanced stages of the drunkard's journey, when
he begins to experience something of the punishment that
evil always brings with it, he would break away from the habit
if he could to save himself from suffering-to save others
from suffering, never. All that in him which regards the
happiness of others was stifled, repressed, smothered away
back in his career, when he was seeking his own pleasure
with his merry companions, regardless of his mother or wife
at home suffering the torments of anxiety through the
weary hours of waiting for his return.
When we meet the drunken man-no matter how funny
the form which his drunkenness assumes, do we not know
that his family is suffering inconceivable tortures at home?
And these tortures he is willing to inflict upon all who feel
any interest in or responsibility for him, and he has been
willing to do it all through the past, when he had strength
to do differently, which he has not now. Is it not hard to
conceive of an evil worse than this?
We often hear of drunkards who would be good men if
it were not for drink. That is all imagination. There is
no such thing in reality. As well might we say of the
burglar, “He is a good man were it not for the habit he has
of breaking into people's houses;" or of the murderer,
"He is all right if he would only leave off the habit he
has of killing people." When a young man is dabbling
A
28
RELATION BETWEEN INTEMPERANCE AND CRIME.
with intoxication, he is doing just what another young man.
is doing when he tells small lies, or another one when he
indulges his lascivious propensities, or another one when he
steals small sums of money from his employer's till.
Drunkenness is a sin against God. Of just what degree of
deadliness we cannot say; but certainly deadly enough to
destroy all man's spiritual life.
-N. J. Messenger, Nov. 26.
A SUFFERER.
Extracts from an Address of Chief-Justice Noah Davis of New York,
at the residence of William E. Dodge, as to the Relation between
Intemperance and Crime.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :—I am invited to speak to-night of the rela-
tions of intemperance to crime.
It is not quite susceptible of proof that the relation of intemperance to
crime is that of causa causans. There are other causes, such as hate,
avarice, jealousy, lust and revenge; but these are narrower in their circles
of evil, more easily repressed by individuals and society, more subject to
moral influences and restraints, and are not sanctioned by law nor dealt
out under statutory licenses.
THE CHIEF CAUSE OF CRIME.
But among all causes of crime, intemperance stands out the " unap-
proachable chief." This fact may be established both affirmatively and
negatively. It is proved by the existence of intemperance, and equally
as well as by its non-existence, just as the tides of the ocean may be proved
by the flood and by the ebb. First, let us briefly consider the proof by
existence. The proposition is that whenever and wherever intemperance
is most prevalent, crime is most abundant. Crime is the mercury of a
political and moral thermometer which intemperance, and its opposite, affect
as heat and cold. This recognized fact has created an elementary principle
in the criminal common law-that drunkenness is no excuse for crime.
No principle is better, or was earlier settled, and it was rested upon the
manifest fact that, if allowed as an excuse, all crime would prepare and
fortify itself by intoxication. Hence courts, even in capital cases, were
compelled to treat drunkenness as an aggravation of crime, and to hold
that a drunken intent was equally as felonious as a sober one. In common
acceptance, the drunken man is temporarily insane. It is fortunate that
in a country where making drunk was a business licensed by law, as a
sort of government revenue, the wisdom of judges discarded popular.
notions and the natural inference from that kind of legislation, and gave
DRINKING ALCOHOLIC DRINKS THE CAUSE OF CRIME. 29
us principles and rules by inheritance which I fear we should not have
had the virtue to originate. Intoxicating drinks enable men to commit
crimes, by firing the passions and quenching conscience. Burke, the Irish
murderer, whose horrible mode of committing his crimes has taken his own
name, in his confessions states that only once did he feel any restraint of
conscience. That was when he was about to kill an infant child. The
babe looked up and smiled in his face, but, said he, I drank a large glass
of brandy and then I had no remorse. His case is one of thousands-
many times in my own experience have young men looked up to me when
asked what they had to say why the sentence of the law should not be pro-
nounced, and falteringly said, "I was drunk-I would not and could not
have done it had I not been drunk."
That habits of intemperance are the chief cause of crime is the testi-
mony of all judges of large experience. More than two hundred years
ago Sir Matthew Hale, then Chief-Justice of England, to whom as a writer
and judge we are greatly indebted for our own criminal law, speaking on
this subject, said: "The places of judicature I have long held in this
kingdom have given me an opportunity to observe the original cause of
most of the enormities that have been committed for the space of nearly
twenty years, and by due observation I have found that if the murders
and manslaughters, the burglaries and robberies, the riots and tumults,
the adulteries, fornications, rapes and other enormities that have happened
in that time, were divided into five parts, four of them have been the issue
and product of excessive drinking-of tavern and ale-house drinking."
Leaping over two hundred years of English history and jurisprudence, I
call one other eminent judge of great experience to testify. Lord Chief
Baron Kelly, perhaps the oldest judge now on the English bench, says in
a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury: Two-thirds of the crimes
which come before the courts of law of this country are occasioned chiefly
by intemperance."
Not less explicit is the testimony of those whose official duties have
brought them in contact with convicted criminals. Speaking of intemper-
ance, the chaplain of the Preston House of Correction said: “Nine-tenths
of the English crime requiring to be dealt with by law arises from the
English sin which the law scarcely discourages." And the late inspector
of English prisons says: "I am within the truth when I state that in four
cases out of five, when an offence has been committed, intoxicating drink
has been one of the causes. ""
The reason for this is not found in the Eng-
lish skies. A Committee of the House of Commons of the Dominion of
Canada, reporting in 1875, state that "out of 28,289 commitments to the
jails (of the provinces of Ontario and. Quebec) during the three previous
years, 21,236 were committed either for drunkenness or for crimes per-
petrated under the influence of drink,”
30
BENEFITS OF PROHIBITION.
INTEMPERANCE IN THIS COUNTRY.
This is not a mere provincial imitation of the fashions of the mother
country; for alas! in our own land, under our beloved republican insti-
tutions, the same startling facts exist. Massachusetts, great keeper of
Plymouth Rock and of the virtues that landed there, tells the same tale.
The report of her State Board of Charities for 1869 says: "The propor-
tion of crime traceable to this great vice must be set down, as heretofore,
at not less than four-fifths," and her Inspectors of State Prisons in 1868
give the some proportion. Coming closer home, we have the testimony
of our Board of Police Justices in their report of 1874: "We are fully
satisfied," say they, "that intoxication is the one great leading cause that
renders the existence of our police courts necessary."
Of seventeen cases of murder, examined separately by Dr. Harris,
corresponding secretary of the Prison Association, fourteen were instigated
by intoxicating drinks. The line of witnesses might stretch out to the
crack of doom. The case would only be a little stronger. It is estab-
lished beyond argument by official statistics, by the experience of courts,
by the observation of enlightened philanthropists, that the prevalence of
intemperance in every country is the standard by which its crime may be
measured. Whatever man or woman can do that checks intemperance
diminishes crime, lessens vice and misery and promotes virtue and hap-
piness. Whatever man or woman does do that spreads intemperance,
increases crime, promotes vice and misery, and lessens virtue and happiness.
The State has no soul to damn. The corporations of New York will
never stand at the great Judgment bar. The official who goes in to-day
and out to-morrow will carry his own load of vice and meed of virtue;
but neither State nor municipality will ever rise to the simplest of all
duties—the prevention of crime and misery at the fountain-head-until the
people are brought by individual effort to realize the necessity of that
heroism. The relation of intemperance to crime is also strikingly shown
by the diminution of the latter whenever the former is wholly or partially
suppressed.
BENEFITS OF PROHIBITION.
The relation of intemperance to crime is also plainly manifest where
drunkenness is repressed by partial or complete prohibition. The cases
of towns and villages where, by the arrangements of their founders, no
liquors or intoxicating drinks have ever been allowed to be sold, furnish
strong evidence. Vineland, with its 10,000 people, without a grog-shop,
and with a police force of one constable, who is also overseer of the poor
(with a salary for both offices of $75), reports in some years a single
crime, and a poor rate swelling to the aggregate of $4 a year. Greeley,
in Colorado, is another town of 3,000 people, and no liquor-shop. It
uses and needs no police force, and in two years and a half $7 only waș
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL DRUNKENNESS.
31
called out of its poor fund. Bavaria, Illinois, a town of the same popu-
lation, with absolute prohibition, was without a drunkard, without a
pauper, and without a crime.
I will not take Maine, the hackneyed theme of so many contradictions,
further than to state that in 1870 her convictions for crime under prohi-
bition were only 431, or one in every 1,869, while in our State (exclusive
of this city), under license, the convictions were 5,473, or one in every
620 souls. Can it be that the rural population of New York is so much
more addicted to crime than the people of Maine?
But take Connecticut-facetiously called "the land of steady habits.”
Under the prohibition law of 1854 crime is shown to have diminished 75
per cent.
On the restoration of license in 1873 crime increased 50 per
cent. in a single year.
But I am not here to argue for prohibition. My sole purpose is to estab-
lish that intemperance is an evil factor in crime by showing that whatever
limits or suppresses the one, diminishes the other in a ratio almost mathe-
matically certain. Whether judging from the declared judicial experience
of others, or from my own, or from carefully collected statistics, running
through many series of years, I believe it entirely safe to say that one-half
of all the crime of this country and of Great Britain is caused by the
intemperate use of intoxicating liquors; and that of the crimes involving
personal violence certainly three-fourths are chargeable to the same cause.
The practical question is: What can be done about it?
If temperance were a new evil, coming in upon us for the first time like
a pestilence from some foreign shore, laden with its awful burden of
disease, of pauperism and crime, with what horror would the nation con-
template its monstrous approach. What severity of laws, what stringen-
cies of quarantine, what activities of resistance would be suddenly
aroused. But, alas! it is no new evil. It surrounds us like an atmos-
phere, as it has our fathers through countless generations. It perverts
judgments, it poisons habits, it sways passions, it taints churches and tears
consciences. It seizes the enginery of our legislation, and by it creates a
moral phenomenon of perpetual motion, which Nature denies to physics;
for it licenses and empowers itself to beget in endless rounds, the wrongs,
vices and crimes which society is organized to prevent; and-worst of all
for our country-it encoils parties like the serpents of Laocoön, and
crushes in its folds the spirit of patrotism and virtue.—New York Tribune.
Spiritual drunkenness, Swedenborg informs us, arises
from the “adulteration of Divine Truth," and not from the
pure truth itself. Truth, united with good, is spiritual
wine, and when unperverted it never causes spiritual
32
CORRESPONDENCE OF WINE.
drunkenness—only when it becomes either contaminated or
perverted by our evil inclinations and false views does it do
this.
Natural wine corresponds to spiritual wine-not to truth
alone, for "wine signifies spiritual love, or love to the neigh-
bor" as well as truth. In fact, "The correspondence of wine
is one of the very highest. It is given as faith, A. C. 1070;
as spiritual good, A. C. 2187, 2343, 3513, 3596; as love to the
neighbor, A. C. 3570; and in the supreme sense, as Divine
Truth out of the Divine Good of the Lord, A. C. 6577.”
Pure unfermented wine cheers and warms the heart of
man, but with no unnatural excitement; its use promotes
sociability, and tends to unite men in the bonds of peace
and good fellowship. The gluten, in the wine, literally
nourishes and strengthens the natural heart of man, and
the sugar warms it, and is delightful even to the natural
taste. How true it is, then, that unfermented wine cheers
the heart of man; and to the use of the "social cup," filled
with this life-giving fluid-the real unadulterated wine
from the fruit of the vine-there is no objection. Its cor-
respondence is good and never evil, for its origin is from
heaven and not from hell. There is a distinction between
good and evil, and between truth and falsehood. We may
use pure wine without regard to use, and use it to excess;
we might use it to drown ourselves; but such a use would
be a perversion, and would not have a good correspond-
ence. The moment pure wine becomes adulterated by
leaven and its products, it has never a good correspond-
ence; I do not say that alcohol can never be used benefi-
cially in the arts, and even as a medicine, when its use may
have a good correspondence; for we read: "Surely the
wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath
shalt Thou restrain."
But how different from the effects of pure wine is the
action of fermented wine, may be seen from the above
testimony of Judge Davis.
CORRESPONDENCE OF WINE.
33
And yet, in this fearful array of crimes, which are caused
by the drinking of intoxicating liquids, we see but a small
share of the sin, misery and wretchedness which result
from their use. Now can we for a moment suppose that
the cause of all this mischief, which stirs up, excites and
brings into unrestrained activity the perverted passions of
man, is a harmless, innocent drink, of a good correspond-
ence, simply used in excess? When has the excessive use
of unfermented wine, milk, water, or any other wholesome
liquid, ever produced the slightest approach to such dire
effects? How perfectly clear it is, if we will but open
our eyes, in the light of this new day, that the tree which
bears such fruit must be an evil tree, of an infernal
origin? Let us lay aside prejudice and pre-conceived
opinions, if possible, and examine this question, in the
light of the New Dispensation, and, it seems to the writer,
we cannot fail to see the truth on this subject-it is so
plain.
The science of correspondences throws a flood of light
upon this whole question, and it is in this light that the
New Churchman should consider it. Not by any means.
that he should ignore the letter of the Word. We have
but to read the writings of a large number of diligent
students of the Word in its letter, who have, within a few
years, written upon this subject, to be satisfied that two
kinds of wine are spoken of in the Bible; one of which
was good and useful, the other bad and injurious when
used as a drink. Only, in rare instances, has a writer of
any distinction attempted to give a different view. Even
Dr. Smith, who is said, by a writer in the New Jeru-
salem Magazine, to have effectually disposed of the
argument in favor of there having been in use two kinds
of wine, simply claims that it is an open question. It is
a question which the science of correspondences settles
effectually,
J. E.
PART SECOND.
A Reply to the Assumptions, and Arguments based thereon, in
the four articles in the NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER of
January 28, 1880, advocating and justifying the use of
fermented wine.
THERE are a few points and facts to which I would like
to call the attention of the readers of the N. J. Messenger,
and all New Churchmen, in order that both sides of the
wine question may be fairly before them.
First. The art of distilling alcohol from fermented
liquids was unknown for many centuries after the com-
mencement of the Christian era; in fact, it was not dis-
covered until the ninth century; consequently, the strong
drinks named in the Bible were not alcoholic or distilled
liquids; therefore, all the drunkenness noticed, and so
severely condemned in the Bible, was caused by the use of
fermented wine and other fermented drinks.
Second. Old bottles, especially if made either of the
skins of animals, as was customary in the apostolic age,
or of wood, where it is impossible carefully and thoroughly
to scald them out and heat them, are necessarily full of the
germs of ferment, or leaven, which would be sure to cause
fermentation, in new wine, when the proper temperature
has been preserved for a short time; of course, then, here
is a satisfactory reason why new wine should be put into
new bottles, or the bottles would burst from fermentation.
It would be impossible, under such circumstances (new
wine in old bottles), to preserve the wine from fermenta-
tion, as could be readily done in new bottles, and actually
was frequently so done in those days, by immediately filling
34
WINE PRESERVED BY BOILING.
35
the bottles from the press and burying them in the cool
earth or beneath the surface of water, or again by either
boiling the wine or repeatedly filtering it-all methods.
well understood and described by authors cotemporary
with the apostolic age.
Third.-We are told by various ancient writers, that
the wines which were regarded as the best in their day,
were such as were preserved by boiling, filtering or keep-
ing cool beneath the surface of water, and were conse-
quently old wines, which we are told, as I quoted in a
former article, would not intoxicate. How strictly in
accordance with this testimony are the Lord's words! "No
man having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new, for
he saith the old is better."
Fourth.-At the wedding feast the Lord's direction, that
they should fill the water pots with water, was complied
with, without any apparent hesitation or surprise, as if it
were a customary practice to provide water, when they
were about to prepare wine for use. How clearly does
this indicate that it was wine preserved by boiling which
they expected would be supplied by our Lord, for it was
customary to mix such wine with water before using it!
Undiluted, it was too thick to be readily used as a drink.
Such wine, when properly skimmed, and thus cleansed
from impurities while boiling, contains all the nourishing,
life-giving properties of the fruit of the vine, as no other
old wine does; the wine has simply parted, by the aid of
heat, with a portion of its water, which is readily restored
when it is wanted for use. The heat used, and the entire
process has a beautiful significance, as the reader will
readily perceive.
Archbishop Potter, who lived about two centuries ago,
wrote in his "Grecian Antiquities":"The Lacedæmo-
nians used to boil their wines upon the fire until the
fifth part was consumed; then after four years were expired,
}
36 CHEMICAL CHANGES CAUSED BY FERMENTATION.
began to drink them." He refers to Democritus, a cele-
brated philosopher, who traveled over the greater part of
Europe, Asia and Africa, and who died 361 B. C., also to
Palladius, a Greek physician, as making a similar statement.
"Some of the celebrated Opimian wine mentioned by Pliny,
had, in his day, two centuries after its production, the
consistence of honey." (Rev. Wm. Patton, D. D.) Aris-
totle, born 384 B. C., assures us, as I have already stated,
that the wine of Arcadia was so thick, that it was necessary
to scrape it from the skin bottles in which it was contained,
and to dissolve the scrapings in water, before drinking it.
Now it is absolutely certain that these celebrated old
wines were not fermented, for fermentation destroys the
glutinous portion of the wine, which nourishes the body of
man, as good does his spirit. It is, then, very evident that
not only the governor of the feast at Cana of Galilee, but
all intelligent men of that day, knew that old unfermented
wine was the best; and consequently the water which was
made wine must have possessed all the good qualities of the
pure juice of the grape unpolluted by the products of leaven
or ferment. All fermented wines become thin, owing to
the destruction of the gluten, and cannot be made thick
like jelly or syrup even by boiling.
Let us look at the chemical changes wrought by fer-
mentation, for a moment. First, we will notice, "Wine in
the cluster," or unfermented wine:
Gluten-plentiful, which forms blood and muscle, and
gives strength and substance to the body;
Sugar a large amount, which is so delightful to the
taste, and warms the body;
Gum, and aromas;
Malic and citric acids-small quantities;
Phosphorus and sulphur;
Bitartrate of potash (cream of tartar);
Tartrate of lime;
Water, etc.
NEW COMPOUNDS IN FERMENTED WINË.
37
Such are the essential living products of the vine, which
are grateful and nourishing to the natural body of man,
and are all retained in boiled wine, excepting a portion of
the water, which can be readily restored when it is required
for use.
Now let us look at the sad havoc produced upon
these good gifts of God by that substance of evil corre-
spondence—leaven or yeast, which in "Turner's Chemistry,
by Liebig," we are told “is a substance in a state of putre-
faction, the atoms of which are in continual motion."
Fermented or intoxicating wine contains:
Alcohol, a powerful narcotic poison;
Enanthic acid, an oily, inodorous liquid;
Enanthic ether, of a vinous, unpleasant smell;
Essential or volatile oils ·
Bouquet or aroma;
Acetic acid or vinegar-of none too good correspondence;
Sulphate of potash;
Chlorides of potassium and sodium;
Undecomposed gum, sugar and extractive matter in small
quantities.
The substances in italics are new compounds, never found
in the unfermented juice of the grape. Surely, we have
only to look over the two tables of contents just given, to
be able to see how truly fermented wine when it pretends
to be either the fruit of, or from the fruit of the vine, is a
hypocritical "mocker." Its food part or gluten—corre-
sponding to good-gone; its sugar-corresponding to
spiritual delights-nearly gone, and perverted into alcohol
and vinegar, and its vegetable combinations of acids and
alkalies, combined expressly for the use of man by the
Lord, in the fruit of the vine, with phosphorus and lime
for the brain and bones, either destroyed, changed, or
precipitated-what have we left? A fluid which will cause
drunkenness, which is never caused by either the fruit of
the vine or the pure juice of the grape. Need more be
said?
38
THE SIGNIFICATION OF BLOOD AND WINE.
Yes, more may be desirable, for all experience demon-
strates that when duty requires us to give up the traditions
of the past as false, and to stop the gratifications of our
perverted appetitites, we need "line upon line and precept
upon precept," or there is danger of our excusing and
justifying our false views and evils, and continuing in them,
instead of putting them away as sins against God. The
truth must be made so plain "that the wayfaring man,
though a fool, need not err therein.
Wine has a similar signification to blood. Blood is
composed, not simply of water, which is from the mineral
kingdom, and corresponds to truths upon the natural plane
of life and is the medium through which nourishment is
conveyed to every part of the material body, but it also
contains in a state of solution, all the substances required
to warm and build up the material body, which correspond
to good, all harmoniously blended in one fluid, a living
current which is to the body of man what Divine Truth,
always united with Divine Good, is to his soul. It is
perfectly clear that wine has a similar signification, because
it has a similar composition. It has the water from the
mineral kingdom; the sugar, which is so delightful to
the innocent child, and which is appropriated to warm the
material body; the gluten or bread-part, which gives sub-
stance to the various tissues; the phosphorus for the
brain, the lime for the bones; the potash for the tendons
and ligaments; and there is perhaps no part of the body
which does not receive some nourishment from pure unfer-
mented wine. With all these nourishing substances which
are contained in the pure juice of the grape, and which
correspond to good, either entirely or partially destroyed,
precipitated, or converted into poisonous compounds, even
with the delightful sugar perverted by leaven into alcohol,
which is so repugnant to the taste of the innocent child
what relation has fermented wine to blood? Its corre-
spondence may have been appropriate to a state of the
FERMENTED BREAD AND FERMENTED WINE. 39
Church when faith was separated from charity; but how
any intelligent New Churchman can sanction the use of
fermented wine is an increasing wonder to the writer.
If the wine is pressed directly from the clusters into the
cup, by the hand, as was done in ancient Egypt and Italy,
it may be drank freely, as we eat grapes; but if the juice is
allowed to stand a few hours exposed to the air, if the
temperature is suitable, fermentation commences, and the
wine "becomes thick, muddy and warm, and evolves
carbonic acid gas." If drank while this fermentation,
motion or destruction is in active progress, it is apt to
disturb the stomach-as Swedenborg intimates.
A singular proof of the ancient usage of squeezing the
juice of grapes into a cup has been exhumed at Pompeii.
It is the figure of Bacchus standing by a pedestal, and
holding in both hands a large cluster of grapes and
squeezing the juice into a cup.
Fifth.-But if fermented wine is so injurious and destruc-
tive, and has such an evil origin, what have you to say
about fermented bread? inquires some one. Why, simply
this very soon after fermentation has commenced, we put
it into the oven and bake it; and thus by heat destroy the
ferment, and drive off all the alcohol and carbonic acid gas,
or if the latter is not all driven off, it does not do the harm
in the stomach that it does in the lungs, and thus your
bread is rendered harmless-or at least comparatively so.
Treat your wine thus, within a few hours after the com-
mencement of fermentation, and it will be comparatively
harmless; but it is better to commence this treatment before
fermentation commences, for then you have no loss.
can surely but see that the use of leavened bread, or bread
raised by ferment, for any purpose, is immeasurably less
objectionable than the use of leavened or fermented wine,
which is full of that subtle, treacherous poison, which is so
deadly, as we have seen, to man's natural and genuine
We
40
TESTIMONY OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH.
spiritual life; the effects of which were so aptly and elo-
quently described by the ancients, in language ever mem-
orable, and strikingly appropriate: "At the last it biteth
like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder."
Sixth. We have read in the writings of an advocate of
fermented wine, that, "the juice of the grape necessarily
contains within it its earth-born impurities." Is it true, I ask
-aside from dust which may accumulate upon the grape
and fragments of fibrous structures, which can be better
separated by either boiling and skimming or by filtering,
does the juice contain any impurities? It is a good gift of
God; it does not originate together with hell; and I know
of no impurities-nothing but what is good and useful to
sustain and build up the human body.
Seventh.—The reader will bear in mind that the opinion
of Prof. Bush, upon the subject of fermented wine, was
given after a careful examination of the whole subject at
the earnest request of Mr. Delavan, and not "by reference
to a single passage somewhere in the Bible, but does not
say where,” as has been intimated; therefore his opinion
would seem to be worthy of some consideration. But if the
deliberate impression of Prof. Bush, formed after a careful
examination of the passages in the Word, referring to
wine, in the languages in which it was written, is worthy of
no more consideration than is bestowed upon it above, it
may be well to bring the testimony of another writer as to
the "pernicious" character of alcoholic drinks, always
remembering that alcohol is alcohol, whether it is in wine,
beer, or distilled liquids, and that it readily causes drunken-
ness in whatever form it is used.
TESTIMONY OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.
On the fly-leaf of one of his theological MSS., he wrote:
"The immoderate use of spirituous liquors will be the
downfall of the Swedish people." In his Memorial to the
TESTIMONY OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.
41
Swedish Diet, of Nov. 17th, 1760, three years after the Last
Judgment, Swedenborg says: "If the distilling of whiskey
-provided the public can be prevailed upon to accede to
the measure—were farmed out in all judicial districts, and
also in towns, to the highest bidder, a considerable revenue
might be obtained for the country, and the consumption of
grain might also be reduced; that is, if the consumption of
whiskey cannot be done away with altogether, which would
be more desirable for the country's welfare and morality
than all the income which could be realized from so per-
nicious a drink." (Documents concerning Swedenborg, by
Rev. R. L. Tafel, vol. 1, page 493.) This has clearly and
unmistakably the Total Abstinence and Prohibition ring.
TESTIMONY OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
The Section on Medicine in the International Medical
Congress, held in Philadelphia in the year 1876, containing
representative medical men from all parts of our own
country and Europe, after carefully examining the sub-
ject, at the request of the "National Temperance Society,"
reported as follows, through its Secretary:
"1. Alcohol is not shown to have a definite food value
by any of the usual methods of chemical analysis or physio-
logical investigation.
"2. Its use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac
stimulant and often admits of substitution
"3. As a medicine it is not well fitted for self-prescription
by the laity, and the medical profession is not accountable
for such administration or for the enormous evils arising
therefrom."
The above are not simply the opinions of a chemist, or of
a theoretical or speculative scientist, but are the conclusions.
of practical men who have carefully witnessed the actual
effects of intoxicating drinks in every form, and who, con-
sequently, can speak intelligently upon the subject.
Let
42
TESTIMONY OF MEDICAL MEN.
us look for a moment at their conclusions. Alcohol has no
definite food value; and though a small quantity of it may
be appropriated for food purposes when taken into the
system, its value for this purpose is far more than destroyed
by its poisonous action on the tissues of the body. There
is, perhaps, as I intimated in a former section, not a poison-
ous vegetable or insect in the world, which, if taken into the
stomach and digested as far as capable of digestion, would
not contribute a larger portion of its substance as food for
the body, than is appropriated for this purpose of the
alcoholic drinks as generally used; but no sensible man
would think of using them, for the simple reason that such
articles, like alcohol, when used as we use other food and
drink, as a whole are poisonous and injurious; and there
are plenty of harmless substances which can be used with
perfect safety in their place-they were never intended for
food. As a medicine, we are told that alcohol is not well
fitted for self-prescription by the laity, and consequently
should not be taken, unless prescribed by a competent
physician. Its use as a medicine often admits of a substi-
tute, and one free from the terrible risks of acquiring an
uncontrollable appetite, which so frequently follows the
prescription of medicines containing alcohol; a suggestion
which every conscientious physician should heed.
In the light of new chemical and physiological experi-
ments, and more careful medical observations, many of the
most intelligent medical men are rapidly coming to the
conclusion that the use of alcoholic and fermented drinks,
even as medicine, is rarely if ever desirable, or justifiable;
that when they seem desirable, it is not difficult to find
substances which are safer and better; and many physicians
never prescribe them.
Dr. Benjamin Richardson, in a series of careful experi-
ments extending over a period of three years, found that
alcohol produce paralysis of the minute or capillary vessels,
in which the arteries terminate and the veins commence,
COMPARISONS FOUND IN SWEDENBORG'S WRITINGS. 43
where the ground work of building and repairing the body
and the removal of injurious substances is performed;
and found that the flush upon the face and hands after
drinking, is the result of this paralysis; and that the glow
of heat is the result of radiation from these congested
vessels. It is because alcohol thus acts upon these most
minute vessels, interfering with their work, that its inju-
rious effects are to be found so extensively in almost every
organ in the body of those addicted to its use. He also
found that, owing to the presence of so much blood in the
congested capillary vessels, and its absence from the heart,
the action of this organ became irritable and its pulsations
unnaturally frequent, and the temperature of the body inter-
nally was actually reduced, thus showing conclusively why it
is so extremely dangerous for men exposed to severe cold
to use alcoholic drinks.
After detailing the injurious effects which result from the
use of intoxicating drinks, he says: "It will be asked-was
there no evidence of any useful service rendered by the
agent in the midst of so much obvious evidence of bad
service? I answer to that question, that there was no such
evidence whatever, and there is none." It is certain that
there is no service performed by such drinks which cannot
be much better and more safely performed by healthy
articles of food and of drink.
Eighth. Swedenborg not unfrequently compares the
process of regeneration to fermentation, as in the following
passage: "If good overcomes, evil with its falsities is
removed to the sides, as the lees fall to the bottom of a
vessel, and good becomes like generous wine after fermenta-
tion or clear liquor; but if evil overcomes, good, with its
truth, is removed to the sides, and it becomes turbid and
foul, like unfermented wine or liquor. This comparison of
fermentation is used because leaven in the Word signifies
the falsity of evil.” (D. P. 284.) Here we are expressly
4.4
A COMPARISON FROM THE WORD.
told that it is a COMPARISON. That good, when it over-
comes evil and its falsities, becomes clear, as wine which
has been rendered foul and muddy by the entrance of
leaven into it, becomes a clear liquid after fermentation has
ceased. As a comparison this is all appropriate, but if we
attempt to justify ourselves by such comparisons, in the use
of the "pernicious" products of such fermentation, it is
perfectly clear that such a use of such comparisons is wholly
wrong; for the leaven, which signifies the falsity of evil, in
the process of fermentation actually destroys the nourish-
ing, or good, part of the wine, and perverts the sweet part,
which corresponds to what is delightful and pleasant in the
spiritual world, into alcohol, which is neither delightful nor
pleasant to the unperverted taste, and the use of which is
to-day the cause of more suffering, wretchedness and sin
than that of any other physical substance known.
Swedenborg compares spiritual purification with the purifi-
cation of natural spirits by repeated distillation, and with
chemical processes, to free the alcohol of water and all
other substances, so as to have nothing left but pure spirits
or alcohol. Now, if the comparison of spiritual regeneration
to the process of fermentation in the case of wine, will
justify the use of fermented wine, the comparison of
spiritual purification will justify us in using pure undiluted
alcohol as a beverage-a substance fiery to the taste and
which would enter our organizations as a thief, stealing water
wherever within reach, coagulating the albumen, and hard-
ening every tissue with which it comes in contact. But
some reader will say, perhaps, "We will return the water
which has been so carefully removed by the process of
purification;" that is, undo what has been done with so
much care and expense-then what becomes of your argu-
ment? I will simply suggest that it might be well to do a
similar work with fermented wine; or take out the alcohol
by boiling, or undo, as far as we can, the injury done to it
as a beverage, by being purified, or rendered clear by fer-
HURTFUL THINGS ARE FROM HELL.
45
mentation. The reader surely can but see the absurdity of
attempting to justify the use of substances as a beverage
which are the poisonous products of processes which Sweden-
borg compares with spiritual purification.
The kingdom of heaven is said to be "like unto leaven,
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till
the whole was leavened." Now is this comparison by the
Lord any evidence that leavened meal is a suitable article
for food, or that leavened bread, made therefrom, is suitable
bread to be used at the Holy Supper?
Now, while those who advocate the use of alcoholic and
fermented drinks, have carefully hunted up all the passages
in Swedenborg's writings in which similar comparisons to
these are made, not one of them, so far as I am aware, has
ever made the slightest attempt to overthrow the grand
doctrine of the Word, so clearly illuminated and demon-
strated in its spiritual sense by the science of correspond-
ences, that the evil and the false originate from human
perversions-from hell-and not from the Lord, and that
all poisonous substances which hurt and kill men, and
especially the disposition so to use them that there is
danger of their doing this, originate together with hell.
Says a distinguished New Church writer in a communica-
tion just received: "Things that hurt a man in body as
well as soul cannot have their origin in heaven. They are
from hell, and to indulge in their use is an evil, and there-
fore a sin against God. There is no single substance, the
common use of which has wrought such direful results to
mind and body as alcohol. It is never good in its effects
upon the human organism, whether considered as natural
or spiritual, but always evil." To be satisfied that this is a
just and true conclusion, we have only to read the Word of
the Lord, the Writings of the Church, and look around us
on every hand and behold the results of drinking fermented
wine and other intoxicating drinks.
Now, until this great doctrine of Revelation, as to the
46 TEACHERS SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS TAUGHT.
origin of the evil and the false, and the corresponding
hurtful and destructive natural substances, and the habits,
which do harm to man, has been absolutely overthrown, it
is in vain to quote the comparisons found in the writings
of Swedenborg, to justify the use of a substance which
Swedenborg himself calls "so pernicious a drink," and
which he desires might be done away with entirely. As
well might you attempt to overthrow the mighty trunk of a
tree, having its roots deep in the solid ground, by shaking
its twigs and dancing upon its branches, as to attempt
to overthrow the beautiful philosophy and doctrines of
the New Church, which so clearly inculcates the duty of
total abstinence from all forms of alcoholic drinks; and
thence to justify the use of fermented wine and other intox-
icating drinks, by the comparisons found in the writings of
Swedenborg.
I most fully agree with one of the correspondents of the
Messenger that : "If we assume to be teachers we ought
to realize how important it is to know what is taught before
we undertake to teach it." And especially is this true,
when such dire consequences are liable—yes, almost certain
-to follow the teaching of falsities, as in the instance
before us. The experience of thousands of years, and the
undisputed observation of to-day, show conclusively that of
those who commence using fermented wine and beer, and
allow themselves to continue their use, no inconsiderable
number will inevitably become drunkards, for, as we have.
seen in the first part of this tract, it is in accordance with
well established physiological and spiritual laws, that they
should become drunkards. Alcohol is no respecter of
persons or classes; the professed Christian and the skeptic,
the rich and the poor, the intelligent and the ignorant, the
physician, the lawyer, and even the clergymen of the
prevailing churches and of the New Church, alike are found.
among its victims.
What parent having twelve children, fully realizing the
COMPARISONS DO NOT JUSTIFY USING FERMENTED WINE. 47
significant fact, which is sustained by statistics, that at least
one-twelfth of those who use intoxicating drinks at all,
become drunkards, and that a much larger proportion who
do not reach this reputation, are very seriously injured in
bodily and mental health, and become moody and unhappy
would dare to set an example of drinking fermented wine
or beer to his children, with the moral certainty clearly in
mind, that, if they follow his example, as he has a right to
expect they will, one of them at least will become a drunk-
ard? May the Lord forgive the man who sets such an
example to his children! and in His boundless love and
mercy He may do it; but it is not easy for the poor, suffer-
ing, struggling mother or wife, as she sees her loved child
or husband becoming a drunkard, to forgive the father for
setting such an example to her child or husband, however
much it may be her duty to do it.
I repeat it is in vain to attempt to justify the use of
fermented wine, and other alcoholic drinks, from the stand-
point of the Bible, the writings of Swedenborg, or from
modern science, until the great doctrine of correspondences
between all natural things, processes and habits, and their
spiritual causes, is absolutely overthrown. This correspond-
ence extends to things even the most minute. In a former
article I called the attention of the reader to the fact, that
according to the philosophy of the New Jerusalem, and the
science of correspondences, alcohol originates together
with hell, being produced by the violent action of leaven-
a substance of evil correspondence-upon sugar, a sweet
and delightful substance, of a good correspondence; and
that the alcohol is produced in destroying the sugar by the
leaven or ferment. I also called attention to the striking,
and wonderful correspondence, which exists, in every
respect, between the action of alcohol upon the body and
mind of man, and evils and falses upon his soul; and how
totally alcohol differs in this respect, in its action, from all
healthy articles of food and drink. First, it causes an
48
SPIRITS' OPINION OF DRUNKENNESS.
unnatural appetite, like evils and falses, which healthy food
will not satisfy. Second, the gratification of the appetite
for alcohol tends to develop other unlawful cravings.
Third, alcohol, like other poisons, requires to be taken in
gradually increased quantities to satisfy the natural de-
mands of an organism perverted by its use, until quantities
which would destroy many men in health can be tolerated
with comparative impunity. Fourth, alcohol, like all
poisons, causes diseases peculiar to itself, as healthy articles
never do; and it also causes the most fearful diseases of
body and mind to which man is subject-even to drunken-
ness, delirium tremens and insanity. And in moderate
quantities it impairs man's control over his appetites and
passions, thereby causing more crime and folly than the
use of any other substance known.
If drinking intoxicating liquors did not endanger, harm
and kill men, then, if there were any use for them in the
human body, we might use them; but if their use, as all
experience in endless amount shows, does endanger, harm
and kill, then, does not the use of them violate the com-
mand, “Thou shalt not kill"? For we surely have no right
either directly to take our own lives, or to enter upon an
unncessary course of conduct, which the experience of man-
kind for thousands of years has demonstrated will lead
more or less of those who follow it to drunkenness and
death.
"I have spoken," says Swedenborg, "with spirits respect-
ing drunkenness, and it was declared by them to be an
enormous sin, for a man thereby becomes a brute, and is
no longer a man, because a man is a man by virtue of his
intellectual faculty, which, when destroyed, he becomes a
brute. Moreover, by drunkenness he brings destruction
upon his body and hastens his death; besides which, he
destroys in luxury what would be of use to others. Where-
fore drunkenness appears so filthy to spirits that they abhor
such a life, which, nevertheless, mortals [in this age] have
INTOXICATING DRINKS AND TIGHT DRESSING. 49
permitted among themselves as belonging to civil life."
S. D., n. 2422.
There is no luxury in drunkenness, but in the drinking
which leads to it; and it is this drinking permitted in civil
life which is the sole cause of drunkenness.
A writer, in a recent number of the New Jerusalem
Magazine, says that, while spirits abhor drunkenness "they
do not abhor liquor." In other words, they abhor the
effects, but they do not abhor the cause. Again, the same
writer tells us that the "magnitude of abuse proves a mag-
nitude of use." A strange conclusion, indeed! Tight
dressing destroys the lives of multitudes of our ladies, and
deforms and impairs the health of more than three-fourths
of all our women. Can our observant writer tell us where
the "magnitude of the use" of tight dressing is to be
found?
•
A love for using intoxicating drinks is the perversion.
of a natural appetite for healthy drinks, as tight dressing
results from a perverted love of approbation. Both per-
versions are evil, and that continually in any degree; since
both violate the laws of physical life; and when knowingly
indulged in, are a violation of the laws of spiritual life.
Both are unnecessary and dangerous. And while drinking
intoxicating drinks is a fearful evil to our race, it is safe to
say that so far as physical health, symmetry, beauty and
longevity are concerned, tight dressing is a worse evil; but,
so far as we can judge of the mental and spiritual effects of
the two evils, the use of intoxicating drinks is the worse;
while both of these fearful evils, if they are ever to be
cured, must be shunned as sins against God, with the full
determination to "touch not, taste not, handle not."
Can the above writer tell us where is the "magnitude of
use" in lying, stealing, murdering and in the adulteration
of the Word? When he can, then he perhaps will be able
to show us the magnitude of the use resulting from drinking
wine adulterated by the poisonous products of ferment or
50
A PATH OF ABSOLUTE SAFETY.
leaven-adulterated by the ingenuity of human manipula-
tion.
"Drunkenness," Swedenborg says (A. R. 721), "signifies
insanity in spiritual things from the adulteration of the
Word." Such being the origin of spiritual drunkenness,
it is evident that natural drunkenness, can never result from
pure unadulterated wine, since the latter corresponds to
spiritual truth, which may be profaned, but which does not.
cause spiritual drunkenness.
"Inebriation," says Swedenborg, "signifies truths falsi-
fied" (A. E. 1035), not an excess of truths, not perverted,
nor falsified, as the argument of opponents intimates. The
reader will please bear this in mind.
So far as drunkenness is concerned, with all its attendant
evils, we know that the Lord in His providence has placed
before the men of this age a path of absolute safety, which
is: "Total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks." Shall
we walk in it? The recorded experience of mankind for more
than three thousand years, has demonstrated, beyond con-
troversy, that there is no safety for any man or woman who
uses, as a beverage, fermented wine, beer or cider, or any
other liquid containing alcohol. God's laws, so clearly
manifested in the history of our race and in our physical
and spiritual organizations, cannot be violated with impun-
ity, as all experience shows-as clearly to-day as three
thousand years ago.
We, in our former articles, purposely avoided considering
the propriety of using fermented wine in the Most Holy
Supper, for we feel that churches, as well as individuals,
in this age, are to be led in freedom according to reason,
uninfluenced, as far as possible, by persuasion and precon-
ceived ideas. The light which is, at this day, being thrown
upon the subject of the wines of the Bible and of fer-
mented wines, by a host of diligent students of the Word
of the Lord, ancient history and habits, the Writings of
the New Church, and of the new sciences of this new
A PURE WINE WITH A PURE FAITH.
51
day, will soon dispel the mists which still linger about us
from a fallen state of the Church, when fermented wine
corresponded to a perverted faith, and was consequently
appropriate.
"The new wine," says Swedenborg, "is the Divine Truth
of the New Testament, and thus of the New Church; and
'old wine' is the Divine Truth of the Old Testament, and
thus of the Old Church." A. R. 316.
New wine, as it exists in the cluster, and as it is pressed
from grapes, is pure, and consequently has always a good
correspondence; but when ferment or leaven enters it, and
commences its work of perverting and of destroying the
natural products of the vine, it becomes adulterated by the
vile products of leaven, and so becomes unwholesome to
the stomach; and when the work of fermentation is com-
pleted, it becomes unwholesome to the head. It follows
that new wine has a good or bad signification, according to
its state. The same is true of old wine; although it is
doubtful, to say the least, whether the ancients had any old
fermented wine, owing to the diffculty of preserving it, in
their comparatively imperfect bottles and casks, and owing
to their having no distilled liquors to add as a preservative.
If they had old fermented wines, it is certain that they
contained a large percentage of vinegar.
With a faith restored to its purity, we must have a wine
in its purity, in which the good and the true are united;
and, in both the fresh juice of grapes before fermentation
has commenced, and in wine preserved by boiling, we have
such a wine. And I rest contented in the full assurance,
that the day is not far distant, when fermented wine will
disappear forever from the administration of the Holy
Supper, in every Christian temple in our land. Until then
we can wait. But I will so far depart from my original
intention, as to call the special attention of the reader to
the excellent article, by Judge Kingsbury, on this subject,
reproduced among the closing pages of the first part of this
52
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
tract, and also to the prediction of Prof. Bush in my second
article.
In concluding, I will say that, after a careful examination
of this subject for more than thirty years, in the light of
science, the Word of the Lord and the Writings of the New
Church, with opportunities for reading on this subject, and
for investigation and observation, which I have endeavored
faithfully to improve, enjoyed by few men living, if to the
same extent by any, I do not hesitate to state that there is not,
in my opinion, a single fact which, when carefully examined,
will justify the use of fermented wine, beer or any alcoholic
drink during health; neither is there an assumption nor an
argument, either justifying or excusing its use, which cannot
be readily overthrown. I tremble when I think of the
example that so many of the brethren are setting to the
young people of the New Church in our day. May God
protect them. All confirmed drunkenness has resulted
from moderate drinking, generally from wine and beer
sipping (an unnecessary and dangerous habit); and drunken-
ness itself varies in degrees, for there is no distinct line of
demarcation between the flush upon the hands and face,
the sparkling eyes and mental exhilaration, which result
from the capillary congestion, caused upon a man unac-
customed to its use by a single glass, and the confusion,
delirium, and stupor of the acknowledged drunken man.
That the one is drunker than the other is all that can be
truly said. A century ago, men drank because they
thought it was useful and necessary to drink, while they
knew it was wrong to get drunk; and so they were largely
restrained from drunkenness by conscience. But to-day
every man knows by observation, that it is entirely unneces-
sary to use alcoholic drinks during health; and all can see
and recognize the danger of doing so; consequently those
who drink to-day, a rule, do it, it would seem, in viola-
tion of conscience and of public opinion; and for this
reason, having voluntarily "let down the bars," they are not
A BRIEF RECAPITULATION.
53
restrained to moderate drinking, as our fathers were, by
either conscience or public opinion. Is it strange, then,
that among those who drink at all, we have so many con-
firmed drunkards to-day?
A BRIEF RECAPITULATION.
FERMENTED WINE-DRUNKENNESS.
LEAVEN, signifying "evil, and the false which should not
be mixed with things good and true," for it "signifies the
evil and the false, whereby things celestial and spiritual are
rendered impure and profane," entering the pure wine,
becomes the cause which, acting first upon and destroying
the bread portions of the wine, which "signify every good.
that is for the spiritual food of man," for "the false does not
accord with good, but destroys good, for the false is of evil,
and truth is of good," and then perverting the sweet and
delightful portion of the wine, corresponding to spiritual
delights, changes it into alcohol-which alone causes
drunkenness and now leavened or fermented wine is the
result. "What was leavened," says Swedenborg, A. C. 1001,
'signifies what was corrupt and defiled.” How clearly
does the alcohol, in this "corrupt and defiled" wine, judging
from its origin and effects on man, correspond to infernal
delights? How can we expect other results to flow from
using such a liquid as a drink, than suffering, wretchedness.
and sorrow? How clearly it is our duty to shun its use as
a sin against God! And by so doing how certain it is that
we shall be saved from drunkenness in this world! and,
perhaps, from a worse fate in the world to come! For when
we earnestly strive to shun one evil, because it is a sin
against God, He strives to keep us in the effort to shun all
evils. To every one who has taken the pains "to know
what is taught " upon this subject at this day, it will seem
(C
""
54
A WONDER OF THE AGË.
almost, if not quite, self-evident that we have no civil,
moral or religious right, to use articles as a beverage, the
use of which is attended with so much danger to our health,
freedom, reason, and the welfare, happiness, and the com-
fort of all associated with us even to the extent of the
destruction of a people, and of our own lives and eternal
welfare-as attends the use of fermented wine, beer and
other alcoholic drinks. That any intelligent Christian,
especially any Christian teacher, should, in the clear light
of this day, justify and even advocate their use, is certainly
one of the anomalies of the age.
It is high time that we, as New Churchmen, awake to the
importance of making one steady persistent effort to ulti-
mate the heavenly doctrines in our lives by shunning evils
as sins against God. What evil, of external life, is there
to-day, so fearful in its results upon men, as the drinking of
fermented wine, beer, and other intoxicating drinks, from
which so much drunkenness, misery and crime flow as nat-
urally as water flows from a fountain, as we have seen.
such practical living questions to be forever comparatively
ignored by our periodicals, and in our pulpits? I trust not!
Are
THE

WINE QUESTION
IN THE LIGHT OF THE
NEW DISPENSATION.
BY
JOHN ELLIS, M. D.,
AUTHOR OF THE AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE, INSANITY, AND
DEFORMITY," AN ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY," "SKEPTICISM AND
DIVINE REVELATION,” PURE WINE, FERMENTED WINE. ETC.
99.66
"Must signifies the same as wine, viz., truth derived from
the good of charity and love." “Falses from evil may
be
compared to such wine and strong drinks as induce drunk-
enness.”—EMANUEL SWEDENBORG'S A. E. (695 and 1035).
NEW YORK:
BY THE AUTHOR.
PUBLISHED
1882.
55
The Author has not obtained a "Copyright" on this
book. It is therefore free to all. He has written it with
no expectation of making money; it has been electrotyped,
and if any one, for any purpose, desires to print an edition
of not less than one thousand volumes, the author will
cheerfully give the use of his plates, for he has had but one
desire in publishing it, and that is to benefit his fellow-man.
56
PREFACE,
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW CHURCH BEARING UPON THE SUBJECT OF
INTOXICATING DRINKS.
Does Alcohol Correspond to Faith Alone?
•
CHAPTER II.
IS ALCOHOL A POISON ?
Consequently is Fermented Wine, owing to the Presence of Alcohol,
also a Poison ?—Is it Wrong for a New Churchman to Teach that
Fermented Wine and other Intoxicating Liquids are Poisons?—
Moderation Fallacy-Action of Alcohol on the Mind,
CHAPTER III.
TWO KINDS OF WINE RECOGNIZED IN THE WORD OF THE LORD
AND IN THE WRITINGS OF THE NEW CHURCH.
One Kind Unfermented and Unintoxicating, and the Other Fermented,
or Leavened, and Intoxicating,
..
CHAPTER IV.
PAGE
59
63
7s
92
TWO KINDSs of grapES, TWO KINDS OF MUST, AND TWO KINDS OF
WINE-ONE GOOD AND THE OTHER BAD.
New Wine in Old Bottles-Two Kinds of Strong Drink,
CHAPTER V.
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
•
Ancient Methods of Preserving Wine, so as to Prevent Fermentation
-Preserving Wine Unfermented by Boiling-Present Customs in
Wine-Growing Countries-Preservation of Unfermented Wine by
Evaporation to Comparative Dryness-Preserving Wine by Keep-
ing Cool in Springs, Rivers, and Cisterns-Filtering Wine to
Prevent Fermentation-Preservation of Wine by the use of Sweet
Oil-Preservation of Wine by Fumigation-Modern Unfermented
Wine,
99
113
>
57
58
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
DRUNKENNESS IN WINE-GROWING AND BEER-CONSUMING COUNTRIES.
The Testimony of Residents and Travellers,
CHAPTER VII.
THE "NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER AND INTOXICATING WINE.
Falses from Evils-Intoxicating Wines and Strong Drinks,
PAGE
137
142
CHAPTER VIII.
CC
THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE" AND THE WINE QUESTION.
An Original Idea-Does Fermentation Produce Unfermented Bread
and Wine?
CHAPTER IX.
"WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH" AND THE WINE AND WHISKY
QUESTION.
The "Academy of the New Church," as Represented by the Above
Serial,
CHAPTER X.
THE COMPARISONS OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.
152
176
The Academy's Interpretations of the Same in its Serial,
203
CHAPTER XI.
A NEW VIEW.
Wine in the Most Ancient Church-Vinegar,
CHAPTER XII.
COMMUNION WINE.
Wine Used by Our Lord and His Disciples in the Original Institution
of the Sacrament of the Most Holy Supper-How shall we Pre-
pare our Communion Wine,
CHAPTER XIII.
13
21)
PROHIBITION.
Opinion of Governor St. John, of Kansas-Swedenborg's Views,
CHAPTER XIV.
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
Swedenborg's Formula for Sacramental Bread, and His Ideas as to
the Wine Used by the Lord and His Disciples-Importance of
Organizing-Our Periodicals Should be Renovated and Filled
with New Life-Great Reforms are Rarely Commenced by the
Clergy,
247
255
PREFACE,
Ir is doubtless known to most New Church readers that the
writer has published a tract on "Pure Wine-Fermented Wine,
and other Alcoholic Drinks." This tract is still in print, and
will be sent with pleasure to any reader of the Writings of
Emanuel Swedenborg who has not seen it, The author
has sent a copy of it to all whose names he has been able
to obtain, and will continue to send it to such additional
names as are forwarded to him, feeling that in no other way
can he do as much service for the cause of the New Church
with his time and money, as in spreading a knowledge of the
truth on this subject among the members of the Church, the
receivers of its doctrines, and the readers of Swedenborg's works.
A letter addressed to Dr. John Ellis, New York City, will be quite
sure to reach him. He also desires that a copy of the present
work should be found in the library of every New Church family
in the land. He would rather not receive the names of those
who are not readers, for the world outside of the recognized
New Church is too wide for his limited means. It has been
suggested that the tract on "Pure Wine," etc., would be a
good tract to send to the clergymen of the various denomi-
nations to invite their attention, not only to the cause of
Temperance, but also to that of the New Church. But the
writer does not feel that that tract is exactly adapted for
this purpose, owing to the controversial character of some
parts of it; and he does not desire to publish to the outside
59
60
PREFACE.
world, that so many of his New Church brethren advocate and jus-
tify the use of intoxicating drinks, and in this volume he pur-
posely withholds the names of all such, for he is sure that within a
very few years they will thank him for having done so. But he
fully recognizes the truth, that the light thrown on this subject
by the Writings of Swedenborg, especially by the philosophy
taught therein, and by the science of correspondences, is so
clear, that the circulation of a suitable tract on this ques-
tion cannot but be very useful in calling attention to the
Writings, in which such clear views and insight into such a
practical subject are to be found. Therefore, he hopes to prepare
or cause to be prepared, at no very distant day, a tract for this
purpose. Several articles have appeared in the New Jerusalem
Magazine, and a lengthy review of the tract on the wine question
in Words for the New Church, all in opposition to the views set
forth in our tract; but in none of them, with but a single excep-
tion, has any serious attempt been made to meet the question in
accordance with the philosophy and science of correspondences,
set forth in the writings of the New Church. The writers have
relied on comparisons made by Swedenborg between spiritual
conflicts in man's regeneration and the physical clarifica-
tion of wine by fermentation; and upon assumptions which have
come down to us from the dark ages, unquestioned seriously, by
New Church writers and teachers; the latter apparently for-
getting what the Lord said: "Behold, I make all things new."
Fortunately, while New Churchmen have been, as it were,
asleep, many of the most intelligent men of the surrounding
churches, observing the pernicious results which flow from the
use of intoxicating drinks, have taken hold of this subject
in sober earnestness. They have not only examined the Sa
PREFACE.
61
cred Scriptures in the original languages in which they were
written and have been preserved, to find what they actually
teach upon this subject, but they also have diligently searched
the ancient records of Bible lands, as well as the traditions and
present usages; until now a mass of testimony has been
accumulated, which is completely overwhelming, and fully
sustains the late Professor George Bush's testimony that there
is nothing in the Sacred Scriptures which will justify the use
of fermented wine as a beverage, and that the whole Christian
world will be compelled, at no distant day, to come to this
conclusion. When, a year or two ago, the writer, in re-
sponse to an article advocating the use of fermented wine in
the New Jerusalem Messenger, alluded to the above testimony,
making quotations from ancient authors and recent writers, and
calling attention to the fact that neither the philosophy of the
New Church, the science of correspondences, nor the express
teachings of Swedenborg, would justify the use of either fer-
mented wine or other intoxicating drinks, a host of writers rushed
to the rescue of intoxicating drinks, and the New Church periodi-
cals, were plied with their communications; the Messenger hastily
closed the discussion, giving no opportunity for a reply to the
assumptions and arguments of the advocates of fermented wine.
The New Jerusalem Magazine, after admitting several articles jus-
tifying the use of fermented wine, declined to admit any reply.
When the tract on "Pure Wine-Fermented Wine, and other
Intoxicating Drinks" made its appearance, the placid waters of
the Academy of the New Church, as manifested in its serial,
Words for the New Church, were moved to their very depths, as
the reader will see from the quotations which we intend to make
from its pages. Well, the truth upon this momentous subject, so
62
PREFACE.
important to such vast multitudes of our people, and especially
to every New Churchman, is abroad in the land. In this age of
the printing-press it cannot be hid; the truth is mighty, and will
prevail, sooner or later, even though it is excluded from our
present New Church periodicals.
The writer will simply intimate to some of his reverend critics,
that among New Church laymen, and even among literary men
outside of the New Church, to say nothing of other Christians,
it is not regarded as either honorable, just, or right to criticise a
work without first having carefully read it, and without paying
some attention to the views of the author. It is manifest that if
three of the critics who noticed the tract on "Pure Wine" had
carefully read it, and had paid any attention to the ideas therein
contained, or if they had even read the two first words of the title
page understandingly, they never would have been guilty of the
absurdity of triumphantly quoting passages from the Word, and
the writings of the Church, to prove that wine has a good cor-
respondence and is useful, thus intimating that the writer had
represented to the contrary-which was not true.
The present volume has been written at irregular intervals,
during a period when the writer has been overwhelmed with
business and care. Many volumes treating upon the subject
considered in this work have been carefully read, occupying
spare moments on the cars and steamboats, as well as at home.
Three small works have been read, and extracts selected from
them since the first chapter was placed in the hands of the
printer, and two of them were not even published at that time.
Although this volume has been too long delayed, it has been
published at the earliest moment practicable.
NEW YORK, October, 1881.
THE WINE QUESTION
IN THE
LIGHT OF THE NEW DISPENSATION.
:0:
CHAPTER I.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW CHURCH BEARING UPON THE SUBJECT
OF INTOXICATING DRINKS.
"It would be well for man," says Swedenborg,
says Swedenborg, "to prepare
his food chiefly with reference to use; for by so doing he would
have for his object a sound mind in a sound body; whereas,
when the taste is the chief thing attended to, the body thence
becomes diseased at heart, inwardly languishes, and conse-
quently also the mind, inasmuch as its state depends on the state
of the recipient bodily parts, as seeing depends on the state of
the eye; hence the madness of supposing that all the delight of
life, and what is commonly called the summum bonum, consists
in luxury and pleasurable indulgences: hence also come dull-
ness and stupidity in things which require thought and judg-
ment, whilst the mind is disposed only for the exertions of
cunning respecting bodily and worldly things: hereby man ac-
quires a similitude to a brute animal and therefore such persons
are not improperly compared with brutes." (A. C. 8378.)
"A man cannot be conjoined to the Lord unless he be spiritual;
nor can he be spiritual unless he be rational; nor rational unless
his body be in a sound state: these things are like a house, the
body is like the foundation, the rational principle is like the
63
64
PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW CHURCH BEARING
superstructure, the spiritual principle like the things in the house,
and conjunction with the Lord is like inhabitation."
330.)
(D. L. W.
"All things created by the Lord are uses," says Swedenborg,
and as to the uses for nourishing the body he says: "Uses
created for the nourishment of the body are all things of the
vegetable kingdom which are for meat and drink, as fruits,
berries, seeds, pulse, and herbs; and all things of the animal
kingdom which are eaten, as oxen, cows, calves, deer, sheep,
kids, goats, lambs and their milk; also fowls and fishes of many
kinds."
"There are indeed many things which are not used by man;
but superfluity does not take away use, but causes uses to endure.
There is also such a thing as abuse of uses; but abuse does not
take away use, as the falsification of truth does not take away
truth, except only in those who are guilty of it." (D. L. W.
331.) In other words, if a man eats or drinks any healthy
article to excess, so that it harms and is not useful to him, it does
not follow that the same food or drink would not be useful to
him who uses it properly.
Thus far Swedenborg has been speaking only of good and
useful articles for sustaining and nourishing the body, and of
their legitimate use and abuse; but he now comes to speak
of a totally different class of substances, or of "evil uses," of
which he says:
"Good uses
are from the Lord, and evil uses are from
hell. Evil uses were not created by the Lord, but that they
originated together with hell. All goods which exist in act are
called uses, and all evils which exist in act are called uses, but
the latter are called evil uses, and the former good uses. Now
as all goods are from the Lord, and all evils from hell, it
follows, that no other than good uses were created by the
Lord, and that evil uses originated from hell. By uses, which
are treated of in particular in this article, all things that ap-
pear on earth, as animals of all kinds and vegetables of all
kinds; of both the latter and the former, those which furnish use
UPON THE SUBJECT OF INTOXICATING DRINKS. 65
to man are from the Lord, and those which do hurt to man are
from hell." Among the evil uses referred to above he enume-
rates: "Wild beasts of all kinds, as serpents, scorpions, dragons,
crocodiles, tigers, wolves, foxes, swine, owls of different kinds,
bats, rats and mice, frogs, locusts, spiders, and noxious insects of
many kinds: hemlock and aconite, and all kinds of poison, as
well in herbs as in earths; in a word, all things that do hurt and
kill men; such things in the hells appear to the life, just like
those on the earth and in it. It is said that they appear there,
but still they are not there as on earth, for they are mere corres-
pondences of the lusts that spring from evil loves, and present
themselves before others in such forms." (D. L. W. 339.)
Swedenborg again says: "The things that do hurt to a man
are called uses, because they are of use to the wicked to do evil,
and because they contribute to absorb malignities, and thus also
as remedies. Use is applied in both senses, like love; for we
speak of good love and evil love, and love calls all that use
which is done by itself." (D. L. W. 336.)
So it will be clearly seen, from the above quotations, that
there are in the world substances which are good and useful as
articles of food and drink, which in themselves always have a
good correspondence-they are always good uses, for they are
among the good gifts of God; we may abuse them, but we can-
not convert them into evil uses-they are still good. So it is
equally clear, from the above quotations, that we have another
class of substances, which, when used as food and drink, are
always evil uses-evil in themselves, for they originate from hell
we are told; and even though they may contain some materials
which may nourish the body of man, as most poisonous vege-
tables do, as a whole they are poisonous and injurious, and never
in health can we use them without violating the laws of our
being, and the plain philosophical teaching of the New Church.
Can anything be clearer than this? Further on in this work it
will be shown that fermented wine, whisky, and other intoxicating
drinks are poisons; and, consequently, that they are, according to
the philosophy of the New Church, from hell. Of no other sub-
66
PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW CHURCH BEARING
stance, or article ever used as drink or food have we such long con-
tinued historical records, both secular and sacred, showing that it
harms and kills men when used as a beverage, as we have in the
case of fermented wine.
How clear it is, that when Swedenborg says that: "Falses
from evil may be compared to such wine and strong drinks as
induce drunkenness," and Words for the New Church as-
sures us that "comparisons when employed by Swedenborg are
correspondences"-that the Academy's editors are correct, in
this instance, at least-but, hereafter we shall show, whether this
doctrine is to be accepted as true or not, how far they come
short of correctly applying it in another comparison which they
have selected from Swedenborg's writings, to justify the use of
fermented wine, whisky, and other intoxicating drinks.
We repeat, in substance, that intoxicating drinks, even the
single article of fermented wine, has hurt and killed more of the
human family than all other poisons or evil uses pertaining to
food and drink put together. It has done it more insidiously,
more cruelly, and has perverted the passions and appetites of
men immeasurably more than all other poisons. It has caused
more wretchedness, poverty, domestic unhappiness, and crime.
than all other poisons put together. It so clearly belongs to the
evil uses, which Swedenborg assures us have their origin from
hell, that it seems strange that any intelligent New Churchman
should for a moment claim that fermented wine is a good and
useful article to drink, when in health. In sickness the chemical
elements of fermented wine may be curative in rare instances.
Chemistry shows conclusively that it is in no true sense the fruit of
the vine; that almost all of the organized substances contained
in the juice of the grape have been either partially or totally de-
stroyed, precipitated, changed, and perverted by leavén or fer-
ment. Can an evil substance, like leaven, bring forth good
fruit? But as several New Church writers have denied that
fermented wine and alcohol are poisons, the author will consider
this subject at length in the next chapter.
UPON THE SUBJECT OF INTOXICATING DRINKS.
67
Good, pure, clean water, the unfermented blood of the grape,
wine or must, as it flows from the press, unfermented new and
old wine, good sound wheat and other grains, suitable for human
food, and fresh meal and flour made from the same, sweet un-
leavened bread, good fresh mutton and beef from healthy cattle,
and many other wholesome articles not here enumerated, when
used as drink and food, supply the wants of the human body and
give substance and thus strength, without causing any unnatural
excitement or depression, or any disease peculiar to the article
used, however freely it may be taken, and without causing any
unnatural appetite which other healthy articles will not satisfy, and
without requiring to be taken in gradually increasing quantities
to satisfy the appetite for them, and which therefore in their
action are not seductive, are all good uses, according to the
philosophy of Swedenborg, and always have a good signification
and correspondence, and they are never evil or bad uses, and
they never have a bad signification or correspondence. But
these good uses, as we have already intimated, may be abused,
used to excess, or improperly used; but abuse, excessive or im-
proper use does not destroy them as good uses, and they are still
good uses, and have a good signification and correspondence,
however much their abuse may injure the individual misusing
them. Their improper use, abuse, or excessive use may have a
bad signification, but the substances themselves never have, for
they are the good gifts of God, and always correspond to truths
and good affections. Swedenborg says: "As meats and drinks
recreate the natural life, so good affections and genuine truths
corresponding to them recreate the spiritual life." (Swedenborg's
Index to the A. C.)
On the other hand, water contaminated by arsenic, copper,
alcohol or other injurious substances, or which is dirty and filthy
from the presence of substances capable of causing disease or
injury when drank, fermenting must and new wine, and fermented
new and old wine, owing to their either being or having been
polluted by fermentation and its poisonous product (alcohol),
unsound or decaying wheat and other grains, sour or mouldy
68
PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW CHURCH BEARING
bread, diseased or putrid beef and mutton, henbane, opium, the
deadly nightshade, tobacco and other poisonous plants, when
used as drink and food are always evil uses, and have a bad sig-
nification and correspondence, and are never good uses, and
never have a good correspondence. Many of the above sub-
stances possess in an eminent degree all the characteristics of
poisons, as the writer has shown elsewhere. This is especially
true of all fermented and alcoholic drinks, opium, and tobacco,
for they cause diseases peculiar to the substance taken, their use
develops an unnatural appetite which healthy food and drink will
not satisfy, and which no other substance in nature will satisfy,
and they require to be taken in gradually increasing quantities to
satisfy the appetite for them until a quantity which would kill
several men not addicted to their use, may be taken with im-
punity by those who are accustomed to their use.
The above poisonous substances, or evil uses, may be applied
to good purposes, and thus used, their use may, perhaps, have a
good signification; for we are told that, during the process of
regeneration, evil spirits flow into man's evil inclinations and ex-
cite them, and by so doing bring them before his mental vision,
enabling him to see them, when, if he resists, overcomes and puts
them away, such evil spirits have been useful to him; so poisonous
substances taken into the physical body will excite diseases similar
to those they will cause when taken by the healthy, and thus bring
such existing diseases into view, or make them manifest to that liv-
ing force which is ever active to preserve the health of the body,
and if the latter reacts, overcomes and puts away such diseases,
a good use is performed by these poisonous substances. But
such good uses do not change the inherent quality of either the
evil spirits, or of the poisons, the former are still evil and the
latter are still poisonous. We should be careful and not con-
found evil with good or the false with truth. Poisonous sub-
stances, as food and drink, correspond to evils and falses, appro-
priated and imbibed, and, therefore, however useful for the cure
of diseases they should never be used by man during health.
UPON THE SUBJECT OF INTOXICATING DRINKS.
69
Now, brethren of the New Church, you who advocate, justify,
and thus encourage the use of intoxicating or fermented wine,
beer and distilled liquors, tobacco or opium, it is certainly diffi-
cult to see how it is possible for you to overthrow this grand
philosophy of the Church, so rational and beautiful, and which is
so clearly sustained by the analogy which exists between the
action of fermented wine, beer, and alcohol, on the body and
mind, and falses from evil on the soul. Before you can sustain
your views, the philosophy of good and evil uses, as laid down by
Swedenborg and the science of correspondences, must be over-
thrown, and his direct and positive comparison of fermented
wine to falses from evil must be set aside.
If natural drunkenness corresponds to spiritual drunkenness,
as it unquestionably does, is it not absolutely certain that the
cause of natural drunkenness must correspond to the cause of
spiritual drunkenness? Is it not a universal law that like effects
from like causes flow? "Delirium in truths by falses is spiritual
inebriation," "And they who falsify the Word are spiritually in-
ebriated." (A. E. 887.)
"That to be drunk signifies to be insane in spiritual things
from the falses of evil." (Swedenborg's Index to the A. E.)
Can anything be clearer than that such wine and strong drink
as cause natural drunkenness correspond to falses from evil,
which cause the spiritual inebriation or insanity to which natural
drunkenness corresponds?
There is but one substance in nature that causes natural
drunkenness, and that is alcohol wherever found, be it in whisky,
fermented wine or beer-it therefore corresponds to the falsifica-
tion of the Word from evil.
DOES ALCOHOL CORRESPOND TO FAITH ALONE?
It has been thought by some that distilled spirits, or alcohol,
corresponds to faith alone; but that this is not correct is mani-
fest, for fermentation destroys substances in the wine which cor-
respond to good, and even pollutes the water which corresponds
to truth, with its own vile product, alcohol; and even the de-
FO
PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW CHURCH BEARING
lightful aroma of the natural wine is perverted into the flavor of
alcohol; and the whole fluid, as to taste, smell, and appearance is
changed, until there is simply a semblance of the original fluid.
The separation of the alcohol from fermented wine by distillation
may be compared with, and unquestionably corresponds to, the
separation of all the appearances and semblances of truth, in the
mind of the evil man before he goes to his final home in the
spiritual world, when his falses are fully in harmony with his evils
—in other words are pure falses-falses from evil. This view is
abundantly sustained by the testimony of Swedenborg, for he de-
clared that whisky was a pernicious drink, and that the immoderate
use of spiritous liquors would be the downfall of the Swedish
people; and he compares, as we shall see, such wine and strong
drink as will cause drunkenness to falses from evil.
But we are often guilty of separating what God has joined to-
gether for the sustenance of the material body, which unquestion-
ably corresponds to the separation of faith from charity, for it is
a natural result that spiritual perversions should ultimate them-
selves in natural perversions. As we have seen, the philosophy
of the New Church teaches us that natural substances which sus-
tain the body, correspond to goodness and truth which sustain
the spirit; and, of course, the perversions of the former must cor-
respond to the perversions of the latter; and we shall see that all
of the effects of the natural perversions correspond to the effects
of the spiritual perversions. The light and heat of the sun flow
down to man as one vitalizing power; but separate the light from
the heat by blinds and curtains, in a very slight degree, in rooms
where women and children dwell, and the effects are soon mani-
fest, which are not exactly in the line of active diseases which
result from any poisonous substance, but rather show want or star-
vation; the eyes become weak and are often troubled with symp-
toms of amaurosis or paralysis of the optic nerve, which result
from the want of light, the blood becomes thin and watery, and
the skin puts on a pale and lifeless appearance and the whole
body languishes for the want of light, but no specific disease re-
sults from this cause; although it is true that the individual thus-
UPON THE SUBJECT OF INTOXICATING DRINKS. 71
deprived of light is more susceptible to the action of any prevailing
cause of disease than those who are accustomed to the full light
of day. Even the beneficent sunlight may be perverted by a
lense until it will destroy the eyes and burn the body.
Take new wine, or the unfermented juice of the grape. If we
were to separate the water and sugar from the albumen and other
substances contained therein, they would still be good and use-
ful substances and not poisons, but as while a man might live on
the expressed juice of the grape he would starve to death on
such separate fluid, for it would not contain all the substances
necessary to nourish the structures of the body; so the spirit of man
cannot live upon truth alone and the delight which flows there-
from; his affections must be nourished. The correspondence
which exists in every particular is wonderful! Although alcohol
is the result of the absolute perversion and destruction of sugar
by fermentation, yet take only the pure sugar and water from the
new wine and the sugar will never ferment, for fermentation al-
ways commences in the gluten which nourishes the body as good
does the soul, and from thence extends to the sugar. So before
falses can seriously pervert the understanding, the affections
must be perverted; and when a man, to justify the unlawful grati-
fication of his appetites and passions, searches the Word and
the Writings, and perverts the truths therein from their true mean-
ing, and thus makes evils allowable to him, he becomes a spiritual
drunkard, as Swedenborg tells us; and if the evil justified is the
use of intoxicating drinks, he is very liable, as we all know, to
become a natural drunkard: when the destruction and wreck of
heavenly and natural life are complete. New Churchmen will
do well to carefully consider this whole subject in the light of
correspondences; and if, first laying aside preconceived opinions,
they will do this, they cannot well mistake the truth and their duty.
There is another habit of separating what God has joined
together for human sustenance and food, which is well worthy of
our most serious consideration. We allow the miller to take
wheat, that noblest of all grains for human food, which contains
all of the materials required to nourish the human body, per-
72
PHILOSOPHY OF THE NEW CHURCH BEARING
haps more perfectly than any other substance-and bolt it with
the utmost care, and to cast away in the form of shorts and
bran most of the gluten, phosphates, etc., required to give
substance and strength to the body, reserving simply the super-
fine flour, composed principally of starch, which is analogous
to sugar and easily converted into sugar, and is, like the latter,
useful to warm the body, and indirectly to produce fat when used
as food.
Now, this superfine flour is not a poison, and causes no
specific disease peculiar to itself when used, although dyspepsia
frequently results from its use, but it is owing to excess and not
to quality; for starch, like sugar, must be converted or rather per-
verted by leaven into alcohol before it becomes a poison, or is
capable of causing drunkenness. If the stomach is filled with
starch when it should have a due proportion of other food, we
can readily understand why, from such excess, indigestion results.
This separation, as far as is practicable, of starch from the por-
tion of the wheat which nourishes the bones, muscles, brain, etc.,
and the attempt to live on superfine flour alone, may be compared.
to the separation of faith from charity, and the attempt to build up
a heavenly life by faith alone; and it is unquestionably one of the
perversions of a consummated Church, and the most fearful con-
sequences follow, but not directly in the line of disease, for starch
is not,as we have said, a poison; but bread enters so largely into
the food, especially of the young, that when children use bread from
superfine flour, and fill their stomachs with such bread, the most
important structures of their bodies are actually starved; and they
would starve to death, were it not for the milk, potatoes, etc.,
which they eat in addition to such bread; and, as it is, they are
often half-starved. The bones, with children thus fed, do not
obtain the nourishment they need, and therefore such children are
often troubled with bowing and other deformities of the legs, their
spines are not unfrequently crooked, their jaws imperfectly devel-
oped, consequently their teeth are crowded, and the teeth with
many children are so imperfectly developed that they decay and
are often lost during childhood and youth, instead of lasting dur-
ing life as they manifestly should, and would if men were living
.
UPON THE SUBJECT OF INTOXICATING DRINKS, 73
an orderly life. The muscles are thin and flabby, and therefore
lack strength; the brain is not duly nourished, consequently in-
stead of mental strength, the mind is irritable, peevish and dissat-
isfied. The child may be fat, for starch, as has been intimated,
may contribute to that end, when other structures are half-starved.
A writer in The Nineteenth Century says, in regard to white or
brown bread: "The earliest agitator in the matter observed two
years ago, when travelling in Sicily, that the laboring classes there
live healthily and work well upon a vegetable diet, the staple arti-
cle of which is bread made of well ground wheat-meal. Nor are
the Sicilians by any means the only people so supported. 'The
Hindus of the Northwestern Province can walk fifty or sixty miles
a day with no other food than chapatties, made of the whole
meal, with a little ghee or Galam butter.' Turkish and Arab
porters, capable of carrying burdens of from four hundred to six
hundred pounds, live on bread only, with the occasional addition
of fruit and vegetables. The Spartans and Romans of old time
lived their vigorous lives on bread made of wheaten meal. In
Northern, as well as Southern climates, we find the same thing.
In Russia, Sweden, Scotland, and elsewhere, the poor live chiefly
on bread, always made from some whole meal-wheat, oats or
rye—and the peasantry, of whatever climate, so fed, always com-
pare favorably with our South English poor, who, in conditions of
indigence precluding them from obtaining sufficient meat food,
starve, if not to death, at least into sickliness, on the white bread
it is our modern English habit to prefer. White bread alone
will not support animal life. Bread made of the whole grain will.
The experiment has been tried in France by Magendie. Dogs
were the subjects of the trial, and every care was taken to equal-
ize all the other conditions-to proportion the quantity of food
given in each case to the weight of the animal experimented upon,
and so forth. The result was sufficiently marked. At the end of
forty days the dogs fed solely on white bread died. The dogs
fed on bread made of the whole grain remained vigorous, healthy,
and well nourished."
When the light and life of the New Jerusalem begin to be
74
THE NEW CHURCH AND INTOXICATING DRINKS:
"
truly received by men, and to influence their lives, not only will
such poisonous substances as intoxicating drinks, tobacco, and
opium, which, according to the philosophy of the New Church,
have their origin from hell, and not from the Lord, cease to be
used by healthy men, but also such miserable shams as dark rooms,
small waists, and superfine flour will disappear forever. Are not
evils which result from perverted appetites and vanity, and which
are the cause of deformity, disease, insanity, the most intense suffer-
ing, poverty, drunkenness, crime, and the premature death of such
vast multitudes of our race, of sufficient moment to require the
attention of our New Church clergy and periodicals? To shun
such evils as sins against God would seem to be the first duty of
every one who is thus transgressing His laws; but is it not
the paramount duty of the teacher of public and private morals
to shun them as sins, and to make every effort in his power to
destroy the cause of evil? And since divine things with the
people are provided by the Lord through the clergy and the press,
are the clergy doing their duty when they either ignore or directly
countenance the use of intoxicating liquors as beverages?
Turning to a recent number of the Messenger, a periodical of
the New Church, the writer finds not the slightest allusion to any
of the above evils, but he does find, under the head of "Essays,"
a lengthy article on; "The Relation of Ministers to the Organiza-
tion of the Church," with the promise of three more articles or
installments of the same essay in succeeding numbers of the paper.
Well, this reminds the writer of a story, as his old friend Dr.
Douglas used to say. A man, from advancing years and the in-
firmities which old age sometimes brings, had become somewhat
childish and so feeble as not to feel able to attend church. On
a very pleasant day, feeling unusually well, he determined to attend.
On his return from church, he was asked how he liked the
minister and the sermon. With great enthusiasm he replied that
the minister was a wonderful man, and his sermon was the finest
sermon he had ever heard, so learned, useful, and so eloquently
delivered. Well, inquired his friend, what was the subject of his
discourse: "Why," he replied, "It was all about his salary."
CHAPTER II.
IS ALCOHOL A POISON ?—CONSEQUENTLY, IS FERMENTED WINE,
OWING TO THE PRESENCE OF ALCOHOL, ALSO A POISON?
THE writer, in his tract on "Pure Wine,” etc., presented some-
what hastily the evidence that alcohol, wherever found, when
taken into the stomach is a poison; and one of the most fearful
and deadly of all the poisonous substances in the world, produc-
ing dreadful effects, not only upon the body-causing some of
the most serious and fatal of the diseases to which the physical
system is liable--but also upon the mind of man, causing unnatural
excitement, and consequent mental depression, delirium and
insanity; and that the specific action of alcohol, above all other
poisons, is to excite the perverted passions of man to an extent
which very frequently results in the commission of the most hor-
rible crimes, which men would rarely commit when not under the
influence of this poison. He also called the attention of the
reader to the fact that no healthy article of food or drink ever
produces upon the body and mind of man the slightest approach
to any such direful effects-that poisons, and poisons alone, pro-
duce such effects; healthy food never. He also called the atten-
tion of the reader to the origin of alcohol, to the fact that it
originates from the destruction of sugar, a good and useful
article of food corresponding to spiritual delights, by leaven
which "signifies the evil and the false, which should not be mixed
with things good and true;" and that in every respect the action
of alcohol on the body and mind is analogous to the action of
falses upon the soul. First: That it causes specific unnatural
effects, like falses which pervert the understanding of man, and
encourage and justify his evils. Second: That it causes a specific
unnatural appetite, like falses from evil which excite to specific
evils which no natural or orderly food, nor even any other poison
75
76
ALCOHOL A POISON.
or evil ever satisfies. Third: It requires to be taken in increasing
quantities to satisfy the demands of the appetite and of the
organism which have been perverted by it, until many times the
quantity a man-accustomed to healthy food only—cannot take
without destroying life, can be used with impunity; precisely as
falses from evil lead the innocent man to and from the commis-
sion of slight crimes, at which his conscience revolts, gradually,
step by step, to the commission of the most terrible crimes, and
justify him in the same, until his spirit is so perverted that an
orderly life and the pleasures arising therefrom, satisfy not;
and down, down the broad road he rushes, regardless of every
thing and everybody, precisely as does the drinker of alcoholic
and fermented drinks. Fourth It palliates the suffering which
it has caused, which the Lord permits to follow in the physical
organization, to remind the man that by its use he is violating the
natural laws of his being-in other words, it quiets and dulls his
physical conscience, precisely as the repetition of acts which are
known to be evil, quiets and dulls the spiritual conscience of
man, until it is seared, and the individual becomes reckless and
lost.
We also called the attention of the reader to the chemical
changes which are wrought by fermentation upon good wine,
the pure juice of the grape-the fruit of the vine-of which our
Lord and His disciples drank when He was partaking the Passover
cup at the Last Supper. We showed that leaven or ferment in
its onslaught upon good wine-which contains in a wonderful
manner, most perfectly united by the Lord, all the constituents
required to nourish the material body-tends to pervert and de-
stroy the organized substances which nourish the material body as
good does the soul, and, to the extent the process of fermentation
is carried, it actually destroys the sugar, so delightful to the
unperverted taste, and converts it into carbonic acid gas, a gas which
we cannot breathe without risking or destroying life, and alcohol,
a poisonous liquid, which we cannot drink without great danger
to health, reason, and life.
Another source of positive information that alcohol is a poison
ALCOHOL A POISON.
77
is derived from the results which follow, when one who has been
accustomed to its use, attempts to stop taking it, and to substitute
other drinks in its place, specific suffering follows even to delirium
tremens, which is characteristic of this poison. The substitution
of one article of healthy drink or food for another never causes
such specific symptoms or suffering.
Now, it would certainly seem that no intelligent man, especially
no New Churchman, who has any knowledge of the science of
correspondences, and of the philosophy contained in the Writings
of Swedenborg, and who has read his Bible carefully, can for a
moment question the poisonous character of alcohol. But, as
we shall bring the testimony of the Word of the Lord, and of the
Writings of Swedenborg, when we come to speak of the two
kinds of wine, we will refer the reader to the following chapter
for further testimony from the above sources, and will here refer
to the testimony of distinguished writers, in all ages, aside from
that contained in the Bible. We will first give the testimony
of ancient writers before and about the time of the commence-
ment of the first Christian Church. For many of the historical
facts, quotations and records contained in this chapter, we are
indebted to a recent work, by Rev. G. W. Samson, D. D., on the
"Divine Law as to Wines," just published.
"Porphyry, quotes from a lost work of Chæremon, librarian at
a sacred college in Egypt under the Cæsars, this historic record :
'Some do not drink wine at all, and others drink very little of it,
on account of its being injurious to the nerves, oppressive to the
head, an impediment to invention, and an incentive to lust.'
:
"In the Hieratic Papyri,' or records of Egyptian priests, found
on paper made from the stem of the water-lily (Anasti, No. IV.,
Let. xi.) is this record of the address of an Egyptian priest to a
pupil who had become addicted to the use of the beer of Lower
and the wine of Upper Egypt: 'Thou knowest that wine is an
abomination. Thou hast taken an oath as to strong drink, that
thou wouldst not take such into thee. Hast thou forgotten thine
path?'
"The laws of the Brahmins of India, embodied in the twelve
78
ALCOHOL A POISON.
chapters of the Institutes of Menu, declare that, among persons
to be shunned in society is 'a drinker of intoxicating spirits."
"Zoroaster declares that 'Temperance is the strength of the
mind; a man is dead in the intoxication of wine.'
"The Medes, succeeding to the Assyrian or Babylonian king-
dom, began as a people strictly abstinent from intoxicating wine.
Their degeneracy through luxury is portrayed by Xenophon in
his 'Training of Cyrus,' in a picture which will ever be quoted
as a gem of graphic sketching. Young Cyrus, coming from his
Persian home to visit his grandfather, Astyages, King of Medea,
came to have a moral aversion to the king's cup-bearer, because
of his office. The king remarking upon it, Cyrus proposed to
act the cup-bearer; and with a napkin on his shoulder presented
the cup to the king with a studied grace that charmed the fond
old man. When, however, the king observed that young Cyrus
did not, before presenting the cup, first pour some of it into his
left hand and taste it-a custom rendered necessary as а
safeguard against attempts at assassination by poison put into
the king's wine-cup-Astyages said, 'You have omitted one.
essential ceremony; that of tasting.' 'No,' replied Cyrus, ‘it
was not from forgetting it that I omitted that ceremony.' 'For
what, then,' asked Astyages, did you omit it?' 'Because,' said
Cyrus, I thought there was poison in the cup.'
cried the king; 'how could you think so?'
grandfather, for not long ago at a banquet which you gave to
your courtiers, after the guests had drunk a little of that liquor,
I noticed that all their heads were turned; they sang, shouted
and talked they did not know what, and even you yourself
seemed to forget that you were king and they were subjects ;
and when you would have danced, you could not stand on your
legs.' 'Why,' asked Astyages, 'have you never seen the same
happen to your father?' 'No, never,' said Cyrus (Cyrop. B. I).
"Who could have supposed that this same Cyrus would him-
self be led to what was and still is called the temperate use of wine,
and have led the Persian nation into a habit from which to this
day they have not even as Mohammedans been redeemed! It
.6
'Poison, child!'
'Yes, poison,
1
ALCOHOL A POISON.
79
6
worthy of special note that the very point of the English con-
troversy between Dr. F. R. Lees and Rev. A. M. Wilson turns
on the early abstinence of Cyrus and his subsequent yielding to
the seduction inseparable from high position, ease and luxury.
The same Xenophon records that Cyrus in his manhood said, on
a long march, to his officers: Collect wine enough to accustom
us to drink only water; for most of the way is destitute of wine.
That we do not, therefore, fall into disease by being left suddenly
without wine, let us begin at once to drink water with our food;
after each meal drink a little wine; diminish the quantity we
drink after eating until we insensibly become water drinkers: for
an alteration little by little brings any one to bear a total change
(Cyrop. vi. 2). Xenophon, himself, a little later in life, encour-
ages his troops by saying, that their sobriety made them an
overmatch for their wine-drinking foes (Cyrop. vii. 5). The
lesson is manifest. Herodotus further states that Cyrus by
strategy overcame the fierce Massagetae; enticing the young
prince and his officers, at a banquet given them, to drink deeply,
while he and his generals only pretended to drink; and then
attacking their army while their officers were intoxicated. This
unworthy act led the queen-mother to remonstrate with Cyrus to
this effect: 'When you yourself are overcome with wine, what
follies do you not commit! By penetrating your bodies it makes
your language more insulting. By this poison you have con-
quered my son; and not by your skill or your bravery.'
"When Alexander, the cultured pupil of Aristotle, transformed
into the autocratic military conquerer, was seen at thirty to be
in danger from wine-drinking, a physician named Androcydes,
Pliny tells us (Nat. Hist. xiv. 5) wrote to him, begging him to
avoid wine, since it was a poison.'
66
Pliny closes this book (c. 28) with one of the most eloquent
of total-abstinence appeals ever penned or uttered. 'How
strange,' he exclaims, that men will devote such labor and
expense for wine, when water, as is seen in the case of animals,
is the most healthful (saluberrimum) drink; a drink supplied, too,
80
ALCOHOL A POISON.
by nature; while wine takes away reason (mente), engenders
insanity, leads to thousands of crimes, and imposes such an
enormous expense on nations.' He says that confirmed drinkers
'through fear of death' resulting from intoxication, take as coun-
teractives 'poisons such as hemlock' (cicutam), and 'others
which it would be shameful to name.' 'And yet,' asks he, 'why
do they thus act?' The drunkard never sees the sunrise; his
life by drinking is shortened; from wine comes that pallid hue,
those drooping eyelids, those sore eyes, those trembling hands,
.... sleep made hideous by furies during nights of restlessness ;
and as the crowning penalty of intoxication (præmium summum
inebrietatis) those dreams of beastly lust whose enjoyment is
forbidden.' He adds that many are led into this condition 'by
the self-interested advice of physicians who seek to commend
themselves by some novel remedy.'
Coming down to the second century in the writings of Pseudo
Justin, we read:
Water is
"Wine is not to be drank daily as water
necessary, but wine only as a medicine. He shows the absurdity
of the plea that wine heats the body in winter and cools it in
summer; and says: 'It is admitted that wine is a deadly poison'
(pharmakon thanasimon). In using it, he adds, 'We abuse
the work of God.””
Clement of Alexandria, who lived at the close of the second
century, says:
"I admire those who require no other beverage than water,
avoiding wine as they do fire. From its use arise excessive
desires and licentious conduct. The circulation is accelerated,
and the body inflames the soul."—Divine Law as to Wines.
Coming down to our own time, we know of no standard work
on the effects of medicines or on poisons which does not recog-
nize alcohol as a poison. In the United States Dispensatory we
are told that: "As an article of daily use, alcoholic liquors
produce the most deplorable consequences. Besides the moral
degradation which they cause, their habitual use gives rise to
dyspepsia, hypochondriasis, visceral obstructions, dropsy, paraly-
ALCOHOL A POISON.
81
sis, and not unfrequently mania. When taken in large quantities,
alcohol, in the various forms of ardent spirits, produces an apo-
plectic state, and occasionally speedy death; the face becomes
livid or pale, the respiration stertorous, and the mouth frothy,and
the sense and feeling are more or less completely lost.”
All books on medical jurisprudence treat of "Poisoning by
Alcohol," and we have but to look around us on every hand
to behold the sad effects of this poison. We have brought the
testimony of the ancient writers to prove that fermented wine
was by them regarded as a poison, and it was a poison then and
now, because it contained alcohol.
The most distinguished English authorities declare :
"We have all been in error in recommending wine as a tonic.
Ardent spirits and poisons are convertible terms.”—Sir Astley
Cooper.
66
'Reduction of animal heat is the special action of this poison.”
-Dr. Richardson.
"Its constant use in moderation injures the nervous tissue, and
is deleterious to health." "A man may very materially injure
his constitution short of drunkenness," "It degenerates the
tissues and impairs the intellect."-Sir W. Gull.
While even the Roman Catholic Cardinal Manning, of Eng-
land, urges that entire abstinence from all intoxicants is the only
hope of saving the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic races from physical
degeneracy, three of our New Church periodicals are striving to
justify the use of intoxicating wine; and one of them even advo-
cates the drinking of whisky, which Swedenborg declares a
pernicious drink; and this, notwithstanding Swedenborg com-
pares such wine and strong drinks as cause drunkenness to
falses from evil. Alas! Alas! for the organized New Church.
May God protect it from the fearful evil of wine-drinking, and
consequently from drunkenness. All experience shows, as well
in the New Church as in other churches, and among Gen-
tiles, that so long as intoxicating wine, having its origin, as we
have seen, from hell, is drank, drunkenness, folly, wretchedness
and insanity will follow in a fearful number of cases; and as we
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ALCOHOL A POISON.
shall show from the ablest medical testimony in the world, few, if
any, will ever escape unharmed who use such a beverage, how-
ever moderately.
Even the common sense of the world, as manifested in its
poetry, has recognized the fact that wine and other intoxicating
drinks are poisons. Shakspeare, Milton, and Pope repeatedly
proclaim this most important truth, in lines ever memorable :
"Bacchus that first from out the purple grape
Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine.”
"Oh, that men should put an enemy in
Their mouths to steal their brains! "
"Oh, thou invisible spirit of wine,
If thou hast no name to be called by,
Let us call thee devil! "
"In the flowers that wreathe the sparkling bowl
Fell adders hiss, and poisonous serpents roll."
"The brain dances to the maddening bowl."
"They fancy that they feel
Divinity within them breeding wings."
And yet, exclaims the Rev.
recent number of the Morning Light:
in a sermon printed in a
"It is wrong for a New Churchman to teach that wine and other liquids
containing alcohol are in themselves poisons."
Wrong, indeed, is it to teach this truth, when the Word of the
Lord, the writings of the Church, science and all history, teach
that such liquids are the most fearful and destructive of all poi-
sons! affording, according to the writings of the New Church, a
plane for influx from the hells, when they pollute, disease, and kill
both body and soul. Again, says our reverend brother:
"If the question now be asked, How may we as New Churchmen best
promote the cause of temperance in this world? The answer is plain, let
every New Churchman begin with himself, and let him resolve solemnly
never to exceed the limits of strict temperance in the use of fermented
liquids,”
ALCOHOL A POISON.
83
Does not the reverend gentleman know, with the example of
the victims of such habits as he recommends lying all around him,
that no young man ever took his first glass of intoxicating wine
without resolving never to become a drunkard; but that step by
step he is lured on by this seductive fluid, only drinking what he
finds is actually necessary to satisfy the demands of his appetite
and of his perverted organization, and at last when he is shocked
and angered at the intimation that there is danger of his becoming
a drunkard, that it is then generally too late; that the first glass has
wrought its deadly work, and he is no longer in the same state of
freedom as when he took that? Does the reverend gentleman not
know that every drunkard, who is not absolutely lost to all sense
of right and shame, after he has had a drunken spree, or delirium
tremens, during which his stomach has revolted at the approach
of renewed potations of the poison, when he takes his first glass,
resolves, oftentimes, as we well know, with prayers and supplica-
tions to the Lord for help, that he will only take an occasional
glass-only "drink temperately?" but that first glass, voluntarily
taken, affords a plane for influx from hell, and he might as well
attempt to stem the current of Niagara, forty feet above the
cataract, in a birch bark canoe, as to attempt to stay his appetite
until he has had another drunken bout.
But with much that is erroneous, our reverend brother states
some truths, and among them he says:
"Our allegiance as members of the New Church is due to the truth, to
the plain, unvarnished truth, as this is taught in the letter of the Divine
Word, illuminated by true doctrine.”
But, he says again:
"The cause of intemperance is not in the body, but in the spirit; it is, in
fact an outward bodily habit, resulting from a perverted spiritual state.
Natural drunkenness, or an intoxicated state of the body and its senses, is
injected into men and women in this world by spirits in the other world
who are in a state of spiritual intoxication; then partaking of wine or
other spirituous liquids, he transgresses the limits of temperance and
becomes intemperate."
Cannot our New Church brother see that this statement, as a
84
· ALCOHOL A POISON.
1
whole, as he presents it here, and elsewhere in his sermon, is
not correct? The natural substances around us, Swedenborg
shows, derive their very quality and life either from the Lord or
from hell. All substances which do hurt and kill men originate
from hell, we are told by the Swedish seer. Now it should be
perfectly clear to our brother that natural drunkenness can only
be caused by a substance or fluid which is a natural receptacle
of, and derives its quality and life from, those false views springing
from perverted affections which constitute spiritual drunkenness,
and this is beyond question alcohol in some form. One-half, more
or less, of the people of the United States never use intoxicating
drinks, and there is not a single drunkard to be found among
this 25,000,000 of people. They may drink all the water or
milk, or even vinegar, they please; they can never become
drunkards, so long as they abstain from alcohol in every form.
Many of them may be spiritual drunkards, and doubtless some
of them are, but they are not natural drunkards-not one of
them any more than a man who hates, covets, or envies, is a
natural murderer. Before he becomes a murderer he must use
some physical agency capable of killing his fellow-man, it may be
a club, pistol, knife, poison, or his tongue, by uttering foul words
of slander; so long as he simply hates, and never uses any physi-
cal instrumentality for killing the material body, he can never
become the murderer of the physical body of man; and hateful
acts do not always kill a man, any more than the use of intoxicat-
ing drinks always cause drunkenness, or kill a man; but every
hateful act, like every glass containing alcohol, is always injurious
to the man who indulges in such perversions.
It is, then, only when, from a perverted state of either the under-
standing or will, the man forsakes healthy food, which nourishes
and cheers without exciting, and partakes of the natural symbols
of the falses which cause spiritual drunkenness, that natural
drunkenness ever ensues. And a very important truth should
here be borne in mind by every man and woman, before they
allow themselves to partake of intoxicating drinks; and that is,
that neither goodness, intelligence, nor ignorance, shields any one
ALCOHOL A POISON. ·
85
;
from a growing appetite, disease, and drunkenness, who partakes
at all of the natural substances which afford a plane for the influx
of spirits who are in states of spiritual drunkenness. It is not
necessary that the individual himself should be in such a state,
for the same quantity of fermented wine will cause drunkenness
as soon in the case of a good and intelligent man, as with an evil
and ignorant man. The serpent, or the sensual principle, seduces
man, therefore the danger of wine-drinking. The advocates for
the use of intoxicating drinks seem to forget these great truths
and further that there can be no spiritual reformation of man,
which does not ultimate itself in the external life of man.
Drunkenness can never cease until men stop drinking intoxi-
cating drinks, as all history proves, any more than murders can
cease until men stop using deadly instruments and bad words.
The evil must first be resisted in external act, from the standpoint
of conscience; we must first stop doing evil, then we may be
able to stop thinking, and only after that can we stop willing evil.
Such is the order of regeneration as taught in the writings of the
New Church. Stop drinking intoxicating drinks, and drunken-
ness inevitably ceases; and such evil spirits as are spiritual
drunkards, having no natural medium through which to flow into
the external life of man, men will be left in freedom from such
influx; and then, and not till then, we may hope and expect
that spiritual drunkenness will begin to cease on earth; but the
work must commence at the bottom, on the natural plane, from
spiritual motives. In other words, we must shun the use of
those drinks which cause natural drunkenness, as a sin against
God; their use violating the laws of health, both in our physical
and spiritual organizations. This is our first duty, if we would
avoid either natural or spiritual drunkenness.
Since writing the above, we are happy to find, in the columns
of the Morning Light, an earnest remonstrance by Mr. T. Platt,
of Burslem, England, against the promulgation of such erroneous
and pernicious views on this subject as are contained in the
sermon under consideration. We will add the closing paragraph :
"The good
would almost seem to have temper-
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ALCOHOL A POISON.
ance work upside down in his mind. The abstainer has seen the
fiend, conscience has felt the sin before heaven, and the internal
bond of a high, holy, and pure resolve has ultimated itself in the
external vow and work for the dethronement of the demon, and
its banishment by prohibition, if possible, from inside of old
England's national cup and platter, that the outside thereof may
also be clean and fair to the eyes of the peoples of the earth.
Thousands of honest men and true have coupled true temperance
with a sincere acknowledgment of the Lord's truth and power,
and have thereby overcome its spiritual cause! The text
(resplendent in its own truth), but ill-aimed for once from the
discourse it was to give effect to, merely glances along the pre-
cipitous heights of moderation, but touches not the temperance
tower of refuge, which, basking in the warm rays of love to God
and man, still stands a mighty reclaiming power from that spirit
of evil whose potent spell 'unmans man, unwomans woman, turns
the mother's milk into a monster's venom, fires men to do things
they would revolt from in their serener moments,' and, let me
add, peoples the hells! Permit me, then, with the memory of
a sire a victim to the curse, the cares of a ruined family devolving
upon me in consequence, the still uneffaced years of misery which
marked the track from the 'allowed' moderation to a grave as
yet scarcely closed, to appeal to
in the name of love
and pity not to again publish a discourse on this question which
may be grasped as an excuse by some poor brother unconsciously
nearing the dreadful vortex! There is, alas! too much truth in
the homely lines of the Preston poet, who wrote—
'Ye men of sups and little drops,
Ye moderation muddlers,
Ye are the men that raised the seed
Of regular drunken fuddlers.' "
MODERATION FALLACY.
In concluding what we have to say of alcohol and fermented.
drinks, as poisons, we cannot do better than quote a few passages
from the writings of Dr. Benjamin Richardson, of England, who,
ALCOHOL A POÏSON.
87
has unquestionably observed and experimented more carefully,
and for a longer period of time, on the action of alcoholic drinks
on the body and mind than any other man. Speaking of "The
Moderation Fallacy," he says:
"This thought leads me to add a word on what is called the
practice of moderation in the use of alcohol. I believe the
Church of England Temperance Association is divided by two
lines, one of which marks off total abstainers, the other moderate
indulgers. I am one of those who have once been bitten by
the plea of moderate indulgence. Mr. Worldly Wiseman, with
his usual industry, tapped me on the shoulder, as he does every
man, and held a long and plausible palaver on this very subject.
If I had not been a physician he might have converted me. But
side by side with his wisdom there came fortunately the knowl-
edge which I could not, dare not, ignore, that the mere
moderate man is never safe, neither in the counsel he gives to
others, nor in the practice he follows for himself. Furthermore,
I observe as a physiological, or perhaps, psychological, fact, that
the attraction of alcohol for itself is cumulative. That so long as
it is present in a human body, even in small quantities, the long-
ing for it, the sense of requirement for it, is present, and that as
the amount of it insidiously increases, so does the desire.
"The mere question of the destructive effect of alcohol on
the membranes of the body alone would be a sufficient study for
an address on the mischiefs of it. I can not define it better,
indeed, than to say that it is an agent as potent for evil as it is
helpless for good. It begins by destroying, it ends by destruc-
tion, and it implants organic changes which progress independ-
ently of its presence even in those who are not born.
"In my address delivered last year in the Sheldonian Theatre,
at Oxford, I spoke almost exclusively on the facts connected
with the action of alcohol on the body. It seems to me befitt-
ing, if on the present occasion I touch more particularly on the
facts connected with the action of alcohol on the mind. Before,
however, I pass to this particular topic, it may be advisable to
epitomize the matter of the Oxford essay, so that those, and they
88
ALCOHOL A POISON,
must be many here, who have not read that essay, may follow
the present argument dealing with mental phenomena, from the
argument which was based on the study of physical phenomena.
"In that essay I endeavored to show from the experimental
evidence I had previously collected, that alcohol, when it finds
its way into the living body, interferes with the oxidation of the
blood; that it interferes with the natural motion of the heart ;
that it produces a paralyzing effect on the minute circulation of
the blood at the point of the circulation where the quantity of
the blood admissible into the tissues ought to be duly regulated;
that habitually used in what some—indeed, the majority of those
who indulge in alcoholic drinks-consider a moderate quantity,
it impedes the digestive power; that it induces organic changes
ending in organic diseases of vital organs, such as the liver and
kidneys; that it leads to similar changes in the great nervous cen-
tres, and to destruction of nervous function, ending in paralysis.
"I further indicated, in the address to which I refer, that
alcohol has no claim whatever to be considered a supporter of
the animal temperature, and no claim whatever to be thought a
supporter of muscular power. On the contrary, that, from the
moment a physiological effect is produced in the body by alcohol
and onward, so long as the effect is kept up by the addition of
the agent to the body, the animal heat, the nervous control over
the muscles, and the independent power resident in the muscles
themselves, begin and continue to decline, until at last the body,
cold and senseless, falls to the ground, checked only by its own
utter helplessness, and, as it were, living death, from imbibing the
last drops that would make the death absolute. From all these
facts I reasoned that alcohol could not, in any sense whatever,
be, scientifically, set down as a food for man or any other ani-
mal; that it could not be set down as a necessity for man or any
other animal; that, useless as food, it is mischievous as a luxury;
and that, indulged in as a luxury, it is far too dangerous a destroyer
to be entrusted to the general management of mankind, or to the
hands of those who, because of its luxurious temptations, fall
under its power.
ALCOHOL A POISON.
89
ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON THE MIND.
"As I have moved among those who are physically stricken
with alcohol, and have detected under the various dis-
guises of name the fatal diseases, the pains and penalties it
imposes on the body, the picture has been sufficiently cruel.
But even that picture pales as I conjure up, without any stretch
of imagination, the devastations which the same agent inflicts on
the mind. Forty per cent., the learned superintendent of
Colney Hatch, Dr. Shepherd, tells us, forty per cent. of those
who were brought into that asylum during the year 1876, were
so brought because of the direct or indirect effects of alcohol.
If the facts of all the asylums were collected with equal care,
the same tale would, I fear, be told. What need we further to
show the destructive action of this one instrument of destruction
on the human mind? The Pandemonium of drunkards: the
grand transformation scene of that pantomime of drink, which
commences with moderation! Let it be nevermore forgotten by
those who love their fellow-men until, through their efforts, it is
closed for ever.
"For the work that comes of the mind and that comes out
under pressure, no taste of alcoholic stimulation is necessary.
Every such taste is a self-inflicted injury, and, what is more, an
accumulating injury. The dose of alcohol which spurred the
thought of to-day must be slightly increased to spur the thought
of to-morrow to the same pitch. So on and on the evil goes,
until at last the simple, and, as it was called, harmless dose, rises
to the poisonous dose; until, with unnerved limbs, faltering
memory, dull imagination, estranged feeling, enfeebled or even
dismantled reason, the victim falls. Of all men, brain-workers
are the men least able to bear up against the ravages of alcohol.
Of all men they are the most liable to be deceived and played
upon by this traitor, who enters the most precious treasury, the
citadel of the mind. I hold that man as prematurely mad who
defends the use of alcohol for himself on this ground of neces-
sity. I hold that man as criminally mad who, knowingly,
prescribes alcohol on this foundation.
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ALCOHOL A POISON.
"On the other side the experience is unfortunately overwhelm-
ing in favor of the observation that the use of alcohol dulls the
reasoning power, makes weak men and women the easy prey of
the wicked and strong, and leads men and women who should
know better into every grade of misery and vice. It is not poor
repenting Cassio alone who cries out in agony of despair, 'Oh,
that a man should put an enemy into his mouth to steal away
his brains!' It is thousands upon thousands of Cassios who say
the same thought, if not the same words, every day, every hour.
I doubt, indeed, whether there is a single man or woman who
indulges or who has indulged in alcohol who could not truth-
fally say the same; who could not wish that something he had
unreasonably said or expressed under the excitation of alcohol.
had not been given forth.
"If, then, alcohol enfeebles the reason, what part of the mental
constitution does it exalt and excite? It exalts and excites those
animal, organic, emotional centres of mind which, in the dual
nature of man, so often cross and oppose that pure and abstract
reasoning nature which lifts man above the lower animals, and,
rightly exercised, little lower than the angels. Exciting these
animal centres, it lets loose all the passions, and gives them more
or less of unlicensed domination over the whole man. It excites
anger, and when it does not lead to this extreme, it keeps the
mind fretful, irritable, dissatisfied, captious. The flushed face of
the red-hot angry man, how like it is to the flushed face of the
man in the first stage of alcoholic intoxication. The face, white
with rage, and the tremulous, agitated muscles of the body, how
like both are to the pale face and helpless muscles of the man
deep in intoxication from alcohol. The states are not simply
similar, they are identical, and the one will feed the other."
The young man in his path of life has no worse enemies to
encounter than temperate drinkers, more aptly named by an
Irishman who had himself once been one of them, "Beginners,”
and Dr. Crosby's temperance society the "beginners' society."
The influence of the drunkard on the young amounts to little;
but that of the beginner may be fearfully destructive. Well did
ALCOHOL A PÒÌSÔN.
91
the wise men of old advise, that the society of such should be
shunned.
It is well known to medical men that a man may have delirium
tremens, and die from this disease, without ever having been what
the temperate drinker calls drunk. Even clergymen not unfre-
quently witness such cases. Says the Rev. J. M. Van Buren:
"I have in my knowledge two cases of men dying from delirium tremens
who were never known to be drunk; steady moderate drinking was the
cause."
Are such men drunkards, or are they not? Can any one tell
us where the line of demarcation between the so-called temperate
drinker and the drunkard lies? Surely the chief responsibility
for the drunkenness in the world lies with the "beginners," for
if men never begin to drink, the race of drunkards will soon be
extinct.
Speaking of those who attempt to justify the use of intoxicat-
ing wines from the Bible, the Rev. J. M. Van Buren, in his
excellent work on Gospel Temperance, says :
"One stands appalled who thinks of the destruction of multitudes of our
youth by the teaching and example of such men.”
It is a fearful thing to pervert the truths of the letter of the Word,
and the Revelations of the New Church, for the justification of the
gratification of our perverted appetites and passions; and espe-
cially to teach others that such gratifications are right, and thus to
lead the inexperienced into such perversions. The writer desires
to call the attention of such of his brethren as use, justify, and
advocate the use of fermented wines and other intoxicating
drinks, to the following statement of Swedenborg:
"That the insanity signified by inebriation and by drunken-
ness in the Word is not from falses, but from truths falsified."-
(Swedenborg's Index to the A. E. 1035.)
CHAPTER III.
TWO KINDS OF WINE.
THAT there are two kinds of wine spoken of in the letter of the
Bible and in the writings of the New Church, the one always
good and the other always evil and pernicious, will be evident
to every reader who, without preconceived opinions, carefully
reads his Bible and the Writings of Swedenborg. It is now,
as we intimated in our tract with a few illustrations, perfectly
clear, that during all the various periods when the Sacred
Scriptures were written, the ancients were in the habit of pre-
paring two kinds of wine, both of which were called wine;
one kind fermented and intoxicating, and the other unfer-
mented, and consequently unintoxicating; which was not only
harmless, but a healthy and nutritious drink, and abundantly
capable of making glad the unperverted heart of man. They
also prepared a great variety of unfermented or unintoxicating
wine; and by a great variety of methods which are carefully
described by ancient writers, to three of which we alluded in our
former tract. And, further, it is now evident that their best and
most celebrated old wines were generally, if not always, unfermented
wines. They had no distilled spirits to add to their wines to
preserve them, as we have at this day, consequently, even if they
had a desire to preserve their fermented wine, they would have
found it difficult, with their imperfect vessels and casks, to have
done so ; for fermented wine, if not most carefully excluded from
the air, so readily passes into vinegar, especially in warm
climates; whereas they had no difficulty in preparing unfer-
mented wine so that it would keep for years, and even for
centuries, as we shall see from the testimony of ancient authors.
Now, kind reader, stop a moment and reflect. Here is a view
of the wine question, abundantly sustained by the testimony
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TWO KINDS OF WINE.
93
of disinterested ancient authors, and of the most distin-
guished writers of the early Christian Church, which recon-
ciles all apparent contradictions to be found in the Bible and in
the Writings of Swedenborg; and we ask, in view of the terrible
evils you see around you, is it not worthy of your most serious
and prayerful consideration? It is evident that there is no evil
of external life so fearful in its consequences upon our race as
the drinking of intoxicating wines. Consider the unnatural and
deprave 1 excitement, the diseases, and drunkenness which arise
therefrom as naturally as a stream flows from its fountain. Is it
not a duty which we owe to the Lord, our fellow-man and to
ourselves, to examine this subject?
TWO KINDS OF WINE RECOGNIZED IN THE WORD OF THE LORD,
BOTH SPIRITUALLY AND NATURALLY.
If there are two kinds of spiritual wine recognized in the Word
of the Lord, and in the writings of the New Church, we have a
right to look for two kinds of natural wine; for the philosophy of
the New Church teaches us that the spiritual is ever in the
effort to ultimate itself in the natural. Then to the law and
testimony:
"Wine here,"
“Wine and blood of grapes." (Gen. xlix. 11.)
says Swedenborg, " denotes what is spiritual from a celestial
origin," or "essential faith." (A. C. 1071.) "Wine in the Holy
Supper signifies the divine truth of the Lord's divine wisdom."
(U. T. 711.) There is no difficulty in bringing a large number
of quotations, both from the Word and the Writings of Sweden-
borg, to show that good wine has a good signification; and is in
every way a safe, good, and useful drink. This is admitted by all,
therefore further illustrations at present are unnecessary, as there
is no controversy on this point. But here, one class of New
Church writers and teachers assume that there is but one kind of
wine spoken of in the Word; and that is a good wine, having a
good correspondence; and that it is never evil, or a poison in
itself; but that it may become injurious, if excessively used, like
any other healthy article of drink. But another class of teachers
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TWO KINDS OF WINE.
and writers, and among them the present writer, claim that there
are two kinds of wine; one unleavened, good and harmless,
always having a good signification; the other leavened, poison-
ous, and destructive, always having an evil signification when
mentioned in the Word of the Lord. "In all the passages where
good wine is named, there is no lisp of warning, no intimation
of danger, no hint of disapprobation, but always of decided
approval. How bold and strongly marked is the contrast:
"The one the cause of intoxication, of violence, and of woes.
"The other the occasion of comfort and of peace.
"The one the cause of irreligion and of self-destruction.
The other the devout offering of piety on the altar of God.
"The one the symbol of the divine wrath.
"The other the symbol of spiritual blessings.
"The one the emblem of eternal damnation.
"The other the emblem of eternal salvation."-Bible Wines.
"The distinction in quality between the good and the bad
wine is as clear as that between good and bad men, or good and
bad wives, or good and bad spirits; for one is the constant sub-
ject of warning, designated poison literally, analogically, and
figuratively, while the other is commended as refreshing and
innocent, which no alcoholic wine is."-Lees' Appendix (p. 232).
And we shall find that this view is abundantly sustained by
the Writings of Swedenborg. He says, "Whereas several expres-
sions in the Word have also a contrary sense, so also has wine ;
in which sense it signifies the false principle derived from evil.”
(A. C. 6377.) And, in strict harmony with this, he says: "The
wine of fornication spoken of by Saint John the Revelator
signifies the adulterated truths of faith, whereof drunkenness is
predicated." (A. C. 1072.) Again, "By the wine of the fury and
the wrath of God (Rev. xix.) are signified the goods and truths
of the Church, which are from the Word, profaned and adul-
terated, and therefore the evils and falses of the Church." But,
say the advocates of fermented wine, this refers to spiritual wine
and not to natural wine. Grant it, but have we no evidence
that there is a corresponding material wine, which is an outbirth
TWO KINDS OF WINE.
95
from such spiritual wine; and which therefore necessarily pro-
duces similar effects on the body and mind of man, when he
drinks it, that the above-named spiritual wine does upon his
spirit when he adulterates the truths of faith and appropriates.
such adulterated truths to his life? Can we, as rational beings,
infer that there is no difference between the good wine of which
we are told to “drink abundantly,"—"wine which," we are told
in Judges ix. 13, "cheereth God and man," and of which our
Lord said at the Last Supper, "drink ye all of it,"--and the wine,
which we are told in Deut. xxxii. 33, "is the poison of dragons,
and the cruel venom of asps ;"-the wine of which we are told in
Jeremiah li. 7, "the nations have drank,
the nations have drank," "therefore the nations
are mad," or the wine which we are told in Prov. xx. 1, that it
“is a mocker, and that it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like
an adder?" As the Proverbs have not a spiritual sense, the advo-
cates for fermented wine cannot claim that this refers to spiritual
wine, and we think that they will agree with the writer that the
author of Proverbs did not here refer to unfermented wine; but
we fancy that every one cannot but see that he did refer to
fermented wine; for we can see that, although the language is
figurative, yet as such it most accurately describes the effects of
fermented wine on the mind and body of man.
But Swedenborg does not leave us in doubt as to there being
two kinds of wine, one good and the other bad, for he says:
"Falses from evil may be compared to such wine and strong
drinks as induce drunkenness." (A. E. 1035.)
(A. E. 1035.) It is not the use
or abuse, but the article itself which is compared to falses from
evil. It is its inherent quality, clearly described by its effects on
the human body and mind. "By wine," says Swedenborg,
"is signified truth from heaven, and in the opposite sense the
false from hell." (A. E. 1046.) Good wine has always a good
use; it may be abused; but abuse, Swedenborg tells us does not
take away use, excepting in those who abuse it; therefore, the
wine itself, which signifies truth from heaven when unpolluted,
can never signify "the false from hell," but the abuse of it pos-
sibly may. We repeat, it is of the wine he speaks in the above
96
TWO KINDS OF WINE.
language, and not of its abuse. That it is not good wine which
signifies the false from hell; but such wine as has been perverted
and polluted by ferment which we are told signifies "the false
of evil” (D. P. 284) will be clearly seen by the above quotation
and others we have already made, and shall hereafter make from
the Writings of Swedenborg. Again, Swedenborg says:
"The same shall drink of the wine of the anger of God, mixed
pure in the cup of his wrath.' That hereby is signified appro-
priation of the false and evil thence derived, conjoined with
falsified truths from the literal sense of the Word, appears from
the signification of drinking, as denoting to imbue and appro-
priate to themselves; and from the signification of wine, as
denoting truth from good, and in the opposite sense the false
from evil. * ** In this case, therefore, by drinking the wine
of the anger of God, is signified the imbuing and appropriation of
the false and evil thence derived
* * * and from the signi-
fication of being mixed pure, as denoting to be conjoined with
falsified truths. *
From these considerations it is
米
​*
*
*
*
evident that, by wine mixed pure in the cup of the anger of God,
is signified conjunction with falsified truths of the literal sense of
the Word.
The reason why being mixed pure
signifies to be conjoined with falsified truths of the Word is,
because by pure [wine] is meant wine which is inebriating; and
thence inebriation, consequently, in the spiritual sense, delirium in
truths by falses, for delirium in truth by falses is spiritual inebria-
tion." (A. È. 887.) There is no known substance on earth which
will with so much certainty and so uniformly cause natural deli-
rium as fermented wine and other liquids which contain alcohol,
that "prince of poisons." How clearly, from its effects alone on
man when he uses it, we may know that it corresponds to "falses
from evil;" and the delirium which it causes to the "delirium in
truths by falses !" We repeat, there is no healthy food on earth
which, like alcoholic wine, and other fluids containing alcohol,
causes delirium when freely used-alcohol always does this;
healthy food never. This fact alone, it would seem, ought to
convince any intelligent New Churchman that it has its origin
TWO KINDS OF WINE.
97
from hell, and not from the Lord. What can be clearer than
this ? Owing, doubtless, to the fact that a very different mean-
ing is attached to the word pure wine at this day, from the
original meaning of the word as it was used in the passage under
consideration; and, apparently, lest his readers should therefore
mistake the present meaning for the original meaning, Sweden-
borg goes on to explain in the following language: "The word
also by which pure wine [merum] is expressed in the original
tongue is derived from a word which signifies to be inebriated,
inasmuch as this is signified by pure wine [merum] and they
who falsify the word are spiritually inebriated, that is, are deliri-
ous as to truths, therefore in the two passages where pure wine
[merum] is mentioned in the Word, the subject treated of is
concerning the falsification of truth, as in the prophecies of
Isaiah and Hosea.. 'How hath the faithful city become a
harlot; full of judgment, justice lodgeth in her, but now homi-
cides thy silver hath become dross, thy pure wine [merum]
mixed with water' (Isaiah i. 21-22). * * * The pure
wine [merum] mixed with water signifies truth made vile, and
destroyed by the falsification thereof." (A. E. 887.)
:
We know that fermented wine and other intoxicating drinks
cause delirium and insanity, and that of the most fearful
character; and we know that healthy fluids have never this
specific effect, as we have already said; and we know also that
spiritual truth when unperverted never causes spiritual delirium;
how, then, is it possible for a natural fluid, which legitimately
corresponds to spiritual truth, to ever cause natural delirium, and
that of a specific character like that from alcohol, character-
istic of the article used? Our friends who advocate the use
of intoxicating wines and whisky seem to forget the philosophy
of the New Church and the science of correspondences,
which are so clearly and beautifully taught in the Writings of
Swedenborg. They seem to forget that: "The real case is,
that in even the minutest things in nature and in her three
kingdoms, the intrinsic agent is from the spiritual world, and
unless such an active principle from that world was therein,
98
TWO KINDS OF WINE.
It
nothing at all in the natural world could act as cause and effect,
consequently nothing could be produced." (A. C. 5173.)
is, therefore, perfectly clear that no article of food or drink can
ever cause delirium, as does alcohol, which has not an active
spiritual principle from hell, the home of insane and delirious
spirits.
A New Church clergyman, who is an earnest advocate of total
abstinence from intoxicating drinks, has just sent the writer the
following selection from the Writings of Swedenborg, with the
comments attached:
““ Inasmuch as drunkenness was a type of insanity in regard to truths of
faith, therefore it was also made a representative, and this prohibition was
given to Aaron: 'Do not drink wine, nor drink that maketh drunken,
thou,nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the Tabernacle of the Congre-
gation, lest ye die;-that ye may put a difference between holy and unholy,
and between unclean and clean.'—Levit. x. 8-9. (A. C. 1072.)
"This passage,' remarks our reverend correspondent, I think conclu-
sive proof—especially with those who believe the Word to be the sole basis
of doctrine for the New Church."'
It is certain that the above passage distinctly marks a wine and
strong drink that were forbidden the priests when they officiated
in the service of the sanctuary. There can be no mistaking the
kind of wine and strong drink referred to here. They are such
as make men drunken. But we know that there are wines and
strong drinks which are never unholy or unclean—wines every
way suitable for use in the most holy ordinance of the Lord's
Supper-wines that never "maketh drunken."
In a work just published in England, the Rev. Thomas Pear-
son says:
"Moses tells us, that the intoxicating yayin (wine) of Sodom was the
poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps, and are we to suppose him
to refer to its abuse, and not to its character? He says nothing of excess,
or drunkenness, but speaks only of the character of the yayin. Now, as
Moses speaks of the thing itself and not of its abuse, we conclude that it
is the thing itself which is condemned. Now, will any of our friends on the
other side point out a single passage in the Bible in which a thing good in
itself is condemned on account of its abuse?”
CHAPTER IV.
TWO KINDS OF GRAPES, TWO KINDS OF MUST, AND TWO KINDS OF
NEW WINE, ONE GOOD AND THE OTHER BAD.
We are told by Swedenborg that grapes in a good sense mean
goodness, and in the opposite sense evil. (A. C. 2240, 5117.)
To eat sour grapes signifies to appropriate to one's self the falses
of evil. (A. C. 556.) Grapes may not only be sour, but also
wild, or uncultivated, consequently useless as fruit: when this is
the case, as in Isaiah v. 2, they signify we are told “evil opposed
to the goods of charity." "Grapes of gall and clusters of bitter-
ness" (Deut. xxxii. 32) signify evils from dire falses.
438.)
(C
(A. E.
But the signification of sweet, cultivated grapes is good:
Grapes and clusters signify works of charity, because they are
the fruits of the vine and the vineyard, and by fruits, in the
Word, are signified good works." (A. R. 649.)
""
Wine in the Cluster." Thus saith Jehovah, as the new wine
is found in the cluster; and He saith, Spoil it not, because a
blessing is in it.' (Isaiah lxv. 8.) The new wine in the cluster
denotes truth from good in the natural principle. (A. C.
5117.) Surely no one can pretend that this new wine in the
cluster is fermented wine, for alcohol is never found in the clusters
in the vineyard. To produce alcohol from grapes, either the
grapes or the juice therefrom must be manufactured by man.
"Clusters of noble wine" is not fermented wine.
The Blood of the Grape.-This is the juice which flows.
almost or quite spontaneously from the grape, when the skin is
wounded or broken, before the application of much pressure.
It is the sweetest portion of the juice of the grape, and was
frequently preserved separately by the ancients. Owing to its
containing a large amount of saccharine matter, and very little
99
100
TWO KINDS OF GRAPES, MUST, AND WINE.
*
* *
gluten, it does not ferment as readily as the juice which is
obtained by pressure. In Gen. xlix. 11, "He hath washed his
garments in wine, and his covering in the blood of grapes';
speaking of the Lord: here wine denotes spiritual good from the
divine love, and the blood of grapes denotes celestial good
thence derived.
Again, ‘and thou drinkest the blood
of the grape, new wine.' In Deut. xxxii. 14, speaking of the
Ancient Church,
the blood of the grape signifies
spiritual celestial good, which is the name given to the Divine in
heaven proceeding from the Lord: wine is called the blood of
grapes, since each signifies holy truth proceeding from the Lord;
wine, however, is predicated of the spiritual and blood of the
celestial; and this being the case, wine was employed in the
Holy Supper." (A. C. 5117.)
* * *
In the above passages from the "Arcana," we are distinctly
taught that wine in the cluster and the blood of the grape have a
good signification. Simply pressing the wine from the grape does
not change its character; it is still good. Therefore Swedenborg
informs us that "new wine signifies the truth of the Word."
(A. E. 618.) "New wine signifies spiritual good." (A. E. 323.)
"New wine (Luke xv. 29) is the divine truth of the New Testa-
ment, consequently of the New Church, and old wine is the
divine truth of the Old Testament, consequently of the Old
Church." (A. R. 316.) "Must signifies the same as wine, viz.,
truth derived from the good of charity and love." (A. E. 695.)
And, again, "By the produce of the wine-press was signified all
the truth of the good of the Church, the same as by wine.”
(A. E. 799.)
From the above, it would seem that it must be perfectly clear
to every one who acknowledges the truth of the revelations to
the New Church, that not only the grape and the wine which is
contained in the grape, the wine which flows from the grape on
being punctured, or from the press when pressure is applied, but
also all the produce of the wine-press has a good signification-
the very highest, This is the wine, then, which we may safely
TWO KINDS OF GRAPES, MUST, AND WINE.
ior
use in the Holy Supper, for it has never been adulterated or
polluted by the manipulation of man and the action of ferment.
But let men collect this good juice of the grape, or new wine
or must, into vessels and preserve it at a proper temperature,
exposed to the air, for from twelve to forty-eight hours, and a
new form of life enters it; ferment or leaven signifying "the false
of evil" (D. P. 284), and "the evil and the false, which should
not be mixed with things good and true" (A. C. 2342), com-
mences its fearful work of destruction; and, if not arrested by
boiling, or some other instrumentality, it continues it until there
is left, save a little sugar, scarcely a vestige of the natural ingre-
dients of the original wine from the grape; and when this work
of destruction is completed we have fermented wine-the wine
which causes drunkenness-which Swedenborg compares to falses
from evil (A. E. 1035), and of which he says: "The reason why
the false, which gives birth to evil, is signified is because, as wine
intoxicates and makes insane, so does the false; spiritual intoxi-
cation being nothing but insanity induced by reasonings con-
cerning what is to be believed, when nothing is believed which is
not comprehended, hence come falses, and from falses evil."
(A. C. 5120.)
true.
The reader will bear in mind that the leaven is neither the
product of the vine, nor of the wine-press; but it is among the
evil uses, described by Swedenborg, which originate from hell;
and which he assures us should not be mixed with things good and
"The process of fermentation is one of decay; in all ferment-
ative action, vital growth is arrested, organized matter is disinteg-
rated and retrogression ensues. It is a passage from more complex.
to more elementary form-in fact, from diet to dirt. Plutarch in
his 'Roman Questions' (109), and Gellius, in his 'Attic Nights,"
remark that the priests of Jupiter were not permitted to touch
leaven, because it was the product and producer of corruption."
(Lees' Bible Commentary.) How strange it seems that any New
Churchman, with all the clear light thrown upon this subject by
the writings of the Church, should justify and even advocate the
use of fermented wine, full of alcohol, the chief product of leaven,
102 TWO KINDS OF GRAPES, MUST, AND WINE.
As soon as leaven commences its destructive work, the wine
becomes warm, thick, and muddy, but it is still called must and
new wine; and it is in this state, as it is with new fermenting
cider, that it is liable to disturb the stomach and bowels if
drank. Fresh grape juice or new wine, as well as grapes, if used
moderately, will tend to keep the bowels regular and to remove
constipation; but if used too freely, like most fruits and their
juices, they may disturb the stomach and cause looseness of the
bowels.
When the work of fermentation commences, we have a must or
new wine of a very different character from that contained in the
fruit of the vine, or which flowed from the press; for it is being
polluted by a substance which has its life from hell, and adul-
terated by its chief poisonous product-alcohol, which causes.
drunkenness and insanity. Is it strange that must and new wine,
when thus adulterated, should have a very different signification
from the unpolluted must and new wine?
It is certain that there must be a corresponding change in the
signification of the new wine and must, thus changed by leaven;
therefore, we read that, “must or new wine denotes evil pro-
duced by falses." (A. C. 2465.) And again, "That wine [vinum
mustum] signifies the interior false principle, and new wine
[mustum] the exterior false principle shown." (A. E. 141, 960.)
In the Proverbs of Solomon, we are clearly shown that, in his
day, they had two kinds of wine-the one good and the other
bad. (Prov. ix. 2.) "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath
hewn out her seven pillars; she hath killed her beasts; she hath
mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table." Here,
then, he manifestly refers to a good kind of wine, which, when
mingled with water, as was their custom in those days, as we
shall see with their wine preserved by boiling, was every way a
suitable article for a drink and for table use.
But of a very
different kind of wine we read in Prov. xxiii. 29, 30, 31.
"Who hath woe? who hath sorrows? 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
TWO KINDS OF GRAPES, MUST, AND WINË.
103
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 the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth
like an adder." How wonderfully do these ancient Proverbs
describe the effects of intoxicating wines seen to-day, as in
former times. How good and safe the command of total absti-
nence, which the wise man gives in the above strong language.
"The condemnation of wine by the leading prophets," says the
Rev. Dr. Samson, "is universal. Jeremiah pictures 'the man
whom wine hath overcome' (xxiii. 9), and 'nations drunk with
wine' (li. 7). Ezekiel reproduces the law 'neither shall any
priest drink wine' (xliv. 21). Zechariah declares that the
Israelites in their moral abandonment at Christ's coming would
be like men ‘drinking' to drown sensibility, who ‘make a noise
through wine.' Zechariah puts the healthful tirosh, 'new wine,'
which maidens at the Messiah's coming will partake, into direct
contrast with the yayin, or intoxicating 'wine,' which 'noisy'
brawlers will drink (ix. 15, 17). Haggai mentions it among the
simple natural products of the land of Israel in the latter day
(i. 11). Jeremiah as the compiler of the Kings, and Ezra of the
Chronicles, mentions tirosh as an article to which there is a return
after reformation under Hezekiah and Josiah (2 Kings xviii. 32;
2 Chron. xxxi. 5; xxxii. 28); and Nehemiah cites it in almost
every allusion to the products of the field, as if the return from
their captivity brought a return among the Israelites to the use
of simple unfermented wine" (Nehemiah v. 11; x. 37, 39; xiii.
5, 12).
"It is worthy of note," says the Rev. W. M. Thayer, “that the
Bible supports the view that alcohol is poison. The Hebrew
word for 'poison' is khamah. This word is found in the two
following passages with others: 'Adder's poison is under their
lips.' (Ps. cxl. 3). Their wine is the poison of dragons.'
(Deut. xxxii. 33.) If the idea of 'poison' is found in the first
passage, so it is in the second. Hence some commentators
translate the passage in Habakkuk ii. 15, thus: 'Woe unto him
104
TWO KINDS OF GRAPES, MUST, AND WINE.
that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth thy khamah (poison)
to him!' Instead of 'bottle,' St. Jerome's version has it
'poison,''gall.' Montanus has it, 'thy poison.' Dr. John Gill
says, the word is sometimes translated, 'thy gall,' 'thy poison.'
Parkhurst defines khamah, 'inflammatory poison.' Archbishop
Newcome has 'gall,' 'poison.' The Bible declares that wine
'biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder;' in which text:
there is no sense, unless we have in view the fatal poison which
these reptiles eject with their bite. Dr. John Mair, of Edinburgh,.
staff-surgeon to her Britannic Majesty's army, remarks upon this:
passage: 'Is there not something to be gathered from this sin-
gular fact? Does it not tend to show that alcohol is no ordinary:
poison; but that it possesses qualities assimilating it to the
poison of serpents, which render it peculiarly the enemy of man,,
to be shunned by him as venomous reptiles are, almost instinct-·
ively?"-Communion Wine and Bible Temperance.
NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES.
We present the following extracts from the little book entitled
"Holy Scripture and Temperance," by Canon Hopkins:
"It seems to have become an almost universal habit to take
for granted that whenever wine is mentioned in Holy Writ, an
intoxicating drink is intended. Of course, it is well known that
intoxicating wine is very often spoken of in Holy Scripture,.
although invariably some cautionary or condemnatory language:
is appended, whenever its power to produce drunkenness is:
recognized. This fact creates a presumption that Holy Scripture:
does not sanction or justify the habitual use of intoxicating wine..
But this presumption would be very weak, if it were not sup-·
ported by any other facts. Is it, then, supported in any other
way? Most readers will be ready to dismiss the question at:
once. Wine is wine, they will urge, and it is absurd to pretend!
that it is or can be anything else. There is, however, only one pas..
sage in Holy Scripture which gives any insight into the chemical!
properties of the wine which was then in common use, and this :
is in the New Testament. Our Lord, speaking of the wine which:
·
NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES..
105
was in use at the period when He lived and taught, says on one
occasion:
"No man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new
wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall
perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both
are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine, straightway
desireth new; for he saith, The old is better.' (St. Luke v. 37-
39; compare St. Matt. ix. 17, and St. Mark ii. 22.)
"Three properties of wine are here spoken of; and spoken of
as being perfectly familiar to the experience of all persons who
have anything to do with wine :
66
1. New wine put into new bottles will keep without danger
either to the wine or to the bottles.
"2. New wine put into old bottles will not keep, but will in
some way burst and destroy the bottles, and will run out and be
spilled.
"3. The wine is mellowed by being kept, and acquires by age
a more attractive flavor.
"Where, then, can we find a liquid which fulfills these three
conditions?
"Everybody knows very well that modern still wine, whether
new or old, may be put with perfect security into any kind of
bottle whatever, and has no tendency to burst the bottle.
"Sparkling wines could not be safely put into leather bottles at
all, either new or old. Even with thick glass bottles, there is a
great destruction of bottles and loss of wine in the factories where
these wines are made and prepared for the market.
“It seems, then, that the wine referred to by our Lord must
have possessed chemical properties very different from those of
modern wines. Wines in which the fermentation has ceased,
still wines, have no properties remaining in them which would
render it unsafe to put them into any bottles, new or old, which
are sound and fitted to receive them. Such wines have no ten-
dency to burst bottles. The other kind of wines, sparkling or
effervescing wines, are not fit to be put into leather bottles at all.
106
TWO KINDS OF GRAPES, MUST, AND WINE.
The carbonic acid gas with which they are charged would distend
and crack the leather or burst open the seams.
"What, then, was this wine which would be safely preserved
in new bottles, but would ferment and cause old bottles to burst?
The only answer is, that it was wine, the juice of the grape,
which was as yet unfermented, and contained no alcohol what-
ever!
(6
'It is well known that extensive wine-growers keep tons of
unfermented grape juice, and some of it for as long as ten years.
It is well known that the ancients kept unfermented grape juice,
preserved in its sweet state for a full year, and called it semper
mustum. It is a fact that at this very day, both in France and in
the East, unfermented wine is made and drunk, and sometimes
kept for months or years. It is also a fact that to those who
drink it the flavor appears to become more mellowed and grate-
ful by the influence of time; so that no one who drinks this old
wine straightway desires new, for he says, THE OLD IS BETTER.
"In this wine, in this must is found a liquid which perfectly
fulfills the three conditions which are demanded by the terms of
our Lord's parable.
"1. If this wine, properly prepared, be put into new bottles,
it will keep for any length of time without fermenting.
"2. If, however, this prepared must be put into a leather skin
which has before contained wine, fermentation will necessarily
ensue. Minute portions of albuminoid matter would be left
adhering to the skin, and receive yeast germs from the air, and
keep them in readiness to set up fermentation in the new unfer-
mented contents of the skin. For as soon as the unfermented
grape juice was introduced, the yeast germs would begin to grow
in the sugar and to develop carbonic dioxide. If the must con-
tained one-fifth sugar, it would develop forty-seven times its
volume of the gas, and produce a pressure of 34.3 atmospheres,
i. e., 1,300 lbs. to the square inch, about ten times the pressure
which an ordinary high-pressure steam-engine has to withstand.
No leathern bottle, new or old, could endure this enormous ten-
sion! The bottle would burst and the wine would be spilled.
NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES.
107
$2
3. The must, properly enclosed and kept, improves in quality
and flavor. It is used by modern Turks in many parts of the
East to this day; and either alone or diluted with water makes a
palatable, grateful, and cheering beverage. The same wine has
been imported into England in casks. Non-alcoholic wine has
been largely and successfully prescribed for fever, consumption,
and dyspepsia, from some form of which latter malady Timothy
may have been suffering when St. Paul recommended him to
'drink no longer water,' but to ‘use a little wine.'
"Let the reader observe that it is not here asserted that
this must was the wine to which our Lord referred. It
would be halting logic to argue that because the liquid may
have been must, therefore it was must. Here, however, is
a wine which entirely fulfills the three conditions necessary
to make our Lord's parable really pertinent and applicable to
the lesson he was teaching at the time. Unless some other
liquid also called wine can be identified as possessing the
three properties mentioned above, a candid inquirer will feel
that a case (bordering closely upon actual demonstration) has
been made out; and that he is almost driven to conclude that
the wine, which was present to the mind of Jesus when He thus
spoke, and which was familiar to the experience of all to whom
He was then speaking, was unfermented and non-intoxicating
wine.
"It must always be insisted upon, and it ought always to be
remembered, that 'wine' in Holy Scripture is a general and an
inclusive term. It is manifest that some wine mentioned in Holy
Scripture was intoxicating; but it is certain the word wine is also
used for the fresh unfermented juice of the grape, and for the
must or sweet wine or new wine which was not intoxicating.
The fruit of the vine and the juice of the grape are symbols of
heavenly blessings; the fiery cup which results from fermentation
is the type of the fierce wrath of God!
"When we compare the two assertions, 'Wine is a mocker,'
and 'Wine maketh glad the heart of man,' it is scarcely possible
108
TWO KINDS OF GRAPES, MUST, AND WINË.
to believe that the word 'wine' means the same identical thing
in both sentences. Yet it seems to be generally assumed that it
does. Why should such an assumption be made without any
attempt at proof? Is it usual for any accurate writer to employ a
word in this way, unless he is aware, and his readers are aware,
that the word is in fact used to describe two different things?
Much less is it to be thought that holy men of God, who spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, could speak otherwise
than accurately. Now, the juice of the grape in its natural state
is wholesome and nutritive. It is a cordial and a tonic. But
after fermentation it loses most, if not all, its nutritious qualities,
and is indeed a 'mocker.' It is pleasant to the taste, refreshing
at first to the spirits, but very soon 'it bites like a serpent and
stings like an adder.' The real question is very simple. It is a
question of fact. Is the word 'wine' used in Holy Scripture as
the name of both these liquids? That it is so used no impartial
inquirer can justly deny."-Holy Scripture and Temperance.
We are told by Swedenborg that a bottle signifies the mind of
man, because that is the recipient of truth or falsity as a bottle
contains wine (A. E. 376); also bottles signify the knowledges
which contain truths (A. E. 316); new bottles signify the pre-
cepts and commands of the Lord to the Christian Church; old
bottles signify the statutes and judgments of the Jewish Church.
(A. E. 376.) Ferment signifies the false of evil. (D. P. 284.)
From the above we can readily see why, if we attempt to intro-
duce the truths of this new age into minds, however empty they
may be, which simply contain the old knowledge of a past age,
all the truths of which have been destroyed by the false of evil.
until evils are justified and approved, the attempt is a failure; for if
we ever succeed in getting some ideas into the knowledges already
existing in the mind, evil or perverted appetites and passions assail
until the knowledges are torn asunder and the truths cast out.
Before new truths can be received, and be retained, there
must be new bottles, derived from the letter of the Word and
confirmed thereby, otherwise the bottles will be rent and the truth
NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES.
109
cast forth.
Men must have some desire to know the truth and
obey it, before they can see the truth or receive it upon so plain a
question as the duty of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks.
So on this wine question: true doctrine must be drawn from
the literal sense of the Word and confirmed by it; for, we are
taught, that:
"Doctrine is not only to be drawn from the literal sense of
the Word, but it is also to be confirmed by that sense" (S. S. 54) ;
also, that "The doctrine of genuine truth may be fully drawn
from that sense.”—Ibid.(55). Moreover, "True doctrine can-
not be collected from the spiritual sense of the Word" on the
wine question any more than it can be upon any other doctrine
of the Church; for "Doctrine is not attainable by means of that
sense, but only capable of receiving illustration and confirmation
from it."—Ibid.(56).
Since the Last Judgment, the Lord has poured out bounti-
fully good and true principles upon the human race. This
influx from God has not been limited to any nation, class, or
religion, but has come down out of the new heavens to the
universal man, according to efflux. It has quickened his facul-
ties in the arts, sciences, mechanics, and agriculture. It has
stirred up the spirit of research in all directions. Men of all
religions, moved by this divine spirit, have been led to examine
the Word of God on the wine question. They have brought to
their aid the divinely appointed handmaid, the natural sciences;
which sciences, as far as they are true, form a plane of life for
the influx of Divine Truth out of heaven.
By means of science we understand the chemistry of wine not
fermented, and the chemistry of wine fermented; we also know
something of the effects of both upon the human body, in health
and in sickness. We know that alcohol belongs to therapeutics
and the arts, and not to dietetics. And when it is introduced
into a healthy human body under the name of wine, whisky, or
brandy, it flows into its passions and lusts, and excites evil dispo-
sitions which lead to all forms of vice.
IIO
TWO KINDS OF STRONG DRINK.
STRONG DRINK.
:
When strong drink is named in the Word, the natural inference
is by the men of this perverted age, that reference is made to
alcoholic drinks or distilled liquors, for such drinks to-day are
alone regarded as strong drinks; but when we remember that
the art of distilling was not discovered until about the sixth
century of the Christian era, except perhaps in a rude form in
China and Ceylon, we know, with reasonable certainty, that such
drinks were not meant. The ancients unquestionably had, as we
have to-day, other fermented drinks which would cause intoxica-
tion besides wine. Says the Rev. Wm. Ritchie, of Scotland :
"Shechar means luscious drink, or sweet syrup, especially of sugar
or honey, of dates or of the palm-tree. The Hebrew word is usu、
ally rendered by the translators of our English Bible 'strong drink.'
This is not a happy rendering of the original term. The epithet
'strong,' for which there is nothing equivalent in the Hebrew,
conveys the idea that the drink is highly intoxicating. But
Shechar, of itself conveys no such idea. We examine the pas-
sages where it is used, and we find it in numerous instances
spoken of along with Yain; and, as we know this latter word is
a general term to denote the juice of the grape, we conclude
that Shechar is a general name for liquor made from dates, grain,
or other fruits, the produce of the vine excepted. We have no
word in our language equivalent to the Hebrew term Shechar;
and it had been better, if, like some others of this class, it had
been left untranslated in our version of the Scriptures. In this
case, it would not have suggested to the mind a strong intoxicat-
ing drink. This is true,' says Moses Stuart, 'of neither Yain
nor Shechar. Both words are generic. The first means vinous
liquor of any kind and every kind. The second means a cor-
responding liquor from dates and other fruits, or from several
kinds of grain. Both liquors have in them the saccharine
principle, and, therefore, they may become alcoholic, but both
may be kept and used in an unfermented state."—Scripture Tes-
timony against Wine.
6
TWO KINDS OF STRONG DRINK.
III
If the words in the original Sacred Scriptures, which have been
translated by the term strong drink, in contrast with wine, ever
denote what we understand by the word strong, it is evident that
reference must have been had to some quality aside from that
which resulted from fermentation; for it is reasonably certain that
they had no drink stronger to cause intoxication than fermented
wine. It is supposed by some writers that such drinks were
prepared by mixing various medicinal or stimulating substances
with fermented drinks, which, to say the least, is a somewhat
unreasonable supposition. While opium is strong to stupify,
ipecac to vomit, jalap to purge, mustard to irritate the skin and
mucous membranes, nux vomica to cause convulsions, and
alcohol to cause unnatural excitement and drunkenness, none of
these substances are strong in a genuine sense; for while they are
strong to cause suffering and disease, they are not strong to
supply the ordinary wants of the body, by giving nourishment
and thus strength. The very fact that strong drink in the Word
sometimes has a good signification, and is classed with oxen,
sheep and wine, as in Deut. xiv. 26, is evidence that in an
unpolluted and unperverted state it could neither have been
fermented, nor have been a drugged drink; therefore Swedenborg
says: "That strong drink signifies the truth of the natural man
derived from the spiritual." (Swedenborg's Index to the A. E.)
It will be seen that this signification is precisely what we should
expect, if instead of an unnaturally stimulating, irritating, and
exciting fluid, it was really what its name signifies, a nourishing,
strengthening fluid, giving healthy substance to the body.
Now, we have a plenty of drinks in use to-day, to some of
which Rev. Wm. Ritchie alludes above, which are really strong in
a good and true sense; strong to nourish, and give strength
without causing unnatural excitement, which consequently have
unquestionably a good correspondence. Of such drinks we
have milk; gruels made with milk or water from the flour or meal
of our different grains, or by boiling rice or barley; and the
ancients, by adding their sweet boiled grape juice or good wine,
had a palatable and delightful drink, entirely harmless, and every
II 2
TWO KINDS OF STRONG DRINK.
way useful.
The Scotsman of to-day, while resting from his
work, readily prepares a really strong beverage by adding oatmeal
to the water which he drinks. The early settlers of New
England had such a drink in their bean porridge, which they
carried into the fields for their dinners.
But we all know that these healthy, life-giving drinks, like
unfermented wine, may become polluted by fermentation; or
may be mingled with fermented wine, and thus become injurious,
poisonous, and destructive when used as drink; consequently
Swedenborg tells us "That to mingle strong drink signifies to
confirm falses.' (Swedenborg's Index to A. E. 379.)
To fill a vacant space on this page, the following extract from
a brief reply of the Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler to Dr. Crosby's
open letter, is inserted:
"As to this whole contested question of the relation of God's Word to
the use of alcoholic beverages, we believe the following positions impreg-
nable:
"1. The Bible in various passages points out the evils of intoxicating
drinks. It never pronounces a blessing on intoxicants, but often warns us
against tampering with them.
"2. The Bible in several passages commends abstinence from alcoholic
beverages. But there is not a single line in God's Word which condemns
total abstinence.
"3. The Bible is to be studied as a whole; and the whole spirit of this
blessed Word from heaven is the spirit of self-control, sobriety, purity,
avoidance of temptation, and of self-denial for the sake of our fellow-men.
"On these views of God's Word the total abstinence army are an unit;
against these views the "gates of hell" can never prevail. But even if the
Bible did not contain a single syllable about wine or strong drink, we have
an inexhaustible armory of arguments for entire abstinence in science, medi-
cal testimony, common sense, and the first principles of philanthropy.
"Chancellor Crosby's wild assault on our reform is already working a
vast benefit. The volume of replies issued from our publication house ought
to be circulated by the thousands.”
CHAPTER V.
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
We have seen that, from a careful examination of the Sacred
Scriptures, we have an abundance of evidence that two kinds of
wine, one good and the other bad, are mentioned therein. Says
the Rev. Dr. Herrick Johnson, of Philadelphia :
"Now, what if there is another kind of wine spoken of in the
Word of God that carnot possibly be intoxicating, where ferment-
ation and the consequent presence of alcohol are out of the
question-what then? Why, is it not reasonable and consistent,
the demand alike of common sense and common conscience,
to regard this as the wine commended in Scripture as a blessing
making glad the heart of man.
"Gedaliah, made governor by the King of Babylon over the
cities of Judah, thus commanded the Jews (Jer. xl. 10): 'Gather
ye wine, and summer fruits, and oil, and put them in your
vessels.' And the record is, 'they gathered wine and summer
fruits very much.' The Bible also speaks of 'presses bursting
with new wine,' of 'wine found in the cluster;' and it says of
this wine, and of this only, and in this very connection, 'a bless-
ing is in it.' Here is frequent reference to the pure, unfermented
juice of the grape as just trodden out of the presses, just gathered
from the vintage, and even as found in the cluster. And here
this grape juice is repeatedly, and by the Jews themselves, in
their own Scriptures, called wine both yayin and tirosh.
"There is no exploit of logic that can make any sane man
believe this to be the very same wine elsewhere called 'a mocker.'
The deceitful, subtle, serpent element has not yet entered it;
for alcohol requires time and a process for its formation. It is
the simple, unfermented juice of the grape, just as cider right out
of the press is the simple, unfermented juice of the apple. And
113
I 14
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
as such, God says, a blessing is in it. Here, then, is the scrip-
tural distinction between wine and wine. It is not made to suit
a modern exigency. God's Word makes it. Is it only a ‘hair-
breadth' distinction? Is there nothing more than that between
'a blessing' and 'a mocker'? Each was called wine by the Jews,
because wine [yayin] is a generic word applied to the juice of
the grape in all conditions, whether sour or sweet, old or new,
fermented or unfermented.
"Let one thing more be now proved, and the whole case is
too clear for question. Were the ancients in the habit of
preserving and using as such, free from fermentation, this juice
of the grape which they called wine? Beyond all doubt they
were. The evidence is to be found in almost any classical
authority. So say Plato, Columella, Pliny, Aristotle. So indicate
Horace, Homer, Plutarch. Some of these ancient writers give
in detail the very processes of boiling, filtering, and sulphuriza-
tion by which the wines were preserved from fermentation.
Anthon, in his 'Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,'
Archbishop Potter in his 'Grecian Antiquities,' Smith in his
'Dictionary of the Bible,' and many other competent scholars
confirm and support this position. Moses Stuart, that prince of
philologists, says, 'Facts show that the ancients not only preserved
wine unfermented, but regarded it as of a higher flavor and
finer quality than fermented wine. Facts show that it was, and
might be, drunk at pleasure without any inebriation whatever.
On the other hand, facts show that any considerable quantity of
fermented wine did and would produce inebriation.' There is
no ancient custom with a better amount and character of proof
than this."
Rev. Dr. E. Nott, late President of Union College, in his
fourth lecture says: "That unintoxicating wines existed from
remote antiquity, and were held in high estimation by the wise
and good, there can be no reasonable doubt. The evidence is
unequivocal and plenary.' "***“We know that then, as now,
inebriety existed; and then, as now, the taste for inebriating wines
may have been the prevalent taste, and intoxicating wines the
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
115
popular wines. Still unintoxicating wines existed, and there were
men who preferred such wines, and who have left on record the
avowal of that preference."-Nott (Lon. ed. p. 85).
Professor Moses Stuart, says: "Wine and strong drink are a
good, a blessing, a token of divine favor, and to be ranked
with corn and oil. The same substances are also an evil. Their
use is prohibited; and woe is denounced to all who seek for
them. Is there a contradiction here-a paradox incapable of
any satisfactory solution? Not at all. We have seen that these
substances were employed by the Hebrews in two different
states; the one was a fermented state, the other an unfermented
Is there any serious difficulty now in acquitting
the Scriptures of contradiction in respect to this subject? I do
not find any. * * * I can only say, that to me it seems
plain-so plain that no wayfaring man need to mistake it.
one.
(C
* * *
My final conclusion is this, viz.: that, whenever the Scrip-
tures speak of wine as a comfort, a blessing, or a libation to
God, and rank it with such articles as corn and oil, they mean—
they can mean-only such wine as contained no alcohol that
could have a mischievous tendency; that wherein they denounce
it, prohibit it, and connect it with drunkenness and revelling;
they can mean only alcoholic or intoxicating wine.
"If I take the position that God's Word and works entirely
harmonize, I must take the position that the case before us is as
I have represented it to be.”
Rev. Dr. William Patton, in his excellent work on "Bible
Wines and Wines of the Ancients,” says:
"We cannot imagine that Pliny, Columella, Varro, Cato, and
others were either cooks or writers of cook-books, but were
intelligent gentlemen moving in the best circles of society. So
when they, with minute care give the recipes for making sweet
wine, which will remain so during the year, and the processes
were such as to prevent fermentation, we are persuaded that
these were esteemed in their day. That they were so natural
and so simple as to like these sweet, harmless beverages is rather
in their favor, and not to be set down against them, That there
116
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
were men in their day, as there are many in ours, who loved and
used intoxicating drinks, is a fact which marked their degradation.
"Sweet is grateful to the new-born infant. It is loved by the
youth, by the middle-aged, and by the aged. This taste never
dies. In strict keeping with this, we find that the articles, in their
great variety, which constitute the healthful diet of man, are
palatable by reason of their sweetness. Even of the flesh of fish
and birds and animals we say, 'How sweet!'
"Whilst this taste is universal, it is intensified in hot climates.
It is a well-authenticated fact that the love of sweet drinks is a
passion among Orientals. For alcohol, in all its combinations,
the taste is unnatural and wholly acquired. To the natural
instinct it is universally repugnant."
After speaking of the pure blood of the grape, the Rev. Dr.
Samson says:
"The second product of the grape, and next in purity, is
doubtless the debsh. When, by English and other translators of
the Reformation period, this word was rendered, according to
the best lights of their day, 'honey,'-the East was shut up to
Christian scholars. It was a striking ordering of Providence that
just before the expedition of Napoleon into Egypt, about a. D.
1800, which led on to the opening of the Bible lands to Christain
exploration, a leader among German rationalists, replied to by
Hengstenberg, maintained that the writer of the Book of Genesis
could have known nothing about Egypt, or he would not have
suggested that Jacob sent down a present of 'honey' to Pharaoh
(Gen. xliii. 11). The modern traveller finds everywhere in the
ancient land of Jacob's inheritance that the juice of the sweet
grape is boiled down to a syrup, still called by the old name dibs,
whose spicy and nectar-like sweetness makes it one of the most
delicious of condiments; while, at the very location whence
Jacob sent it to Pharaoh, at Hebron, it is prepared in great
quantities and sent to Egypt as an article of trade.
"It is this syrup with which it is repeatedly declared by Moses
the land of promise 'flowed' (Ex. iii. 8), etc.; and though the
honey of bees, gathered mainly from the grapes, is, when flowing
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
117
from the comb, called by the same name, because it is substan-
tially the same article (as Jud. xiv. 8, 1 Sam. xiv. 25, 29), yet the
debsh of Moses is almost always the product of the grape pre-
pared by boiling. In only three cases, out of nearly fifty, does
the word refer to the product prepared by bees rather than by
man."
"There is abundance of evidence," says the Rev. Dr. Patton,
"that the ancients mixed their wines with water; not because
they were so strong, with alcohol, as to require dilution, but
because, being rich syrups, they needed water to prepare them
for drinking. The quantity of water was regulated by the rich-
ness of the wine and the time of year."
"Those ancient authors who treat upon domestic manners
abound with the allusions to this usage. Hot water, tepid
water, or cold water was used for the dilution of wine according
to the season. 'Hesiod prescribed, during the summer months,
three parts of water to one of wine.' 'Nicochares considers two
parts of wine to five of water as the proper proportion.'
'According to Homer, Pramnian and Meronian wines required
twenty parts of water to one of wine. Hippocrates considered
twenty parts of water to one of the Thracian wine to be the
proper beverage.' 'Theophrastus says the wine at Thasos is
wonderfully delicious.' Athenæus states that the Taniotic has
such a degree of richness or fatness that when mixed with water
it seemed gradually to be diluted, much in the same way as Attic
honey well mixed.”—Bible Commentary (p. 17).
How many of the advocates of fermented wine, of our day,
would be satisfied with one part of their wine to twenty parts of
water, or even one of wine to five of water? But we can readily
understand how a man, of unperverted taste, would be abundantly
satisfied with one part of the thick boiled wines of the ancients
to twenty of water.
"The annexed engraving of the Thermopolium is copied from
the scarce work of Andreas Baccius (De Nat. Vinorum Hist.,
Rome, 1597, lib. iv., p. 178). The plan was obtained by him-
self, assisted by two antiquaries, from the ruins of the Diocletian
118
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
Baths (Rome). Nothing can more clearly exhibit the contrast
between the ancient wines and those of modern Europe than
the widely different modes of treating them. The hot water
was often necessary, says Sir Edward Barry, to dissolve their
more inspissated and old wines."—Kitto (ii. p. 956).

:
MUL
SUM
CHIUM
FALER
NUM
FRIGI
DUM
TE PI
DUM
CALIDUY
MUR
RI
NUM
PRAM
TUM
CEOU
BUM
The prohibition of intoxicating wines to women was enforced
by the severest penalties. "Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, and others
have noticed the hereditary transmission of intemperate propen-
sities; and the legislation that imposed abstinence upon women
had unquestionably in view the greater vigor of the offspring-
the ‘mens sana in corpore sano'. (a healthy mind in a healthy
body)." Bible Commentary (p. 72).
Surely if fermented wine were a good and useful article, neces-
sary for health and happiness, women who are bearing, nursing,
and rearing children would seem to need it if any one needs it ;
but the ancients did not think that they needed fermented wine.
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
119
ANCIENT METHODS OF PRESERVING WINE SO AS TO PREVENT
FERMENTATION.
"The laws of fermentation are laws of nature, and work always
under the same circumstances.
"1. There must be saccharine matter and gluten.
“2. The temperature must not be below 50° nor above 75°
Fahrenheit. Under 50° it does not ferment, over 75° it turns
to vinegar by a first and direct fermentation.
(6
3. It must not be too thick, like syrup. It must be of the
proper consistency.
"Experience demonstrates that grape juice never undergoes
vinous fermentation in the grape. Science says that this is
prevented by the absence of two conditions :
“1. The gluten is deposited in separate sacs, or cells, and so
kept from the saccharine matter.
"2. The saccharine matter is kept from the oxygen of the
atmosphere, which is needed to change the saccharine matter
before it can set up the process of vinous fermentation. Grapes
rot on the vine, but do not turn to alcohol. Nature never pro-
duces alcohol.
"It is also matter of experience that a warm climate produces
sweet fruits; a cold season gives us sour fruits. The change is
manifest.
"Palestine is a hot climate. During the season for gathering
the grapes the temperature is seldom as low as 100°. Nature
provides for souring and decaying the grapes, but does not
provide for vinous fermentation, which is impossible at a temper-
ature above 75°.
"Were the Jews and ancients acquainted with any process for
preserving the juice of the grape, the unfermented wine? They
used various processes to secure this result :
(6
66
1. They excluded the air from the sweet wine.
2. They boiled down the juice to the consistency of syrup.
3. They filtered it and so broke its power by removing its
gluten.
120
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
4. They kept it cool and excluded from the air till the gluten
subsided, then drew off the wine, which was safe from fermenta-
tion.
"5. They also used sulphur to neutralise the yeast or gluten."
"Proof is overwhelming that they did use these modes of
preserving the unfermented wines."-Wines of the Bible, by Rev.
Dr. C. H. Fowler.
"Some persons tell us," says the Rev. William Ritchie, of
Scotland, "this fermentation is a vital principle, and that there-
-fore the thing produced is a good creature of God. "They
forget entirely,' says Liebig, 'that the fermentation of grape
juice begins with a chemical action,' which is opposed to a vital
one. 'It is contrary to all sober rules of research to regard the
vital process of an animal or a plant as the cause of fermentation.'
"The opinion that they take any share in the morbid process
must be rejected as an hypothesis destitute of all support.' 'In
all fungi, analysis has detected the presence of sugar, which,
during their vital process, is NOT resolved into alcohol and car-
bonic acid, but, after their death, from the moment that a change
in their color and consistency is perceived, the vinous fermenta-
tion sets in, it is the very reverse of the vital process to which
this must be ascribed.' 'Life is opposed to putrefaction."
Count Chaptal, the eminent French chemist, says: "Nature
never forms spirituous liquors; she rots the grape upon the
branch, but it is art which converts the juice into (alcoholic)
wine." It is an invention of man.
Dr. Henry Monroe, in his Lecture on Alcohol, says: "Alcohol
is nowhere to be found in any product of nature; was never
created by God; but is essentially an artificial thing prepared by
man through the destructive process of fermentation.'
Although we called attention to several of these methods, and
gave the testimony of ancient writers upon this subject, and
showed conclusively from their writings that some of their most
celebrated wines, especially their old wines, were unfermented,
and consequently unintoxicating; still not a single New Church
writer, in replying to us, so far as we are aware, has even noticed
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS:
12 F
this testimony; but all have assumed, without any hesitation, that
there was no other wine used at the various periods when the
Sacred Scriptures were written but fermented wine.
We gave the testimony of Horace, born 65 B. C., that there
was no wine sweeter to drink than the Lesbian, and that it
was perfectly harmless and would not produce intoxication. Of
Aristotle, born 384 years B. C., that the wine of Arcadia was so
thick that it was necessary to scrape it from the skin bottles in
which it was contained, and to dissolve the scrapings in water
before drinking it; which, of course, is conclusive evidence that
it was not fermented, as fermentation destroys the glutinous
matter of wine, and thus makes the wine thin. We gave also the
testimony of Virgil, born 70 B. C., of Columella, cotemporaneous
with the Apostles, of Plutarch and Pliny,that in their day, it was
customary to preserve wine by boiling it; and also the testimony
of many other ancient authors that unfermented wines were pre-
served and used, and were highly esteemed, and regarded and
spoken of as the best wines. It is difficult to see how any man,
who desires to know the truth upon this subject, can disregard
all this testimony; but, as our New Church writers have done so,
it seems necessary to produce further testimony, which we shall
do without repeating to any considerable extent, the quotations
from ancient and more recent writers contained in our tract.
PRESERVING WINE AND PREVENTING FERMENTATION BY BOILING.
Among the ancients, Pliny, Columella, Varo and Cato were
men of distinction, and they gave minute attention to the preser-
vation of unfermented wines.
Boiling the recently expressed juice of grapes was undoubtedly
one of the earliest and most frequent methods of preserving wine
from fermentation.
Archbishop Potter, born A. D. 1674, in his 'Grecian Antiqui-
ties' (Edinburgh edition, 1813, vol. ii. p. 360), says: "The
Lacedæmonians used to boil their wines upon the fire till the
fifth part was consumed; then after four years were expired
began to drink them.' He refers to Democritus, a celebrated
!
122
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
philosopher, who travelled over the greater part of Europe, Asia,
and Africa, and who died 361 B. C.; also, to Palladius, a Greek
physician, as making a similar statement. These ancient autho-
rities called the boiled juice of the grape wine, and the learned
archbishop brings forward their testimony without the slightest
intimation that the boiled juice was not wine in the judgment of
the ancients."-Bible Wines.
Adams' "Roman Antiquities," first published in Edinburgh,
1791, on the authority of Pliny and Virgil, says: "In order to
make wine keep, they used to boil [decoquerre] the must down
to one-half, when it was called defrutum, to one-third, sapa."
(6
Virgil, the sweet poet of nature," says the Rev. Dr. G. W.
Samson, "writing under Augustus, pictures (Georg. 1. 295) the
delight of the winter evenings in his own rural home; when the
laborer sat by the fire sharpening his tools; and his wife, beguiling
their common toil with her song, was boiling the 'flowing sweet
must' [dulcis musti humorem]; this picture revealing how the
product of the grape was used by the simple children of nature
at that day.
“As artificial heating drives off water, whose presence is essen-
tial to fermentation, the boiling of grape juice to a syrup, the
debhs of the Hebrews and the dibs of the Arabs, prevents the
formation of alcohol."
66
'Pliny says, 'some Roman wines were as thick as honey,'
also that the 'Albanian wine was very sweet or luscious, and that
it took the third rank among all the wines.' He also tells of a
Spanish wine in his day, called 'inerticulum'- that is, would not
intoxicate — from 'iners,' inert, without force or spirit, more
properly termed 'justicus sobriani,' sober wine, which would
not inebriate.”—Anti-Bac. (p. 221).
"Columella, who lived in the days of the Apostles, says the
Greeks called this unintoxicating wine 'Amethyston,' from
Alpha, negative, and methusis, intoxicate—that is, a wine which
would not intoxicate. He adds that it was a good wine, harmless,
and called 'iners,' because it would not affect the nerves, but at
the same time it was not deficient in flavor."—A. B. (p. 221).
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
123
Boiling is beyond question one of the best, if not the very best
method of preserving wine, as the entire substance of the wine is
preserved, with the exception of the water, which can be readily
restored when it is required for use. In most of the other
methods, where foreign substances are not used to prevent
fermentation, the gluten, which is an important part of the fruit of
the vine, is removed; consequently we find that in all ages, even
down to the present day, boiling has been a very frequent resort
in wine-growing countries.
Names may change, but substances do not change with the
change of their names. Certain missionaries, a few years ago,
declared that there were no unfermented wines used in Palestine
at that day, and that by careful inquiry they could not hear of
any such wines; but it is evident, from the testimony which
we shall produce from other missionaries and travellers, that if
they had inquired for boiled grape juice or dibs, and had been
familiar with the writings of the ancients who describe the method
of boiling, and who called such boiled grape juice wine, and
spoke of it as the best wine, they would have made no such
statements as they did; for they were undoubtedly honest, but
lacking in a knowledge of the necessary facts, which would have
enabled them to speak understandingly. "Pliny says, that intoxi-
cating wine, vinum, was once called temetum; and in the East
now, krasion has displaced the classical oinos."—Communion
Wine, by Rev. William M. Thayer.
The fact that at the time the above missionaries wrote, fer-
mented wine had come to be the only wine passing by the name
of wine, does not destroy the fact that, notwithstanding their
testimony, there is a wine to-day prepared precisely as the
ancients in the days of the Apostles prepared their wine, which
they called wine. Rev. H. Holmes, American missionary at Con-
stantinople, in regard to the supposition that among the ancients
the chief product of the vine was fermented wine, says: "Now as
a resident in the East, we believe sufficient facts can be adduced
to render it extremely probable that this supposition is erroneous,
and that the fabrication of an intoxicating liquor was never the
chief object for which the grape was cultivated among the Jews."
124
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
W. G. Brown, who travelled extensively in Africa, Egypt, and
Syria, from A. D. 1792 to 1798, states that "the wines of Syria
are most of them prepared by boiling immediately after they are
expressed from the grape, till they are considerably reduced in
quantity, when they were put into jars or large bottles and pre-
served for use." He adds, "There is reason to believe that this
mode of boiling was a general practice among the ancients."
Volney, 1788, in his "Travels in Syria," vol. ii. chap. 29, says:
“The wines are of three sorts, the red, the white, and the yellow.
The white, which are the most rare, are so bitter as to be dis-
agreeable; the two others, on the contrary, are too sweet and
sugary. This arises from their being boiled, which makes them
resemble the baked wines of Provence. The general custom of
the country is to reduce the must to two-thirds of its quantity."
“The most esteemed is produced from the hillside of Zouk-
it is too sugary.'
"Such are the wines of Lebanon, so boasted
by Grecian and Roman epicures." "It is probable that the
inhabitants of Lebanon have made no change in their ancient
method of making wines."-Bacchus (p. 374, note).
Dr. Bowring, in his report on the commerce of Syria, praises,
as of excellent quality, a wine of Lebanon consumed in some
of the convents of Lebanon, known by the name of vino d'or-
golden wine. (Is this the yellow wine which Volney says is too
sweet and sugary?) But the Doctor adds, "that the habit of
boiling wine is almost universal.”—Kitto (ii. 956).
Caspar Neuman, M. D., Professor of Chemistry, Berlin, 1759,
says: "It is observable that when sweet juices are boiled down
to a thick consistence, they not only do not ferment in that
state, but are not easily brought into fermentation when diluted
with as much water as they had lost in the evaporation, or even
with the very individual water that exhaled from them."—Nott
(Lond. ed., p. 81).
Dr. Thomson says: "The Moslems make no fermented wines ;
they boil the juice down to preserve it, and they claim to have
received this custom from the remotest antiquity."
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
125
PRESENT CUSTOMS IN WINE-GROWING COUNTRIES OF EUROPE AND
ASIA.
The late Rev. Dr. Duffield, who travelled through Palestine,
("Bible Rule of Temperance," p. 180), says: "The modern
Turks, whose religion forbids the use of fermented wine, make
use of the inspissated juice of the grape, or 'must,' and carry it
along with them in their journeys."
Dr. Jacobus says: "All who know of the wines then used well
understand the unfermented juice of the grape. The purest
wines of Jerusalem and Lebanon, as we tasted them, were com-
monly boiled and sweet, without intoxicating qualities such as we
here get in liquors called wines. The boiling prevents fermenta-
tation. Those were esteemed the best wines which were least
strong."
Rev. Dr. Eli Smith, a missionary in Syria, in the Bibliotheca
Sacra for November, 1846, describes the methods of making
wine in Mount Lebanon as numerous, but reduces them to three
classes. First: The simple juice of the grape is fermented.
Second: The juice of the grape is boiled down before fermenta-
tion. Third: The grapes are partially dried in the sun before
being pressed.
Dr. Duff, in the Missionary Record, 1840, describes his journey
through France to India, and says: "Look at the peasant at his
meals in the vine-bearing districts! Instead of milk, he has a
basin of pure unadulterated blood of the grape. In this, its
native original state, it is a plain, simple, and wholesome liquid;
which, at every repast, becomes to the husbandman what milk is
to the shepherd; not a luxury, but a necessary; not an intoxi-
cating, but a nutritive, beverage."
In 1845, Captain Treatt wrote: "When on the south coast of
Italy last Christmas, I inquired particularly about the wines in
common use, and found that those esteemed the best were sweet
and unintoxicating. The boiled juice of the grape is in common
use in Sicily. The Calabrians keep their intoxicating and unin-
toxicating wines in separate apartments. The bottles were gene-
126
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
rally marked. From inquiries, I found that unfermented wines
were esteemed the most. It was drank mixed with water.
Great pains were taken, in the vintage season, to have a good
stock of it laid by. The grape juice was filtered two or three
times, and then bottled, and some put in casks and buried in
the earth. Some keep it in water to prevent fermentation.”-
Dr. Lees' Works (vol. ii. p. 144).
Mr. Alsop, a minister of the Society of Friends, wrote to Dr.
Lees in 1861 ("Pre. Dis. of Bible Tem. Com." p. 34): "The
syrup of grape juice is an article of domestic manufacture in
almost every house in the vine districts of the South of France.
It is simply the juice of the grape boiled down to the consistence
of treacle.
* * * As to the use of ordinary wine, it is almost
entirely confined to the men. It is proverbial that if a young
woman is known to be in the habit of using it, she is unlikely to
receive proposals of marriage."
"The reader should bear in mind and particularly notice that
a 'thick syrup will not undergo vinous fermentation, and that an
excess of sugar is unfavorable to this process.' But it will undergo
the acetous, and become sour. This our wives understand.
For, when their sweatmeats ferment, they do not produce alcohol,
but become acid, sour. This is not a secondary, but the first
and only fermentation-by the inevitable law that where there is
a superabundance of saccharine matter and more than 75° of
heat, then the vinous fermentation does not take place, but the
acetous will certainly and immediately commence."—Bible Wines.
PRESERVATION OF WINE BY EVAPORATION.
'Evaporation, or perfect dryness, prevents every kind of fer-
mentation (Watts, 11. 635; Gmelin, vii. 100). This was easily
attained by the wine being put in large bottles and suspended in
the chimney, called fumarium. 'Liquids evaporate at tempera-
tures below their boiling point' ('Fownes' Chem.,' 10 ed., p. 46).
The Oriental traveller, Mr. Buckingham ('Travels among Arab
Tribes,' London, 1825, p. 137), was treated at Cufr Injey to cakes
of wine, which he describes as a very curious article, probably
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
127
resembling the dried wine of the ancients, quite hard and dry, in
shape like a cucumber, capable of being kept fresh and good for
many months---a welcome treat at all times, and particularly well
adapted for sick or delicate persons who might require some
grateful provision that could be carried in small compass without
risk of injury on the journey. He also describes (p. 140) this
dried wine as having the consistency of portable soup. Nor is
solidity or perfect desiccation necessary, for fermentation demands
a great degree of liquidity, taking place only when the solution is
sufficiently diluted with water (Watts, ii. 630; Gmelin, xv. 268)."
Dr. Kerr, in his "Unfermented Wine a Fact," says: "The
Persians sometimes boil the duschab (a syrup of sweet wine or
must) so long that they reduce it to a paste for the convenience
of travellers, who lay in a stock of it for the journey, cutting it
with a knife, and diluting it with water to serve as a drink."
Travels in Muscovy, Tartary, and Persia, by Adam Olearius,
Ambassador for Holstein, by Wicquefort (lib. v. 802).
Olearius adds: "One can reduce five hogsheads to one, say
some chemists, and, amongst others, the celebrated Mr. Glauber,
by boiling the sweet wine or must down to a fifth part, because
there is no apparent sign that the wine loses the character it pos-
sessed before it was boiled; and, after that, by adding as much
water as was evaporated, one could restore it to the same quantity
and give it the same goodness as it formerly had."—Ibid. (803).
KEEPING COOL AND SETTLING THE WINE.
Below the temperature of about 45° fermentation is impossi-
ble; and fermentation commences in the gluten, which is a trifle
heavier than the rest of the wine; therefore, if the wine is kept
below that temperature for a few months, or even weeks, the
gluten will settle to the bottom of the cask as lees; which, in this
case, not having been perverted by leaven, have a good corres-
pondence. Then the wine may be carefully removed from the
lees, and it will not ferment; but it will be seen that the wine
has lost an important part of its substance (the gluten), and
4
128
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
therefore it is not so fully the fruit of the vine as it was when
first pressed from the grape, or as boiled wine is which has
simply lost a portion of its water, which can be readily restored,
when the wine is wanted for use; but this method of preserving
wine was well known and frequently practiced by the ancients.
(6
Cato, the earliest of the so-called 'rustic' or agricultural
writers, about B. C. 200, describes specially the mode of preparing
must, or unfermented wine, thus: 'If you wish to have must all
the year, put the grape juice in a flask [amphora], seal over the
cork with pitch, and lower it into the cistern [piscina]. After
thirty days, take it out; it will be must all the year' ('De Re
Rustica,' c. 120). It is worthy of note that the word mustum
first appears in Latin literature in the age of Cato, about B. C.
200; after which it is often met till Pliny's day, three centuries
later.
"Columella, the rural writer, more fully than Cato at an early
age, describes (xii. 29) the mode of preparing unintoxicating
wine. He says: "That must may remain always sweet, as if it
were fresh, thus do: before the grape-skins have been put under
the press, put must, the freshest possible from the wine-vat, into
a new flask, and seal and pitch it over carefully, so that no water
can get in.
Then sink the flask in cold, sweet water, so that no
part of it shall be uncovered. Then, again, after the fortieth day
take it out; and thus prepared, it will remain sweet throughout
""-Divine Law as to Wines.
the year.
'A portion of the
'When it was desired
"Smith, in his 'Greek and Roman Antiquities,' says: 'The
sweet, unfermented juice of the grape was termed gleukos by the
Greeks and mustum by the Romans the latter word being
properly an adjective signifying new or fresh.'
must was used at once, being drunk fresh.'
to preserve a quantity in the sweet state, an amphora was taken
and coated with pitch within and without; it was filled with
mustum lixivium, and corked so as to be perfectly air-tight. It
was then immersed in a tank of cold fresh water, or buried in wet
sand, and allowed to remain for six weeks or two months. The
contents, after this process, was found to remain unchanged for a
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
129
year, and hence the name, aeigleukos-that is, 'semper mustum,'
always sweet.'”
"Chas. Anthon, LL.D., in his 'Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities,' gives the same receipt and definitions, and fully sus-
tains the position that these preparations of the unfermented
grape juice were by the ancients known as wine.”—Bible Wines.
The modern application of this method of keeping wine unfer-
mented and unintoxicating was thus detailed by Philip Miller,
F.R.S., in 1768: "The way to keep wine long in the must is to
tun it up immediately from the press, and, before it begins to
work, to let down the vessels, closely and firmly stopped, into a
well or deep river, there to remain for six or eight weeks, during
which time the liquor will be so confirmed in its state of crudity
as to retain the same, together with its sweetness, for many
months after, without any sensible fermentation."-The Garden-
ers' Dict. (8th ed.) Art. Wine.
That the sweet, unfermented juice of grapes, either fresh or
preserved by the various processes we are considering, was called
wine by the ancients is beyond question.
"Aristotle says of sweet wine that 'it is a wine in name, but
not in fact—it does not intoxicate.' It had the name, therefore,
even in his day. Josephus, the Jewish historian, paraphrasing
the dream of Pharaoh's butler, who dreamed that he took clusters
of grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and gave the
cup to Pharaoh, repeatedly calls this grape juice wine. Bishop
Lowth, 1778, in his 'Commentary' (Isaiah v. 2), says: "The
fresh juice pressed from the grape' was by Herodotus styled
oinos ampelinos, that is, wine of the vine."-Wine of the Word,
by Rev. Dr. Herrick Johnson.
FILTERING WINE TO PREVENT FERMENTATION,
The ancients were in the habit of repeatedly filtering their
wines to prevent fermentation. As we have already stated, fer-
mentation commences in the gluten, which is a thick, jelly-like
substance, or the bread portion of the wine, which does not so
readily pass through fine substances like felt, wool, or linen bags,
130
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
or whatever material was used by the ancients in making their
filters, as the more fluid portions of the wine; consequently, by
repeatedly filtering, and thus separating the gluten, they prevented
fermentation in the wine which passed the filter; but, it will be
seen that, as in the case of keeping cool and settling the gluten,
they lost a valuable and an essential part of the wine, or the part
which nourishes the body of man as good does his spirit. Still
this process is vastly superior to the process of fermentation, even
aside from the latter's contaminating the wine by leaving in it a
poison which will cause drunkenness, insanity and disease; for
fermentation not only destroys the gluten quite as effectually as
the filter, but it also destroys a large portion of the sugar; and
it perverts, precipitates, or changes the vegetable salts which
the Lord has so carefully organized in the grape for the good of
man. Fermented wine contains very little of the fruit of the
vine or of the substances organized therein unperverted.
"Plutarch, in his 'Symposiacs,' refers to the way of preventing
the fermentation of wine by filtering, as explained by Dr. Ure.
Plutarch says: 'Wine is rendered old, or feeble in strength, when
it is frequently filtered; this percolation makes it more pleasant
to the palate; the strength of the wine is thus taken away without
any injury to its pleasing flavor. The strength (or spirit) being
thus withdrawn (or excluded), the wine neither inflames the
head nor infests the mind and the passions, but is much more
pleasant to drink. Doubtless, defecation takes away the (spirit,
or) potency that torments the head of the drinker; and, this
being removed, the wine is reduced to a state both mild, salubri-
ous and wholesome.' Here is a writer on conviviality-one who
associated with drinkers who asserts that these unintoxicating
wines were most esteemed.
"The 'Delphin Notes to Horace, lib. 1, ode 2, make reference
to the same mode of preventing fermentation. 'Be careful to
prepare for yourself wine percolated and defecated by the filter,
and thus rendered sweet, and more in accordance with nature,
and a female taste.' Females, as we have seen, were not allowed
to drink intoxicating wine. It was this kind of wine which Theo-
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
131
phrastes so appropriately called 'moral wine.'
The mischief
wrought by fermented wine ought, long since, to have earned for
it the title of 'immoral wine.'
"Cato, and other ancient writers, give similar testimony. The
fact that these receipts were furnished to the public is very good
evidence, of itself, that such wine was in use.
"The numerous authorities already cited to show that unfer-
mented grape juice is wine, also prove that unfermented wine
existed.
"Here, then, in spite of assertions to the contrary, is the thing
which we call unfermented wine. No quibble about the use of
terms can avail, for here is the thing, by whatever name it is
called. The name of it may have been different in different
ages; for, as we have seen, Pliny says, that intoxicating wine,
vinum, was once called temetum; and in the East now, krasion
has displaced the classical oinos."—Communion Wine, by Rev.
William M. Thayer.
PRESERVATION OF UNFERMENTED WINE BY THE USE OF SWEET OIL.
If the fresh juice of the grape, that which results from only a
moderate amount of pressure, is strained through a linen strainer
once or more; or until all fragments of the pulp are removed and
the wine is perfectly clear, and it is then put into a clean bottle
until it reaches the neck of the bottle, and a stratum of fresh
sweet oil is poured upon its surface until it reaches the depth of
an inch or two, and then the bottle is corked, the wine will not
ferment, but will keep fresh, as has been found by recent experi-
ments; thus confirming the efficacy of one of the methods of the
ancients, as represented by the following engravings.
"The three cuts," says the Rev. Dr. Samson, "present three
distinct processes in the most ancient modes of preparing unfer-
mented wines, alluded to on pages 46, 54-57, and described on
pages 310-313 (of his work on the 'Divine Law as to Wines').
They are copied from sculptures in relief, richly painted, found
on the walls of tombs at Beni Hassan, in Upper Egypt. They
are found in the volumes of Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and were
132
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
carefully studied by the writer in February, 1848. The tombs
have, at their entrance, the cartouche of Osirtasen I., the Pharaoh
of Joseph's day.
66
"Fig. 1 presents the twist-press, the torcular " of the
Romans, and specially illustrates the straining of the saccharine
from albuminous ingredients in grape juice; the cloth of the sack
preventing the pulpy albumen from passing out with the watery,
sugary fluid. Fig. 2, the tread-press, exhibits the immediate.
drawing off and storing of the strained juice, which issues from
the upper spout of the vat in which the strainer is not seen, pours
into the upper tub, and is thence dipped fresh into jars and
stored in the wine-vault. Fig. 3 shows the mode of preserving
the stored grape juice; the man at the left with a large tureen,
pouring the juice through a cylindrical spout into the jars, while
the youth with an oil-scoop, like those now found in ancient
tombs in Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece, pours a coating of olive oil
on the top of the grape juice in the jars. To this custom of
preserving must and other fruit products by oil, Pliny and Colu-
mella allude: Columella saying (xii. 19) that 'before the must.
is poured into the jars (vasa),' they should be 'saturated with
good oil.'"
FUMIGATION.
Dr. Ure states that fermentation may be stopped by the ap-
plication or admixture of substances containing sulphur; that
the operation consists partly in absorbing oxygen, whereby the
elimination of the yeasty particles is prevented. Adams in his
"Roman Antiquities" on the authority of Pliny and others, says
"that the Romans fumigated their wines with the fumes of sul-
phur; that they also mixed with the mustum, newly pressed
juice, yolks of eggs, and other articles containing sulphur."
Count Dandolo, "On the Art of Preserving the Wines of Italy,"
first published at Milan, 1812, says: "The last process in wine-
making is sulphurization: its object is to secure the most long-
continued preservation of all wines, even of the very commonest
sort."-Nott,
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
133
FIG. I.

FIG. 2.

d d d d d d d d dd b
द
FIG. 3.
00000
dddd

00000
134
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS.
So it will be seen that sulphurization is used to stop fermenta-
tion in our age.
Dr. Adam Clarke says: "The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words
which are rendered wine,' mean simply the expressed juice of
the grape." Hence, we find that different words in the Bible
are translated "wine," which proves that wine is a generic term,
and covers the stores of all sorts of wine spoken of in Nehemiah,
v. 18. At the present day, also, the term is used in precisely
this manner. It may mean grape, currant, raspberry, whortle-
berry, elderberry, madeira, port, sherry, and a hundred other
wines. It may refer to new, old, sweet, sour, weak, or strong
wines. It may refer to enforced or unenforced, fermented or
unfermented wine. Pliny says that, in his day (lib. 14, cap. 22),
the term covered "one hundred and eighty-five different kinds
of wine."
There were various other methods for preserving wine from
fermentation employed among the ancients, such as mixing it
with sea water, spices, etc., but it is unnecessary to refer to them
further, as we have already noticed those most frequently used,
and those least objectionable.
MODERN UNFERMENTED WINE.
Norman Kerr, M. D., of London, in an excellent work just
published, in reply to Rev. A. M. Wilson, says: "I have, time
and again, examined grape juice hours after, by the interference
of man, it has been expressed, and found not a trace of alcohol;
and I have, by repeated experiment, proved that nothing can be
easier than the production and preservation of unfermented wine.
The preparation of this nutritious and cheering non-alcoholic
drink is as speedy, simple, and easy as the manufacture of alco-
holic liquor is tedious, complex and difficult.
CC
Grape juice boiled down to a half, a third, or a fourth of its
bulk, does not ferment for a very long period, and then only
slightly and on the surface. Three months ago I prepared speci-
mens of these unfermented wines of the ancients, defrutum,
one-half evaporated (Plin. N. H. xiv. 9), and sapa, siræum, or hep-
MODERN UNFERMENTED WINE.
135
sema, two-thirds evaporated (Plin. ibid.; Ramsay in Smith, Art.
Vin.), and I have just finished using them. The blood of the
grape was poured warm into ordinary glass bottles, which were
sealed as wine bottles usually are, and it continued unfermented
and free from alcohol to the last. And I had the pleasure, not
long since, of enjoying a refreshing draught from a bottle of
Eastern wine more than four years old, which I found, on chemi-
cal examination, absolutely non-alcoholic."
Rev. Mr. Wilson declared that, "It must have been simply
impossible for the ancients to have preserved their juice liquid
and unfermented, unless they had boiled it in air-tight flasks,
or had expressed it in an atmosphere of hydrogen and carbonic
acid, or had subjected it to a steaming process, and preserved
it in vacuo. But they trode their grapes in an open wine-press,
and pressed out the juice in an open vat, in the open air, so that
fermentation was inevitable."
In answer to this statement, Dr. Kerr, after referring to the
various processes by which wine was preserved free from fermen-
tation by the ancients, and is so preserved at this day, says:
"It may be very wrong of me to drink the impossible, but
this morning, and every morning for the last three weeks,
I have drank of a most pleasing and refreshing liquor, cheer-
ing to the heart and nourishing to the body, as thin as any
full-bodied Tokay, four years and a-half old-the pure juice of
the grape boiled. It was imported in casks from the East, and,
after undergoing the great heat of a prolonged voyage on the
Mediterranean, was poured into Winchester quarts, the corks
being sealed as those of whisky jars generally are.
A month ago
the liquor, after being carefully examined and found absolutely
free from alcohol, was decanted, and though it has been kept in
common wine bottles, it has shown no appearance of ferment-
ing."
After stating the fact that grape juice does not begin to fer-
ment immediately on exposure to the air; and that a period vary-
ing from some hours to several days elapses before the process
of fermentation and the formation of alcohol begin; notwithstand-
136
MODERN UNFERMENTED WINE.
ing Rev. Mr. Wilson's statement to the contrary, Dr. Kerr con-
cludes as follows: "Therefore, it is as clear as the light of the
sun at noon, that the existence of unfermented and unintoxicat-
ing wine amongst both ancients and moderns, is not a myth, but
a fact."
Of the modern unfermented wine he says: "This nineteenth
century non-alcoholic wine (a bottle of which, taken at random
out of my wine-cellar, where it has been for four years, was
analyzed by Mr. Clifford and myself on March 23, 1878, and
found absolutely free from alcohol) I prescribe largely in the
treatment of such diseases as fever, consumption, and that most
depressing malady, dyspepsia, from one of the Protean forms of
which Timothy may have suffered when he received the prescrip-
tion of probably a like wine from the Apostle Paul."
GRAPE JELLY.
Grape jelly, if properly prepared, is one of the most palatable, nourishing
and useful of our articles for food. As a sauce or preserve to eat with
bread and butter, or on meat, or fish, there is in the estimation of the writer-
judging from his own taste-nothing which compares with it. It does not
dissolve readily in cold water; but in hot water, by a little stirring, it will
dissolve sufficiently to make a palatable and nourishing drink.
To make grape jelly, select good, clean, ripe grapes, mash and boil them
in their own juice until they are well cooked, then strain them either
through a fine cullender or sieve, or a coarse linen cloth will do. Press
or rub all of the substance of the grape out which you can, leaving as little
as practicable beside the skins and seed behind; then boil the juice for a
short time. If your grapes are "meaty," you will not need to boil long,
but if there is not much substance to them you will need to boil them
longer. Add three-fourths of a pound of sugar for every pint of juice, if
the grapes are grown in a northern latitude; do not boil long after adding
the sugar—only long enough to thoroughly dissolve the sugar, for long
boiling with sugar impairs the flavor; pour it into glasses or jars; or can it
as you do fruit. It will keep. You need not fear any supposed impurities in
this fruit of the vine, which seem to trouble our wine-drinking friends so
much, for the Lord has carefully organized this substance in the grape for
your use, and He has made no mistake. It is the drinkers of fermented
wine who have made so sad an error.
CHAPTER VI.
DRUNKENNESS IN WINE GROWING AND BEER CONSUMING COUNTRIES.
If we look back upon the history of the world, from the
days of Noah down to the present time, we find that drunkenness
has been one of the most fearful and destructive of the evils
which have afflicted our race. Before the sixth century alcohol,
brandy, whisky, and all distilled liquors, were unknown in Bible
lands; consequently all the drunkenness described by ancient
authors, and so severely denounced in the Bible, was from the
drinking of fermented liquids, and generally of wine. No further
reply than this would seem to be necessary to show the utter
absurdity of recommending the use of wine instead of distilled
liquors, with the expectation of materially modifying the evils of
drunkenness. The truth is, that with the exception of the very
lowest class of society, the present drinking habits are generally
formed by the use of wine and beer; and if we can only stop the
use of these fluids we shall have less drunkenness; for distilled
liquors are so repugnant to the unperverted taste, that there will
be less danger of drunkenness than now.
We take from the Rev. Dr. Samson's work, "The Divine Law
as to Wines," the following statements: "It has been so fre-
quently claimed that if, instead of preaching total abstinence
from all intoxicating drinks, we would recommend the use of
wine and beer instead of distilled liquors, we should do more
good than by advocating total abstinence. Here the work of
Honorable Robert C. Pitman, LL.D., Associate Justice of the
Superior Court of Massachusetts, just issued, and entitled The
Problem of Law as to the Liquor Traffic,' comes in with its
special testimony. While most of the volume is devoted to the
evils of distilled intoxicants, the 19th chapter, entitled the
'Milder Alcoholics,' brings out an array of testimony by careful
137
138
DRUNKENNESS IN WINE GROWING
observers quite unlike that of casual tourists in Europe. Of these
gathered testimonies, the following are specimens: In France,
Montalembert said, in the National Assembly, as early as 1850,
'Where there is a wine-shop, there are the elements of disease,
and the frightful source of all that is at enmity with the interests
of the workman.' In 1872, the French Government appointed
a committee to report on the national vice of wine-drinking. In
the report of their Secretary, they say, after citing the fearful
demoralization produced by wine before, during, and after the
war with Prussia: "There is one point on which the French
Assembly thought and felt alike. *** To restore France to her
right position, their moral and physical powers must be given
back to her people. *** To combat a propensity, which has
long been regarded as venial, because it seemed to debase and
corrupt only the individual, but the prodigious extension of which
has resulted in a menace to society at large, and in the tempo-
rary humiliation of the country, seemed incumbent on the men
to whom that country has entrusted the task of investigating, and
remedying its evils.' In Switzerland, Dr. Guillaume, of the Na-
tional Society for Penitentiary Reform, states, in 1872, that 'the
liberty of the wine-traffic, and intoxication therefrom, is the
source of fifty per cent. of the crimes committed.'
"In Italy, Cardinal Acton, late Supreme Judge at Rome, has
stated that nearly all the crimes at Rome 'originate in the use of
wine.' Recorder Hill, appointed to gather facts abroad, to
influence British legislation, reported in 1858, 'Each of the gover-
nors of state prisons in Baden and Bavaria, assured me that it
was wine in the one country, and beer in the other, which filled
their jails.'
American legislation as to wines and beers is but
following modern as well as ancient experience; for all the
dangers attending the use of distilled liquors are linked to the use
of fermented wines."
"There is an impression," says the Rev. Dr. Fowler, "that
France is a temperate nation. Men ride through the country in
the better class of cars and see little of it, because the matchless
police remove the nuisance; but let them live there, and live
AND BEER CONSUMING COUNTRIES.
139
with the people, and they will change their minds. Listen to the
witnesses: Our author, J. Fenimore Cooper, says: 'I came to
Europe under the impression that there was more drunkenness
among us (Americans) than in any other country. A residence
of six months in Paris changed my views entirely. I have taken
unbelievers about Paris, and always convinced them in one walk.
I have been more struck by drunkenness in the streets of Paris
than in those of London.' Horace Greeley wrote from Paris:
"That wine will intoxicate, does intoxicate; that there are con-
firmed drunkards in Paris and throughout France is notorious
and undeniable.' M. LeClerc says: 'Laborers leave their work,
derange their means, drink irregularly, and transform into drunken
debauch the time which should have been spent in profitable
labor.' A French magazine says: 'Drunkenness is the beginning
and end of life in the great French industrial centres. At Lille
twenty-five per cent. of the men, and twelve per cent. of the
women, are confirmed drunkards.'
"The Count de Montalembert, member of the Academy of
National Sciences, said in the National Assembly of France:
'Where there is a wine-shop, there are the elements of disease,
and the frightful source of all that is at enmity with the interests
of the workman.' M. Jules Simon: 'Women rival the men in
drunkenness. At Lille, at Rouen, there are some so saturated
with it that their infants refuse to take the breast of a sober
woman.' Hon. James M. Usher, Chief Commissioner of Massa-
chusetts to the World's Exposition in Paris, in 1867, says: 'The
drinking habit rnns through every phase of society. I have seen
more people drunk here than I ever saw in Boston for the same
length of time. They are the same class of people too.' Hon.
Caleb Foote, of Salem, Mass., writing from Paris, after large
investigations, denies, in toto, the theory that the people
of the wine-producing countries are sober. Dr. E. N. Kirk,
of Boston, says: 'I never saw such systematic drunkenness as I
saw in France during a residence of sixteen months. The
French go about it as a business. I never saw so many women
i40
DRUNKENNESS IN WINË GROWING
drunk.' Surely there is no lack of testimony. Look at the other
wine-growing countries.
“Rev. E. S. Lacy, of San Francisco, six months in Switzerland
in a wine-growing section, says: 'Here more intoxication was ob-
vious than in any other place it was ever my lot to live in.' Before
the Legislative License Committee of Massachusetts, Dr. Warren,
of the Boston Biblical School, seven years a resident in Germany,
says: 'Drunkenness is very common: every evening drunken
people stagger by my house.' Rev. J. G. Cochran, missionary to
Persia, says of a wine-producing section: "The whole village of
male adults will be habitually intoxicated for a month or six
weeks.' Rev. Mr. Larabee, another missionary to Persia, con-
firms the statement. Even priests coolly excuse their own
irregularities by the plea of drunkenness.
"Thirty-five or forty years ago England attempted to suppress
drunkenness by licensing ale and beer, yet she consumes more
alcohol per head now than then. The consumption of alcohol
has increased in the last fifty years one hundred and seventy-five
per cent.
“Turn to America. How fares it in California? The experi-
ment fails. A State Convention of the friends of Temperance,
in October, 1866, resolved against wine-growing. Conventions
of Congregational ministers and lay delegates, the same month,
reached the same result. They are fully convinced that the
hope of temperance, based on wine, is delusive. This case has
been tried till the State exceeds, perhaps, all others in corruption.
Commissioner Wells says: 'California, with her cheap wines for
temperance, in the year ending June 30, 1867, sold fourteen
times per head as much alcoholic stuff as Maine did, and more
than any other State.'
'Dr. Holland, who, it will be remembered, some time ago
wrote a book recommending wine as a substitute for alcohol-
which book is yet quoted as an authority by those who advocate
this theory-has, since his late travels in the wine-growing countries
of Europe, where he had an opportunity to extend his observa-
tions, declared that his former views were wrong; and that wine-
AND BEER CONSUMING COUNTRIES.
141
drinking is a great producer of drunkenness; and that if we wish
America to become a nation of drunkards, we should adopt wine
as our beverage.
"These are the facts concerning the wine-growing countries.
The idea of substituting wine for alcohol in the interest of
Temperance is absurd. I have protracted this part of the argu-
ment, because the enemies of this law are seeking to have wine
and beer excepted from the law.
law; and this is what they seek.
But do it, and you kill the
Beware! If you make wine
and beer abound, drunkenness will much more abound.
66
Against this evil plan we can only thunder the facts that the
countries that manufacture and drink most wine are those that
use most distilled liquors, and have the largest per cent. of beastly
wife-beating and child-beating drunkenness. Husbands may tell
their ragged and pleading wives that they can stop; they guess
they know who drives. They can stop if they will; but the fact
remains. The hundred thousand drunkards that annually die
were all moderate drinkers before they settled down into ‘old
tubs.' They all tippled a little before they guzzled. There is no
disguising the fact. Once drinking, there is no way out but to
face about and let it alone, or go through into hell.”
As the printer does not like to commence a chapter, except at
the top of a page, and the writer does not like to send out blank
pages -or parts of such-the reader may expect to find in this
work, here and there, at the end of the chapters, subjects considered
which do not legitimately come within the limits of the subjects
discussed in the preceding chapter. The great aim of the writer
in the preparation and sending forth of this volume, is to expose
falses, and to impart useful information, and thus benefit his
fellow-man,
CHAPTER VII.
THE "NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER" AND INTOXICATING WINES.
In the Messenger of February 9th, 1881, appear the following
editorial comments, in answer to a correspondent :
"W. J. P., in our correspondence department, suggests that because
'falses from evil' are compared to 'such wine and strong drinks as induce
drunkenness,' the good wine of the Bible must be unfermented. On the
contrary, we think the 'wine that produces drunkenness' is that which is
taken in greater quantities than in its proper proportion to food. Wine
taken with the food, and in proper proportion to it, does not produce
drunkenness. Wine alone, or out of proportion to good food, may produce
drunkenness, and hence represent 'falses from evil;' that is, truths in the
character without their corresponding good are changed into 'falses from
evil.'"
Well, let us carry the editor's interpretation of Swedenborg's
comparison of falses from evil to intoxicating wine, over to his
comparison of falses not from evil to waters not pure, for if true
in the one case it must be true in the other also.
The suggestion is made, that because falses not from evil are com-
pared to waters not pure, therefore the good water of the Bible
must be pure water. On the contrary, exclaims the reasoning of
the editor of the Messenger, we think the "water not pure" which
may cause disease but not drunkenness, is water which is taken
in greater quantities than in its proper proportion to food.
Impure water taken with food, and in proper proportion to it, does
not produce diseases peculiar to the quality of impure water. In
other words, there is no wine or water which in itself is impure;
it is only rendered impure, because it is not taken in due propor-
tion with food; even though one may be impure from the
presence of the poisonous product of leaven (alcohol)—which,
as we well know is a deadly poison, causing insanity, drunken-
ness, delirium tremens, and sudden death-or the other with
arsenic, the action of which is not as terrible in its effects, espe-
142
THE "MESSENGER" AND THE WINE QUESTION. 143
cially when taken with and in due proportion to food, but never-
theless is to be dreaded by every sensible man. As the reader
will hereafter see, Swedenborg makes no allusion to anything but
the quality of the wine itself; all this the editor ignores, and
assumes that Swedenborg meant that intoxicating wine is good if
properly taken with food; and this seductive morsel, is sent out
by the general body of the New Church to homes where dwell our
guileless and inexperienced youth. Alas! Alas! for our Church.
It is certainly true that alcohol, fermented wine, arsenic, or
any other poison, in a given quantity, when mixed or taken with
food, will not be as readily absorbed and taken into the circula-
tion, or act as speedily on the mucous membrane of the stomach;
and, consequently, will not produce such speedy or violent poi-
sonous effects as when taken alone, or into an empty stomach.
But who is to judge when either arsenic or intoxicating wine is
taken in due proportion to food, as every man is governed
by his taste or a morbid craving? The Messenger must acknowl-
edge that poisons are seductive, because they cause an unnatural
action, followed by an opposite state; consequently an unnatural
demand, and an unnatural appetite, which absolutely require an
increase of the quantity to satisfy the demand and appetite.
This is not true of any kind of natural food or drink; and the
history of the past shows that no poison is more seductive than
fermented wine. Commencing with a single glass with food,
presently more is required; until, perhaps, at last a whole bottle
does not give a due proportion to food, according to the actual
feelings and desires of the drinker. From drinking this seductive
fluid with food, it is but an easy step, which Words for the New
Church, it will be seen has already taken, to advocate the drink-
ing of the social glass of wine-and even whisky-when friends
meet;
and then the life which leads to drunkenness is well be-
gun; and the road is clear for the young and old of the New
Church to march on in the line of drunkards hand in hand to
wretchedness and crime; and, if not prematurely cut off, not un-
frequently to a drunkard's grave. We will ask the Messenger, in
all seriousness, if too many of the members of our Church are
144
THE "NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER”
not, at this very moment, travelling that road; and in too imminent
danger, to make such justification and encouragement of this ter-
rible evil of wine-drinking desirable in its columns; to say noth-
ing of the danger of such teaching to the young.
But, as has been shown above, it is not true that fermented
wine can be taken in any perceptible quantity with food, or in a
quantity which the Messenger would evidently justify, with either
impunity or safety. We have already called attention to the
great danger of developing an uncontrollable appetite for intoxi-
cating drinks, by thus using wine; and now we will let that able
physiologist, Dr. Wm. B. Carpenter, speak as to the effects of such
moderate drinking of intoxicating beverages as the Messenger
encourages: "It cannot then be imagined that even a small
habitual excess in diet, induced by the stimulating action of fer-
mented liquors, can be without its remote consequences upon
the general system; even though it may be for a time sufficiently
compensated by increased activity of the excreting organs. And
the disorders of the liver and kidneys, which are so frequent
among those who have been accustomed to this mode of living
for many years, without (as they believe) any injurious conse-
quences, are as surely to be set down to it, as are those conges-
tive and inflammatory diseases of the abdominal viscera, which
so much more speedily follow habitual excesses in warm cli-
mates."
But why this special effort of the editor of the Messenger to
justify and encourage the use of intoxicating wine? It is well
known to the readers of the Messenger that, over a year ago, an
article appeared in its columns, justifying the use of intoxicating
drinks; and that the present writer wrote a somewhat lengthy
essay, in which he endeavored to show, that according to the
philosophy of the New Church, the science of correspondences,
the express teachings of Swedenborg, and the well-recognized
laws of physiology, alcohol wherever found has an infernal origin;
that it is a poison, and one of the most deadly and insidious; and
that in all its effects on body and mind, its action is strictly analo-
gous to the action of falses from evil on the soul of man. He
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
145
also produced unquestionable evidence that there were two kinds
of wine in use among the ancients, and named in the Bible—one
intoxicating and the other not. This essay was violently assailed
by several writers, and all of the assaults were based upon
assumptions which had no foundation in truth; such as that the
wines spoken of favorably in the Bible were always fermented
wines, and that fermented wines must be good, because Sweden-
borg compares fermentation, and the changes which take place
during the fermentation of wine, and the purification of alcohol,
to spiritual combats and purification.
While printing some other articles upon the same side of the
question on which we stand, the editor accumulated several arti-
cles in reply to our essay, full of such assumptions; and two or
three short articles opposed to the use of intoxicating wine; and
printed them all in one number of the Messenger, and then declared
the discussion in the columns of the Messenger closed; thus giving
the writer of this work no opportunity to reply. As the discus-
sion was opened by an advocate of the use of intoxicating drinks,
and the writer, of course, not knowing what objections would be
taken to his article, could not answer them before he knew them,
the friends of temperance did not feel that they were fairly treated.
But the writer endeavored to do the best he could, under the
circumstances, to bring the truth before the minds of New
Churchmen, therefore he printed what he had to say in the form
of a tract, and sent it to all New Churchmen whose names he
could obtain. So much for the past course of the Messenger.
Well, it so happened, recently, that a respected correspondent
of the Messenger sent the editor a short extract from Sweden-
borg, accompanied by three lines, intimating that it was possible,
after all, that the advocates of intoxicating wines might be mis-
taken in some of their conclusions and views. The following
contains the correspondence and extract.
FALSES FROM EVILS INTOXICATING WINES AND STRONG DRINKS.
EDITOR MESSENGER, -Perhaps the following passage, from
No. 1035 of the "Apocalypse Explained," favors the idea that
146
THE "NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER”
the good wine of the Bible is unfermented, and the bad wine is
fermented.
W. J. P.
"As to what further respects the insanity, which is signified
by inebriation and by drunkenness in the Word, it is not from
falses, but from truths falsified; the reason is, because truths from
heaven act into the understanding, and at the same time the
false from hell, whence arises dissension in the mind and an in-
sanity like that of a drunkard in the world; but this insanity only
takes place with those who are in evil, and have confirmed the
falses of evil by the Word, for all things of the Word are truths,
and communicate with heaven, and falses of evil are from hell ;
but from the falses which are not from evil spiritual inebriation
does not take place, for those falses do not pervert and destroy
spiritual truths, which lie inwardly concealed in the truths of the
literal sense, for they do not thence hatch evil, as do the falses
which are derived from evil. Falses not from evil may be com-
pared to waters not pure, which being drunk do not induce
drunkenness, but falses from evil may be compared to such wine
and strong drinks as induce drunkenness; wherefore also that in-
sanity, in the Word, is said to be effected by wine, which is called
the wine of whoredom, and the wine of Babel in Jeremiah
li. 7: A cup of gold is Babel in the hand of Jehovah, inebri-
ating the universal earth, the nations have drank of her wine,
therefore the nations are insane.'"
Now, we think almost any intelligent, liberal-minded man, who
believes in fair play in the discussion of such an important ques-
tion as the one under consideration, will say that, after having
closed the discussion against the advocates of total abstinence at
the very time when, as we have seen, in honor and fairness he
should not have done so, if he felt under obligation, from any
consideration whatever, to insert a simple extract from Sweden-
borg's works, with simply the three lines from his correspondent,
he might have let it stand without note or comment, and allowed
his readers to judge as to what is taught therein for themselves.
But no, sir, this would never do! For Swedenborg distinctly
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
147
represents that there are two kinds of wine; and intoxicating
wine he compares to falses, and not simply to falses, but to the
worst kind of falses-falses from evil-and he illustrates it so
clearly that no one would be likely to mistake what he means.
Seeing clearly, it would seem, the critical situation in which the
advocates of intoxicating wine are placed by the above quota-
tion the editor of the Messenger takes up his pen, and writes for
the front page of his paper the paragraph which is presented to
the reader at the head of this article. But such assumptions as
are used to justify the use of fermented wine, in a fair field where
both sides are allowed to be heard, will never stand a thorough
investigation in the light of this new day.
Although the columns of the Messenger were closed against the
discussion of the wine question more than a year ago; and the
editor, as we have seen, could not admit a simple quotation from
Swedenborg comparing intoxicating wine with falses from evil, sent
him by a subscriber, without an attempt to destroy its force,
yet he does not hesitate, without one word of comment, to ad-
mit a sermon from a New Church minister containing the fol-
lowing in the interest of intoxicating wine: "Before fermentation
the grape juice in the wine fat is turbid, and appears full of im-
purities. But by fermentation the impurities are removed, the
lighter ones are thrown off from the surface, and the others sink
to the bottom, leaving the wine clear and pure for use.
The ne-
cessity for this arises from the fact that in the grape juice are
many crude particles of foreign substances that cannot be strained
out, separated, or removed in any other way than by fermenta-
tion."
We ask the reader if the latter part of the above statement is
correct? There may be shreds of the cellular structure of the
grape and cells of gluten, if heavy pressure has been used, which
render the juice opaque or turbid; the ancients we know separated
them by boiling and skimming. Virgil, born 70 years B. C., says:
"Or of sweet must boils down the luscious juice,
And skims with leaves the trembling cauldron's flood,”
148
THE "NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER”
There is no difficulty in separating all substances which cause
the fresh grape juice to be turbid, by simply straining or filtering,
as we all know.
If the recently expressed juice of grapes is turbid, before
fermentation has commenced, it is not because it contains sub-
stances which are impure, as represented in the extract from the
sermon in the Messenger; but the turbidness is caused by frag-
ments of the pulp composed largely of gluten; and, if the wine
is allowed to stand in a cool place below 45°, they will settle to
the bottom, leaving the wine clear. But if fermentation com-
mences, this heaviest part of the liquid-not the lightest as
represented by our clerical brother above-will rise to the
surface, for precisely the same reason that the body of a man
drowned generally rises to the surface of the water within a few
days, namely, because it is distended with gas which results from
its own decomposition. In other words, the leaven or ferment
has destroyed this gluten, and casts it out by the aid of the
poisonous gas which it has developed. If, instead of being cast
out by leaven, it is allowed to settle to the bottom as lees, such
lees have a good correspondence as we shall see hereafter, for
this gluten is good, useful, and pure; and it is never impure
before ferment assails and destroys it, or before decomposition
commences.
Can either the reverend gentleman, or the editor of the Mes-
senger, tell us what the impurities and foreign substances are,
which can only be separated by fermentation in the pure juice of
the grape, called must or new wine, as it flows from the press,
which Swedenborg tells us has the same signification as wine?
Is the gluten, which nourishes the body of man as good does his
soul, one of them? This is to a great extent destroyed and cast
out by fermentation. Is the sugar, which is so delightful and
which corresponds to spiritual delights, one of them? This is
destroyed and perverted into alcohol, a most deadly poison. Is
it the phosphorus which is so necessary for the brain? This
either disappears or is polluted during fermentation. Do the vege-
table acids and alkaline salts, so carefully organized by the Lord
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
149
in the grape to nourish man's tendons and bones, belong to the
impurities and foreign substances which can only be removed by
fermentation? These substances are perverted, changed, or cast
down as lees by fermentation; and such lees have not a good
correspondence, as we shall see. That the bread or nourishing
portion of the wine is thus destroyed, to a great extent, by fer-
mentation chemistry shows conclusively; and we can demonstrate
the same fact to our senses by a very easy experiment. Take
some new wine or must as it flows from the press, boil it and you
gradually drive off the water; and by continuing your boiling, it
becomes a thick syrup; boil it long enough and it becomes a
comparatively solid body; when it cools you have lost nothing
but water—the food portion remains. On the other hand, take
fermented wine and boil it, and you will find no rich syrup, and
little or no solid food substance remaining; for it has been de-
stroyed by fermentation. Could anything demonstrate more con-
clusively than this simple experiment, that such of our clergymen
as attempt to justify the use of fermented wine, by comparisons
found in the Writings of Swedenborg, have totally mistaken the
true meaning of such comparisons?
Again, as has been intimated elsewhere in this work, during
the process of spiritual regeneration good overcomes evil and
casts it out; and man's spirit is thereby purified, and rendered
clear, like wine after fermentation; but in the fermentation of
wine, as we have seen above, exactly the opposite takes place ;
for almost all of the nourishing substances organized by the Lord
in the grape for the use of man, which correspond to good, are
overcome by the ferment, and the sugar is often entirely de-
stroyed, if the ferment has had a chance to thoroughly complete
its work, and either changed or destroyed, and precipitated as
lees, cast out in the form of poisonous gases, or remain in, as alco-
hol and vinegar, to pollute the wine and to render it a seductive
and poisonous fluid, which will cause disease, drunkenness, and
insanity, if used by man as a drink.
:
Again if the grape juice, as it flows from the press, is so full
of impurities which can only be removed by fermentation, per-
150
THE “NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER”
haps the author of the above sermon can tell us how it happens
that Swedenborg declares positively, in a general declaration, that
"must signifies the same as wine, viz., truth derived from the
good of charity" (A. E. 695), and that new wine is the Divine
Truth of the New Testament, consequently of the New Church
(A. R. 316). It is quite certain that neither party to this con-
troversy would be willing to admit that the must and new wine, to
which Swedenborg refers above, can be must and new wine
undergoing the process of fermentation, which are hot, and
muddy from heterogeneous substances which have resulted from
the destructive action of ferment upon the juice of the grape.
We are all, then, compelled to admit that unfermented must and
new wine have the same signification as wine; and, if they have the
same signification, is it not certain that they have the same com-
position are, in fact, the same fluid only modified by age? The
ancients, we are told by ancient authors, as we have seen, did
not regard their boiled wines as ripe enough for use until they
were four years old; and such wines two centuries old, we are
informed, were not unknown.
Is it possible that any intelligent reader of the Writings of Swe-
denborg, who has carefully examined this whole subject in the light
thereby afforded, and in the light of science, can for a moment
suppose that fermented wine, in which such a large portion of all
that corresponds to good has been destroyed, and in which even
the water contained therein is polluted by alcohol, the product of
fermentation and vinegar which results from the next process of
decay, can be the wine which is and ever has been, a blessing to
man. "Good wine is, and always will be, found at the 'feast of
fat things, full of marrow,' which the Lord is constantly offering
man on the mountain of his love-'wine on the lees, well refined.'
There is no poison in the wine which 'makes glad the heart of
man,' none in that which the good Samaritan poured into the
wounds of the man who fell among thieves; none in that which
cheers but does not inebriate in declining age. The highest and
most holy, earthly emblem of the truth which is divine is wine.”
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
151
The Word of the Lord, the writings of the Church, modern
science, and the common sense of mankind, based on common
observation of its effects when used, all tell us, as we have seen,
that such a wine is never a wine which has been polluted by fer-
ment. But as we have considered Swedenborg's comparisons more
fully in our replies to writers in the New Jerusalem Magazine, and
Words for the New Church, it is unnecessary to say more here.
The Rev. Joseph Cook, in a sermon, speaking of the conse-
quences and danger of moderate drinking, says:
and
"Do you say that I am declaiming now, and leaving the ground of hard,
stern facts? How many of your moderate drinkers can be insured on
the same basis as total abstainers? This is a very practical question.
Since I came to England, I have been studying up the history of some
of your life assurance societies, and I hold in my hand literal extracts
from their own documents-not temperance publications at all; and the
to 15
great outcome is that the total abstainer is paid from 7 or 10 up
17 per cent. bonus over and above the moderate drinker. That is an actual
result; that is not the fancy of sentimentalism; that is a broad, indisputable
fact which Britons ought to respect as the result of experience. Not long
ago, one of the assurance societies was addressed on this point, and made,
through its secretary, the following report-I have the original letter in my
possession-' During the past sixteen years we have issued 9,345 policies on
the lives of non-abstainers, but are careful to exclude any who are not
strictly temperate, and 3,396 on the lives of abstainers; 524 of the former
have died, but ninety-one only of the latter, or less than half the propor-
tionate number, which, of course, is 190.' Less than half the number of
abstainers have died compared with the number that have died among non-
abstainers who were strictly temperate; and this is after an experience of
sixteen years.
"Are life insurance societies to be allowed to go beyond the Church in
their regard for the health of men, body and soul? It is to be remembered
that many whose lives are assured as those of total abstainers were not
always abstinent. The contrasted figures will grow yet more striking wher
the abstainers are such from birth. These societies are not governed ac-
cording to Biblical rules; they are not governed by this or that theory in
science. Theirs is stern common-sense applied to a selfish problem, and
the outcome of it, under long experience, is like a peal of thunder from
Sinai. It is high time for the pulpit, it is high time for the pew, it is high
time for the young men to arouse themselves when such are the signs of the
times in secular societies. Here is the sea rising in a tide that kisses the Alps."
CHAPTER VIII.
""
C
THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE AND THE WINE QUESTION.
SEVERAL articles have appeared in the New Jerusalem Magazine,
justifying and favoring the use of fermented wine, and its editors
have refused to admit any reply. One of these articles we noticed
in our tract on Pure Wine," and the most important part of it
will be found in the chapter on "Words for the New Church" in
this work, to which we call the attention of the reader, conse-
quently it is unnecessary to notice it further here.
In No. XL. (June, 1880), the reader will find the most skillful
and adroit attempt which, within our knowledge, has ever been
made to justify the use of intoxicating drinks by or from the
Writings of Swedenborg. The article is lengthy and strictly
partisan; and the argument which, taken by itself, is quite
plausible, is based upon a single paragraph from the "Arcana ;"
but, as the reader will observe, it ignores the philosophy of
Swedenborg as to the origin of good and evil uses, and leaves
unnoticed a large number, if not hundreds of passages in his
works, which teach a very different doctrine; and the express,
positive declarations of Swedenborg as to the inherent quality of
fermented wine. But we will insert the essential part of the
article from the Magazine, so that our readers may have an
opportunity to judge for themselves, for we wish them to view both
sides of this important question. The truth is what we all should
desire, that it may be a lamp unto our feet; and if we would
travel safely we must walk in its light, and allow neither precon-
ceived ideas nor our sensual appetites to blind us, "so that hav-
ing eyes we see not." The Magazine writer says:
(C HAS PURE FERMENTED SUBSTANCE A GOOD CORRESPONDENCE?
"It would seem that no doubt can remain upon this point
to one who recognizes the truth of what Swedenborg teaches
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THE “MAGAZINE” AND THE WINE QUESTION.
153
upon the subject. In the 'Arcana,' 7906, he says: "That the
leaven denotes the false may be manifest from those passages
where leaven and leavened, also where unleavened, are named, as
in Matthew Jesus said: "Take heed and beware of the leaven of
the Pharisees and of the Sadducees;' afterward, the disciples
understood that he had not said that they should beware of the
leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sad-
ducees (Matt. xvi. 6-12), where leaven manifestly denotes false
doctrine. Inasmuch as leaven signifies the false, it was forbidden
to sacrifice upon what was leavened the blood of the sacrifice
(Ex. xxiii. 18, and xxxiv. 25); for by the blood of the sacrifice
was signified holy truth; thus truth pure from all falsity. It
was also ordained that the meat offering, which was offered
upon the altar ‘should not be baked with leaven' (Lev. vi. 17),
and that 'the cakes and wafers also should be unleavened' (Lev.
vi. 11, 12, 13).
"But notwithstanding these laws against leaven, and being
baked with leaven, it is most remarkable that, as Swedenborg
proceeds to say, truth cannot be purified from the false without
what answers to leavening. He says:
'As to what further concerns what is leavened and unleavened, it is to
be noted that the purification of truth from the false appertaining to man
cannot possibly exist without leavening (fermentation), so called, that is,
without the combat of the false with truth, and of truth with the false; but
after that the combat hath taken place, and the truth hath conquered, then
the false falls down like dregs, and the truth exists purified; like wine
which grows clear after fermentation, the dregs falling down to the
bottom. This fermentation or combat exists principally when the state
appertaining to man is turned, namely: when he begins to act from the
good which is of charity, and not as before from the truth which is of faith;
for the state is not yet purified when man acts from the truth of faith, but
it is then purified when he acts from the good which is of charity, for then
he acts from the will; before, only from the understanding. Spiritual com-
bats or temptations are leavenings" or fermentations," in the spiritual sense,
for on such occasions falses are desirous to conjoin themselves to truths,
but truths reject them, and at length cast them down, as it were to the
bottom, consequently refine. In this sense is to be understood what the
Lord teaches concerning leaven, in Matthew: "The kingdom of the heavens
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THE “NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE”
is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal
until the whole was leavened "(xiii. 33), where meal denotes the truth that
gives birth to good. * * Because, as was said, such combats as are
signified by leavenings or fermentations have place with man in the state
previous to a new state of life; therefore also, it was ordained that when
the new meat offering on the feast of the first-fruits was brought, the wave
offering should be baked leavened, and should be the first fruits to Jehovah.
(Lev. xxiii. 16, 17).'
"From this we see that though leaven represents what is false,
yet we cannot come into genuine good without conflict with it,
which involves its presence, nor without passing through a state
of spiritual fermentation answering to that of natural fermenta-
tion. Not to have leaven in our houses is to banish the false
from our minds in the only way it can be, by successful combat
against it in the Lord's strength, which actually and effectually
casts it out of our minds. We have no protection against the
false, and all our tendencies favor its presence, until in conflict
with it we obtain the victory.
"As man is not pure without this spiritual fermentation, so the
passage teaches us that the juice of the grape is not pure without
natural fermentation; and that by the process of natural ferment-
ation a liquid substance is produced that justly represents truth
in man purified from the false, which is, in substance, the good of
charity.
"It is especially to be noticed here, not only that the purifica-
tion of the juice of the grape is effected by means of fermentation,
but also that of meal or flour. For Swedenborg says, 'meal
denotes truth that gives birth to good.' As truth cannot be
pure without spiritual combat against the false, which casts it
out, so good cannot otherwise be rendered pure. And when
the false is cast out by its subjugation in temptations, then both
truth and good become pure. And so if we think of things
instead of terms, we see that as leaven is the false, things become
unleavened, that is, free from the false by the very process of
what is called leavening. This subject is treated of in D. P. 284.
"That there is a real relation of correspondence between
the effects resulting from a successful meeting of spiritual temp-
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
155
tation and the product of natural fermentation, is most fully
confirmed by the statement which Swedenborg makes when he
says 'spiritual combats or temptations are leavenings in the
spiritual sense.'
“When we consider what leaven represents—that is, the false
and the false united with and flowing from evil—we can under-
stand why it is so severely denounced in the Scriptures, and why
he who eats it shall be cut off, that is, be destroyed or con-
demned. It means that the appropriation of falsity and evil
destroys man's spiritual life.
"But when we understand that there are two results of a
nature opposite to each other that may arise out of the presence
of the false that causes spiritual fermentation, one of which
results is the adoption and confirming of the false, and the
other the effectual rejection and casting out of the false, then
we can see that the former result is what is aimed at in the
condemnation and not at all the latter, which, though it is the
presence of the false that causes the fermentation, could never
have been brought about without it. It is the doctrine of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees--the false not seen as false and
rejected, but confirmed-that makes deadly leaven. But, on the
other hand, the false seen, guarded against, and altogether rejected,
causes the leavening in its result to be the effectual establishing
of the kingdom of heaven-causes it to be what is represented by
the 'leaven which the woman took and hid in three measures of
meal till the whole was leavened.'
"This expression is very suggestive; for a woman signifies
affection for the truth. It is an affection for the truth secretly
fighting against the false, which alone can cause a successful result
to the spiritual fermentation.
"Very instructive also is the concluding portion of the
extract given: 'Because with man such combats, which are sig-
nified by fermentations, exist in the state preceding a new one of
life; therefore, also, there is a statute' that the two wave loaves of
fine flour should be baked with leaven, and should be the first
fruits unto the Lord.
}
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THE “NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE”
"Waving the offering represents the acknowledgment of the
Lord. Baking, as it is effected by fire, represents good flowing
in from the Lord when He is acknowledged. When from an
affection for the truth we have fought secretly against the false,
until, in despair, we cease to trust in ourselves, and look to the
Lord for help; then there is an end of the conflict, and the good
of love, which the baking represents, flows in from the Lord,
and the leaven of the false is effectually removed. Then there
exists a new state of life, or a state of new life, which is the state
for receiving the Holy Supper."
The Lord says in Matthew, that "The kingdom of the
heavens is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three
measures of meal, until the whole was leavened." "Meal in the
above passage," says Swedenborg, "denotes the truth that gives
birth to good." It is not difficult to understand this comparison
in its literal sense, for it shows the gradual progress of the king-
dom of heaven in man until he is wholly changed, as leaven
progresses until the whole of the meal is leavened; nor is it
difficult to understand how the sure and steady progress of the
natural leavening may even correspond to the sure and steady
progress of the kingdom of heaven in man during his regenera-
tion. But it is not so easy to understand how leaven, in any
other manner, can correspond to the kingdom of heaven; for it
is the kingdom of heaven which is likened unto leaven, and not
the false to which leaven corresponds. "The woman signifies
the Church" (A. C. 252, 253), or the affection for truth in man.
To take and hide would seem to mean to apply or to appropriate
to one's self. Now for man, from the love of truth which the
Lord has implanted in him, to seek and appropriate the false
until his three measures of meal, or all the truth which he pos-
sesses, which should give birth to good, is falsified, would seem
to be the correct interpretation of the latter part of the above
verse, according to correspondences; and if we can regard the
kingdom of heaven as referring to the perverted state of the germs
and remains implanted by the Lord in man, it may, perhaps, be
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
157
the correct meaning; for we know that in the Word, the apparent
truth is not always the real truth, any more than it is in nature.
Of one thing we feel confident; and that is, that, after reading
the numerous passages from Swedenborg, to be found in this
work, and even in this chapter, the reader will be satisfied that
the interpretation given by the above writer, in the New Jerusalem
Magazine, of the above parable, and of several of the passages in
the paragraph from the "Arcana," is not correct; for it does not
accord with either the Word of the Lord or the writings of the
Church. The explanation which the writer has suggested as to
the possible true meaning of the parable of the kingdom of
heaven and leaven, may be as far from the truth as the above
writer's explanation, and he will not say that it is not; for where
he has not the clear light of Swedenborg's interpretation, he
treads with hesitancy, and would do so carefully and not dogmati-
cally, leaving every one to judge for himself.
What are we to think of the ingenious theory of our brother-
for ingenious it really is-speaking of the fermentation of wine
and meal, that: "Things become unleavened, that is, free from
the false, by the very process of what is called leavening," so that
the wine and bread which have been through the process of
leavening or fermentation are really unleavened wine and bread?
The writer confesses that this is a new idea to him, and he does
not believe that it was ever thought of before by Jew or Christian,
and certainly not by Swedenborg; for, if the latter had ever
thought of it, and had thought the idea true and useful, it is quite
certain that, among all of his frequent references to unleavened
and leavened bread and wine, he would have said something
about it. But the fact, so manifest in the Writings of Sweden-
borg, that he never even thought of applying such an idea to the
fermentation of material wine and meal, does not prove that it is
untrue. If true, it is a very important prop, and will do much
toward upholding wine and whisky drinking, and the consequent
drunkenness, for all time to come. How the Rev. Dr. Crosby
will rejoice when he gets hold of it! But unfortunately, perhaps,
the writer is too short-sighted to be able to see that this theory
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THE "NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE"
is correct. In fact, when applied to material wine and meal, he
believes it to be entirely erroneous; and his reasons will become
more and more manifest to the reader all through this chapter;
but he will name some of them here. The essential product of
fermentation or leavening is alcohol, whether it be wine, bread,
or barley that is being fermented-that alone causes drunkenness.
In the case of bread it is all driven off by baking with fire, in wine
it is all carefully preserved. Will our brother tell us which of these
substances is pure and unleavened? It is perfectly clear that one
or the other is not unleavened according to this new theory.
Let him boil his wine until all the alcohol is driven off, and the
writer will cease to controvert his theory; for it will then be as
harmless as baked, leavened bread. The bread has been, in a
measure at least, purified by fire, but the fermented wine has not
been, and the reader will please bear in mind that it was the bread
thus purified which was offered in the wave offering.
The fundamental mistake of our brother, and of other writers
who attempt to justify the use of intoxicating drinks from the
Writings of Swedenborg, lies in their assuming that the grape and
its juice, and wheat and its meal, like man, have fallen from their
original state of purity, and can only be restored by fermentation;
as man is purified by combats during regeneration. While we
know that the grape, and wheat, may become uncultivated and
wild from the neglect of man, and may become diseased, yet
there is not one word to be found in the Sacred Scriptures, nor in
the Writings of Swedenborg, nor a single fact in science to show
that good, clean, healthy, cultivated grapes and wheat are not as
free from impurity, and as capable of sustaining and supplying the
wants of the human body, when used as food, as they ever were.
How unreasonable, then, to attempt to base an argument in favor
of intoxicating drinks upon such a groundless assumption.
We shall see that Swedenborg gives to the grape and its juice,
and to corn, or wheat, and its meal, a good signification, which
he certainly would not have done, if they were so impure that
they are not fit for human food and for sacramental purposes,
until after fermentation.
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
159
Fermentation or leavening is but the first stage in the disor-
ganization or decay of certain organized substances, and alcohol
is the chief product; the next change produces vinegar in wine
and a similar acid in bread. In fermenting dough it requires
great care to prevent the bread becoming sour; and the same is
true of wine, for by the time the wine is well fermented, a portion
of the alcohol has passed or changed into vinegar; therefore it
is questionable if there is a single gallon of what our brother
would call, or regard as, well purified, fermented wine in the
country, which does not contain vinegar; and much of it a com-
paratively large per cent. Now, has vinegar a good correspond-
ence? And is a wine containing it, pure and suitable for sacra-
mental purposes? We think not.
Wine is not regarded as fermented or leavened wine until the
process of fermentation has been completed. While fermenting
it is neither called, nor regarded as, fermented wine, but is still
new wine or must; and that it was so regarded and spoken of by
Swedenborg is manifest; in fact, where care is not used to
prevent fermentation, new wine or must is rarely seen, except by
the maker, in any other condition than undergoing the process
of fermentation, consequently Swedenborg speaks of it as disa-
greeing with the stomach; but new wine or must, before ferment-
ation has commenced, although containing more body, may be as
clear as fermented wine, and in a given quantity is more accept-
able to the unperverted taste, stomach, and head than fermented
wine.
In the above article from the New Jerusalem Magazine, it
will be seen that the writer assumes and attempts to prove
that the juice of the grape, must or new wine, meal and flour,
are not pure until they have been through the process of ferment-
ation; and, consequently, before they have been fermented they
are not suitable to be used in the Holy Supper, and, of course,
not suitable as articles of food. He gives us to understand that
not being pure their correspondence is not good. Right here, we
will bring the testimony of Swedenborg as to the inherent quality
of the liquid which is produced by his process of purification.
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THE “NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE”
"Falses not from evil may be compared to water not pure,
which being drunk does not induce drunkenness, but falses from
evil may be compared to such wines and strong drinks as induce
drunkenness." (A. E. 1035.)
Now, surely, if unfermented wine is not pure, as our good
brother represents, it never causes drunkenness, like his wine
which has been purified by leavening; but we can see, from the
above comparison, that unfermented wine is to fermented wine
what pure water is to impure water. And we will bring another
comparison which will throw a little light, perhaps, upon one of
the comparisons upon which our brother has based his arguments.
"Inasmuch as evil is contagious, and infects as a fermenting
body infects dough, thus at length infects all." (A. C. 6666.)
Infect means to taint or corrupt.
"Good uses," says Swedenborg, " are from the Lord and evil
uses are from hell. Evil uses were not created by the Lord, but
that they originated together with hell." (D. L. W. 336.)
Among the evil uses he enumerates all kinds of poisons-in a
word, "all things that do hurt and kill men." (Ibid. 339.) Here,
then, is a criterion by which we must judge of the suitability of any
article for nourishing and supplying the wants of our natural bodies.
It should be evident to every one that substances which have
their origin from hell, which, when used as we use legiti-
mate articles of food and drink, seriously endanger, hurt and kill
men, should never be used for such purpose. Now, gentle reader,
you who desire the best good of your fellow-men, we ask you
seriously, if you do not see or witness all around you a radical
difference between the action of water, milk, and the unferment-
ed juice of the various fruits, and the action of fermented wine,
beer, and other intoxicating drinks?-all resulting from the de-
struction or perversion of good and useful articles, by leaven, a
substance unquestionably having its origin or life from hell. With
what you have witnessed of the effects of such liquids, are you
surprised to find that Swedenborg compares intoxicating wine
and other strong drinks to falses from evil, and that he deliber-
ately calls whisky "so pernicious a drink"?
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
161
With the philosophy of Swedenborg as to good and evil uses
for sustaining the body, so clearly against the use of intoxicating
drinks, with his comparison of such drinks to falses from evil;
and with his solemn declaration that intoxicating drinks are so
pernicious that their immoderate use threatened the downfall of
the Swedish people in his day, and with the sad results of their
use which we behold, why should any reader of his works strive
to find passages which he thinks can be so construed as to justify
their use; thus, perchance, justifying himself and encouraging
others to pursue a course of life which has destroyed so many of
his fellow-men, body and soul?
To render Swedenborg consistent with himself and with well-
known facts, as we believe he always is, we shall find ourselves
compelled to place a very different construction upon the
quotations made by our brother from what he has done. We
understand Swedenborg's meaning is simply to liken the combat
which takes place, of the false with truth and of truth with the
false, in the purification of truth from the false in the regenera-
tion of man, and the purity of truth after truth has conquered,
to the fermentation and clearness of the wine after fermentation ;
for he says that, after "truth has conquered, then the false falls
down like dregs and truth exists purified, like wine which grows
clear after fermentation, the dregs falling to the bottom." This
would seem clearly to be the meaning, and, that he could have
had no reference to the inherent quality of the resulting wine
excepting its clearness, is manifest; for leaven signifies the false,
and the unfermented must or new wine signifies "truth derived
from the good of charity;" also, "the divine truth of the New
Testament, consequently of the New Church." There is no
evidence to be derived either from the Word of the Lord, the
Writings of Swedenborg, or from science, that it contains any
impurity, or anything which does not correspond to truth and
good, most harmoniously united in the fruit of the vine by the
Lord for the nourishment of man.
The blood of grapes, we are told by Swedenborg, denotes the
good of love, “and in the supreme sense the Divine Good of the
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THE "NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE”
Lord from His Divine Love." (A. C. 6378.) Does the above
look as though the blood of the grape is impure, and that it re-
quires leavening to purify it?
"And the floors shall be filled with pure corn, and the wine-
presses shall overflow with new wine and oil' (Joel ii. 24). And
again (iii. 18), 'It shall come to pass in that day the mountains
shall drop new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the
rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall go
forth from the house of Jehovah;' speaking of the Lord's king-
dom where, by new wine, by milk, and by waters are signified
things spiritual whose abundance is thus described." (A. C.
3580.)
Do presses overflow with fermented wine, or mountains drop
fermented wine? We know that it is unfermented wine to which
reference is made in the above passages, and it is not difficult to
understand that wine and new wine, when spoken of in a good
sense in the Word, always mean unfermented wine. There are
two or three expressions, in the quotation from Swedenborg,
made by the writer in the Magazine, as a basis for his argument ;
which, if he had heeded, we think would have shown him that
the ideas in regard to purifying natural wine and meal, which he
has advanced, are not justified by the quotation he has made.
First: It is "the purification of truth from the false appertain-
ing to man, (which) cannot possibly exist without leavening,
SO-CALLED" -or without combat.
Second: "And the truth hath conquered;" but supposing, as
in the case of fermented wine, the truth has not conquered in ·
the combat; what then?
Third: "Spiritual combats or temptations are leavenings in the
spiritual sense." Now, if the writer in the Magazine had read
the last sentence quoted above in the light of the first, it would
seem that he could hardly have failed to see the truth upon this
important subject.
In the various passages which we have quoted from the Writ-
ings of Swedenborg, in regard to the blood of the grape, and must
or new wine, we have these various unfermented products of
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
163
the vine having a good correspondence, according to Sweden-
borg; but the reader will find this subject more fully considered
in the chapter on "Two Kinds of Wine."
Now leaven, signifying, as Swedenborg tells us, "evil and the
false, which should not be mixed with things good and true,"
becomes mixed with the must or new wine, and a combat ensues;
but, alas! for the argument of our brother, the leaven overcomes,
conquers, and actually destroys the most of the sugar, gluten, and
phosphorus, and casts down as dregs the vegetable salts, all so
useful to nourish the material body, and “make glad the heart of
man." The resulting leavened wine is full of a poisonous sub-
stance or liquid, the effete product of leaven, which, as to its
inherent quality, is so pernicious that Swedenborg compares
even the wine which contains it to falses from evil, as we have
shown elsewhere. It is not the abuse which is compared, but
the wine itself. That there is no true correspondence between
the two processes is perfectly clear, for in the spiritual ferment-
ation or combat the truth overcomes, or should overcome, the
false; whereas, in the natural fermentation of wine, that which
corresponds to the false overcomes that which corresponds to
the truth and good, and actually destroys and casts it down;
leaving a fluid which derives its life from the activity or perver-
sions wrought by the leaven, and which is never found in the
grape, nor in wine, until man has preserved it in man-made
vessels, and with care retained it at a certain temperature (and in
the warm climate of Syria this required great care), and leaven
has commenced its work of destruction. It is then, as we see,
produced by the action of leaven, and leaven alone, on the true
and good wine. Is it possible, we ask, for such a fluid to have a
good correspondence? We know that it has not, by its effects
on man, when he appropriates or drinks it.
The above writer says: "It is especially to be noticed here, not
only that the purification of the juice of the grape is effected by
means of fermentation, but also that of meal or flour. For
Swedenborg says, 'meal denotes truth that gives birth to good.'
As truth connot be pure without spiritual combat against the
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THE "NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE”
false, which casts it out, so good cannot otherwise be rendered
pure."
Now we understand this very differently. Truth and good as
they appertain to man are not pure, but as they come from the
Lord they are pure; and the same is true of the grape and its
juice, and wheat and its meal, before either man, leaven, or decay
has perverted them; for they are the "good gifts of God to
man."
This view, we think, is abundantly confirmed by Swedenborg,
for he says:
"Flour or meal signifies celestial truth, and wheat
celestial good." (A. R. 778.) Are these impure? Have we
any natural substances of a higher signification? Fine flour, and
also meal, denote truth which is from good. (A. C. 9995.)
Now, my reverend brother, do you really think the above
substances can be purified by leavening them? No, no! For
"what is leavened," says Swedenborg, " denotes what is falsified."
(A. C. 8051.)
66
The thing falsified, which is signified by what is leavened,
and the false which is signified by leaven, differ in this, that the
thing falsified is truth applied to confirm evil, and the false is
everything that is contrary to truth." (A. C. 8062.)
* *
*
"By its being unleavened, or not fermented, is signified that it
should be sincere, consequently from a sincere heart, and free
from things unclean.
Fine flour made into cakes
in general represented the same thing as bread, viz., the celes-
tial principle of love, and its farina the spiritual principle."
(A. C. 2177.)
Now, does it appear in the light of the above extracts from
Swedenborg's teachings, that meal requires to be purified by
leaven or fermentation, before it is fit for use? The action of
leaven upon meal or dough is similar to its action on wine; it
destroys and perverts, to the extent it progresses, the true, good,
and useful organic compounds which exist in the meal or flour;
but as the dough is generally put into the oven and baked before
this disorganizing process has proceeded so far as to waste any
considerable quantity of it, and the leaven is destroyed, and the
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
165
chief product of fermentation-alcohol-is driven off by heat from
fire, which signifies love or good from the Lord; for this reason
the bread becomes comparatively harmless, and never causes
drunkenness like fermented wine; and, therefore, there is not the
same objection to its use either as an article of food, or in the
most Holy Supper, that there is to the use of fermented wine;
but the writer would not recommend it for the latter purpose, yet
he would many times rather use it than to use fermented wine.
Speaking of "unleavened bread," Swedenborg says: "Un-
leavened bread is good purified from the false." (A. C. 8058.)
"By leaven is signified the false, and thus by unleavened or
unleavened bread, good purified from falses." (A. C. 9287.)
"That hereby is signified what is purified from all falses,
appears from the signification of what is unleavened, as denoting
what is purified from the false: the reason why unleavened has
this signification is, because leaven signifies the false. (A. C. 7853.)
"And ye shall observe unleavened bread,' that hereby is signi-
fied that there shall be no false, appears from the signification of
unleavened bread, as denoting what is purified from all false."
(A. C. 7897.)
"The reason why what is unleavened signifies what is purified
is because leaven signifies what is false derived from evil; hence,
what is unleavened signifies what is pure, or without that false
principle. The reason why leaven signifies what is false derived
from evil is, because this false principle defiles good and also truth,
likewise because it excites combat, for on the approach of that
false principle to good, heat is produced, and as it approaches to
truth it excites collision." (A. C. 9992.)
This is precisely what follows when leaven approaches new
wine; the wine becomes warm, thick, and muddy. A very useful
lesson is taught us in the above paragraph, and that is that we
should shun the false because it defiles good; and for the same
reason we should shun leavened or fermented wine, which we
have seen corresponds to the false, for its use defiles both body
and soul, as every day's observation shows us.
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THE “NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINË”
The September number of the Magazine publishes an article
on "Wine in the Word and the Doctrines," which contains some
curious statements, to say the least. Among them the following:
Speaking of the "extremists," in the temperance reform, the writer
says: "Of which the writer wishes to say that he is an earnest,
and for his brethren's sake, a totally abstaining advocate." And
yet our brother labors with might and main to justify the use of
fermented wine from the point of view of the Bible, and the writ-
ings of the Church.
But if fermented wine is a good and useful article to drink, why
does he abstain, and advise others for their own sakes to totally
abstain from its use? Is it not perfectly clear from the above
admission, that our brother regards fermented wine, when used
as a drink, as a seductive and dangerous fluid?—and that it is not
safe for any other man than himself to use it; and as to himself
the above language leaves it a little questionable whether he
regards it safe for him to use it or not. The present writer will
simply hint to him that it would be unquestionably more dan-
gerous for him to use it than it would be for many other men ;
for it seems quite clear that he would use it, if he were to use it
at all, if we can judge by his language, in violation of the clear
dictates of his understanding, and the promptings of his con-
science. It is never well to act thus.
We think that if the writer had examined the subject a little
more carefully in the light of the Word of the Lord and the
writings of the Church, he would have hesitated before making
the following positive statement, or of including must or unfer-
mented wine with tirosh:
"It will be seen, then, that the attempt to make the Word
commend tirosh, and to infer that sweet wine has always a good
signification, is not only unreasonable when we think of the
pervertible nature of man, but utterly breaks down when we
examine the passages themselves."
And the following are the scriptural illustrations by which he
attempts to justify the above conclusions. "Whoredom and
tirosh [mustum] take away the heart (Hos. iv. 11). “They
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
167
assemble themselves for corn and tirosh [mustum], and they
rebel against me" (Hos. vii. 14).
If tirosh has a bad signification in both of the above passages,
so has corn; if one is condemned, so is the other; but it seems
perfectly clear in the light of a careful study of the Writings of
Swedenborg, that neither of these substances in the passsages
referred to, especially in the last one, has a bad signification. In
Swedenborg's "Angelic Wisdom," concerning the divine love
and wisdom, speaking of the uses for sustaining the body, he says
that there are good and evil uses; and that the good uses, or, in
other words, substances, are created by the Lord, and are useful
to build up and sustain the body, and "make glad the heart of
man." "Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and tirosh
[mustum] the maids" (Zech. ix. 17). Good uses, Swedenborg
informs us, can be abused, but abuse does not take away
use, except in those who abuse them. Now, when men give
themselves up to a gluttonous use of corn and wine, and drink sweet
unfermented wine (as we are told by ancient writers that some
of the ancients did, until their stomachs could hold no more,
and then vomit it that they might enjoy the pleasure of drinking
again), although it never causes drunkenness, it becomes an abuse
of a good use, but it does not change the substance into an evil
substance or use. Cannot our brother see this? Substances
which nourish and build up the body, giving substance, strength,
and health, and which do not cause disease, are always good.
uses, and never bad uses; but we have shown above, from the
testimony of Swedenborg, that, although they may be abused, yet
their life is from heaven and abuse cannot change it.
Of a totally different character are evil uses, Swedenborg
informs us. Among such uses he classes all substances which,
when used as food or drink, do hurt and kill men.
He assures
us that they have their origin from hell. As we have stated else-
where, of no other substance on earth have we such long-continued,
uniform testimony, sustained by our own observation, that it hurts
and kills men as we have that fermented wine does this;
and it not only hurts and kills the body, but it also debases and
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THE “NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINË”
depraves the mind, and causes the most fearful delirium and
insanity.
The reader should bear in mind that must is used to designate,
not only the unfermented juice of the grape, but also the juice
during the process of fermentation; and that during the latter
state it is polluted by ferment, consequently during that state it
has an evil signification, so that must may have a good or a bad
signification according to its state. But the reader will find
this whole subject treated more fully in the fourth chapter.
Again, says the writer in the Magazine: "We have seen that
the Word has yayin, tirosh, and shechar; that it uses all three in
both a good and bad sense, and that there is no room for
argument that tirosh is alone commended." Now we have read
many volumes on the subject under consideration, and we
remember no writer who argues that tirosh is alone com-
mended in the Word. It is universally admitted, we believe, by
the advocates of total abstinence, that yayin, like the Latin vinum
and the English wine, is a generic name like our word cider, and
includes new and old wine, unfermented, fermented, boiled, and
that which is preserved by filtering, settling, and by adding
sulphur and other materials. We do know of one writer who
claims that tirosh is only used for the fruit of the vine and sweet
or unfermented wine, in which opinion he is perhaps mistaken,
as we have shown above. Again, says the above writer: “We
notice at once that mustum for tirosh is used (by Swedenborg)
carefully, and with consistent reference to its use in the Word."
"It means the 'truth of the natural man' (A. E. 509);
'truth from good in the natural' (A. E. 5117); 'corn signifies
good, tirosh [mustum] natural truth—of the rational, bread
and wine [vinum] are predicated '" (A. C. 3580). Again, the
above writer says: "We have seen that mustum is understood
to denote good in the natural, or good which is exterior. *
The result of some study is the conclusion that he used vinum
for fermented wine, as opposed to mustum for unfermented."
The writer gives no distinct intimation that mustum or unfer-
mented wine has ever any higher signification than what is
66
* *
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
169.
natural and exterior, and thus he leaves the reader to infer that
such is his opinion.
Now, we ask the intelligent reader of Swedenborg if the above
is a fair representation of Swedenborg's teachings; and if the con-
clusions arrived at are those which an unbiased mind would be
likely to reach after a fair examination of this whole subject?
Let us look, and we shall readily find a few passages which will
certainly give a very different view from what he presents; and,
on a more careful examination, we shall find that there are
many passages which go to show that unfermented mustum
or sweet unfermented wine, has a much higher signification
than that represented above. Surely no one will pretend that
the blood of the grape is fermented wine, yet we read that:
"The blood of the grape signifies spiritual celestial good, which
is the name given to the divine in heaven proceeding from the
Lord." (A. C. 5117.) Does this need refining by man's inge-
nuity ?
"Must," says Swedenborg, "signifies the same as wine, viz.,
truth derived from the good of charity and love." (A. E. 695.)
It will be seen that the above is a general declaration, and not a
specific application, as in the instances quoted by the above
writer. Again, we are told that, "By the produce of the wine-
press was signified all the truth of the good of the Church, the
same as by wine." (A. E. 799.)
The produce of the wine-press is neither more nor less than
unfermented wine.
Not a single drop of fermented wine was ever produced by a
wine-press from sound, healthy grapes. Fermented wine is pro-
duced by the violent action of ferment, and by ferment alone, on
the juice of the grape, decomposing and destroying the organized
substances created by the Lord in the grape, most admirably
adapted for the sustenance of man.
On a careful examination, it will be difficult to avoid the
conclusion that new wine must mean either the unfermented
juice of the grape, or the juice during fermentation. Now,
when it is spoken of favorably and commended in the
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THE "NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE”
Word, it is evident that it must mean unfermented juice of the
grape; for surely no one can for a moment suppose that wine or
must during fermentation, full of ferment and the heterogeneous
substances which it has developed, can have a good signification.
Even the above writer cannot claim this.
"New wine" (Luke xv. 29), says Swedenborg," is the divine
truth of the New Testament, consequently of the New Church,
and old wine is the divine truth of the Old Testament, conse-
quently of the Old Church." Now, will our brother tell us which
has the highest signification-new or old wine? We have abun-
dantly shown elsewhere that the best old wines of the ancients in
Bible days were not generally fermented wines, but that they
were unfermented wines.
There remains but one subject more in the article in the New
Jerusalem Magazine which requires notice, and that is Sweden-
borg's comparisons; and, although we have already considered
them in writing other parts of this work, still as the arguments
of the New Church advocates for the use of intoxicating drinks
are generally chiefly based upon these comparisons, we will
present to the reader the comparisons selected by the above
writer, with his comments in full, adding a few notes of our own in
brackets, so that the reader may have the latest presentation by
our opponents of the comparisons from Swedenborg before him..
The writer says:
"He (Swedenborg) says of spiritual fermentation, that 'purifi-
cation is effected in two ways, by spiritual temptations and
fermentations; the former are combats against evils and falsities,'
the latter are 'evils and falsities which, being let in, act like
ferments put into meal and unfermented wines-mustis [that is,
they excite combat], by which heterogeneous things are separated
and homogeneous conjoined and made pure and clear' [mani-
festly in the spirit of man and not in the wine]. (D. P. 25.)
"This is unmistakable. The leaven [spiritual leaven] is evil in
its character. The result, if the process is carried out, is good,
namely, [spiritual] purification.
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
171
(6
‘Again, he likens the reforming process to the fermentation of
vinum or sicera, and he adds:
"If the good overcomes, the evil with its falsities is removed
to the sides as the lees fall to the bottom of the vessel, and the
good becomes like generous vinum after fermentation and clear
sicera. [Becomes clear, like generous or strong wine after
fermentation]. But if the evil overcomes, then the good with
its truth is removed to the sides, and becomes turbid and foul
like unfermented vinum and unfermented sicera.' (D. P. 284.)
[Wine is called unfermented wine until fermentation is completed,
or at least far advanced; and as fermentation generally commences
within twenty-four hours from the time the wine flows from the
press, if no measures are taken to prevent it, it is evident that
Swedenborg had in mind wine in this state; for wine in which
fermentation has not commenced is neither turbid nor foul, and,
as we well know, is often kept for years without becoming either.]
"These are plain words, a comparison being made which would
not be made if clear sicera was a decayed product, nor if unfer-
mented vinum was perfect wine.
"So again we read :
"The purification of truth from falsity in man cannot take
place without fermentation, so-called; that is, without combat,
But after that the combat has taken place and the truth has con-
quered, then the falsity falls like lees, and the truth exists puri-
fied; like vinum, which, after fermentation, grows clear, the
lees falling to the bottom.' (A. C. 7906.) [By spiritual fer-
mentation, so-called, we are told above he means spiritual
combat-falsity falls like lees, and the truth grows clear like
wine after fermentation-that is all.]
"That this was Swedenborg's full understanding of the process
of fermentation also appears from his use of the illustration in a
letter to Dr. Beyer, dated Stockholm, December 29th, 1769, in
which, speaking of opposition, he said: 'Such a noise does no
harm, for it is like that of fermentation in the preparation of wine,
by which it is cleared of impurities; for unless what is wrong is
ventilated and thus expelled, what is right cannot be seen and
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THE “NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE”
adopted.'
[Fermentation simply clears the wine of the impurities
developed by the ferment.]
"There is no word adverse to this, so far as is known."
With all due respect to the above writer, we unhesitatingly
affirm that Swedenborg's writings are full of words adverse to the
construction which he has placed upon the above comparisons
which he has selected from Swedenborg's works. To admit
what the above writer assumes, would be to admit that Sweden-
borg contradicts himself and scientific facts with which he was
unquestionably familiar, which is not true.
The above writer, and others who attempt to justify the use of
fermented wine, assume that unfermented wine, as it is squeezed
from grapes, or flows from the press, is not a perfect wine, but
that, like man, it has fallen; one writer assumes that it contains
earth-born impurities, and that as man is purified from his evils
by the aid of evil spirits, flowing in and exciting them, and by
man's combat against them, so wine can only be purified from its
impurities by the use of leaven or ferment, which we are told by
Swedenborg signifies "evil and the false which should not be
mixed with things good and true.”
Now, we know not of a single passage in the Word, or in the
writings of the Church, or a single scientific fact which will sustain
the assumption that the wine as it flows from the press contains
any impurities, or that it is not a perfect wine. We have seen
above, that the blood of the grape, must or new wine, before
the process of fermentation, has the very highest signification;
and that must and even all the produce of the wine-press have
the same signification as wine. Where then are your impurities?
Where then are your imperfections in this good product of the
vineyard, one of the most homogeneous substances in the world,
organized by the Great Chemist, for nourishing and sustaining
the human body, and containing in a liquid form, most wonderfully
blended, the very materials required by the body. It seems
almost a profanation to talk of its having impurities and imper-
fections.
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
173
Until ferment commences its destructive work, wine has no
impurities; but, after that, it speedily becomes turbid, foul, and
full of heterogeneous substances; and it cannot become a clear
liquid until the fermentation ceases, and the resulting heterogen-
eous substances are separated from the liquid by falling to the
bottom, or otherwise. It is the fermentation compared to spirit-
ual combats and the clarification of the wine, producing a clear
liquid, which Swedenborg manifestly intends to compare in the
above passages, and not the inherent quality of the resulting fluid.
Swedenborg knew very well that fermented wine would cause
intoxication, and in No. 1035, A. E., he compares such wine
to falses from evil. Does that look as though he thought fermented
wine was a good and perfect wine, or that it had a good corres-
pondence? He knew as well as we know that the important or
chief active ingredient in fermented wine is alcohol, and that the
alcohol in wine is in every respect similar to the alcohol in whisky,
which he declared, long after his illumination, was "so pernicious.
a drink."
1
Fermented wine is not a perfect or homogeneous wine; for if
the process of fermentation has been arrested, by bottling and
corking, keeping it cool, or by the addition of alcohol or any
other substance, which will either prevent or check the fer-
mentation, you necessarily have unfermented wine, which the
above writer represents as an imperfect wine, mixed with
the fermented wine, whereas, if the process is allowed to
go on until it is fully completed, before that time arrives the
acetous fermentation commences, and you have vinegar mixed
with your wine, so that in either case it is an impure and polluted
wine. There is no avoiding this conclusion.
The following is the conclusion of the Magazine article :
"When our Lord instituted the Holy Supper, he used the
expression fruit of the vine,' and this has been declared to mean
an unfermented drink; but, looking merely at the words, it would
be difficult to see that they carry on their face any such meaning.
Swedenborg, in speaking of this act (T. C. R. 708) uses always
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THE "NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE”
the term vinum. The Lord gave them vinum, saying, 'This is
my blood,' and vinum signifies Divine Truth." (T. C. R. 706.)
Of course, vinum signifies divine truth when it is applied to
unfermented wine, but never when it is applied to wine after the
process of fermentation has commenced.
Vinum is a generic
word covering all kinds of wine.
Says the Rev. Dr. Samson: "Not a shadow of doubt, then,
rests on the fact, that, in the wisdom of Him who wished His
will to be known as to the intoxicant, which, from Noah's fall to
our day, has been, as Luther styled it, the sauf-teufel, or drink-
devil (the tempter of Noah being, to the reformer's mind, the
tempter most successful since the flood), not a shadow of doubt
rests as to the fact that the word known to all nations was selected
by divine inspiration, as the one in reference to which the least
possible mistake could be made in the records which teach God's
laws as to the beverages whose nature must be learned by the
effects they are stated to produce. Yayin is like oinos, and vinum
and vin and wein and wine as universally generic as it is univer-
sally cognate; and the Divine mind, that has made its meaning
in all human literature to be manifest to the reader, meant that it
should be, as it certainly has been, manifest also to men respon-
sible as translators."
Chemistry, as the writer has already stated, shows that in no
truc sense is fermented wine the fruit of the vine, for almost all of
the organic constituents of the fruit as contained in grapes, and
the wine as it flows from the press, have been either partially or
wholly destroyed, changed or precipitated by fermentation; and
alcohol, which will cause drunkenness, disease and insanity
(developed by the destruction of a heaven-born substance, sugar)
becomes the chief ingredient in the wine.
How contrary it is to the facts in the case, to either assert, o1
pretend, that fermented wine is the fruit of the vine, or that it was
the kind of wine used by our Lord when he instituted the Holy
Supper. Unfermented wine is truly the fruit of the vine, and is
nothing else. Of this there can be no question. Let us either
AND THE WINE QUESTION.
175
use it, or let wine alone. We must let fermented wine alone
if we would live in safety; for all experience shows that no
man can use it with assurance that he will not become a drunkard;
and the man who has the most confidence in his own prowess
will, as a rule, be quite sure to be the first to fall. Brethren, let
us beware! We cannot violate the laws of God, as manifested in
our physical and mental organizations, with impunity.
A writer in the New Jerusalem Magazine for May, 1880, says:
"There is no poison in the wine which makes glad the
heart of man,' none in that which the good Samaritan poured
into the wounds of the man who fell among thieves; none in
that which cheers but does not inebriate in declining age."
Every word of which is true: but oh! when the above writer
assumes, as he does, that the kind of good wine to which he
alludes is fermented wine, how far from the truth he is can be
seen at a glance. We know that there is poison in fermented
wine, and that it every day makes the hearts of men mad, and
their wives and children fearfully sad, and never glad. Who
would think for a single moment of pouring such an irritating
fluid as fermented wine into fresh wounds? Such a wine will
inebriate the old man more readily than the middle-aged; and
how can any New Church writer, when Swedenborg compares it
to falses from evil (A. E. 1035), represent it as the "most holy
earthly emblem of the truth which is divine"?
Have we, as rational and accountable beings, (simply to gratify
our perverted appetites) a right to enter upon an unnecessary
course of life, and to teach others by precept and example to do
the same, which the experience of thousands of years has shown
is attended with such fearful danger to our present and eternal
welfare, as is the drinking of fermented wine? Have we a right
to thus endanger the happiness and welfare of those whom we
should love by such a course? Will our friends of the New
Jerusalem Magazine answer the above questions? Will they tell
us where the "
enormous sin" of drunkenness lies, if it does not
lie with the "beginners"? The drunkard is insane, and, conse-
quently, comparatively irresponsible.
1
66
CHAPTER IX.
THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH, AS REPRESENTED BY ITS
SERIAL, WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH," AND THE WINE AND
'WHISKY" QUESTION.
Words for the New Church is a serial controlled by the
"Academy of the New Church," we are told on its title-page.
There is no editor's name given on the cover, and no signature
attached to either of the reviews which are noticed in the follow-
ing pages; and, as now nearly or quite a year has passed, without
any exception having been taken by either the Academy as a
whole, or any member thereof, either publicly or privately, within
the knowledge of the writer, to the ideas and style of the reviews
under consideration, the writer thinks that he has a right to infer
that the views therein contained are the views of the Academy, as
a whole, if not of all of its members. He will therefore speak of
them as such in the following pages.
In regard to the first of these reviews, the editor of the New
Church Independent says :
"In Words for the New Church, No. VII., we find a review
of Dr. Ellis's little pamphlet on 'Lay-lecturing and Re-baptism,'
very much of which is so insolent, so dogmatic, and so untrue,
that we should not care to reproduce it."
The writer has long known and respected several of the promi-
nent men of the Academy, and he is free to confess that he was
somewhat surprised at the language used, and the spirit ap-
parently manifested in the two reviews contained in Words for
the New Church.
Speaking of his letter to the Rev. George Field on the subject
of “lay-lecturing and re-baptism," the Academy says:
"This waif has strayed into our domain: and as it is clad in garments that
might give it an entrance to homes whose doors would be closed against
176
THE WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
177
it, were its intrinsic quality known, we feel constrained to examine the
warp and woof of its garments, and, if possible, to show what it is in itself.
"This brochure is divided into two parts; eight pages of which are
devoted to the subject of lay-lecturing and sixteen to re-baptism.
66
'In these two articles, and in another tract by the same author on the
subject of wine-drinking, he assumes to be a New Churchman; and he
avails himself of the freedom which is supposed to be the rightful boon of
all New Churchmen, to oppose or ignore the teachings of the Writings of
Swedenborg, whenever they appear to stand in the way of his arguments.
"He seems to have fallen into the same error with many other would-be
expounders of New Church doctrines, of feeling himself competent to evolve
from his own conciousness, more or less enlightened by cognitions-legiti-
mate doctrines, worthy of all acceptation."
Now, gentlemen of the Academy, we have a few words to say
to you, containing a little useful information and a few suggestions
and hints—nothing more. And if we speak in rather plain
language, in what we have to say in reply to your reviews, it will
not be because we delight in using such language, but because it
sometimes becomes a duty, in defence of a good cause, to talk
plainly even to those who have been appointed to teach others
the way to heaven.
Such uncalled for, curious and even strange insinuations and
representations apparently so authoritatively and even dog-
matically promulgated as are contained in the above extracts
from your serial, and in others which we shall select, might have
answered their apparent purpose before the year 1757, in an
old well-established ecclesiastical organization; but, in this new
age, they will frighten no one; they may amuse some, but they
will attract a less number; and even laymen, you will find, will
not "down at your beck." If you cannot sustain your views
by fair and legitimate arguments, couched in courteous and
respectful language, you may as well give them up.
assumes to be a New Churchman!" Strange language this,
to be applied to a brother in the Church, whose standing has
never been questioned, and who has been well known by his
writings and efforts to spread a knowledge of the doctrines of
the New Church for more than a quarter of a century;
and to one who, perhaps, has done as much within the last
five years toward spreading a knowledge of the heavenly doc-
" He
178
THE ACADEMY AND THE
trines among his countrymen as any other man. He has written
an "Address to the Clergy," of twenty-four pages in length, and
with a moderate amount of assistance tendered by others, fifty-
five thousand copies have been printed and circulated; fifty
thousand of them having been sent to clergymen. The second
page of the cover of this tract contained a circular of the gift
books, and the last two pages of the cover and one of the body of
the tract contained advertisements of many of the Printing and
Publishing Society's works, and of the Convention's books.
has also written about one-half, and compiled from distinguished
New Church writers the other half, of a work of two hundred and
sixty pages; of which twenty-six thousand copies have been
printed; twenty thousand of which have been sent gratuitously to
clergymen, and six thousand have been printed for missionary
use. Upon the cover of this work were also printed the circular
of the gift books, and advertisement, of the other publications
named above. As a result of the circulation of the above works,
some thousands of clergymen have sent for and obtained the gift
books, who otherwise would not at this time have been likely to
have them; and many thousands of these teachers of the people
have some knowledge of the Writings of Swedenborg; and it is
known that many of these are reading with interest, and that
some are acknowledged receivers of the new doctrines. So
quietly has all this work been done, that we doubt very much
whether the circulation of such a vast number of pages of New
Church reading matter among the clergy, or even the works them-
selves, have ever been noticed in the Academy's organ, Words
for the New Church: at all events, if such a notice has appeared
in that serial, the writer has not seen it.
Two other tracts, however, were written; one a letter to the
Rev. George Field, and another on the wine question, which
were regarded as worthy of notice by the Academy; and we
rather incline to think that another and larger work is being
written, which will be deemed worthy of notice by that organiza-
tion; and that very soon after it is published, another number
of Words for the New Church will make its appearance,
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
179
Well, gentlemen of the Academy, we give you due notice that
while the present writer lives, and the Lord gives him the ability
to write and print, you cannot have it all your own way while you
publicly, in print, advocate the use of intoxicating drinks; and
that while Words for the New Church may reach one reader, the
reply containing or including the gist of your arguments, will be
likely to reach more than one; and we will simply hint to you
that if your words are courteous and respectful, you will have no
just cause to complain of the writer's reply.
Now, gentle reader, the last page or two would never have
been written by the writer, if it had not been for the ungenerous
efforts of the Academy to impair the usefulness of his writings,
for he would strive to avoid notoriety rather than court it in his
efforts to spread a knowledge of the doctrines of the New Church.
Who it is that "opposes or ignores the teachings of the Writings
of Swedenborg, whenever they appear to stand in the way of his
arguments," the reader who has carefully read our previous tract
on "Pure Wine, Fermented Wine, and other Alcoholic Drinks,"
and who will read what follows in this work will be able to judge.
To our suggestion in our letter on "Lay-preaching and Re-
baptism," that it would be well if laymen, well read in the doc-
trines, were encouraged to serve as missionaries in any unoc-
cupied field, and to fill pulpits temporarily vacant, in order to
accelerate the progress of the New Church, the Academy's serial
says:
"This, then, is the remedy offered by the writer of this letter.
But it may not be a relief to those anxious ones to know that the
Lord needs none of their help? This is expressly stated in the
Writings of Swedenborg :
'All men are evil, and of himself every one would rush into hell; where-
fore it is a mercy that he is delivered thence; nor is it anything but mercy,
inasmuch as He has NEED OF NO MAN. (A. C. 587.)
If the above representation of the Academy is correct, what
use is there for the Academy, and the small handful of anxious
moving spirits thereof, who apparently seem to be willing to
assume the name of, and to be regarded as, the only priests of
180
THE ACADEMY AND THE
the New Jerusalem Church? If the Lord needs no man's help,
why do its members not disband, and thus make way for the
descent of the New Jerusalem?
But the Academy, in the above lines, presents only a one-sided
view, and consequently a mistaken application of the passage.
The Lord needed a man through whom to reveal to men the
truths of the New Church, and He found that Emanuel Sweden-
borg was both fit and willing to coöperate with Him in this
great work. The Lord desires the salvation of all men; but,
having given to man freedom and reason, He desires that
man should coöperate with Him by striving to keep the com-
mandments, and that he should do this as of himself; at
the same time recognizing and acknowledging that his very
life, and all the inclination and power he has to do, comes to
him from the Lord alone. If man does not strive thus to act,
he cannot be saved. We have every reason to suppose that the
Lord desires the promulgation of the doctrines of the New
Church to men, and that as we have freely received them from
Him, we should freely give them to others. There is, then a
sense in which He not only needs, but commands our coöperation
with Him for our own good, and the good of our fellow-men. It
is very evident that the above quotation from the "Arcana" will
bear no such construction as the Academy has given to it.
We must say that we are always pained to hear New Church
clergymen proclaim such sentiments as the above; for, so far as
we can judge, they seem to manifest a state of mind too near akin
to that which resulted in the promulgation of the doctrine of
justification by faith alone, and the claim for spiritual dominion,
which were so instrumental in consummating the first Christian
Church, and which have led to the fatalistic doctrine which has
devastated even the Mohammedan religion in our day-"God is
great, and Mohammed is His prophet," and what need of our
trying to do anything. Such views clearly belong to a consum-
mated Church, and have no place in the New Jerusalem Church,
"the Crown of all the Churches, and which is to endure forever."
But, so far as lay-lecturing and re-baptism are concerned,
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
181
what we have said in our tract has been simply in the interest of
freedom in the New Church. Our views are before the Church,
and we have no desire for a controversy upon these subjects;
but to show in what a different spirit another reviewer has noticed
the above "waif," and to what a different conclusion he has
come, we will quote an editorial notice from the Morning Light,
the English New Church weekly journal, of May 22d, 1880:
"We have received a copy of 'A Letter to the Rev. George Field on the
subect of Lay-lecturing and Re-baptism,' by John Ellis, M. D., in reply to
some remarks in Dr. Field's Early history of the New Church in the
Western States and Canada.' The questions are temperately and ably
argued, and we think that Dr. Ellis abundantly proves the impropriety of
discouraging lay-preaching and the requirement of re-baptism as a condition
of membership."
The writer has, as has been stated, no desire to enter into a con-
troversy with the Academy on the subjects of lay-lecturing and
re-baptism, especially of the character initiated by the Academy;
but the erroneous and pernicious views set forth in their serial upon
the wine question, must be met and fully exposed; and, to use
their own delicate language, it must be clearly shown how they are
"groping in hopeless darkness" upon this great practical question,
which so intimately affects the welfare of the Church and the
world.
Before the end of this work is reached, the reader will be able
to judge whose writings should be excluded from the homes.
where dwell those who themselves desire to live the life of the
Church, and to train the young under their charge into an orderly
and Christian life. It is certain that either the writings of the
Academy, as contained in their serial, Words for the New
Church, or the writings of the author of "Pure Wine, Fermented
Wine, and Other Alcoholic Drinks," should be carefully excluded
from the home of every parent who has at heart, the best good
of his children, and others dependent upon him, for we read,
" evil communications corrupt good manners." The teachings of
the one or the other are fearfully evil and pernicious.
Now, gentle reader, if you desire your children to drink intoxi-
cating wine and distilled liquors, you have only to admit to your
182
THE ACADEMY AND THE
homes the Academy's serial, Words for the New Church
what fearful words-and the following is a sample of the chosen
words of instruction they will find therein :
"In view of the fact that many wine-merchants and distillers, participat-
ing in the greedy desire for gain, adulterate their productions, it becomes
necessary to be careful in selecting liquors for consumption, as well as for
experimentation.
"Much of the whisky which is sold as pure, contains amylic alcohol,
the fusel oil, which is acrid, offensive, and highly injurious to the system.
"Of the various articles now in the market, we may make a judicious
selection, depending not only upon our taste, but also upon the respective
liquors."
Such is the instruction given in Words for the New Church;
and, in accordance therewith, if such authors are permitted to
enter your homes, have we not every reason to suppose will
be the example set before your children by those whom they
will probably respect. How do you like it, kind parent? Aris-
totle's (the sage of antiquity) rule was, "When the danger is
all on one side, abstinence doing no injury, while indulgence
may injure, it is virtue to keep to the extreme on the safe side ;"
in other words, to totally abstain. No one can question but that
the drinking of intoxicating drinks is dangerous, and that total ab-
stinence is safe, during health; and that it is a duty, has been, and
will be again clearly shown, from the authority of the Word of God,
the writings of the Church, and the teachings of modern science.
We will suggest to our friends of the Academy, that if they will
even consult the writings of that ancient philosopher, Aristotle,
they will perhaps get a glimpse of other truths well worthy of
their consideration, of which, as in the case before us, they appar-
ently, at present, have not the slightest perception.
Speaking of the total abstinence movement, the Academy says:
"Strange, indeed, is it that New Churchmen should be
beguiled into such movements; but that they are is evident from
the occasional display of temperance badges, and still more
from the character of contributions made to our various periodi-
cals. Beyond these, books and pamphlets occasionally appear
from professed New Churchmen filled with the most egregious
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
183
falsities on the subject of alcoholic stimulants, their use and their
abuse. Among these is a pamphlet, by John Ellis, M. D., entitled,
'Pure Wine, Fermented Wine, and other Alcoholic Drinks in
the Light of the New Dispensation.' Written under such an
illumination, the reader would expect a clear and complete expo-
sition of the whole subject of intemperance, both as to its
prevention and removal. But instead, he is introduced to parti-
san selections from physiological experiments, and, what is more
lamentable, to such perverted interpretations of Swedenborg's
teachings that he finds himself groping in hopeless darkness."
The following is the first illustration of the writer's so-called
"perverted interpretation of Swedenborg's teachings," which
we will quote, and then quote the passages from the documents ;
and then the reader will be able to judge who has been guilty of
perverting Swedenborg's teachings:
"Beginning with the title-page," says the Academy's serial,:
"he (Dr. Ellis) reads a selection from the Documents, which is so
quoted that it holds Swedenborg responsible for what he never
taught, and it even makes him dispute the plain dicta of the
writings of the Church. The passage referred to, when read as
it is in the Documents, shows that Swedenborg had reference to
a people who were dissolute in the extreme. They were con-
suming the distillation of a grain which was sadly needed as an
article of food. Foreseeing the ruin of his own people, he urged
that the authorities forbid, or at least limit, the sale of what was
indeed, under the circumstances, 'a pernicious drink.'"
The following is what was printed on the title-page of our tract,
to which reference is made above.
"Total abstinence from an intoxicating drink, more desirable for the
country's welfare and morality than all the revenue to be derived from
licensing the manufacture and sale of 'SO PERNICIOUS A DRINK.””—Emanuel
Swedenborg. (See page 40.)
And the following is what was printed on page 40 of our tract,
and the reader can judge whether the above lines misrepresent
Swedenborg's teachings or not, and we do not fear the judgment.
It was not intended as a verbatim quotation, and therefore, with the
184
THE ACADEMY AND THE
exception of the last four words, it was not put in quotation
marks, but the reader was referred to the page where the ver-
batim quotations were to be found.
TESTIMONY OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.
On the fly-leaf of one of his theological MSS., he wrote: "The
immoderate use of spirituous liquors will be the downfall of the
Swedish people." In his memorial to the Swedish Diet, of
November 17th, 1760, three years after the Last Judgment,
Swedenborg says: "If the distilling of whisky-provided the
public can be prevailed upon to accede to the measure—were
farmed out in all judicial districts, and also in towns, to the
highest bidder, a considerable revenue might be obtained for the
country, and the consumption of grain might also be reduced;
that is, if the consumption of whisky cannot be done away with
altogether, which would be more desirable for the country's
welfare and morality than all the income which could be realized
from so pernicious a drink." ("Documents concerning Sweden-
borg," by Rev. R. L. Tafel, vol. 1. p. 493.) This has clearly and
unmistakably the total abstinence and prohibition ring about it.
Now, kind reader, can you for a single moment imagine that
Swedenborg did not mean to say what he so clearly says, that
whisky is a pernicious drink, and that it would be better if its use
were done away with altogether? Do healthy drinks impair the
morality of men? Do you think, as the Academy represents in
the above quotation from its serial, that it was not the whisky
which was pernicious, and which was demoralizing and destroy-
ing his countrymen; but simply the consumption of grain for
making whisky, thereby threatening a famine, and thus destroy-
ing the Swedish people by starvation? But, when the Academy
attempts to sustain a bad cause by the use of falses, it is very
liable to make contradictory statements which defeat its object.
Turning to other parts of the review, we find it zealously advocat-
ing the doctrine that whisky and alcohol are good and useful
articles for man to drink; and it even makes the following
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
185
statement, which seems to give special delight:
"Many
accredited authors acknowledge that alcohol, so far from being a
poison, is food.” Now, perhaps the Academy will be able to
tell us, if alcohol is food, how the conversion of grain into
whisky, which is diluted alcohol, should threaten the starvation of
the Swedish people, as it represents? It certainly looks very
much as though this organization was "groping in hopeless
darkness" upon this subject, amid the most destructive falses.
We ask every intelligent and disinterested reader, if it would
not be difficult to find in the English language a more clear
misrepresentation of the views of another than is contained in
the above quotation from the Academy's organ, in regard to the
testimony of Swedenborg, as contained in the above quotations
from the Documents, and all in the interests of whisky?
But upon the subject of alcohol, as a poison, the Academy has
discovered a mare's nest, with a very large egg lying therein.
Ay ! with the Irishman of the story, they have seen a colt in the
form of a rabbit skipping from behind a stump. We can readily
imagine how they chuckled, and how the members said among
themselves: "Now, we have caught Dr. Ellis, surely, once more,
in another of his lamentable, perverted interpretations of
Swedenborg's teachings.'" The following is the Academy's colt
from the mare's egg:
"As an additional proof that alcohol is not essentially a poison, the
experiments of Dr. Ford show that it exists in minute quantities in the
tissues of even the most rigid 'teetotaler.' It is formed from hepatic sugar,
and may be readily detected by chromic acid and other chemicals."
Well, gentlemen of the Academy, we think if you had con-
sulted any work on physiology and animal chemistry, you would
not have placed before your readers such a strange and simple
argument to prove that alcohol is not a poison, simply because it
is found in the tissues of a man who never drinks it; for you
would have learned that carbon, also, is found in the tissues and
blood of every one, as the result of the decomposition of sub-
stances which have been taken as food and drink; precisely as
alcohol, when not taken in food or drink, if found in the tissues,
186
THE ACADEMY AND THE
results from the decomposition of substances which, having been
taken to supply the legitimate wants of the body, and having per-
formed their use, are cast out in a very different form from that
in which they entered the mouth. But if the carbon is not re-
moved from the system, by uniting with oxygen to form carbonic
acid gas and by exhalation, the man dies within a very few minutes.
So urea is found in the tissues, resulting from the decomposition
and decay of worn-out materials from the tissues, which are
thus removed to make way for new materials; but if urea is not
removed from the body by the kidneys steadily, the man dies
in a very few days, poisoned by this substance. Now, does the
fact that urea is found in the tissues prove that it is a suitable
article for food, or that urine, which contains it in its passage
from the body, is not a poison?—and that it is every way a suit-
able and desirable drink, and should be temperately used for this
purpose? What nonsense to use such arguments in favor of
whisky-drinking.
We would simply intimate to our friends of the Academy, that
silence upon this subject would much better become a Theo-
logical Academy than such arguments as the one under consid-
eration, for there is no end to the illustrations which clearly
demonstrate the absurdity and falsity of such positions. Even
the fecal matter from the bowels, excepting a portion of indigest-
ible material, have once been in the tissues of the body, and
come from the decomposition of such tissues, but they have been
hurried out through the blood, and separated in the intestines:
but let a leak from a water-closet pipe, or the drainage from
a sewer, contaminate the water which men drink, and we soon
have developed a malignant form of inflammation of the mucous
membrane of the digestive organs with malignant fever in some
of the individuals who drink it.
There is another small egg, from which the Academy's organ
attempts to hatch another unanswerable argument, to prove that
intoxicating drinks are good and useful. It is as follows:
"Many accredited authors acknowledge that alcohol, so far from being
a poison, is a food. The organism may for a variable period subsist exclu-
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
187.
sively upon even absolute alcohol, one to one and a half ounces, daily, and.
actually gain in weight.”
Alcohol, like opium, and some other poisons, retards and,
under certain circumstances, may temporarily stop the waste, or
removal of worn-out substances through the kidneys, bowels, lungs
and skin, which is so necessary for the health of the body; and
alcohol, when taken into the stomach, craves water and robs the
tissues, and may even absorb some moisture from the atmos-
phere, but no intelligent physiologist, admitting all that the
Academy claims, would say that such gaining in weight would be
a healthy gain. A man would gain in weight by eating putrid or
decaying animal flesh, or rotting vegetables, or rattle-snakes,
poison and all, but does that make such substances healthy and
proper food? To the dog, decaying animal flesh is natural food,
for his organism is adapted to its use, and he even delights in the
odor arising therefrom; but it is not grateful to the cat nor to
man, any more than the breath of the man who drinks intoxi-
cating drinks is pleasant to the temperate man. It does seem
that the Academy must be very hard pressed for legitimate
arguments when it will descend to such arguments as the above.
Alcohol, we repeat, and at this day it cannot be repeated too
often, is the "prince of poisons,"-more to be feared and
shunned than the poison which causes diphtheria and typhoid
diseases. Where is the parent who cares for the present and
future of his children who would not rather see his son sick
with diphtheria or typhoid fever, from contaminated water, than
to see him drunk, or suffering from delirium tremens. There is
no other poison on earth which, when voluntarily taken, so per-
verts, diseases, pollutes and degrades a man both physically and
spiritually as alcohol. How can any man encourage and justify
the use of such a fluid?
Still further, the Academy has discovered that a medical writer
has declared that alcohol is useful in some cases of hemorrhage,
and therefore it would apparently have the reader infer that it is
a good and useful beverage for the healthy. That alcohol, like
other poisons, may sometimes be used advantageously, as a
188
THE ACADEMY AND THE
remedy, we do not question. Its action is to paralyze the capil-
lary vessels, and thereby fill them with blood, and in cases of
hemorrhage, by thus temporarily storing up the blood in these
minute vessels, and preventing the heart from forcing it out of the
body through the ruptured vessels, and by thus congesting the
minute vessels of the brain, it prevents fatal syncope or fainting,
and when thus used as a medicine it is useful.
So is ergot, or spurred rye, useful for restraining hemorrhages,
but its continued use causes gangrene of the feet, a disease no
more peculiarly the effects of this poison, than drunkenness is of
alcohol. It is strange that men of intelligence should bring for-
ward such an argument to justify the use of intoxicating drinks,
and that not a single member of the Academy should have called
attention to the utter fallacy of such an argument.
We quote the following from the Academy's serial :
"In bold contrast with the pamphlet of Dr. Ellis, is an article
which appeared in the New Jerusalem Magazine for March,
1880.
"Viewing the subject impartially, and accepting the teachings.
of the Church, without trying to distort them to favor precon-
ceived ideas, the writer deduces a clear statement of the true
uses of wines and liquors.
"As an illustration of this antithesis, we quote the following:
'Wine was used in the Holy Supper, and the Lord tells His disciples to
drink ye all of it; for, He says, "This is my blood of the New Covenant
which is shed for many." This use of wine in the Most Holy Sacrament is
perfectly conclusive of its having a good signification. If it were not in
itself good, if it were poisonous or injurious to the body it could not cor-
respond to the Divine Blood or Truth, nor would it be used with "bread,"
the other nutritious element. The Lord could not have drunk wine if it
were a bad thing in itself, or "pernicious," as Dr. Ellis styles it. "
The second paragraph above contains a queer statement, to
say the least, coming from the Academy as it does. To repre-
sent the writer as striving to distort the teachings of the Church
to favor preconceived ideas sounds strangely; whether this repre-
sentation is just or not the reader will have a chance to judge before
the writer gets through with the Academy. But he will here say:
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
189
the ideas of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks did not
descend to him from the perversions of a fallen state of a preced-
ing Church, neither did he inherit them from his ancestors; they
were not the views of his childhood and early youth, but they
were formed after deliberately examining the subject during his
adult life; such an examination having satisfied him that to use
these drinks was to violate the laws of his physical organization
and the laws of God, which required him to neither harm nor
kill himself, nor to risk his own life needlessly, nor injure his
fellow-man by his example. And beyond all this, these laws
required him to deny whatever hereditary inclination he might
have inherited, and whatever taste he might have acquired for
he use of such drinks during his early life; and to shun their
use as endangering his health and natural life and his eternal
welfare, and from the time of his first acquaintance with the
writings of the New Church, to shun their use as a sin against
God.
In regard to the representation contained in the second para-
graph above, quoted from the New Jerusalem Magazine, the
writer has never held such views as are there attributed to him.
Not one word which he has ever spoken or written would justify
such representations; and in the very tract which the Academy
is reviewing he says: "Natural wine corresponds to spiritual wine
—not to truth alone, for wine signifies spiritual love or love to
the neighbor as well as truth. In fact, 'The correspondence of
wine is one of the very highest. It is given as faith (A. C. 1070);
as spiritual good (A. C. 2187, 2343, 3513, 3596); as love to the
neighbor (A. C. 3570); and in the supreme sense as Divine
Truth out of the Divine Good of the Lord (A. C. 6377).'”
The author would refer to the following extract from the same
tract:
“Wine has a similar signification to blood. Blood is composed, not
simply of water, which is from the mineral kingdom, and corresponds to
truths upon the natural plane of life, and is the medium through which
nourishment is conveyed to every part of the material body, but it also
contains in a state of solution, all the substances required to warm and
build up the material body, which correspond to good, all harmoniously
190
THE ACADEMY AND THE
blended in one fluid, a living current which is to the body of man what
Divine Truth, always united with Divine Good, is to his soul. It is per-
fectly clear that wine has a similar signification, because it has a similar
composition. It has the water from the mineral kingdom; the sugar, which
is so delightful to the innocent child, and which is appropriated to warm
the material body; the gluten or bread-part, which gives substance to the
various tissues; the phosphorus for the brain, the lime for the bones; the
potash for the tendons and ligaments; and there is perhaps no part of the
body which does not receive some nourishment from pure unfermented
wine."
Do the above passages look as though Dr. Ellis styles wine as
a bad thing in itself, or pernicious? What he did say, and
desires here to repeat, is that :
"With most of the nourishing substances referred to above,
which are contained in the pure juice of the grape, and which
correspond to good, either entirely or partially destroyed, preci-
pitated, or converted into poisonous compounds, even with the
delightful sugar perverted by leaven into alcohol, which is so
repugnant to the taste of the innocent child, what relation has
fermented wine to blood? Its correspondence may have
been appropriate to a state of the Church, when faith was
separated from charity; but how any intelligent New Churchman
can sanction the use of fermented wine is an increasing wonder
to the writer. It is in vain to attempt to justify the use of
fermented wine, and other alcoholic drinks, from the standpoint
of the Bible, the Writings of Swedenborg, or from modern science,
until the great doctrine of correspondences between all natural
things, processes and habits, and their spiritual causes, is abso-
lutely overthrown. This correspondence extends to things even
the most minute."
The writer denies that the good wine of the Word, which is a
blessing, of which the Lord and his disciples partook, was fer-
mented wine which causes drunkenness; but claims that it was
the fruit of the vine, either the pure, recently expressed juice of
the grape, or that juice preserved from fermentation, by one of
the various processes well known to the ancients, and carefully
described by the ancient writers,
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
191
on
It does seem so strange, that with the tract lying before them
“Pure Wine, Fermented Wine, etc." Words for the New
Church could have deliberately quoted the above paragraph
from the Magazine! It is but just to say that one of the editors
of the Magazine, seeing the injustice and wrong which was done
by a similar misrepresentation of the writer's views in the Maga-
zine, has amply and honorably apologized for the same in its
pages, so that of the Magazine he makes no complaint.
"But," says the Academy, "there are some statements, which
we think Mr.
would not have made if he had first
examined the writings. He asserts, for example, that intemper-
ance in drinking is a greater evil than intemperance in eating.
Most evidently the abuse of good is more damaging than the
abuse of truth, and so may we not conclude that gluttony, or
intemperance in eating, is more damaging and brutalizing than
intemperance in drinking."
Now, friends of the Academy, have you fairly stated the ques-
tion at issue? It is not "whether the abuse of good is more
damaging than the abuse of truth," but rather whether imbibing
falsities from evil is not more damaging than the abuse of good,
for Swedenborg compares intoxicating drinks to falses from evil.
Is it respectful to your intelligent readers, and in accordance
with the common sense of mankind, to compare the eating of
healthy food, which has a heavenly origin, or even its abuse or
intemperate use, to the use of intoxicating drinks, which, accord-
ing to the philosophy of Swedenborg, originate from hell, and
which have hurt and killed more of the human family than all
other poisons put together; and which, in our day, are hurting
and killing more men and women than all other poisons, war,
pestilence and famine, destructive wild animals, and serpents
put together? Even in the form of fermented wine, such drinks
are compared in the Bible to the poison of serpents, and the
cruel venom of asps. Talk of the temperate use of intoxicating
drinks—even that old "heathen philosopher," Aristotle, as we
have shown, teaches you a very different lesson from this. You
might as well talk of temperate stealing, temperate bearing of
192
THE ACADEMY AND THE
false witness, or of murdering temperately, for not more surely do
such violations of the divine law damage man's spiritual nature
than the so-called temperate use of intoxicating drinks impairs
man's physical and moral nature.
But, after finding so much in the Academy's Words for the
New Church which is erroneous, and which we have felt it our
duty to expose and criticise somewhat plainly, we are happy to
call the attention of the reader to a portion of their review, which
teaches the truth, and clearly illustrates the same from the
Writings of Swedenborg. Although we had exposed the error
in our tract, and called special attention to it, to which reference
is made, yet we are very happy to reproduce the essential part of
the testimony of the Academy's argument in reply to the writer
in the New Jerusalem Magazine. For the point is a very essen-
tial one in this discussion-in fact, as will hereafter be seen, a
vital one.
Speaking of the errors into which the writer in the New Jeru-
salem Magazine had fallen, the Academy's organ says:
'A more serious error is the statement, that the imbibing of
more truths than we are ready to apply to the various uses of
life makes us spiritual drunkards. This view must have crept
into the New Church from the Old, for there is nothing in the
Writings of Swedenborg which sustains such an opinion. Spiritual
drunkenness is something quite different from this, as we learn
from the Writings. We read in the ‘Arcana' :
'Those are called drunkards, who believe nothing but what they compre-
hend, and therefore investigate the mysteries of faith; in consequence of
which they necessarily fall into errors. * * * The error and insanity
hence derived are called in the Word drunkenness; and souls or spirits in
another life, who argue about the truths of faith and against them, become
like drunkards, conducting themselves similarly. (A. C. 1072.)
'To be intoxicated from the cup is to be insane from falses.' (A. C.
5120, 9960.)
"So in the 'Apocalypse Revealed':
'To be made drunk with the wine of whoredom signifies to become
insane in spiritual things from the falsification of the truths of the Word;
here from the adulteration of them.' (A. R. 721; see also A. E. 1035, 376.)
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
193
"But nowhere do we find a statement that if we imbibe more
truths than we are ready to apply to the various uses of life, we
are spiritual 'drunkards.'
66
'Surely he cannot be called intemperate, who stores his
memory with more truths than he is ready to apply, else all
school-children would be spiritual drunkards. Man becomes a
spiritual drunkard only when, from self-intelligence, he argues
about truths, and especially if against them.
"The more truths a man acquires the better, that his rational
principle may thence be formed and that these truths may serve
in nis memory as vessels to receive faith and charity.
"For we read:
“That faith is perfected in proportion to the number and coherence of
truths. Now since faith in its essence is truth, it follows that faith becomes
more and more perfectly spiritual in proportion to the number and coher-
ence of truths, and consequently less and less sensual-natural; for it is thus
exalted into a higher region of the mind, from whence it views below it in
the natural world numberless circumstances and proofs that tend to confirm it.
True faith, by means of such a number of truths cohering, as in a fascicle or
bundle, becomes also more illustrated, more perceptible, more evident, and
more clear; it acquires also a greater capacity of being conjoined with the
goods of charity, and hence of being in a state of greater alienation from evils;
and it becomes by degrees more and more removed from the allurements of
the eye and the lusts of the flesh, and consequently is rendered happier in
itself: it becomes particularly more powerful against evils and falses, and
thence more and more a living and a saving faith.'” (T. C. R. 352.)
New Church, with
How wonderful that the Academy of the
all its intelligence and wisdom, in its zeal to expose the errors
into which the writer in the New Jerusalem Magazine had mani-
festly fallen, should have been so forgetful of its position as to
stultify its own argument, and so completely overturn the plat-
form upon which itself was standing, as it does in the above
quotations from its serial.
If, then, the imbibing of spiritual truths never causes spiritual
drunkenness, as is so clearly proven, how certain it is that the
drinking of natural fluids, which legitimately correspond to spiritual
truths, can never cause natural drunkenness. In other words, as
194
THE ACADEMY AND THE
fermented wine and whisky do cause natural drunkenness, it is
perfectly clear, and as certain as correspondences are true, that
these fluids do not correspond to genuine spiritual truths which
never cause spiritual drunkenness. We think our brethren of
the Academy cannot fail to see that they themselves are fairly
caught, to use their own courteous language, in presenting such
"perverted interpretations of Swedenborg's teachings," as show
that they themselves are "groping in hopeless darkness.”
Our friends of the Academy do not seem to understand how
pure, unfermented wine can cheer and warm the heart of man,
nor how "
corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine
the maids" (Zech. ix. 7).
"I am sorry," says the Rev. J. M. Van Buren, "to say an
attempt has been made to justify the use of intoxicating drinks
for the purpose of exhilaration by an appeal to the Bible. As
this is the very thing that leads to drunkenness, and is the begin-
ning of it, we may be sure that the passages supposed to prove it,
may have another meaning. And so we find it (Eccl. ix. 7):
'Eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart.'
The Hebrew word rendered merry,' means 'good,' 'upright,
'virtuous. Put either of these meanings in the place of 'merry,'
and instead of the idea of an alcoholic exhilaration, we have a
sentiment of piety consistent with Gospel temperance."
In speaking of the effects of alcoholic preparations, Words for
the New Church says:
"Ideas flow more freely, the senses are more acute. As the
ambrosial odor of wine greets the nostrils, the affections are
vivified, and thus is formed a social sphere which transforms
a listless company into a chatty, brilliant, and entertaining party.
Rudeness and incivility give place to æsthetic refinement, and
charity finds one of its most delightful recreations."
Such words as the above are neither wise nor useful, and it
would seem to be high time that our ecclesiastical friends of the
Academy, should hear and heed the warning voice of others.
A recent writer truly says:
"Making drunk, includes all the preparatory processes of
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
195
drinking; the sin does not lie in the last glass. All are united
in the result. That which begins the work and inflames the
appetite has the chief responsibility."
Our brethren should remember that violence, manifest drunk-
enness, and woe lie but one very short step beyond that state of
excitement which they have described above as so desirable.
"It is not for kings to drink wine, nor princes strong drink.
Lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of
the afflicted.' Here is abstinence enjoined, and the reason for
it plainly given. Again (Lev. x. 8-11), it is required of the
priests: And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink
wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go
into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a
statute for ever throughout your generations. That ye may put a
difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and
clean. And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the
statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of
Moses.'"
No one questions but that the wine referred to above as
unholy and unclean is fermented wine, and no one supposes for a
moment that it is unfermented wine. "But they also have erred
through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the
priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are
swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong
drink, they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all
tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place
clean” (Isa. xxviii. 7, 8).
How correctly and literally do the above words represent the
effects of drinking wine and strong drinks, seen to-day as of old.
Oh, gentlemen of the Academy! beware! beware! "Woe to
him that giveth his neighbor drink; that puttest thy bottle to
him” (Hab. ii. 5, 15). You have young and inexperienced
May the Lord protect them.
men under your charge.
Philo, a learned Jewish writer of Alexandria, who lived during
the first half of the first century, is full of important statements.
196
THE ACADEMY AND THE
"In his treatise on 'Monarchy' he cites, as indicating the duty
of entire abstinence from wine, the prohibition to the priests;
and says it was given for 'most important reasons; that it pro-
duces hesitation, forgetfulness, drowsiness and folly.' Dwelling
on each of these bodily, mental, and religious evils, he says: ‘In
abstemious men all the parts of the body are more elastic, more
active and pliable, the external senses are clearer and less
obscured, and the mind is gifted with acute perception.' Further:
"The use of wine *
leaves none of our faculties free
and unembarrassed; but is a hindrance to every one of them,
so as to impede the attaining of that object for which each was
fitted by nature. In sacred ceremonies and holy rites this mis-
chief is most grievous of all, in proportion as it is worse to sin
with respect to God than respect to man.'”—Divine Law as to
Wines.
*
Professor Tayler Lewis, in a recent pamphlet on “Wine-drink-
ing and the Scriptures," says:
"Our third class of texts, the directly ethical, where wine and
its effects, instead of being incidentally mentioned, form the
principal subject, are easily disposed of. They are all one way.
Among others in the Old Testament see Prov. xxiii. 29–35, xxxi.
4; Isa. v. II, xxviii. 1, 3, 7, 8; Jer. xxxv. 1, 19; Dan. i. 8 ;
Hos. iv.11; Joel i. 5; Amos vi. 6; Hab. ii. 5, 15. They con-
demn, with no reference to excess or moderation. Wine-drinking
is spoken of as a bad thing, leading to ruinous consequences.
"There is one evil state of the soul condemned throughout the
Bible. It is that state to which we give the name of intoxica-
tion, or inebriation; but which, having no term corresponding to
it in the Hebrew, is described and most vividly set before us
(Prov. xxiii. 29, 35) in its phenomena and effects. It is the act
of a person in health, voluntarily, and without any other motive
or reason than the pleasurable stimulus, using any substance
whatever, be it solid or liquid, to produce an unnatural change
in his healthy mental and bodily state, either by way of exciting
or quieting the nerves and brain, or quickening the pulse. This
was wrong—a spiritual wrong, a sin per se-not a matter of
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
197
હન
excess merely, but wrong and evil in any, even the smallest
measure or degree. Although there might be much ignorance
in respect to its real internal causation, the outward substances
known to produce this effect-above all, which were used for the
very purpose of producing it (for here was the spiritual crime)—
are denounced as something which men are not to touch, not
even 'to look at.' The description may be scientifically correct
or erroneous; it may also be difficult to determine, precisely,
what is meant by certain Hebrew phrases in this remarkable pas-
sage; but the general sense, as well as the precise point intended,
is unmistakably clear. It is intoxicating drink that is meant-
intoxicating in any degree-drinks sought for that very purpose
of producing such unnatural change in the healthy human system.
There was to be no moderate drinking (or desire) here. How-
ever gentle, exhilarating, convivial or pleasantly soothing might
be its first effects, at the last 'it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth
like an adder.'
((
According to the ethics so noted for its condemnation of all
fanaticism, we should have expected from the experienced and
conservative Solomon some wise inculcation of prudence, mode-
ration, avoidance of excess, rational use of the good gifts of God,
etc. Nothing of the kind. Abstinence, total abstinence, is the
lesson, if language can convey that idea. 'Do not look upon it,'
my son; turn away immediately, as from a venomous serpent;
think of its biting, stinging, maddening end, and let not thine
eye yield for a moment to its ruby fascination. It was undoubt-
edly purer wine than is now to be found on many Christian
sideboards; but the better it is, the more sparkling its hue, the
more delightful to the palate as it 'goes smoothly down,' so is it
all the more dangerous. The language of the whole passage is
most urgent, reminding us of that used (Prov. iv. 15) in respect
to other tempting sins that lead to a dreadful end: 'Avoid it,
pass not by it, turn from it, pass away.'
Now, gentlemen of the Academy, we wish to ask a few ques-
tions, and are encouraged to do so from the fact, that your sin-
cerity in advocating the use of intoxicating drinks, such as fer-
198
THE ACADEMY AND THE
mented wine and whisky, as beverages, is not questioned by any
one so far as we know.
We would like to know if your practice is in harmony with the
views proclaimed in your serial? As priests or ministering ser-
vants of the Lord in His effort to save man from all evil as far as
possible, are you in the habit of drinking these intoxicating
drinks in your social relations with each other? We are sorry to
say that we are compelled to infer that you are from the language
which we have quoted from your serial. Are we mistaken?
The prevailing spirit of the people, in your missionary fields,
does not sanction the use of intoxicating drinks as beverages; in
your missionary work do you strive to counteract this spirit?
To how many young men and young women have you intro-
duced the intoxicating cup?
Are you orally, as well as by Words for the New Church,
teaching wives, mothers and daughters that it is lawful and use-
ful for their husbands, sons, and brothers, to drink, as beverages.
wine, whisky, and other intoxicating drinks?
Do you wish to withhold the young from using these articles
as beverages, in places of amusement or elsewhere? We can but
infer that you do not.
When you see young, middle-aged, or old men, priests or
laymen, getting drunk, have you, with such teaching and exam-
ple, any real ability to restrain them from this "enormous sin?”
(See 2422 S. D.)
Do you really think that parents who have reared their chil-
dren chastely and soberly, if they were to know that your precepts
and example favored the use of intoxicating drinks, would be
willing to trust their education in such an institution as the
Academy?
Have you considered carefully what effect your precepts and
example may have on young men committed to your charge?
If
you have not, is it not of the divine mercy that the Academy
has but few pupils ?
Now, gentlemen, be frank with the Church. Let us know just
where you stand, practically, on the question of intoxicating drinks.
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
igo
If, after looking at all sides of this question, parents are still
willing to trust the education of their sons to your institution,
then the responsibility will be in part with them, and not alto-
gether with you. If there is any division of sentiment among
you upon this great practical question of life, will you be so kind
as to let the Church know it?
We give you, and the young men under your charge, and their
parents, due notice that in the near future no young man who
drinks fermented wine, beer, or whisky, or uses tobacco, and
teaches that it is well and right to do so, and sets such an
example before the young, will be tolerated as a settled minister
by the majority of the lay members of any society which is able
to select and support a minister.
We have made several quotations from the writings of Dr. B.
W. Richardson, and we wish to call the attention of the teachers
and students of the Academy, and others, to a recent work of his,
entitled "Temperance Lesson-Book on Alcohol and its Action
on the Body, designed for Reading in Schools and Families." It
should be studied in every family and school. The following is
a summary of the lessons contained therein at the end of the
last chapter, which will give the reader some idea of the import-
ance of the book. There is no higher medical authority upon this
subject than Dr. Richardson, for no one has experimented and
watched the effects of alcohol more carefully than he has done :
'Now that we have learned so much about alcohol as it ap-
pears under the many disguises of strong drinks, we are, I trust,
armed by our knowledge against its evil influences. We shall,
however, still find many to defend the use of alcohol, for many,
very many, are still ignorant about it; many, very many, are
strongly prejudiced in favor of it; many, very many, are so fond
of it they cannot help praising it as a good thing for themselves,
and therefore as a good thing for everybody. Such is the strange
perversity of the human mind, that numbers of people who are
going wrong, and who know they are going wrong, in the use of
alcohol will still persist in their error, and with their eyes open to
66
200
THE ACADEMY AND THE
the wrong they are doing, will persist in leading others with them.
It is one part of the madness inflicted by alcohol on its friends,
that deceives them and in turn makes them deceivers.
"You will have often in your lives to listen to the arguments of
these persons. They will tell you a great deal of error, which
you must be ready to hear, and at once recognize as error. You
will be told that alcohol is a food because it warms the body.
You know what that is worth. You know that alcohol only
makes the body feel warm because it causes more warm blood to
come to the surface of the body, there to lose its heat and leave
the body colder. You know that cold and alcohol exercise the
same kind of influence on the body, and that when working in
the cold, even in the extremest cold, that man will work longest
and best who avoids alcohol altogether.
"You will be told that alcohol is a food because it gives
strength to the body and helps men and women to do more
work. You know what that is worth. You know that the action
of alcohol is to lessen the muscular power; that it weakens the
muscles, and that, carried a little too far, it disables them for
work altogether, so that they cannot support the weight of the
body. You know also from the experience of men who have
performed great feats of strength and endurance that such men
have been obliged to abstain from alcohol completely in order to
succeed in their efforts, and have beaten other men by reason of
their careful abstinence.
"You will be told that alcohol is a food, because it makes the
body fat and plump and well nourished. You know what that is
worth. You know that there is nothing in alcohol that can make
any vital structure of the body; you know that the best that can
be said about alcohol in this matter is that in some forms in which
it is taken, as beer for instance, it may, because of the sugar in
such drink, add fat to the body; and you know that this is really
not a good addition, because much fat interferes with the motion
of the vital organs, makes the body heavy and unwieldy, and
getting into the structure of organs, such as the heart or kidneys,
makes these organs incapable of work, and so destroys life.
WINE AND WHISKY QUESTION.
201
ic
'You will be told that alcohol makes you digest your food,
and helps people with weak digestion to enjoy their food and
digest it. You know what that is worth. You know that every
other animal except man can enjoy and digest food without
alcohol, and that men who never touch alcohol may have excel-
lent digestive power. You know also that alcohol impairs
digestion, and that in thousands of people it keeps up a con-
tinual state of indigestion, and that the indigestion itself is a
temptation to these to take alcohol to a fatal excess.
"You will be told that if alcohol be not a food, in the strict
sense of the word, it is, notwithstanding, a luxury which a mañ
cannot do without with comfort to himself; that it cheers the
heart, and is necessary for mirth and pleasure. You know what
that is worth. You know that young people, like yourselves, can
laugh and play and be as happy as the day is long without ever
tasting a drop of alcohol. You know that hundreds of men and
women are as happy as they can be without a drop of alcohol,
and are much freer from worry and anger and care about mere
trifles than are those who take alcohol. You know, moreover,
that after men or women have been cheered, as they call it, by
alcohol, they suffer a corresponding depression, and are made
often so miserable that life is a burden to them until once again
they have recourse to their cause of short happiness and long
sorrow.
“Lastly, whatever argument you may hear in favor of alcohol,
you are now fully aware of its fatal power; how it kills men and
women wholesale, sending some to the grave straightway, and
some to the grave through that living grave, the asylum for the
insane.
"This is your knowledge. I would not advise you as juniors.
to intrude it in argument on your seniors, for that were presump-
tuous. But treasure it in your hearts. Let it keep you in the
path of perfect abstinence from alcohol in every disguise, and
believe me, as a man who has seen much of men, that your
example will be all the more effective with older persons because
it is a young example. Believe, finally, that you yourselves will,
202 THE ACADEMY AND THE WINE QUESTION.
under the rule of total abstinence, grow up strengthened in
wisdom, industry, and happiness, and that your success in life
will reward you a thousand-fold for every sacrifice of false indul-
gence in that great curse of mankind-strong drink."
In the first chapter of the work, the writer says:
"To persons who have never tasted intoxicating drinks many
of them are nauseous when first tasted. Even to grown-up men,
who have never before taken these liquids into their mouths, the
first taste is like that which is felt on taking a medicine. The
taste is said to be bitter in respect to ales, clammy and sickening
in respect to porter and stout, burning and sickening in respect
to spirits, and burning and sour, or burning and sweet, in respect
to the wines.
"In all my experience I never once knew a person who liked
the first taste of any of the drinks we are now thinking about.
This fact seems to me to show clearly that it was never intended
that human beings should take these drinks regularly. If that
had been intended, the drinks would have been made and given
to us in a form that would have been pleasant to the taste, or at
all events in a form that would not be so unpleasant, that the
instinctive or natural feeling is opposed to them. Water and
milk are natural drinks. They are neither bitter nor nauseous,
nor acid, nor burning, and therefore even the youngest infants
and children take them without dislike, and look for them with
quite a longing desire when they want to drink.
“It is a lesson early to be remembered, and so I write it down
early in this book, that although there are so many drinks made
and sold as beers, wines, and spirits, none of them are fitted to
the first natural wants and desires of man. I gather from the
facts before us that the said drinks are therefore not wanted at all.”
We hope the students of the Academy and the young men and
maidens of the New Church will hear and heed these important
words.
CHAPTER X.
THE COMPARISONS OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AND THE ACADEMY'S
INTERPRETATIONS.
PROCESSES, although very different in their results, may be com-
pared, as the separation of individuals and the organization of
societies in hell may be compared with the separation and organi-
zation of societies in heaven, for in both they are organized accord-
ing to the ruling loves of those who dwell therein; but such a
comparison does not make hell desirable, nor the life which leads
to hell a desirable one. Comparisons, when made by Sweden-
borg, may or may not be according to correspondences; but the
spiritual world, being the world of causes, effects must always of
necessity correspond to the causes which have produced them.
When Swedenborg compares, as he does in No. 1035 A. E.,
"falses from evil to such wine and strong drinks as induce
drunkenness; wherefore, also, that insanity, in the Word, is said
to be effected by wine of whoredom and the wine of Babel, in
Jeremiah li. 7," it is not difficult to understand and see that this
comparison is written in accordance with correspondences; but
when the Academy, in Words for the New Church, claims that
alcohol is not a poison, from the comparison which Swedenborg
makes in C. L. 145, "where it is written that spiritual purification
may be compared with the purification of natural spirits which is
done by chemists, and is called defecation, rectification, castiga-
tion, cohobation, acution, decantation and sublimation; and
wisdom purified may be compared with alcohol which is spirit
most highly rectified;" it is not easy to see the correspondence ;
and when from this comparison they attempt to justify the use of
intoxicating drinks, and even whisky, it is not difficult to see how
far they have wandered from the truth. The great object of the
above processes for purifying spirits, is especially to remove all
203
204
COMPARISONS OF SWEDENBORG AND
the water and other substances which these fluids ordinarily
contain. Take the fermented wine, for instance, from which this
pure alcohol can be made by the processes named by Sweden-
borg in this comparison, everything, including the water as far as
possible, is carefully removed, leaving pure spirits or alcohol. This
pure spirit, we know by its effects, corresponds to falses from
evil, and is to the human body a caustic fluid, and no one but
the hardest" old toper," the mucous membrane of whose mouth
and stomach has been indurated by a long course of drunkenness,
would ever attempt to drink it. This pure spirit, when drank in
a given quantity, causes drunkenness, and even death, more
speedily than any other intoxicating drink; and yet the Academy
would have us understand, that this purified alcohol, which
never has been used, and which cannot be used by any sober,
sane man, as a drink, corresponds to wisdom purified, and is
every way a suitable drink for man. Try it on a child! We ask
every intelligent reader, if wisdom purified, in its action upon the
spirit of man, bears any resemblance to the action of this pure
spirit upon his body and mind? The Academy does not seem
able to see that Swedenborg is here simply comparing a spiritual
and a natural process of purification, and the purity of wisdom
with the purity of alcohol thus produced, and that his compari-
son in no way destroys the poisonous quality of the alcohol, or
renders it a suitable article for drinking, as all experience shows.
As upon the above comparison, and another by Swedenborg,
the Academy has based almost, if not quite all, of its arguments
in favor of the use of intoxicating drinks, we will quote the latter
in full, and call the special attention of the reader to the incon-
sistency of the construction which they put upon it :
"A man's understanding is receptive of good as well as of evil,
and of truth as well as of falsity, but not his will, which must be
either in evil or in good; it cannot be in both, for the will is the
man himself, and therein is his life's love. But good and evil in
the understanding are separated, like internal and external;
hence a man may be interiorly in evil, and exteriorly in good.
INTERPRETATIONS BY THE ACADEMY.
205
·
Still, however, when a man is reformed, good and evil enter into
combat, and there then exists a conflict or battle, which, if
grievous, is called temptation; but if not, is like the fermentation
of wine or wort. In such a case, if good overcomes, evil with its
falsities is removed to the sides, as the lees fall to the bottom of
a vessel; and good becomes like generous wine after fermenta-
tion, or clear liquor; but if evil overcomes, good with its truth is
removed to the sides, and it becomes turbid and foul like unfer-
mented wine or unfermented liquor. This comparison of fer-
mentation is used because leaven in the Word signifies the
falsity of evil, as in Hosea vii. 4; Luke xii. 1: and in other
places.' (D. P. 284.)
"In this beautiful extract, evil with its falsities is compared with
leaven and with the lees; and good is compared with generous
wine. One would naturally infer that these respective compari-
sons indicate resemblances between the objects compared; and
hence that good and wine were both genuine. And this conclu-
sion would seem to be the more evident from the adjective which
Swedenborg uses; for generous, when applied to wine, means
noble, vigorous, pure, good."
For a correct understanding of the above comparison, various
points must be borne in mind.
First That the word generous, as here used, does not neces-
sarily mean good, but it undoubtedly means vigorous or strong in
In this sense, the term is used by medical writers
this instance.
at this day.
Second: In the process of fermentation, the gluten contained
in the wine as it is pressed from the grape, and which nourishes
the body of man as good does his soul, which is, in fact, similar
to the gluten in bread, is actually overcome and destroyed to the
extent fermentation progresses by the leaven, and the sugar
which, we are told by Swedenborg, corresponds to spiritual
delights, is often entirely destroyed, and even the vegetable salts
so useful to man, are, to a great extent, changed or precipitated,
so that it is perfectly clear that the changes which take place during
206
COMPARISONS OF SWEDENBORG AND
fermentation do not in the slightest degree correspond with the
spiritual changes which take place in man's regeneration.
Then, by what authority does the Academy's organ say that in
the above extract, evil with its falsities is compared with leaven
and lees. It will be seen that this representation is not correct ;
for it is the combat and separation and falling to the bottom which
is compared, and not the leaven and lees. Lees have a good sig-
nification when this word is used in a good sense, as in Isaiah xxv. 6.
Speaking of the "feast of fat things, and wine on the lees, wine
on the lees well refined":"By the feast of fat things, of fat
things full of marrow," says Swedenborg, "is signified good, both
natural and spiritual, with joy of heart; and by the lees, and
lees refined, are signified truths from that good with the felicity
thence derived." (A. E. 11
(A. E. 1159.) "A feast of fat things signi-
fies the appropriation and communication of good, and by a feast
of lees, or the best wine, the appropriation of truth" (A. E. 252),
called a "feast of lees." (A. C. 5943.) Such is the signification of
lees when they result simply from the settling, after straining or fil-
tering-refining—of the heavier portions of the grape juice or new
wine. But it is perfectly evident that the lees which fall to the bot-
tom during the fermentation of wine can have no such signification,
so that the Academy, after all, is not so far from the truth, when
it claims that lees are compared by Swedenborg to falsities, and,
consequently, according to their philosophy, correspond to falsities.
Swedenborg, it will be seen, as if afraid his readers might mistake
the true meaning of the above comparison, says: "This com-
parison of fermentation is used because leaven in the Word
signifies the falsity of evil." If the lees, which fall to the
bottom from the action of leaven on wine, instead of having a
good signification as they do when they are used in a good sense
in the Word, have a bad signification, how can the wine from
which such lees have been separated fail to have an evil signifi-
cation? Unfermented wine, at the commencement of ferment-
ation, in which state it is generally seen at this day when no
effort is made to prevent fermentation, is turbid and foul from
the commencing action of leaven, and in this state it is unwhole-
INTERPRETATIONS BY THE ACADEMY.
207
some to the stomach; and Swedenborg explains fully what he
means when he says that "good becomes like generous (or strong)
wine after fermentation," by what he adds-" or clear liquor."
It seems so strange that men, as well read in the writings of
the Church as the members of the Academy are supposed to be,
should make such a serious and grave mistake, as to attempt to
justify the use of intoxicating drinks from such comparisons as
the above found in the Writings of Swedenborg; when the very
comparisons which they select, teach a very different doctrine,
which is, as we have seen sustained by reason, facts, and science ;
the pure spirit or alcohol of the one comparison being so ob-
noxious and irritating that no one but a drunkard would ever
think of drinking it, and even the lees of the other comparison,
admitted by the Academy to correspond to falsities. Is it strange
that Swedenborg should inform us, as he does in the passage
already quoted, that the resulting wine may be compared to
falses from evil?—please remember it is not the process which he
here compares, but the wine itself. How are we to account for
this strange state of darkness in which the "Academy of the New
Church" so manifestly dwells upon this most vital question, so
intimately affecting the welfare of the New Church and the world?
In reply to this question, we will first state that, according to the
Writings of Swedenborg, the first Christian Church came to its end
over a century ago, through evils of life and the falsifications of the
doctrines taught by the Lord when on earth, and by His disciples
soon after His ascension. Even the ordinances of the Church be-
came perverted, until a wine which was prohibited to the Jews, and
which was providentially prohibited, owing to its known poisonous
qualities, by Mohammed to his followers, and which was regarded
as so polluted, that even the ancient heathen would not dare to
offer it to their gods, was substituted for the passover cup, or the
fruit of the vine, or unfermented wine, of which our Lord and
His disciples partook at the last supper. And this sad perversion
seems to have descended to the New Church Academy unques-
tioned, and they seem to have been strongly confirmed in such
false views, even to the extent of justifying the use of intoxicating
12.08
COMPARISONS OF SWEDENBORG AND
drinks as beverages, from which we may as rightfully select and
use as we may from beneficial articles of food or drink.
Swedenborg says: "Those who are in falses, and especially
those who are in evils, are said to be bound and in prison; not
that they are in any bonds, but because they are not in freedom ;
those who are not in freedom being interiorly bound; for those
who have confirmed themselves in what is false are no longer in
freedom of choosing and accepting the truth, and those who have
much confirmed themselves therein are not in freedom to see it,
still less to acknowledge and believe it, for they are in the per-
suasion that what is false is true, and what is true is false; so
powerful is this persuasion, that it takes away all freedom of
thinking anything else, consequently it holds the thought itself
in bonds and as it were in a prison. This I had much opportunity
of being convinced of, experimentally, from those in the other
life who have been in a persuasion of the false by confirmations
in themselves; they do not at all admit truths, but reflect or
strike them back again, and this with an obstinacy proportion-
ate to the degree of persuasion; especially when the false is
grounded in evil, or when evil has persuaded them." (A. C.
5096.)
From the above we can see how difficult it is for men who are
confirmed in falses to see the truth, and especially for those who
are in evils to see the truth which condemns those evils. Men
did not often see that slavery was wrong while they held slaves,
and this fearful wrong was justified from the point of view of the
Bible by many clergymen, and, if we mistake not, by some clergy-
men of the New Church; but now, that, in the providence of
the Lord, slavery has been overthrown, few, if any, fail to see that
slavery was wrong. It is equally, if not even more, difficult, to
see that evil habits of life are evil, so long as we continue to
indulge in them. The woman who compresses her waist does not
see that tight-dressing harms her, and is consequently an evil, so
long as she continues this pernicious habit, which does so much to
ruin the health of women, impair the vitality of our race, and
shorten human life. She actually feels that tight-dressing does her
INTERPRETATIONS BY THE ACADEMY.
209
good every time she indulges in it—without it she feels all gone,
precisely as the rum-drinker does who has not had his morning
dram. The man who habitually uses that disgusting and deadly
poison, tobacco, does not feel that it injures him, and that it is
wrong to use it: how can he? He "hankers" after it, and suffers
when he attempts to leave it off; and the resumption of its use
relieves him, cheers him, and makes him feel good. The same
is true with the habitual indulger in opium, and, in fact, with the
consumer of every other poison, when habitually used. This is
especially true, as we all know, and have seen, with the drinkers
of that fearfully destructive and deadly poison, alcohol, in what-
ever form it may be taken. Therefore, as a rule, and according to
Swedenborg's teaching, we cannot expect men who habitually
indulge in the evil habit of using intoxicating wine and whisky,
however "judiciously" they may select their liquors, to see that
it is wrong to use them. It will be seen that it would be asking
too much of poor human nature to expect them to see the fearful
nature of this evil, as those who are free from such habits clearly
see it. Nor need the teetotaller be discouraged even though
the leading spirits of the Academy do not join our ranks, although
we have hope even for them still, and charity, too. But for the
young, who have not confirmed themselves in favor of drinking
intoxicating drinks, and who are free from the evil of drinking,
we may labor earnestly, faithfully, and hopefully, and the Lord
will assuredly bless our efforts. If men, with the clear light of
the New Jerusalem Church shining into their understandings,
continue to drink intoxicating drinks, if these escape drunkenness
it will be as by the "skin of their teeth." We know very well that
they cannot fail to be singed by this "liquid fire," which we have
seen has its origin from hell. May the Lord protect our brethren
of the Academy; but we think He will require a little of their help
-coöperation-before He can do this, without interfering with
their freedom, and that He never does.
Now, gentlemen of the Academy, you may as well give
up your attempt to justify the use of fermented wines, pro-
duced by the action of leaven on the pure juice of the grape,
210
COMPARISONS OF SWEDENBORG AND
and of whisky. It is impossible for you to sustain your views
by any legitimate argument, for the truth is not on your side.
We have seen into what contradictions and absurdities you
rush the moment you make the attempt. The Word of the
Lord, sustained and illustrated by the testimony of a large num-
ber of ancient writers, who wrote during the prophetical and
apostolic ages, shows conclusively that there were two kinds of
wine, one good and the other bad, in regular use.
President Nott says: "That the wine declared by the master of
the feast to be 'good wine,' was good wine-in the sense that
Pliny, Columella, or Theophrastus would have used the term
'good,' when applied to wine; good, because nutritious and un-
intoxicating; and of which the guests even at such an hour
might drink freely and without apprehension, because it was
wine which, though it would refresh and cheer, it would not
intoxicate."
"Is it reasonable," says a recent writer, "that the inspired
penman employs the same kind of wine both as a symbol of
wrath and mercy? Is there anything else of which this is true?
'Bread' is used as a symbol of mercy, and so is 'milk' and 'oil.'
Are they ever employed as symbols of wrath? Never. Neither
is the unfermented fruit of the vine used as a symbol of wrath.
It is the changed, innutritious, alcoholic, dangerous wine that is
an appropriate symbol of divine wrath. This view alone renders
the Bible consistent, and in harmony with science and experi-
ence."
Dr. Lees says: "That somebody consumed these innocent,
vinous preparations is certain. Is it probable that the prophets
and saints were the sole persons who refused to do so? Is it
likely that while moral pagans preferred good wines, the prophets
and religious Jews invariably selected the drugged and intoxicat-
ing? But the associated element of Daniel's abstinence will
refute the whole principle of the argument."
As New Churchmen what can you, gentlemen of the Academy,
do toward sustaining your views, with the philosophy of the
Church, the science of correspondences, and the testimony of
İNTERPRETATIONS BY THE ACADEMY.
211
Swedenborg so clearly against you? We are told by Sweden-
borg that all substances which hurt and kill men originate, not
from the Lord, but from hell. Above all other substances, we
know that fermented and alcoholic drinks do this.
A curious fact, it is said, has been noted by Professor Van
Tieghem. The cells in the root of an apple-tree underwent alco-
holic fermentation when the soil was very damp, but he tells us
it made even the tree look sick. While the effects of alcohol on
the body and mind are strictly analogous, as we have seen, to
the effects of falses from evil on the soul, in every respect, and
with Swedenborg's comparison of such wine and strong drinks as
cause drunkenness, not only to falses, but to the worst kind of
falses to falses from evil with his express declaration that whisky
was so pernicious a drink, and that the immoderate use of spiritous
liquors would be the downfall of the Swedish people, and
with the testimony of the ablest medical writers of all ages against
you, how can you expect to sustain your views? The great
trouble with you is that you are not masters of this subject. It
is perfectly clear that, holding on to the drinking usages, cus-
toms, and traditions of the fallen state of the first Christian
Church, you had not carefully examined this subject in the
light of this new day, before attempting to stay the progress
of the most needed and the greatest reform movement of the age.
But truth is mighty and will prevail, and you will have to with-
draw from your dogmatic assumptions upon this subject or you
will cease to have a following. The Church of the New Jerusa-
lem is not to be a whisky-drinking, wine-bibbing, and beer-
guzzling Church. Whisky, fermented wine, and beer perform no
use in the healthy human body which cannot be much better per-
formed by legitimate food and drink; and all true philosophy
teaches us that use, and not our perverted appetites, should
govern our eating and drinking that we may have a healthy mind
in a healthy body. The Lord has so ordered that the man who
lives on the plainest and most healthy food actually enjoys the most
in eating and drinking; for stimulating and poisonous articles soon
blunt the taste for healthy food, and do not themselves satisfy,
212
COMPARISONS OF SWEDENBORG.
We will simply intimate to you, gentlemen of the Academy, that
there is a slight difference between the excitement and delight
which follow the use of healthy articles of food and drink, and
the excitement and delight which follow the use of intoxicating
drinks, and that difference is to the body and mind what the
difference between heaven and hell is to the soul. The delights
which flow from the use of the former are natural and orderly,
and correspond to heavenly delights; whereas, we know very
well, by every day's observation, that the delights which flow
from the latter are unnatural and disorderly, and correspond to
infernal delights.
"As to whisky," said the late Rev. Dr. Thomas Guthrie, of
Edinburgh, "whisky is good in its own place. There is nothing
like whisky in this world for preserving a man when he is dead.
But it is one of the worst things in this world for preserving a
man when he is living. If you want to keep a dead man, put
him into whisky. If you want to kill a living man, put the whisky
into him."
DUTY TO THE RECLAIMED.
Wine: Ecclesiastical.-Dr. Kerr, of England, in a recent lecture, said he
stood on sure ground, for he was on his own domain of medicine. As a
physician of some experience in the treatment of habitual drunkenness, he
knew that it was not safe for the dipsomaniac to taste intoxicating drink in
any circumstances, while in a state of consciousness; and, therefore, he (the
lecturer), Churchman though he was, even when a drinker himself, never
allowed a reformed drunkard under his care to go near a communion table
where intoxicating drink was presented. He was supported in this line of
treatment by Dr. A. Fergus, of the General Medical Council, and recently
President of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, by Surgeon-General
Francis, and by other experts in the higher ranks of the medical profession.
A typical instance of the relapse of a reformed inebriate through fermented
wine at the Sacrament was adduced, the authority for the facts being at the
disposal of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The lecturer also said he would be disloyal to truth if he did not honestly
testify to the serious risk of communion in an intoxicant to the reformed ine-
briate, and to the yet unfallen subject of the hereditary drink crave. At
present what was the fact? Some reformed drunkards had been expelled
from the Church altogether; some had deprived themselves of the privilege of
communion, and some, while worshipping regularly at an Established Church,
communicated at some Nonconformist place of worship where unfermented
wine was used. He implored the clergy, as a mere matter of justice and of
right, to render the most sacred rite of their venerable Church safe for the
weakest of the victims snatched from the fatal embrace of drink,
CHAPTER XI.
A NEW VIEW.
THE writer has just received the following communication on
the wine question, from a highly esteemed correspondent, and
cheerfully places it before his readers:
"Leaven corresponds to and represents the false of evil.
Spiritual leaven did not exist in the Most Ancient Church, but
was introduced when that Church fell into evils of life, and
framed doctrines by which it could justify its bad conduct.
"This leaven has 'been transmitted from parents to children
through a long series,' until the disposition to love the false of
evil' has become the ruling power of man's nature.
"The Lord, in order to provide against the total destruction of
the human race, through leaven, separated the will from the
understanding, and put into the understanding a new will, which
is called 'the will of truth.'
"Into this new will may be introduced divine doctrine and
divine life, which, when introduced, form a heavenly city in an
enemy's country. This city is life introduced into man, and
leaven is death from hell. The enemies are represented by
leaven, the ferment from which is the beginning of a deadly
strife. It is a struggle between life and death. The Lord sus-
tains and defends the life. For this kind of temptation is not
admitted into man until 'truths in his understanding are gathered
into bundles,' and arranged into order for defence. Then come
the struggle and the victory. But victory does not restore man
to the condition of the men of the Most Ancient Church. This is
seen in the fact that the heavens formed from the Most Ancient
Church are the inmost heaven; and that the heavens formed
since are more and more external and less and less pure. There-
213
1
214
A NEW VIEW.
fore, it cannot be said that one who has so far fallen from God as
to love the false of evil better than the truth of good, can be
restored by any process, so as to become as pure and perfect
as one who has never fallen.
"So of the grape; as long as its skin is whole, it cannot fer-
ment. Nor can grape juice ferment until the virus-leaven—is
introduced into it. From that moment the work of contamina-
tion begins; the juice before was pure and perfect, but it is now
impure and imperfect.
"The fermenting process is a method of saving what can be saved
after a poisonous substance has been introduced into a pure sub-
stance.
"The same is true of the salvation of man by combats. And
although he may be saved 'through great tribulation,' still he is a
dwarf in purity, compared with what he would have been had he
never fallen from the divine image and likeness.
"But it does not follow that divine truth, in his mind, after
having been purified from the false of evil, is more pure and
perfect than it was before that false principle was mixed with it.
"It is hard to comprehend a state of mind which can attribute
to the Lord inability or want of disposition to create pure things ;
and it is still harder to see how pure products from the Divine
Hand, such as the grape, wheat, corn, etc., should be more pure
after the introduction of a filthy substance into it."
Now, from the above presentation of this subject, it would ap-
pear that fermented wine is the quality of wine to be used at this
day in the present state of man, even in the Holy Supper, and if
the above writer's premises were all sound, this would be true.
But if he had examined this subject a little more carefully, he
would have found unanswerable objections to some of his views,
as applied to natural wine.
First: He admits very correctly that the grape, and the juice
of the grape, are pure until ferment enters to pollute these
organized products of the vine; in other words, he admits that
the grape has never fallen; in this respect the juice of the grape
A NEW VIEW.
215
in
differs radically from the present condition of man, and holds a
relation to man before the fall.
Second: Being pure, like the man of the Most Ancient Church,
and never like man having been endowed with rationality and
freedom, there has been no change in the grape corresponding
to the separation of the will from the understanding in man;
consequently, the Lord has made no provision for its restoration.
or regeneration when it becomes polluted by natural leaven,
which corresponds to spiritual leaven; therefore it can no more
be restored by leaven, than the man of the Most Ancient Church
could have been by spiritual leaven, after he had commenced
falling from his original purity, and before the separation of the
will from the understanding. Before the separation of the will
from the understanding, mankind, after they had commenced
falling, could only be prevented from descending to greater
depths of evil by punishments and external restraints; and it is
only by corresponding natural measures that wine, after ferment-
ation has commenced, can be saved from total decay or destruc-
tion, namely, by sulphurization, boiling, bottling, etc.
Third: It will be seen, then, that it is utterly impossible to
harmonize the two processes, and to show that natural leavenings
correspond to spiritual leavenings. When ferment has entered the
wine, and commenced its destructive work, the wine can no more
be restored to its original purity by fermentation, as we have
just intimated, than the man of the Most Ancient Church, after
he had commenced falling, could have been restored by tempta-
tions and spiritual combats against falses.
:
Fourth We know that during fermentation, that which corres-
ponds to good and truth does not overcome the leaven, and cast
it down and to the sides; but that the leaven overcomes, de-
stroys, casts down and up organic substances which correspond to
spiritual good and truth; and changes the sweet, which corres-
ponds to spiritual delights, into alcohol, which gives rise to infer-
nal delights; as we so well know by its effects on man when he
drinks it; consequently, we know, both from its origin and effects,
that it corresponds to infernal delights.
216
A NEW VIEW.
Fifth Now we are taught by our doctrines that in the regener-
ation of man at this day, exactly the opposite takes place, namely,
truth and good overcome the false and evil. So it will be seen
that while the spiritual combats during regeneration may be com-
pared to natural fermentation, and the clearness and spiritual
purity after regeneration, may be compared to the clearness.
and purity of liquids after fermentation, in the very nature of the
case it is impossible that there should be any real correspondence,
either between the natural and spiritual processes under consid-
eration, or the results which flow therefrom.
But, says the above correspondent, in a subsequent communi-
cation, in reply to the strictures on his first: "The correspond-
ence of sweet-spiritual delight—and the correspondence of
alcohol-infernal delight-is superb. Still, I think, in the end, that
you will be obliged to acknowledge the fact that there is some
good use in fermented wine (this wine contains only from five to
ten per centum of alcohol) and in vinegar. In this you may
say that wine that has been fermented may be adapted to a fallen
Church, composed of fallen men."
Exactly so. This is precisely what the writer claimed in hist
tract, and what is reiterated in an extract from the same in this
work. When men engrossed in the love of spiritual dominion,
and in the love of self, money, and sensual gratifications, searched
the Word of the Lord; and therefrom framed doctrines which
were in harmony with their perverted affections, such false
doctrines were not falses from ignorance, but they were falses from
evil; and all of the delights of such men flowed from their evils
and the falses therefrom. It was therefore utterly impossible that
plain, unfermented wine, which simply gratified the orderly wants
of the body, giving true delight, health, and strength thereto,
should satisfy men thus perverted. That which corresponds to
good and truth must be destroyed, and the sugar which corres-
ponds to spiritual delights must be perverted into alcohol, by
leaven and human manipulation, before the wine could corres-
pond to their spiritual state; and then it becomes strictly appro-
priate.
I
VINEGAR.
217
But in the doctrines for the Church of the New Jerusalem, the
Lord again calls on all men to repent, and to put away their
false doctrines from their understandings, and evils from their
lives, by a constant effort to keep the divine commandments,
not in their own strength, but in the strength which the Lord
ever gives to those who ask of Him in their daily lives-
not in words only, but also in deeds. What place has fermented
wine, having its origin from hell, and corresponding clearly to
falses from evils as we have seen, in the true Church of the
Lord? It being the natural emblem of the false, which is infer-
nal 1; can men of this New Age, who are striving to live the life of
the Church, deliberately, and from choice, use such a perverted
fluid as a beverage, and not thereby be injured, both physically
and spiritually?
The writer would remind the above correspondent that from
five to ten per centum of alcohol in wine has been sufficient
to cause drunkenness in all ages, and among all races of men
who have used fermented wine; as history clearly teaches, and
present observation abundantly demonstrates.
VINEGAR.
Vinegar, like alcohol, is a product resulting from the decom-
position of an organized substance-sugar. In a concentrated
form it is a corrosive poison; but when diluted, as it ordinarily is
when used, and only moderately taken; then, compared with
fermented wine and beer, it is comparatively harmless; but if
used as freely as the latter fluids are, while it would never cause
drunkenness, it would, unquestionably, be very injurious to the
health of the body; but we shall see from its correspondence,
that it cannot be as injurious to man, spiritually, as fermented
wine or beer.
"Vinegar signifies truth mixed with falses." (A. E. 386.)
"Giving the Lord vinegar mixed with gall (Matt. xxvii. 34)
signifies the quality of divine truth from the Word, such as was
with the Jewish nation, namely, that it was commixed with the
false of evil, and thereby altogether falsified and adulterated,
218
VINEGAR.
wherefore He would not drink it." (A. E. 519.) "Gall signifies
the same as wormwood, or infernal falsity." (A. E. 376.) So
it will be seen that vinegar alone, simply diluted with water [sig-
nifying truth], signifies truths mixed with falses.
Diluted vinegar, like alcohol, will preserve animal and vegetable
substances, although not so perfectly; but it is used, as is well
known, for this purpose.
The appetite for acids is unquestionably a natural appetite ; and
when suitable acids are used temperately they supply a want, and
are useful; but vinegar, being the product of decomposition, as
we would expect, very imperfectly, if at all, supplies this want.
It will not, like lemon or lime juice, prevent the scurvy where
persons are for long periods deprived of vegetable food and
fresh meats, as on board ships, and during the long winters of a
northern clime.
Wherever it is possible, it is certain that the juice of acid fruits,
such as lemons, limes, and currants, should be substituted for
vinegar. One who has never tried it cannot realize the superi-
ority of lemon juice over vinegar, when used on salads, greens,
meats and fish. We all know how superior it is, in preparing
acid drinks, to vinegar. Of course, we cannot preserve vegetable
and animal substances with such living or organized acids, as we
can with vinegar; but if, after having preserved them in vinegar,
we were to soak them in water, so as to remove the vinegar, and
then apply lemon juice as we use them, it would be an improve-
ment.
The use of vinegar should undoubtedly be discouraged, by re-
commending the use of vegetable acids in its stead, rather than
encouraged; but when the use of vinegar is compared with the
use of fermented wine, beer, or cider, it is comparatively harm-
less-or, as much so as the reception of trnth mixed with falses
into the memory and understanding is, when compared with falses.
which are received and cherished by an evil love or perverted
affection-consequently, vinegar rarely develops an unnatural ap-
petite which cannot be satisfied with wholesome vegetable acids,
"་
1
CHAPTER XII.
COMMUNION WINE AND ITS PREPARATION AND PRESERVATION.
WHEN the wine question is viewed in the light of the New
Jerusalem Church, and carefully examined, there would seem to
be no question as to the kind of wine which should be used at
the Holy Supper.
The vine has a good signification, for it signifies "good and
truth spiritual.” (A. E. 403.) Vine or vineyard signifies the
Church, where the Word is, by which the Lord is known, conse-
quently, the Christian Church. (A. R. 650). Grapes have a
good signification, for they signify the goods of charity, which
are the goods of life. (A. E. 375.) Grapes and clusters
signify works of charity, because they are the fruits of the vine
and the vineyard, and by fruits in the Word are signified good
works. (A. R. 649.) The blood of the grape, or the juice
which flows, when the skin is punctured or burst, with little or no
pressure but the weight of the cluster, and which is the sweetest
portion of the grape, has the highest signification. "The blood
of the grape signifies spiritual-celestial good, which is the name
given to the divine in heaven proceeding from the Lord; wine
is called the blood of grapes, since each signifies holy truth pro-
ceeding from the Lord; wine, however, is predicated of the
spiritual, and blood of the celestial; and this being the case
wine was enjoined in the Holy Supper." (A. C. 5117.) "By
the blood of the grape is also signified truth from spiritual good,
the same as by wine in Deut. xxxii. 14." (A. E. 918.)
That unfermented wine, which is produced by crushing and
pressing the grapes, also has a good signification is beyond
question. "Thus saith Jehovah, As the new wine is found in
the cluster; and He saith, spoil it not, because a blessing is in
it' (Isaiah lxv. 8): the new wine in the cluster denotes truth
!
219
?
220
COMMUNION WINE.
from good in the natural principle." (A. C. 5117.) This new
wine found in the cluster is not fermented wine, for alcohol is
not found in a cluster of grapes. "Whereas all truth is from
good, as all wine is from grapes, therefore by wine in the Word
is signified truth from good." (A. E. 918.) If all wine is from
grapes, as Swedenborg has assured us, and the grapes do not con-
tain any alcohol, how can we claim that fermented wine which is
full of alcohol is the fruit of the vine, or that it has a good significa-
tion; especially when we know, as we do, that the alcohol is not
even the product of the vine, but that it is produced by the
actual destruction of the gluten and sugar, both good and useful
ingredients of the wine, by ferment or leaven, which signifies
"the false of evil," and "the evil and the false," which, Sweden-
borg tells us, "should not be mixed with things good and true ?”
And yet in the case of fermented wine, by the ingenuity of man
in providing vessels, keeping it at a proper temperature, and with
the necessary exposure to the air and no more, this substance—
leaven-has been mixed with the new wine, and has disorganized
and destroyed the vegetable compounds which the Lord had so
carefully organized in the grape for the sustenance of man, until,
in the end, there is scarcely a trace of some of the most
important and useful of the natural ingredients of the wine
left; and until by the destructive action of the leaven there
has been substituted for the gluten, sugar, and other organic
ingredients of the wine, the most to be dreaded, and which has
proved to the human race the most deadly poison ever pro-
duced by man, it having destroyed more human beings than all
other poisons put together. Swedenborg tells us, as we have
already quoted in a previous chapter, that all substances which
hurt and kill men have their origin from hell. Thus, then, there
can be no question as to the origin of the alcohol in fermented
wine. In fact, as we have elsewhere shown, Swedenborg in his
work, "Apocalypse Explained" (No. 1035), compares "falses from
evil," which we know are from hell, to such wine as will induce
drunkenness, and we know that the wine which will induce this
fearful state, in which reason and self-control are overthrown, is
COMMUNION WINE.
221
never unfermented wine, but that it is always fermented wine,
and history shows that it has induced drunkenness in all ages of
the world, and for countless ages before distilled liquors were
known. Is there-can there be any excuse for the use of an
intoxicating wine as communion wine in the sacrament of the
Holy Supper, gentle reader? But do not be over hasty to
condemn all wine. Please bear in mind that the vine, the
grape, the blood of the grape, all have a good signification,
unquestionably good, when unpolluted by fermentation. The
same is true of must, for Swedenborg tells us that “must signifies
the same as wine, namely, truth derived from the good of charity
and love." (A. E. 695.)
Webster defines must [Latin, mustum] as "wine pressed from
the grape, but not fermented." Worcester defines it, "the sweet
or unfermented juice of the grape: NEW WINE.” So that both
authorities say that the unfermented juice of the grape is wine.
Must has the same signification, because it is new wine. It is
only when leaven or ferment commences its fearful work of dis-
organization, destruction, and pollution, in the new wine or must,
that it ever has a bad signification; but after it has been so mixed
with leaven and polluted by it, it is perfectly clear that it never
has a good signification, for the wine then becomes a perverted and
poisonous fluid as we should naturally expect. Swedenborg says:
"Leaven signifies the evil and the false, whereby things celestial
and spiritual are rendered impure and profane." (A. C. 2342.)
And yet it is wine, the noble fruit of the vine, corresponding
to things spiritual and celestial, which has been rendered by the
action of leaven impure, and the natural symbol of spiritual
impurity and profanity, which is to-day, with only here and there
an exception, being used as communion wine in the organized
societies of the New Jerusalem Church in this country, and of
which men and women, who clearly see the truth, are compelled
to partake or stand aloof from the most holy ordinance. Of this
wine so generally used, one of the editors of the New Jerusalem
Magazine says: "If one has acquired a depraved taste for it, it
may be well for him to deprive himself of it altogether, not
222
COMMUNION WINE.
excepting its use at the Holy Supper." Do men acquire a de-
praved taste for healthy articles-as for bread and fruit ?
Is it not sad that through the perversion of an ordinance, a
teacher in the New Church should feel it to be his duty to
suggest to some who desire to partake of the Holy Supper, the
expediency of remaining away from the heavenly feast, of which
the Lord commanded all to partake? And this, not because of
unfitness in themselves, but lest the Supper may lead them into
temptation; and sadder still, that he should not see from the
teaching of the Word, and from the philosophy of the New
Church, and the science of correspondences, as contained in the
Writings of Swedenborg, that the Lord never placed this tempta-
tion before any; and that it is impossible that He could do so in
any ordinance which He instituted for the benefit of His people,
and the use of which He makes obligatory upon them? As the
Holy Supper came to us from the Lord, there was nothing about
it to incite or minister to a depraved taste.
That men of the first Christian Church, with simply the
knowledge of the literal sense of the Sacred Scriptures, should
advocate and use fermented wine is not surprising, but that a
New Churchman, with the knowledge which he can readily
obtain from the Writings of Swedenborg of the spiritual sense of
the Sacred Scriptures, and of causes, and the correspondence which
exist between all natural and spiritual things, habits, and effects,
and the express teaching of Swedenborg upon this subject, to
which we have referred in this work, can for a moment attempt to
justify the use of fermented wine as communion wine, is beyond
the comprehension of the writer, upon any other supposition
than that he has not carefully examined this subject; and to
bring this question fairly before his brethren, and to ask their
most serious consideration of it, is the object of this chapter.
Says the Rev. Dr. Nott: "Can the same thing in the same
state be good and bad; a symbol of wrath, and a symbol of mercy ;
a thing to be sought after, and a thing to be avoided? Certainly
not. And is the Bible, then, inconsistent with itself? No,
certainly."
COMMUNION WINE.
223
"Here, then," says Dr. Rich, "is the rational and righteous.
basis for the discriminating statutes of God. The beverage that
was characterized by power to produce a sensible stimulation,
a nervous excitement, was forbidden; the beverage that satisfied
a natural appetite, and afforded strength without stimulation was
commended."
Dr. Rich's special conclusion is thus stated: "There is no
threatening, or prohibition, or visitation of judgment, as I can
remember, based on the discrimination between an excessive and
a limited or temperate use (as it is called) of intoxicants."
Does not the poor, reformed inebriate who is struggling to shun
this evil, need the aid to be derived from partaking of the wine
at the Holy Supper as much as any one? We ask the thought-
ful reader, if the wine of which it is thus dangerous to even take
a single swallow, can by any possibility be the same kind of wine
of which our Lord and Master said "drink ye all of it"?
"I think," says the Rev. Joseph Cook, "It is beyond dispute
among the scholars of the first rank that at the Passover the wine
used was non-intoxicating, and that our Lord instituted the Holy
Supper with such wine." (Encyc. Brit., 8th ed., art. "Pass-
over".)
In his former tract, the writer purposely avoided a full con-
sideration of this subject, for he felt that the impropriety of using
an intoxicating wine in the most Holy Supper was so manifest
that it was unnecessary to say more than to barely allude to
the subject, and to call the attention of New Churchmen to it.
But some rather rough experience, and further consideration of
the subject has satisfied him that he was mistaken as to the
necessity and too hopeful in his expectations; and to-day he
feels fully satisfied that nothing is more necessary or desirable for
the welfare of the Church, than that this subject should be dis-
cussed fully and fairly. So long as intoxicating wine is used for
sacramental purposes, drunkenness will never cease in the Church,
for many of its members, and the young people who are looking
toward the Church, will reason that "if it is suitable for such a
224
COMMUNION WINE.
purpose, it cannot be bad in itself; and it will not harm me to
drink a little-'temperately,' of course." Among those who
begin to drink this seductive fluid, a goodly number will inevit-
ably become drunkards; and many more will richly deserve the
name, and die from the effects of drinking, whose fall may not
be so complete and open as to cause them to be generally recog-
nized as drunkards. All who drink intoxicating drinks, as we
have seen, will be injured thereby, in mind and body, to a greater
or less extent; for they are almost sure to become “moody in
mind and diseased in body, sooner or later," however "tempe-
rately" they may use such beverages.
"When a reformed drunkard," says the Rev. Joseph Cook,
"sits down in a pew, and finds his neighboring Church member a
moderate drinker, and his pastor holding up the Bible in one
hand, and the glass of moderate drinking in the other, the strug-
gling, converted inebriate has not come into a place of safety.
The Church is not a fold that is securing him from the wolves;
it is not a place where he can repose."
Willard Parker, M.D., of New York, asks, in his address at the
American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, "What is alco-
hol? The answer is a poison. It is so regarded by the best
writers and teachers on toxicology. I refer to Orfila, Christison,
and the like, who class it with arsenic, corrosive sublimate, and
prussic acid. Like these poisons, when introduced into the sys-
tem, it is capable of destroying life without acting mechanically.
Introduced into the system, it induces a general disease, as well
marked as intermittent fever, smallpox, or lead poison."
In a letter to the Rev. Dr. Patton, he says: "The alcohol is
the one evil genius, whether in wine, or ale, or whisky, and is
killing the race of men. Stay the ravages of this one poison,
alcohol, that king of poisons, the mightiest weapon of the devil,
and the millennium will soon dawn."
No higher, nor more respected medical authority, in this
country can be given than Dr. Willard Parker, and his language,
it will be seen, as to the effects of drinking intoxicating drinks on
the American people, is almost precisely the same as that used
COMMUNION WINE.
225
more than a century ago by Swedenborg, as to the effects on
the Swedish people of using such drinks. In reply to our
selections from the writings of Dr. Parker, Dr. Richardson, the
section on medicine in the International Medical Congress held
in Philadelphia in 1876, and of Emanuel Swedenborg, as to the
effect of alcoholic drinks on men, the "Academy of the New
Church" in its Words for the New Church, says:
"Of one thing we feel assured, that the class of selections from which
Dr. Ellis has seen fit to choose cannot be genuine, because they dispute
revealed truth."
Swedenborg, then, in the estimation of our brethren of the
Academy, disputed revealed truth when he declared that it would.
be more desirable for his country's welfare and morality, that the
consumption of whisky should be done away with altogether
'than all the income which could be realized from so pernicious
a drink." The writer does not think the Academy manifests
either much modesty or wisdom when it attempts, as it does,
to offset the testimony of the highest medical authorities in the
world, and of Emanuel Swedenborg, by the views of compara-
tively obscure writers in our periodicals.
THE WINE USED BY THE LORD AND HIS DISCIPLES IN THE ORIGINAL
INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT.
"The great Bible student of this and all ages," says the Rev. Dr.
G. W. Samson, "was Jerome [born A. D. 332]. As a representa-
tive of the early Church at Rome, yet spending half his life in the
land of Jesus and of the first Apostles, his translation of the Greek
New Testament into Latin became the foundation of the Latin
Vulgate; while his voluminous commentaries and epistles are an
invaluable treasure in every department of Biblical science, On
Hosea ii. 9, he defines tirosh as 'the fruit of the vintage'; his
comment corresponding with his translation already noted. In
commenting on Amos ix. 14, hẹ compares the 'blood of Christ'
to the 'red must' flowing into the wine-vat. Upon Matt. ix, 17,
he says that new skins [utres] must be used for wine that is to
be preserved as must, because the remains of former ferment
226 WINE USED BY THE LORD AND HIS DISCIPLES IN
attaches to the old skins; and he regards this to be the essential
point in Christ's comparison; that the soul [anima] in which
His truth will be safely deposited must be entirely renovated and
freed from all remains of former corruption, so as to be 'polluted
with no contagion of former vice.' In commenting (Matt. xxvi.
26-29) on Christ's choice of language: 'I will not drink hence-
forth of this fruit of the vine,' he takes for granted, as under-
stood by all, that must is referred to; and he cites as illustrative
of the wine at the Supper, the fresh grape juice of Gen. xl. 11,
and the 'noble vine' of Jer. ii. 21, as indicating the character of
the vine, as well as of its product, which is referred to in Christ's
words, 'I am the vine.' On Gal. v. 16–21, among the 'lusts of
the flesh,' Jerome mentions wine-drinking, and urges the duty of
abstinence from wines. He says: 'In wine is excess; as taught
in Eph. v. 18, youth should flee wine as they would poison.'
Alluding to the plea that Christ used wine at the Supper, and
that St. Paul recommended the use of wine to Timothy, Jerome
says: 'Elsewhere, we were made acquainted with both the wine
to be consecrated into the blood of Christ and the wine ordered
to Timothy that he should drink it.'”
Rev. Dr. Samson, in a recent work, in which he replies to the
writers who have criticised his former work already noticed,
on the “Divine Law of Wines," makes the following statement :
"The wine made by Christ at the wedding has this succession
of testimonials in confirmation: first, the fact that conforming
Jews, of whom Jesus through His life was one, from time imme-
morial have used unfermented wine at weddings; second, the
best, most costly and always first-used wine, in ancient and
modern banquets, has been the lightest, and among the Romans
this was unfermented; third, Cyril, bishop of the Church in
Jerusalem about A. D. 380, expressly declares this, while Geikie,
in his now popular "Life of Christ," returns to the early Christian
view of the nature of the miracle. As to the charge against
Christ that he was a 'wine-bibber,' all Christians regard it as
much a calumny as that He was a 'glutton' and a 'friend' of
abandoned women. That the 'fruit of the vine' used at the
THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 227
Supper was unfermented, is confirmed by these testimonies :
first, the natural meaning of the terms 'fruit of the vine': second,
the immemorial custom of conscientious Jews at their Passover,
which 'cup' was the same used by Christ at the institution of the
Supper; third, the direct statement of Clement, A.D. 200, and of
Jerome, A.D. 400. That the gleukos was unintoxicating Cyril
declared, A.D. 380, while writers of the views of Horace Bum-
stead now admit this; and that gleukos was included under oinos
lexicographers of every age and land agree. As to the view of
Paul's advice to Timothy, the accordant statements of Eusebius,
A.D. 320, of Athanasius, A.D. 325, of Cyril, a. D. 380, and of
Jerome, A.D. 400, that Paul commended abstinence in Timothy
(1 Tim. v. 23), as he had before enjoined it on the Church of
which he was pastor (Eph. v. 18), is in accordance with all
ancient and modern legislation as to wines. As to the quality of
the wines commended by Paul, Roman writers and their French
annotators show that must is their basis, if not their only ingre-
dient; for it is not the alcohol, but the nourishing ingredients
of wines, that constitute their utility in chronic indigestion;
while strong alcoholic wines were commended by the Greek and
Roman physicians for acute and painful diseases, such as strangu-
ary and dysentery."
"All," says the Rev. A. S. Wells, "that relates to this subject
(viz., the institution of the Lord's Supper), in the New Testament,
may be found in Matt. xxvi. 17-29; Mark xiv. 12-26; Luke xxii.
7-20, and 1 Cor. xi. 23-29.”
"Take your Bible and carefully read and consider these words.
They contain the historical account and the express directions
and commands of Jesus Christ on this subject, and all that He or
His Apostles have said or written upon it, except some allusions
to this ordinance which are found in 1 Cor. v. 6-8, and x. 16–21.
This matter is contained within a small compass, and can, there-
fore, be easily comprehended. From these passages we see :
First: That the Lord's supper was appointed at the close of the
Passover feast, and before our Saviour and His disciples had
arisen from the table. Matthew says; 'And as they were eating
228
WINE USED BY THE LORD AND HIS DISCIPLES IN
(ie., the Passover), He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave
it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. Second: Notice also,
that our Saviour used the same elements of bread and wine which
they had used in the feast of the Passover. No new cup was
brought in at the time He instituted the memorial of His death.
He took the Passover cup, and it was of the wine which it con-
tained that He expressly commanded His disciples, saying,
Drink ye all of it.
"Now we have abundant evidence that the wine of the Passover
was unfermented.
6
"First: This is seen in the name which our Saviour gave to the
contents of the Passover cup. Neither He nor His Apostles, in
speaking of this element in the sacramental emblems, call it wine
at all. Our Saviour foresaw how, in after ages, the term wine
would generally be understood to mean that which was fermented
and intoxicating, and, therefore, wholly inappropriate as a symbol
of His precious blood; and to guard the Church against this
danger. He employs a term which, in all ages and languages,
could not be misunderstood, and He calls that wine He would
have us use in this ordinance the fruit of the vine.' This
term truly describes the new, sweet, unfermented wine which God
Himself creates in a cluster, and which He pronounces a bless-
ing (Isa. lxv. 8), like the oil and the bread with which it is asso-
ciated as an article of diet. This was, indeed, a good creature
of God, and to be received with thanksgiving. But when God's
wine has been, by man's invention, subjected to a chemical pro-
cess, and becomes fermented, it is no longer the fruit of the vine,
but another substance altogether: it has been changed in its
essential principles, and is now a poisonous compound of alcohol
and carbonic acid. Its sugar and gluten which were in the fruit
of the vine, both of which are nutritious and help to build up and
repair the waste of our bodies, are now, by fermentation, con-
verted into alcoholic poison and other substances, all of which
are almost, if not utterly, destitute of any nourishing qualities
whatever.
THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 229
"Again: we know that the Passover wine was the new, sweet,
and unfermented wine, not only by the name our Saviour gave it
as the fruit of the vine, but
"Second: By the express law of the Passover, excluding all
leaven from the elements used at that feast.
Read carefully the
following passages, and you will see the proof is full and
unanswerable; Ex. xii. 15-20; xiii. 6–7; xxxiv. 25; Lev. ii. 11 ;
x. 12, and Amos iv. 5. Here you will notice that there is
an utter prohibition of leaven and of all that has been leavened or
fermented, not only from the Passover feast, but from everything
offered in sacrifice to God. This included fermented wine as
well as the fermented bread. If it is said that wine is not men-
tioned in these passages, we reply, it was included in the prohibi-
tion of the unleavened bread; else there is no divine warrant
for its use at all in the Passover; but as our Saviour used it. His
example settles its divine appointment.
"In his commentary on John ii. 10, the Rev. Albert Barnes
says: 'The wine of Judea was the pure juice of the grape, without
any mixture of alcohol, and commonly weak and harmless. It
was the common drink of the people, and did not tend to pro-
duce intoxication.'"
The Rev. Dr. Duffield says: "For the Jews, in observing the
Passover-which feast he was celebrating when he instituted the
sacrament of His Supper-were prohibited from the use of any-
thing whatever, whether food or drink, that was fermented (Ex.
xii. 15); and to this day they rigidly observe the original regula-
tion."-Bible Rule of Temperance (p. 181.)
The Rev. Dr. C. H. Fowler, says: "The sacrament of the
Lord's Supper is rescued by the simple fact that this was the
feast of the Passover which Jesus set apart as His memorial, and
that the Jews ate nothing that had yeast or ferment in it at this
feast. They were forbidden to offer anything that had leaven or
yeast in it to the Lord. There is no indication that Jesus sent
out and procured intoxicating wine, when He had a supply of
unfermented wine. Jesus even called it 'the fruit of the vine,'
not the fruit of decomposition and fermentation.
230 WINE USED BY THE LORD AND HIS DISCIPLES ÎN
"God promised that His Holy One should not see corruption.
God said to the sacrificing Jews: "Thou shalt not offer the blood
of my sacrifice with leaven.' Jesus gave the wine as His blood
of the new Testament. It is not reasonable that He sought out
a forbidden element for the purpose of exposing His sacrament
to perpetual criticism. It is enough that Jesus called it 'the
fruit of the vine.""
Dr. S. M. Isaacs, an eminent Jewish rabbi of this city, says:
"In the Holy Land they do not commonly use fermented wines.
The best wines are preserved sweet and unfermented." In
reference to their customs, at their religious festivals, he repeat-
edly and emphatically says: "The Jews do not, in their feast for
sacred purposes, including the marriage feast, ever use any kind
of fermented drinks. In their oblations and libations, both
private and public, they employ the fruit of the vine-that is,
fresh grapes-unfermented grape juice, and raisins, as the symbol
of benediction. Fermentation is to them always a symbol of
corruption, as in nature and science it is itself decay, rottenness.”
-Bible Wines.
The Hon. P. J. Joachimsen, whose intelligence "as a judge,
as well as the eminent culture and charities of his esteemed lady,
are well known in New York," makes the following reply to a
letter of inquiry from Dr. Samson :
No. 336, EAST 69TH STREET, February 15, 1881.
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,-In answer to your favor of yesterday's date,
I repeat that the great majority of conforming Jews in this city use wine
made from raisins at the Passover feast. Of course the raisins are fresh.
Such raisin-wine is used in all conforming synagogues for the sanctification
of Shabbat and holy days; i. e., for Kiddush and also for services at cir-
cumcisions and weddings. Some, but not many, people use imported wine
-Italian, Hungarian, or German-which is certified as "Perach" or“ Kosher
wine."
I am, yours most truly,
P. J. JOACHIMSEN.
ค
The Rev. W. M. Thayer, in his work on "Communion Wine,"
says: "The Saviour's language implies that He continued the prac-
tice of using the unfermented juice of the grape. At the institu-
tion of the Supper, he did not use the word 'wine' [oinos]-
THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 231
the word in general use among the people; but he employed a
phrase which is translated fruit of the vine. We have His
language recorded three times (Matt. xxvi. 27-29; Mark xiv.
23-25; Luke xxii. 19, 20), and in each instance it is 'fruit of the
vine.' As if he would distinguish the wine which was used on
that occasion from that which the people were taught not to
'look upon,' and which would 'bite like a serpent and sting like
an adder'! As if he meant that no man should ever point to
His example on that sacred occasion to defend the use of intoxi-
cating wine on a secular occasion. It has the appearance of
a studied, consistent, Christian arrangement to discard the
'mocker.' If the Saviour used oinos at the Supper, it is singular,
at least, that he avoided the name by which it was known, and
called it 'fruit of the vine.'
“We submit, too, that the grape itself, or the newly expressed
juice, is 'the fruit of the vine' in a truer sense than fermented
wine can be. For all chemists say that fermentation destroys the
nutritive element of grape juice, while the unfermented juice is
highly nutritious. The latter is innocent and healthful, while the
former is dangerous' and harmful to persons in health.
(
"It is objected that Christ said: 'Verily I say unto you, I will
no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day I drink it new
in the kingdom of God' (Mark xiv. 25). And these words are
supposed to imply the use of alcoholic wine. The remarks of
Professor Moses Stuart upon this passage furnish a good reply :
'Is there not a sanction here of drinking ordinary wine? Far from it. It
is beyond all reasonable doubt that orthodox Judaism has ever and always
rejected alcoholic or fermented wine at sacred feasts. Even now, as I have
abundantly satisfied myself by investigation, the Passover is celebrated with
wine newly made from raisins, where unfermented wine cannot be had.
This would seem to explain that difficult passage in Matt. xxvi. 29: “I will
not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you
in my Father's kingdom." "New" alludes to the wine then employed on
that occasion. The meaning seems plainly to be this: "I shall no more
celebrate with you a holy communion service on earth; in heaven we shall
meet again around our Father's table, and there we will keep a feast with
wine appropriate to the occasion—that is, new wine." Of course, we are to
understand the language in a spiritual, and not in a literal, sense. But the
232 WINE USED BY THE LORD AND HIS DISCIPLES IN
•
imagery is borrowed from the wine then before them. Scarcely a greater
mistake can be made than to rest the use of alcoholic wine at the sacra-
mental table on the example of our Saviour and His disciples.'
"It is not surprising, therefore," says the Rev. Dr. Samson,
speaking of the early temperance investigators of the wine ques-
tion, “that such a flood of light dawned on the earnest and labor-
ious reformers who penetrated more or less into this history of
facts. All the translators, Roman and Protestant, Italian, Spanish,
French, German and English, saw in the tirosh of the Old Testa-
ment, the Grecian gleukos and the Roman mustum. Castell,
with the whole range of Syriac and Arabic translations, of the
Rabbinic Targums and Talmud, before him, not only rendered
tirosh must, but he argued that the translation of the Hebrew
cheleb (Num. xviii. 12) by aparche in the Greek, was intended
to present the idea of Herodotus (iii. 24), and of Xenophon
(Hier. iv. 2), which prevailed alike among the early Ethiopians
of Central Africa, and of primitive Asiatics; their offerings were
FRESH, that they might be untainted with decay. Language could
not have been constructed more definitely to represent the pro-
duct of the vine acceptable in religious offerings than that used
by Moses when he added a prefix to the unfermented grape juice
offered to the Lord; requiring that it be 'the fresh of tirosh. It
was natural that this expression, rendered in English by 'best of
the wine,' should recall to Castell and Cocceius the nature of 'the
best' wine made by Christ, and, therefore, drunk by Him; and
that it should have prevented such men from introducing, from
the spirit of custom,' any perversion of the requirements of
Christ as to the Supper, imagining that 'inebriating wines' should
take the place of His own twice repeated description, 'the fruit
of the vine.' When attained, unfermented wine at the Supper
will certainly be the first appointed by Christ."-Divine Law as
to Wines.
In concluding his essay on "Communion Wine," the Rev. W.
M. Thayer says: "We ask the reader to compare the evidence
upon which we rest our view of the Temperance Cause with that
on which the cause of liberty rests. Is the proof that the
THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 233
Bible denounces American slavery more direct and explicit
than the proof that it denounces American drinking customs?
Does not the Bible support slavery as clearly as it does the use
of inebriating beverages? And more, do we not discard certain
customs and habits as sinful on less evidence than we ask men
to discard intoxicating wine? Do we not accept many theolo-
gical tenets as scriptural, on less evidence than we adduce for
Total Abstinence Communion Wine? Let reason and conscience
answer. Especially let the Church be true. No virtue will rise
higher in the world than it is in the Church. If there be a place
of safety on this subject, let the Church occupy it. 'Lead us not
into temptation' is the prayer; let God's people live as they
pray. Tempt no man with the intoxicating cup, at any time, or
in any place. Let the standard be as high at the Lord's table as
it is at man's table. A vicious thing in a holy place is out of
place. The Church is bound to set a pure and safe example on
temperance as really as on religion. Abstain from all appear-
ance of evil,' binds us not to drink beverages that may entice
others to ruin. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' sug-
gests that it is not a loving act to set the dangerous example of
drinking intoxicating liquors to our neighbor, or his children.
'Do thyself no harm.' Abstinence is the only sure way to pre-
vent harm to one's self. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into
temptation.' There is no more emphatic way of disregarding
this lesson, than by tampering with the intoxicating cup. So,
also, the exhortations to lay your bodies a living sacrifice on the
altar of God,' to 'crucify the lusts of the flesh,' and many others,
are wholly inconsistent with defiling the body by using that which
inflames the passions (Isa. xxii. 13), excites to violence (Prov.
xxiii. 29), and overcomes and demoralizes many who drink it"
(Isa. xxviii. 1; Prov. xx. 1; Isa. xxviii. 7).
Professor Stuart says: "I cannot doubt that chamets, in its
widest sense, was excluded from the Jewish Passover, when the
Lord's Supper was first instituted; for I am not able to find
evidence to make me doubt that the custom among the Jews of
excluding fermented wine, as well as fermented bread, is older
254 WINE USED BY THE LORD AND HIS DISCIPLES IN
!
than the Christian era. That this custom is very ancient; that
it is now almost universal; and that it has been so for some time
whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, I take
to be facts that cannot fairly be controverted."
While the societies of the New Church, with but a very few
worthy exceptions in this country, are using intoxicating wine,
which Swedenborg compares to falses from evil, as communion
wine, and our Associations and Convention have not a word to say
against its use as a beverage; and too many of our clergymen are
justifying such use; and some of them advocating the drinking of
whisky even; how stands the religious world around us upon this
great practical question of life? Many of the most celebrated
scholars of the various Christian Churches, without a knowledge
of the revelations which we enjoy, seeing the devastation and
ruin which was being wrought upon their fellow-men, by the
drinking of intoxicating drinks, and finding that their use was
justified and encouraged by the use of fermented wine at the
Holy Supper, have devoted years to a patient examination of
this subject in the light of the Word of the Lord, ancient history,
and modern science.
Rev. Dr. Samson, speaking of the early labors of such men,
says:
"Among educators, such men as Professor Wayland of Brown
University, and Professor Tayler Lewis, led the way to a new
position. Dr. Wayland, eminently conscientious and practical as
a teacher of Moral Science, when told by Christian gentlemen
whom he esteemed, that his example in providing wine-sangaree
at his annual receptions was misleading, and betraying to their
ruin, young men in fashionable society, Dr. Wayland promptly
said; 'If my wine makes my brother to offend, I will have no
more of it.' Professor Lewis, scholarly and logical, reversed his
opinions and practice, when he perceived, as he himself states it,
that 'on the subject of temperance there has been committed
the same error of interpretation that for so long a time confused
the slavery question." "
THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 235
"To these testimonies was soon added that of Professor
George Bush, who, when first appealed to, quoted Old and New
Testament declarations to sustain the custom of using wines in
fashionable society and in Christian rites; but who, when asked,
resolved to examine the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures,
and then, after examination, confessed the error into which
neglect of thorough investigation had led him, and declared to
the advocates of total abstinence: 'You have the whole ground;
and in time the whole Christian world will be obliged to adopt
your views.'”
We have in the preceding pages called the attention of our
readers to several works written by late writers, with many quota-
tions, and now we will see what the surrounding Church organi-
zations are doing in this most worthy cause.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at its
annual meeting at Madison, Wis., unamimously adopted the fol-
lowing declaration :
"The General Assembly, viewing with grave apprehension the persist-
ence and spread of the use of intoxicating drinks as among the greatest, if
not the greatest, evil of our day, as a curse resting upon every nation of
Christendom, as multiplying their burdens of taxation, pauperism, and
crime, as undermining their material prosperity, as a powerful hindrance to
the Gospel at home, and as still more deeply degrading the heathen whom
we seek to evangelize abroad, would rejoice at the revival in recent years
of efforts to stay these great evils, and would renew its testimony, begun as
early as 1812 (and continued to the present day), 'not only against actual
intemperance, but against all those habits and indulgences which may have
a tendency to produce it.'"
The General Conference of the Methodist-Episcopal Church,
held in Cincinnati in May last, adopted a report on temperance
containing the following passages or recommendation of changes
in the Discipline:
´ “2. That section 6 of paragraph 175 be amended so that it shall read as
follows: 'To hold quarterly meetings in the absence of the presiding elder,
and to see that the stewards provide unfermented wine for use in the sacra-
ment of the Lord's Supper, if practicable.'
236
WINE USED BY THE LORD AND HIS DISCIPLES IN
"3. That the sentence in brackets, immediately preceding paragraph 484
of the Discipline, be so changed as to read as follows: 'Let none but the
pure unfermented juice of the grape be used in administering the Lord's
Supper.'
'4. We also recommend that the following be inserted in the Discipline
as a separate chapter, expressive of the general sentiment of the Church on
the temperance question:
'TEMPERANCE.
'Temperance, in its broader meaning, is distinctively a Christian virtue,
scripturally enjoined. It implies a subordination of all the emotions, pas-
sions, and appetites to the control of reason and conscience. Dietetically it
means a wise use of useful articles of food and drink, with entire abstinence
from such as are known to be hurtful. Both science and human experience
unite with Holy Scripture in condemning all alcoholic beverages as being
neither useful nor safe. The business of manufacturing and vending such
liquors is also against the principles of morality, political economy, and the
public welfare."
The Centennial Conference of Free-Will Baptists, recently in
session at Weirs, New Hampshire, adopted the following pream-
ble and resolutions :
“Whereas, After all the moral and legal temperance victories of the past,
intemperance still remains the greatest evil of the age; therefore, resolved :
"1. That while we thank God for the victories already gained, we would
in this centennial year of our denomination reaffirm with increased em-
phasis our uncompromising hostility to the intoxicating cup, and pledge
ourselves anew to the use of all moral and prohibitory means for the utter
suppression of the sale and use of intoxicating liquors.
2. That we have no fellowship with those Church members who, in the
light of the nineteenth century, use as a beverage intoxicating drinks, in-
cluding ale, lager-beer, wine or cider.
"8. That fermented wine should not be used in the communion service,
and the Church or minister who uses it deserves censure.
"9. That the use of tobacco is an unclean and unnatural habit, and
should be indulged in by neither ministers nor members of the Christian
Church."
Surely the life and light of the New Jerusalem are permeating
the Churches around us. The paragraph above, headed “Tem-
perance," could have no origin but from the Lord. He reforms
and regenerates the human race through the angels of the New
THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT. 237
Heavens; and He effects this divine work in the natural world, as
far as it can be effected, through men of all religions, and all
other instruments which the Divine Love by Divine Wisdom can
marshal into the reconstructive work of the New Jerusalem
dispensation. Let us remember that the doers of the truth
alone have the promise that they shall see the truth. The-man
who uses either intoxicating drinks or tobacco, and the woman
who wears tight dresses, are doing all they can to close their eyes
and ears and understanding against the truth. Their depraved
habits produce a corresponding and constantly increasing depra-
vation of their physical and nervous systems; so that though
those habits are sowing within them the seeds of disease and
death, they are unable to perceive the injury that is being done
them unless they will heed the Word of the Lord or the testi-
mony of others. For that consciousness they must go outside of
themselves, because these evils, like all spiritual evils to which
they correspond, palliate the suffering which they cause, and
fasten their chains tighter on their victims, actually making them
feel better every time they indulge. Although it is through the
understanding that man must be enlightened, yet there must be a
willingness to obey, or "having eyes he will see not" and will not
be convinced, however clear the light or truth.
"God speed the time," says the Rev. Dr. Herrick Johnson,
'when Scriptural arguments in behalf of wine-drinking shall be
buried in a grave as deep as that where now lie the arguments
by which the Word of God was once marshalled to the support
of slavery! God speed the time when alcoholic wines and
strong drinks shall be swept from every Christian sideboard, and
table, and social feast."
"A few years since an English clergyman," says the Rev.
William M. Thayer, "who had been intemperate, reformed. At
a public meeting in Manchester, he said, confessing his guilt,
'My greatest sin is not found where I brought the most disgrace
upon my Master's cause in the public view; my greatest sin, in
the sight of God, was when I entered upon the course which led
to drunkenness,' Was he not right? The intemperate man has
238
WINE USED BY THE LORD AND HIS DISCIPLES IN
incurred guilt somewhere. Was it when he first staggered under
the influence of strong drink? Nay, it was before that. Was it
when he had been a moderate drinker one year, two years, or
more? Was it when he drank his tenth, hundredth, or five hun-
dredth glass? Was it not rather when he quaffed the first glass
which lured him to all that followed? 'It is the first step that
ruins.' 'Enter not into the path of the wicked' (Prov. iv. 14).
'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation' (Matt. xxvi.
41). The divine prohibition is laid upon the first step to ruin."
The danger is always with the first glass; the reformed inebriate
who is looking to the Lord and striving to shun this evil realizes
this. "Hence," says the Rev. Dr. Samson, "reformed inebriates,
with one voice, have asked for an unintoxicating wine at the
Lord's Supper; and, when this provision has been thought im-
possible, they have conscientiously abstained often from partak-
ing of the cup."
"It is plain," says the Rev. W. M. Thayer, "that the prohibi-
tion of drunkenness prohibits all indulgence which leads to
drunkenness as Dr. Duff says, 'In condemning murder, the
Bible of necessity condemns the use of any and all of those
means which naturally and inevitably lead to it.' Reference
may be made to the unfermented juice of the grape, and the
word much used to guard them against over-indulgence, since
Pliny, Columella, and others say with Dr. Rule, that many
Romans were so fond of it that 'they would fill their stomachs
with it, then throw it off by emetics, and repeat the draught.'
Thus it was with 'honey.' 'Hast thou found honey'? asks Solo-
eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled
therewith and vomit it' (Prov. xxv. 16). Bible temperance is
'moderation' in the use of good things, and abstinence from
injurious things."
mon;
Since the above was in type, we have selected the following
extracts from the report of a lecture and remarks in the Glasgow
(Scotland) League Journal:
At a select meeting, which comprised many clergymen and
physicians, Dr, B. W, Richardson, speaking on the subject of
THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION OF THE SACRAMENT.
239
unfermented wines for sacramental purposes, said, "I think I
might say in reference to Dr. Kerr's remarks about the constitu-
tion of these wines, that if there is anything in what you may call
similitude and in pure symbolism, as represented in the use of
wine on the solemn occasion to which he refers, all the question
of similitude turns toward a wine that is expressed simply from
the grape. I think there is a passage in the service which says :
"This is My blood.' Now, if you take that at all as meaning
anything symbolic, then you have a common-sense view in the
similitude which does really exist between the expressed juice of
the wine and His blood. That is strictly true. If you look at
this table on the wall showing the compositions of the two kinds
of wine, the one fermented, the other unfermented, you will see
that the constituent parts actually of blood and of the expressed
wine are strictly analogous. One of the most important elements.
of the blood, that which keeps it together, that which Plato speaks
of as 'the plastic part of the blood,' is the fibrine, and that is
represented in the gluten of the unfermented wine. If we come
to the nourishing part of the blood, that which we call the mother
of the tissues, we find it in the unfermented grape, in the albu-
men, and that is also present in the blood; and if we come to all
the salts, there they are in the blood, and the proportion is nearly
the same in the unfermented wine as in the blood; and if we
come to the parts of the wine which go to support the respiration
of the body, we find them in the sugar. Really and truly on a
question of symbolism, if there be anything at all in that, the
argument is all in favor of the use of unfermented wine. But,
again, I would put it in this way in support of Dr. Kerr. Pre-
suming that you want the real thing that was fermented for your
purposes, I should say scientifically that you could not go to that
thing in its purest form. If you really do want to put a fermented
substance forward, then you should put it forward in all its purity.
The logical argument would be not to take an irregular substance
which is called wine, and which may contain half-a-dozen things
that are altogether apart from the real thing, but the point would
be to take an actually pure, simple, fermented substance alto-
240 HOW SHALL WE PREPARE OUR COMMUNION WINE?
gether, free from everything except the fermented substance, the
completed process and water. Yet, I suppose, if anything of that
kind were put forward in the Church, it would be rebelled at uni-
versally. No one would think of doing it. Yet that is what
should be done logically if this is to be the thing. You either
want a fermented or unfermented agent. If it be decided that a
fermented agent is wanted, take it in all its purity; if an unfer-
mented agent, take that which is the natural, simple expression of
the juice of the grape-the rich wine."
Dr. Norman Kerr said,—"That at all periods in the history of
the Christian Church, in necessity unfermented juice of the grape
had been held to be wine for the purpose of the sacrament.
Witnesses were cited in the original from the second, fourth,
seventh, ninth, thirteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth
centuries. Unfermented, unintoxicating wine was, at the present
day, recognized as a lawful element of communion by the
Methodist - Episcopal, and other bodies in America; by the
Established Church of Scotland, by a large number of Noncon-
forming congregations throughout the kingdom, by a considerable
array of Established Churches and their mission charges in
England, and by the annual Mildmay Conference. One bishop
had sanctioned its use, while several bishops had communicated
in it and had made no sign."
HOW SHALL WE PREPARE OUR COMMUNION WINE?
This is a practical question, and especially so at this day, when
no one who purchases either unfermented or fermented wine,
unless he knows by whom it has been made and has confidence
in the maker, can have any assurance that he is getting an un-
adulterated article. The blood of the grape, which flows spon-
taneously when the grape is punctured or crushed, Swedenborg
informs us, as we have seen, has a higher or more celestial sig-
nification than wine which is produced by pressure, and for this
reason was not selected when the Lord instituted this ordinance;
and, if it is ever to become appropriate in the New Church, we
think our readers will conclude with the writer, that the time will
HOW SHALL WE PREPARE OUR COMMUNION WINE? 241
not be during our generation, nor perhaps for many generations
to come.
"In remote antiquity, grapes were brought to the table, and
the juice there expressed for immediate use."—Nott (London
ed. p. 58).
"Plutarch affirms that before the time of Psammetichus, who
lived six hundred years before Christ, the Egyptians neither
drank fermented wine nor offered it in sacrifice.”—Nott (Third
Lecture).
"Josephus's version of the butler's speech is as follows: He
said 'that by the king's permission he pressed the grapes into a
goblet, and, having strained the sweet wine, he gave it to the
king to drink, and that he received it graciously.' Josephus here
uses gleukos to designate the expressed juice of the grape before
fermentation could possibly commence."-Bible Commentary
(p. 18).
Bishop Lowth, of England, in his "Commentary on Isaiah,” in
1778, remarking upon Isa. v. 2, refers to the case of Pharaoh's
butler, and says: "By which it would seem that the Egyptians
drank only the fresh juice pressed from the grapes, which was
called oinos ampilinos—that is, wine of the vineyards."
Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke, on Gen. xl. 11, says: "From this we
find that the wine anciently was the mere expressed juice of
the grape without fermentation. The saky, or cup-bearer, took
the bunch, pressed the juice into the cup, and instantly delivered
it into the hands of his master. This was anciently the yayin
[wine] of the Hebrews, the oinos [wine] of the Greeks, and
the mustum [new fresh wine] of the ancient Latins." Bagster's
"Comprehensive Bible" quotes Dr. Clarke with approbation.
It appears that the Mohammedans of Arabia press the juice
of the grape into a cup, and drink it as Pharaoh did.”—Nott
(London ed. p. 59).
"A singular proof of the ancient usage of squeezing the juice.
of grapes into a cup has been exhumed at Pompeii. It is that
of Bacchus standing by a pedestal, and holding in both hands a
242 HOW SHALL WE PREPARE OUR COMMUNION WINE?
large cluster of grapes, and squeezing the juice into a cup.”-
Bible Wines.

PRIMITIVE WINE PRESS.
6
"Professor Tischendorf has given us a learned edition of the
Apocryphal Acts and Matthew,' a work which was in circula-
tion in the second and third centuries; and in it we read:
'Bring ye, as an offering, holy bread, and having pressed out
into a cup three clusters from the vine be communicants with
me.'"-Rev. Joseph Cook,
HOW SHALL WE PREPARE OUR COMMUNION WINE? 243
Beyond all question, if we accept the Word of the Lord as
authority, and in the opinion of the writer beyond the possi-
bility of a doubt, if we accept Swedenborg as an authority
on this subject, the recently expressed juice of the grape, used
before fermentation has commenced, is appropriate for use in the
Holy Supper. Except when kept below the temperature of
50° it should not be pressed from the grape earlier than the
night before the day on which it is to be used, and then it should
be bottled and carefully corked. It may be prepared by press-
ing the grapes directly by the hands, as we have seen was often
done by the ancients, or by any other method.
This recently expressed must, or new wine, is certainly appro-
priate, as Swedenborg tells us that must has the same significa-
tion as wine, namely: "Truth derived from the good of charity
and love” (A. E. 695); and that "new wine is the divine truth
of the New Testament-consequently, of the New Church; and
old wine is the divine truth of the Old Testament, consequently
of the Old Church." (A. R. 316.)
By must, we know, he does not mean must during the process
of fermentation, but that he does mean the recently expressed
juice of the grape before fermentation has commenced, whereas
fermented wine which has been so generally used he compares
to falses from evil, as we have seen.
There are seasons of the year when fresh grapes can be had
about as readily as wine; and if grapes grown in a warm climate
can be had, we have a sweet wine, very pleasant to drink; but let
them be grown where they will, we shall have a wine more palata-
ble to the unperverted taste than the "stuff" which is sold as fer-
mented wine.
In this unfermented wine we have a fluid which can justly be
termed the fruit of the vine, and which is not produced by
leaven, like the essential ingredients in fermented wine.
The objection was made to the writer by a respected clerical
brother that wine, either recently pressed from the grapes, or
bottled unfermented wine, if exposed to the air, would not keep;
and if a part of a bottle were used, the rest would spoil before
244 HOW SHALL WE PREPARE OUR COMMUNION WINE?
In
an occasion again occurred for using it; and he seemed to think
it was an indication that it was not suitable for this purpose.
reply, we reminded him of the fact that if special pains were not
taken to deprive the bread, which he uses for this purpose, of its
moisture, it would spoil, or become mouldy and sour; and that
the meats, fruits, and vegetables from which he daily eats would
spoil on keeping, many of them in a very short time. Again, we
called his attention to another important fact, namely, that the
use of mouldy and sour bread, tainted meats, and decaying vege-
tables, however objectionable such use might be, and the writer
would be the last man to advocate their use, would be far less ob-
jectionable than the use of fermented wine; for they would not
impair to so great an extent his freedom and reason, and would
never make him drunk, either naturally or spiritually: whereas,
the use of fermented wine causes insanity and natural drunken-
ness, and affords a plane of influx for evil spirits which tend to
infatuate and render men insane in regard to spiritual things.
When it is desirable to preserve wine for future use, we think
that, beyond question, the most suitable method is by boiling it
down from one-third to two-thirds, skimming it carefully; and,
then, while hot, putting it into bottles, or into glass fruit-cans,
and sealing it up as fruit is canned. Thus preserved, when wanted
for use, it can be readily reduced in water to the desired thin-
ness. If we wish to make a wine from northern sour grapes simi-
lar to the wines of Palestine, or a sweet and palatable wine, it is
necessary to add sugar. The Lord called the contents of the cup
the fruit of the vine; and we know of no method by which the
fruit of the vine, or the entire juice which can be pressed from the
the grape, can be preserved in its integrity except by boiling. It
loses nothing but the water, which can be readily restored, as water
is always the same when pure. There is no useful organic sub-
stance removed, and it is not, like fermented wine, contaminated
by any heterogeneous substance even if sugar is added. It is
therefore, pure and contains the entire substance of the fruit of
the vine, excepting the seeds, skins, and cellular and fibrous por-
tions of the grapes. The boiled wine improves by age.
HOW SHALL WE PREPARE OUR COMMUNION WINE? 245
Archbishop Potter, who lived about two centuries ago, wrote
in his 'Grecian Antiquities': 'The Lacedæmonians used to boil
their wines upon the fire until the fifth part was consumed: then
after four years were expired, began to drink them.' He refers
to Democritus, a celebrated philosopher, who travelled over the
greater part of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and who died 361 B. C.;
also to Palladius, a Greek physician, as making a similar state-
ment. 'Some of the celebrated Opimian wine mentioned by
Pliny had, in his day, two centuries after its production, the con-
sistence of honey."-Wines of the Bible.
Where grapes are grown or can be had, every religious so-
ciety, or every clergyman if he pleases, can prepare wine by this
simple and cheap process, and always be sure of having a pure
article at all seasons, and one which can justly be called the fruit of
the vine, for in this process the gluten is preserved. In the other
processes which we have described, namely, that of filtering re-
peatedly, and that of keeping cool and settling, the gluten is
removed; therefore the wine thus preserved is not as perfectly the
fruit of the vine as is the boiled wine; although such wine is un-
objectionable as a drink, and is many times nearer the fruit of
the vine than fermented wine: still the writer would give the
preference to boiled wine when it can be obtained. Then,
beside, boiling has a good signification. (A. C. 8496, 10,105.)
As to wines which are preserved by the addition of foreign
substances, with perhaps the exception of sugar, which are capa-
ble of preventing or arresting fermentation, such as sulphur, the
fumes of sulphur, salicylic acid, mustard, etc., we think they are
all out of the question for sacramental purposes, although not as
objectionable as fermented wine. Where the fumes of burning
sulphur are simply used to destroy the germs of ferment in the
cask before it is filled, and in the atmosphere between the bung
and wine after the cask is filled, as is sometimes the case, no
great injury to the wine can result.
Rev. Joseph Cook, of Boston, in a sermon delivered while in
England, says in regard to unfermented wine: "Your own Dr.
Norman Kerr tells you that he drinks unfermented wine brought
246 HOW SHALL WE PREPARE OUR COMMUNION WINE?
from the East. I know where in London to buy that kind of
wine. What is more, I know from some observation in the
East and from reading testimonies from there that many Syrian
Churches to-day use that kind of wine in their religious feasts.
I have witnessed in London the processes by which unfermented
wine is manufactured for the fifteen hundred congregations in
the United Kingdom, which now use only such wine in their
administration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The
manufacturing chemist cited Columella's and Pliny's receipts for
preventing fermentation, and assured me that he could not improve
them in point of efficacy. Dr. Kerr has shown that wine may
be preserved unfermented by eight or ten different methods,
many of which were known to the ancients.”
The writer has called the attention of the reader to the most
important of these methods in the chapter on the Wines of the
Ancients, to which he refers him for further information on this
subject.
In regard to preserving wine, by the aid of a stratum of sweet
oil, as practiced by the ancients and described in the preceding
pages, lest some of his readers may be disappointed in experi-
menting in that direction, the writer will say that the process evi-
dently requires great care to prevent the germs of ferment being
mixed with the wine. Of three experiments which the writer has
made with a glass bottle and a stratum of sweet oil, during the
the past season, only one has been successful, and in that the
wine is beautiful and clear, with a moderate amount of lees in the
bottle. Although the cork has been frequently removed, yet
there has been no signs of fermentation. The bottle was scalded
out before being filled, and was immediately filled with the cold
juice just as it was squeezed by the hands from the grapes
through two thicknesses of a linen strainer. The ancients, it will
be remembered, oiled their vessels carefully on the inside before
filling them with the juice of the grape; and a bottle should be
either oiled on the inside or carefully scalded with boiling water
before being filled, even if it is a new bottle.
CHAPTER XIII.
PROHIBITION.
We know that the use of intoxicating drinks is, directly or in-
directly, the cause of more than one-half of the crimes committed
and of the poverty, wretchedness, and insanity which exist in
the communities where they are used; and their use is the most
prolific of all of the causes of disease, and even of idiocy. As
to the mortality which results from this cause, we clip from the
Morning Light of May 7th, 1881, the following letter, which is a
fair presentation of the results of careful observation :
THE DEATH RATE AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
DEAR SIR,-With reference to Mr. Bingham's speech in your issue for
April 23d, the following particulars may interest your readers:
At the end of 1878 the average death rate in the General Section of the
Sceptre Life Office for the fourteen years of its existence had been 8 in the
1,000, in the Temperance Section 4. The number of deaths expected in
the Temperance Section of the same office for the five years ending 1879
was 90, the actual number dying being 47.
The number of deaths expected in the General Section of the Temper-
ance Provident Institution for the years 1871-75 was 1,266, the actual num-
ber dying being 1,330; in the Temperance Section for the same period the
number expected to die was 723; only 511 died. Referring to this report,
John Bright said the figures "are most remarkable. There is no mistake
about it that the men who abstain from intoxicating drinks have an immense
advantage, both physically and morally, over the rest of the community."
The report of this same office for the year 1879 shows the same thing.
During the year preceding the annual meeting the number of deaths ex-
pected in the General Section was 305, the actual number dying being 326;
in the Temperance Section “196 were expected, and only 164 were ob-
stinate enough to die. For the four years ending since the last division
of profits the claims made in the Temperance Section were 215 less, in the
General Section 2 more than expected.
A map of the township of Toxteth Park, Liverpool, shows that a division
containing no public-houses and five-twelfths of the whole population,
247
248
PROHIBITION.
rejoices in enough (45) paupers; the remainder of the township, with seven
twelfths of the population and 200 public-houses, contains 1,453 paupers.
* ** Finally, may I call the attention of your readers to the village of
St. Johnsbury, Vermont, U. S. A. The Maine Liquor Law is enforced there
with the result that its six constables work in the scale manufactories except
on special days, when they "don their uniforms to make a little show. * * *
No loafer hangs about the kerbstones. Not a beggar can be seen. No
drunkard reels along the streets. There seem to be no poor. I have not
seen, in two days' wandering up and down, one child in rags, one woman
looking like a slut."-Hepworth Dixon, Letters from America.
The figures I have quoted seem conclusive, for we must recollect that the
General Sections are not composed of drunkards, only moderate drinkers
are admitted to them. If, then, the mortality rate amongst total abstainers
is so superior to moderate drinkers, total abstinence cannot be otherwise than
better.
GEORGE GORDON PULSFORD.
HAMSTEAD, near Birmingham, April 18, 1881.
The only argument that can be urged to-day against prohibi-
tion is that of expediency. The time has passed when any
intelligent man will question the right of the community to pro-
tect its members against such dire evils as result from the use of
intoxicating drinks. Liberty is constantly restrained where its
exercise may be used by any to his neighbor's detriment, or his
own injury. A man cannot build a dwelling-house on his own
land, and for his own use, until the proper department has certified
that his plans are safe for his neighbors, and healthful for his own
indwelling. A family living contentedly under ground, with
insufficient light and air, are expelled from their home, and the
cellar is closed, regardless of the complaint of landlord and
No other evil is so productive of injury to the com-
munity as this curse of alcohol; yet almost any other may be
legislated against if this is let alone. We punish with relentless
severity the poor drunken wretch who has violated the law,
though we know that the crime was committed when the stupify-
ing and poisonous draught had deprived him entirely of that
sense of right and wrong, which lies at the very foundation of
moral responsibility. We punish the drunken criminal, not for
the tippling which has led to his insanity and crime, but for the
crimes that he would never have committed in his sober senses;
tenant.
PROHIBITION.
249
and then we renew the license of the rum-seller whose liquor
has crazed him; so that when his term of punishment has expired
he may again be subjected to the same temptation, and society
again suffer from his evil-doing. Against every other danger we
may protect ourselves without the cry of fanaticism, or danger to
private rights. The officers of the law go into our most private
apartments to search for sewer-gas, or some source of ill-health,
that may work harm to a few occupants of the house, and pass
by the licensed shop that corrupts a neighborhood and ruins
bodies and souls. We compel the fencing in of an area, lest
some unwary passer-by or some child may fall into it; and allow
the rum-seller his public bar-room, where he may display his
decanters, and his beer-pump, and his free lunch to entice our
young men into the broad road which leads to drunkenness and
death. We enter by force if needs be, and take away sick
children from their parents' care to a public hospital, and disin-
fect houses where there has been a contagious disease. We
break up gambling-hells, and policy-shops, and disorderly houses,
because they are detrimental to the morals of the community.
But there is no contagion more deadly, no gas more pernicious,
no allurement to vice so potent as this curse of bar-room drink-
ing. Where gaming ruins one fortune rum ruins many; and no
other vice is so thoroughly destructive of all manliness as rum
can be. What vice or weakness can we name that leads to crime
as this does? What vice or misery can we name to which the
first glass may not lead? Look at the squandered fortunes—the
diseased frames-the imbecile minds-the ruined homes-the
blighted lives—the broken hearts! See in how many families of
your own friends the curse comes, striking the brightest and
best; see the poverty, the ruin, the crime, and the vast multitudes
going on in never-ending succession to fill drunkards' graves;
and then see the community lopping off little branches of evil,
and letting this giant tree of evil stand to scatter its baleful
seeds!
We ask you, intelligent reader, if such a course of conduct is
worthy of a Christian or even a civilized people? Is it not clearly
250
PROHIBITION.
our duty to protect the young and the weak from such a degrading
evil as the sin of indulging in intoxicating drinks?
It does certainly seem that we should, at least, withhold the
sanction of the law from the sale of such drinks. And it does
seem that, if it is ever proper to enact laws to prevent crime and
the contamination of the young, it is clearly our duty, if practi-
cable, to do so in this instance. But we know very well that
before a law can be enforced, the honest convictions of a very
large majority of the people must sustain it. If there is any
doubt upon this point, our first duty is clearly to do all we can to
enlighten the people, and not to strive to enact prematurely a
law which we have good reason to suppose will not be enforced.
But the writer thinks that, if the advocates of total abstinence,
even in the State of New York, would strive to enact a law to
close all bar-rooms where intoxicating liquors are sold, or given
away publicly to be drank on the premises; and yet not attempt
to prevent their sale in quantity to be taken away from the place
of sale, that the good sense of the community would sustain such
a law. The advocates of the liberty of drinking what they choose
could not raise the cry that it interferes with their right to drink,
and get drunk if they choose. The habit of drinking intoxicants
at this day is generally acquired in bar-rooms, where young men
can invite their comrades up to take a drink with them. Very
few young men who have not acquired the habit of drinking
would ever purchase liquor to carry it to their homes where, as
a rule, even drunken parents do not favor their children's drink-
ing. Under the operation of such a law the race of drinkers
would materially lessen in a very few years, when there would
be no difficulty in enacting and enforcing a prohibitory law.
The Rev. Dr. Samson, in a work just published, entitled "Sci-
ence the Interpreter of History as to Fermented Wine-a Supple-
ment to the 'Divine Law as to Wines,'" speaking of the efforts of
the ancients to control and prohibit the use of wines, says :
"That it was not the excess, but the use of wines, which the
ancients sought to control by law, is seen in the entire list of pro-
hibitions to youth, to women, to nurses, to men in public service,
PROHIBITION.
251
which Plato and Aristotle, Numa and Cato urged. That it is
not the excessive use, but the intoxicant itself, that controls
modern legislation is attested by the fact that it is not bread-
shops, nor milk-dealers, that need to be restrained and pro-
hibited ; while all unite in the effort to restrict and suppress beer-
saloons, and to supplant them by coffee-shops. It is not wines,
but intoxicating wines, that earnest Christian leaders seek to have
exchanged for the ancient unintoxicating wines; which Pliny
states, though costly, as were choice fruits, were sought for the
wealthy of his day. It is such wines that are now sought for the
tables of the princely in wealth and intellect; and above all, for
the table of the Lord around which the rich and the poor meet
together. The noble condescension, if not the conscientious
conviction, of American Christians cannot fall behind that of
Churchmen of England in seeking and permitting the use of
such wines."
In Maine, as is well known to disinterested inquirers and
observers, the law prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and giving
away of intoxicating drinks, has been very fairly enforced for
many years, perhaps as fully as laws against many other crimes;
and this notwithstanding the immense pressure which has been
brought against it from its opponents all over the country. It
will be much easier to enforce such a law when it is enacted by
other States.
As to Kansas, where such a law has recently been enacted,
based upon a constitutional amendment, we will let the Governor
speak for his State :
PROHIBITION IN THE STATE OF KANSAS-GOVERNOR ST. JOHN'S FIRM
FAITH IN THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.
Governor John P. St. John of Kansas was in Indianapolis lately,
and in a conversation with a reporter of the Sentinel, gave his
views upon the causes and effects of the temperance movement
in the State of Kansas. In reply to a question, its Governor said :
"What has been accomplished in Kansas is of not near the
importance of what will be done in Indiana. Our greatest work
252.
PROHIBITION.
is over; the Prohibition Law is enforced, and our people would
not be without it."
"What started the prohibition movement in Kansas ?” asked
the reporter.
"It originated through local option," was the reply, "which
started a temperance sentiment in the State that spread with
great rapidity. In my town of Othalia, which has a population
of about 3,000, a local option law was enforced a few years ago,
and the three saloons were compelled to close on account of
being unable to obtain the petition of two-thirds of the adult
inhabitants of the town. Previous to this time the saloons paid
the city $1,500 for license-$500 each—and out of this amount,
which was received yearly, it became necessary to erect a small
jail for drunkards. Since the saloons have been closed there
has been no use for the jail, and but one drunken man has been
seen on the streets since last November. The town was never
before so prosperous, and the improvements it has undergone are
wonderful. Such was also the case with the towns of Ottawa,
Hiawatha, and many others, and it did not take long to stir up
a sentiment in favor of a prohibitory amendment to the State
Constitution."
"How long have you had prohibition in Kansas?” was the
next query.
•
"The amendment to the Constitution was passed by our Legis-
lature in 1879, and was voted on by the people at the next
general election in 1880, and was carried by a majority of 8,000.
It went into effect last May. Since then all disputed questions
have been settled, and the Supreme Court and the Attorney-
General have declared the law to be constitutional. Before the
election we had to fight not only the combined whisky element
of Kansas, but money was sent into the State from all parts of
the country to use in defeating the amendment.
We came
out victorious, however, and now if a vote should be taken by
the people to restore anti-prohibition again it would be defeated
by 70,000 majority. It is not a 'dead letter,' as many suppose,
as we permit no such things in Kansas. The whisky element
PROHIBITION.
253
have circulated the story all over the United States that the
amendment prohibits the use of wine for sacramental purposes.
Old drunkards and bummers who had not been in Church for
twenty years shed crocodile tears over this matter. It is wholly a
misrepresentation of facts. The amendment plainly says: "The
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors shall be forever pro-
hibited in this State, except for medical, scientific, and mechani-
cal purposes.' Every Church in the State indorsed the law.
Since we have had prohibition there has been a very noticeable
decrease in crime. On the 30th day of December, 1880, there
were 725 convicts in the State prison, and on June 30, 1881,
there were 659, a decrease of 66 in six months. There had
been no decrease for ten years before."
"Does the temperance question enter into the politics of
Kansas ?" asked the scribe.
"Prohibition was never a political question. I was elected as
a straight radical Republican, and received a plurality of 52,000
votes, which was a majority of 33,000 over the Democratic
and Greenback candidates. I was nominated for the office on
the first ballot, notwithstanding there were six other candidates.
The Democratic party in Kansas, as an organization, is opposed
to prohibition, although there are probably a large number of
Democrats who favor prohibition and voted for it."
"Is it true, Governor, that a large number of persons are
leaving the State on account of the prohibitory law?"
"It is not the case," was the emphatic reply. “You cannot
show me fifty men who have left Kansas on account of prohibi-
tion. The saloon-keepers are the only men who are leaving.
Where you get one of our saloon-keepers we get several Indiana
families on account of prohibition, and the exchange is a good
one for us. Never in the history of the State have we had such
a fine immigration, and the immigrants are all of the better class,
who make good citizens. The State is increasing in wealth, and
the good results of prohibition are apparent to every one. We
never had but two distillers to consume our corn, and therefore,
there is no change in the market for grain, There always was a
254
PROHIBITION.
market for corn on account of the outlet to the Gulf of Mexico
and the South."
66
'What do you think of the progress of the temperance move-
ment throughout the country?"
"It is my opinion," he answered, "that it will not be a quarter
of a century before there will be an amendment to the Constitu-
tion of the United States. It would sooner occur if the debt ques-
tion was out of the way. I do not believe in that manner of paying
the public debt, but the Government finds the income from the
manufacture of alcohol a convenient way to assist in settling it."
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AND PROHIBITION.
In his Memorial to the Swedish Diet, quoted in a previous
ehapter, after suggesting that certain restrictions should be placed
on the distilling of whisky,-"provided the public can be prevailed
"That is, if
upon to accede to the measure,"-Swedenborg says :
the consumption of whisky cannot be done away with altogether,
which would be more desirable for the country's welfare and
morality than all the income which could be realized from so
pernicious a drink.”
Swedenborg well knew, as we know, that prohibition alone
could do away with the use of whisky entirely, and it is of legal
measures he is speaking in the above paragraph; and that he
would have approved of prohibition, if it had been practicable,
the writer thinks is manifest.
"I spoke with spirits," says Swedenborg, "concerning drunk-
enness, and it was confirmed by them that it is an enormous sin,
as well as that man becomes a brute [and] no longer a man ;
because that man is a man lies in his intellectual faculty, thus he
becomes a brute, besides which he brings damage on his body,
and so hastens his death, besides wasting in extravagance what
might be of use to many.-(1748, June 27.) And it appeared to
them so filthy that they abhorred such a life, which mortals never-
theless have introduced among themselves as a civil life." (S. D.
2422.) No wonder that Swedenborg favored prohibition,
CHAPTER XIV.
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
WHILE the New Church in this country, as an external organi-
zation, is silent in regard to the evils of intemperance, and so
many of its periodicals and clergy are striving to justify the use
of fermented wine, and some of them of whisky, as beverages,
our brethren in Great Britain are awakening to the importance of
this question. It was stated some months ago, in the Morning
Light, that one-third of the New Church clergy and one-third of
the laity in that country were advocates of total abstinence. A
New Church Temperance Society, with auxilliary societies, has
been formed, and "Bands of Hope," in various localities, are
energetically laboring in this great reform movement.
At the annual meeting or the New Church Conference recently
held, we are told by the Morning Light, that "resolutions were
passed unanimously expressing the satisfaction of the Conference
at the formation of the New Church Temperance Society, and in
favor of the Sunday Closing Bill."
The Temperance Society held its annual meeting during the
session of the Conference. In regard to this meeting, the Morn-
ing Light says:
"In the evening a very successful meeting was held in the large school-
room, the room being well filled-indeed a great many friends being obliged
to stand. At half-past seven the Rev. G. H. Smith took the chair, and
mentioned the broad basis of the Society, recommending all present to join
its ranks before leaving that night. The Rev. P. Ramage moved the first
resolution—“That this meeting expresses its satisfaction in the establish-
ment of the New Church Temperance Society, and cordially recommends
its operations to every member in the New Church.' Mr. Ramage made a
brief but able speech, dwelling on the importance of bringing up children
in the habits of total abstinence. The Rev. R. R. Rodgers warmly sup-
ported the resolutions, and said that he thought at one time no one could
255
256
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
have felt more certain than he that only moderate drinkers possessed com-
mon sense, and that teetotallers were all fanatics. However, during the
last year, when he had really and thoroughly investigated the matter, he
found that in every way the teetotaller had the best of the argument.
Whether it was in science, in health, or in practice, all on investigation
tended to prove total abstinence was more productive of health, longevity
and comfort, and therefore, as an honest man, he could not help siding
with total abstinence. He was not a teetotaller at present, but he was
coming to it. [We wish all of our clerical brethren could say as much.]
He hoped that every minister and representative of the Conference would
join the Society before returning home. The resolution was then put to
the meeting, and carried unanimously amid loud applause.
"The next resolution was 'That this meeting, deeply impressed with
the evils which the national intemperance is daily producing-evils domestic,
social, economical, political and moral, and which Mr. Gladstone has
described as equalling the combined calamities of war, pestilence, and
famine-earnestly asserts the paramount necessity of dealing with the ques-
tion by legislative enactment at the earliest opportunity.'
"This was moved by Dr. F. R. Lees, of Leeds, who spoke at some
length, showing wherever prohibition had been tried, whether in England,
Ireland, Australia or America, the result had been the great diminution of
all kinds of crime, and the social and moral elevation of the people.
Rev. J. Deans, in a few words, supported the resolution, which was carried
unanimously."
The
Shall we of the New Church in this country set our faces
against this fearful evil of indulging in intoxicating drinks, and
consequently put away drunkenness from our midst; or shall we,
knowing and remembering that such drinks are the product of
human manipulation and skill, or science aided by leaven, con-
tinue to cling to, and lug along, these flesh-pots from Egypt in our
journey toward the Holy City? We pray for the peace of the
New Jerusalem, and that the promises of increase made to her
may find a speedy fulfillment on the earth. May not the day
which we thus desire and hope for be hastened or delayed, as we
ourselves shall prepare the way for it, by shunning evils as sins
against God. We are told in the writings of the Church that the
"falsities of the former Church fight against the truths of the New
Church (A. R. 548), and "that the Church should at first be
among a few, and should increase gradually among many, because
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
257
the falsities of the former Church must first be removed, as truths
cannot before be received; for the truths which are received and
implanted before falsities are removed do not remain." With
these words before us, can we believe it possible that the Lord in
His Providence will permit a Church organization to prosper, as
we all feel the New Church should prosper, and cover the earth,
while such an organization and its periodicals and clergy, so
generally are either silent in regard to such evils or direct advo-
cates of drinking of intoxicating liquors, of smoking and chewing
tobacco--a terribly poisonous substance--and of the pernicious
fashionable habits so destructive to our race; thus either tolerat-
ing or directly striving to perpetuate during the endless ages to
come, drunkenness, filthy habits: a polluted atmosphere for men,
women and children to breathe; deformity, disease and the de-
struction of a large portion of the children before they are five
years old; and permitting few to reach advanced age. These
evils, as we have heretofore intimated, have come down to us from
a perverted age of the world and a fallen state of the Church, and
we must put them away as sins against God. What a dreadful
thing it is to strive to justify them from a religious standpoint, and
thus to perpetuate them from generation to generation !
What a fearful thing for humanity, if the New Jerusalem Church,
the Crown of all the Churches, were, as an external organi-
zation, to prevail rapidly and spread over the earth, hugging
to her bosom the monstrous evils we have named above; or, at
least, allowing them to prevail without one word of rebuke, and
thus perpetuating them. We can stand aloof, my brethren, from
the great reforms of this new age; indeed, we may oppose them
if we will; but let us not forget that by so doing we shall be hin-
dering, as far as within us lies, the Lord's work on earth, by
cherishing and defending the falsities of the former Church within
the New Church: and opposing and discrediting the New Jerusa-
lem now descending from God out of Heaven, which is making
all things new. Light has come into the world, showing us many
evils that were before esteemed good: and that light will con-
rlemn us if we walk not according to it, These great reform
258
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
movements did not exist and could not have existed before the
Last Judgment. They are clearly of the New Jerusalem, we
may not be, for it requires life as well as faith to make a man
a genuine New Churchman. We must shun evils as sins against
God-shun them in our external lives, and discountenance them
in others by our example, if we would enter the Holy City. It is
not well for us to deceive ourselves or others.
The State Board of Public Charities in the State of Massa-
chusetts make this significant statement: that in the careful
breeding of cattle 96 per cent. come to maturity, and that of
horses 95 per cent. come to maturity even in this northern
climate; but in the breeding of children less than 65 per cent.
comes to maturity.
Only think of it, dear reader. Seven times as many of the
human race, whom the Lord has endowed with freedom and
reason die before reaching maturity, as die among cattle and
horses; and this is not the worst feature of the comparison which
can be made; for those which reach a mature age among
the above animals, if their lives are not taken, and they are
not abused by man, almost all will be healthy, strong, and
well-developed, and finally die of old age; while among the
human species, almost all inherit a tendency to some one or
more of the various diseases which afflict humanity, and a ma-
jority cannot be regarded as healthy, and are subject to serious
periods of suffering, if they do not suffer more or less almost
constantly from the time of birth to the grave. Insanity is also
fearfully prevalent, and deformity is common among the men.
Among the women it is very difficult to find a single beauti-
ful, symmetrical, graceful human form, for deformity is the rule,
-alas! too frequently voluntarily induced, as in the case of the
deformed waists which are almost universal.
We judge of the age of a horse by his teeth. What success would
we have in judging of the age of middle-aged men and women by
their teeth? Why, it often happens that by the age of forty or
fifty years, when they should be in their prime, they have no
teeth; but if they are more fortunate, it very frequently happens
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
259
that they are so crowded and decayed, or so many of them
gone, that we should find them a very poor criterion by which
to judge of the age of the individual.
Now, dear friends, this direful state of things, this deformity,
insanity, suffering, and premature death, are the result of causes
both spiritual and physical—are the result of the violation of the
laws of spiritual and physical life and health, resulting from the
abuse of the freedom and reason with which the Lord has
endowed us. We cannot attribute it all to ignorance, for the
animals are ignorant, but comparatively healthy. A large portion
is due to the evils of a long line of ancestors; but, insomuch as
we violate the laws of spiritual and physical life we individually
are responsible, and we are responsible for the example which we
set to others. How important for us, how important for the
world around us, and for our children and our children's children
for ages to come, that we realize our responsibility and shape
our lives accordingly. Can you, dear parents, see your own child
suffering and dying, while the offspring of the animals around you
are so generally healthy and grow to maturity, without feeling
that some little responsibility rests upon you, without being
moved by sympathy for the children, which the Lord has en-
trusted to your care, to inquire earnestly into the causes which
have produced the suffering and death of your little ones? You
will not have to inquire long, to find that to gratify perverted love
of approbation or vanity, and perverted appetites and passions,
habits are voluntarily followed which are fearfully destructive to
our race.
We think we can say, without any danger of having our opinion
called in question by any one who has patiently and carefully
examined into the causes of the physical suffering, deformity
and premature deaths around us, that tight-lacing among our
women impairs the physical development and stamina of our race
more than any other evil; for it saps the very foundations of life,
by preventing the development of the young, before they are
born, and by too frequently depriving them of proper nourish-
ment after birth. The women of the New Church here have a
260
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
work to do which they should not neglect. This fearful evil,
which is so destructive, should be put away and shunned as a sin
against God. Idleness among the young women is also a great
evil with many, and prevents the development of the body.
But beyond all question the use of intoxicating drinks, which
have their origin as we have seen from hell, demoralizes and
depraves men, and causes more insanity, mental suffering, and
wretchedness than any other evil. While the New Church
organizations, its pulpits,-with a very few noble exceptions, and
its periodicals are either shunning this subject, or directly jus-
tifying and thus encouraging the use of intoxicating drinks;
and so many of our clergymen are vindicating the use of fer-
mented wine, and some even of whisky; the religious world
around us is alive to the importance and duty of shunning this
evil. We ask our brethren to consider seriously the following
paragraph which we take from the New York Tribune :
"The Methodist Conference, which closed its sessions in Portland, Me.,
last week, adopted a striking report on the evils of intemperance. The
charge was made that more than two-thirds of the murders committed can
be laid at rum's door. Fifty per cent. of all the insanity comes from strong
drink. Seventy-five per cent. of all criminals become such while crazed by
drink, and ninety-six per cent. of all the tramps and worthless youth of the
land swarm from drunken homes. It costs for the support of 63,000
churches, 80,000 ministers, all public schools and colleges, all missions, all
benevolent work in the United States, and the support of the National
Government, not over $500,000,000 a year. It costs for 250,000 dram-
shops, 400,000 liquor-sellers, over 300,000 criminals, 800,000 paupers, 30,000
idiots, nearly 70,000 drunkards' funerals, and to maintain the orphan asy-
lums, reformatories, etc., more than a billion a year. Who is responsible
for all this waste of money, and health and life? The Church of Christ is
largely responsible; for the Master has said to His Church, 'Ye are the
light of the world, ye are the salt of the earth.'"
The Methodist Church is one of the largest, most prosperous,
and progressive of the churches of our country. It commenced
its existence but a short time after the Last Judgment, and to-day
its adherents number more than any other denomination in the
United States; while the adherents of the organized Church of
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
261
the New Jerusalem, only number a few thousands. It is true that
all the believers of the heavenly doctrines do not belong to
the organized New Church, for many of them are to be found
scattered among the members of other Churches, and some are
not members of any Church organization; still their number is
comparatively small, for the prediction was, that at first their
number would be few, but afterward they would increase. Have
we any indications that the time for such increase is at hand? Can
we not see in the attitude which the organized New Church occu-
pies to-day, on the great reforms of the age, the reason why
its members are so few?
There are millions of people in the United States, who belong
to no Church, who do not regularly attend Church, and who be-
lieve the doctrines of no religious body. They have discarded many
false doctrines, but have no accurate knowledge of true doctrines,
excepting a general acquaintance with the Commandments of the
Decalogue, and the precepts enunciated by the Lord when He
was on earth, and for these they entertain more or less respect.
They are not hypocrites, and many of them are intelligent men
and women, and live orderly lives. They generally respect people
who live good lives, and will listen attentively and approvingly to
earnest practical preaching which inculcates a good life. Here,
then, in our own country, living in our very midst, are people
enough in this Gentile state, to form a nation, which, standing
by itself, would command the respect of the world. The
New Church has true doctrines, and the most valuable precepts
'of life which can be rationally seen to be true-true in the light
of truth itself.
Why is it, then, that the New Church does not make more rapid
progress among this multitude, to all appearance so admirably
prepared for a reception of her clear and rational doctrines?
Have we who have received these beautiful revelations cast any
stumbling-blocks in their way? Have our clergymen and writers
done so? These are questions well worthy of our consideration.
If the reader will pardon him, the writer will give a little of his
own history. Although the son of a deacon of the Baptist
262
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
Church, he never united with that Church, but early began to
doubt many of its doctrines; and at thirty years of age, he
belonged to the great class of Gentiles, if you please to call them
so, to which he has alluded. While practising medicine in a
Western city, two of his patrons, one a lady and the other a
gentleman, lent him Professor George Bush's "Reasons," and
Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell," both of which he read.
About that time some lectures were being given by a New
Church clergyman, which he attended, and in this way he soon
became deeply interested in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
His business partner, similarly situated, also commenced reading
about the same time. It was soon known by the members of the
Church there, that we were reading the writings with some
interest; and soon afterward we were invited to a New Church
"sociable," which we attended. During the evening, fermented
wine was passed around to the company present, and offered to
us. We were shocked beyond measure, and quietly spoke to
the New Church clergyman in regard to it, there and then ;
when, to our surprise, he justified its use, quoting for that purpose
some passages from Swedenborg, and then drank of it himself
along with others of the company.
When the writer was about eighteen years old, his father gave
up the use of intoxicating drinks, and signed a pledge never to
use them again, and his son followed his example. In looking
back over the years which have since passed, at his own life and
the lives of his acquaintances, if there is one thing standing out
boldly, above all others, for which he to-day specially feels thank-
ful to his father, it is for the example which he then set before him.
We know that it is not every child who follows the example of
his parents; but many do, both in good and evil. That pledge
the writer conscientiously kept. When a young man, away
from kindred and home, and travelling for months among stran-
gers, he was often asked to drink, even by ladies, but that pledge
was—what the Church should be to all its members—a protec-
tion against the debasing evil of drinking and drunkenness.
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
263
There are millions of men and women in our country, who
belong to no Church, but who have taken a pledge to abstain
from the use of intoxicating drinks, honestly feeling that it is
wrong to use them, and who, we have every reason to suppose,
are conscientiously keeping it, and are thereby shielded and
protected, not only from drunkenness, but from many other
evils; for Swedenborg teaches us, that when a man conscientiously
shuns one evil, the Lord strives to keep him in the effort to shun
all evils. Here, then, is good ground for the reception of the
rational doctrines of the New Church, and a vast field ready for
the seedsman. But, we ask you, intelligent reader, if a minister,
missionary, writer, layman, or periodical, with, as it were, the
clear and beautiful revelations of the New Church in one hand,
and a glass of intoxicating wine, beer, or perhaps whisky in the
other hand, is likely to command the respect, or even seriously
attract the attention of many of this great army of total abstinence
men and women dwelling among us? Is this not a dreadful evil,
a hindrance to the Church's progress, and a stumbling-block to
many conscientious men, which we, as New Churchmen, should
remove out of the path of others, by putting it away from our lives
and from our communion-tables?
Again, there is scarcely a man or woman in this great mul-
titude who does not recognize the fact that the use of tobacco
is a filthy and injurious habit, totally unbecoming a Christian
man; a large number of total abstainers from intoxicating
drinks abstain also from the use of tobacco, because they
feel that it is injurious to health, and consequently wrong to use
it. There are very few in the community who, whether they use
it or not, do not recognize and will not acknowledge that its use
is injurious, and that it is really an evil which should be put away.
Now, with the glorious doctrines in our keeping, that "all
religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do
good," and that to shun evils as sins is to do good; what is the
example so frequently set by even venerable and deservedly
esteemed members of our New Church organizations? Is it such
as will command the respect of this large class of our citizens
264
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
who totally shun the evils we are considering? If these men to
whom we may best appeal, judge the doctrines offered for their
acceptance by the teaching and example of those who hold and
advocate them, wlll they not be repelled by the consciousness
that instead of advancing to a higher plane of life in the New
Church, they will be abandoning good for evil, and descending
to a lower plane? The teaching of men who justify, and thus
encourage the use of intoxicating drinks can never command
the respect of total abstinence men and women. The Church
will not grow as she should till she is purged from the old leaven!
Doubtless, many remember the anecdote which was told of a
prominent member of a Church, who met his pastor, as he was
about entering the pulpit, and, whispering in his ear, said :
"Be very careful and not say anything in your sermon about the
manufacturing, sale, and use of intoxicating drinks, for Mr.
the distiller, who contributes largely to the support of our Church,
I see is present." "Well," replied the clergyman, “what shall I
preach about, if I may not speak of such an evil?" "Why,"
replied the member, "preach about anything-anything else—
preach about the Mormons; there is not a single Mormon in
our congregation.”
But preaching which purposely shuns the habitual evils of life,
such as the selling and using of intoxicating drinks and tobacco,
and of tight-lacing-evils which are so fearful in their consequences
as to lessen the vitality of our race, and to impair the health, and
even to destroy the lives of men, women, and innocent children—
does not to-day command the respect of this vast multitude of
intelligent men and women, who, belonging to no Church, are
shunning these evils. Evils in our day are brought to light and
made more clearly manifest than they have been in past ages,
and intelligent men, who would be likely to receive the doctrines
of the New Church, see them when properly presented by preach-
ing, and respect those who shun them in their lives.
Herein, it seems to the writer, lies the power of the Methodist
Church among those outside of Church organizations, and the
reason why it has made such progress in the world. It has been
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
265
foremost in denouncing evils, and active in every great reform
movement. It gave forth no uncertain sound as to that “ "sum of
all villainies,” human slavery, and it was a power in the land for
good in the contest that resulted in its final overthrow. In re-
gard to the terrible evil of intemperance, the Methodist Conference
fearlessly declares as above that "The Church of Christ is largely
responsible" for all of the resulting waste of money, and health,
and life; "for the Master has said to His Church, 'Ye are the
light of the world, ye are the salt of the earth.'"
As to the use of tobacco, the testimony of the Methodist Church
is almost unanimously against it, and it has not feared to grapple
with the injurious and destructive habits of women, to point them
out, and to call upon its members to shun them. If it has some-
times denounced innocent and useful amusements, and harmless
forms of dress, we should remember that most of its members are
living only in the dawning light of the New Jerusalem, and do not
even recognize the source from which the light of this new age is
coming; but we know that those who strive to live in accordance
with the truths which they already see, are, as a rule, the first to
recognize other truths when they are presented; consequently, as
might be expected, we have good evidence that the light of the
New Jerusalem is permeating this Church rapidly. There are
several other Churches not far behind the Methodist-Episcopal
Church in their condemnation of the drinking of intoxicating wine;
and, consequently, they are becoming arks of safety against the
flood of drunkenness, and a host of other evils intimately con-
nected with wine and whisky-drinking. Is it strange that fathers
and mothers who love their children, and care for their future
happiness and welfare, hesitate before leaving a Church, where
they are taught by the pulpit and press, and by the precepts and
example of its members, to shun the use of intoxicating wine-
to say nothing of whisky-for the purpose of joining a Church
which, by its pulpit and its press, is generally, either silent, or
justifying the use of this fearfully poisonous and destructive drink;
and whose members, even to its clergy, so frequently set an exam-
ple to the young by openly using it?
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FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
A recent writer says truly that, “Entire abstinence insures
safety; nothing else can. It is a great act to reclaim a drinking
man, but how much greater to keep a young man from the use of
intoxicating drinks.”
But, to return to the subject of the writer's first attendance at a
New Church "sociable" over thirty years ago, the clergyman and
such of his congregation as desired were holding meetings on
Sunday afternoons, for the purpose of reading and conversing
about the new doctrines. When fermented wine was presented at
the "sociable," as already stated, the writer and his business partner
requested that the subject of intoxicating wine should be brought
up and considered at the next meeting: to which proposition
the clergyman consented. We had read the Writings of Sweden-
borg, at that time, only to a very limited extent; but we could not
believe it was possible, that the beautiful and rational writings
we had been reading, could advocate and justify the drinking of
intoxicating drinks, or in any way countenance their use.
In the discussion at our Sunday afternoon meeting, we pre-
sented the scientific aspect of the question, bringing evidence that
fermented wine is a poison, every way injurious and destructive
when used as a beverage; and we called attention to the fearful
consequences which had resulted to our race from its use, both
physically and spiritually, and to the testimony of the Word of
the Lord as to its pernicious character. We were met by the
clergyman with the comparisons found in the Writings of Sweden-
borg, which we have considered in a previous chapter, and by
assumptions, and arguments based thereon, which we have also
considered in the preceding pages. Neither party was satisfied
by the result of the afternoon's discussion, and neither was
convinced, consequently we adjourned the further considera-
tion of the subject to the next Sabbath afternoon. In the
meantime, our reverend friend prepared a sermon which he
preached in the forenoon, in which he earnestly endeavored to
sustain his views, and in which he took the ground that alcohol
was the result of the influx from the celestial angels, angels of the
highest heaven, down into the juice of the grape, moving and
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
267
We
séparating and precipitating "its earth-born impurities."
were not idle during the week, and providentially we obtained a
copy of Swedenborg's work on "The Divine Love and Wisdom,"
and found the chapter treating of good and evil uses; where we
saw that all things which hurt and kill men, all poisonous substances
which injure men, were not created by the Lord, but that they
derive their life from hell. So that when we came together on
the Sabbath afternoon to discuss the question, we took the ground
that alcohol was produced by the influx from devils of the lowest
hell-well, the reader will readily understand that there was a
slight difference betwen the views of the clergyman and of his
novitiate laymen, and the discussion was an earnest one, the
reader may rest assured; and at its close, it was not the present
writer who was anxious to drop the question. We know we did
not convince our reverend friend, for in a communication
recently received, he still talks about the "earth-born impuri-
ties," as if the cultivated and sweet grape had, like man, fallen
and was impure. The cultivated grape, as we understand it, is
beyond a question a "good gift of God," and has no impurities;
for with the exception of the seeds and skin, it contains nothing
but what is useful to sustain, nourish, and build up the body of
There is, so far as we know, no other vegetable fluid which
so perfectly contains all the constituents required to nourish the
human body as unfermented wine, and it is for this reason that
it has a similar signification to that of blood; whereas, chemistry
demonstrates that fermented wine, with the exception of a portion
of the sugar, and even this is not always present, contains few,
any, of the valuable vegetable compounds, which were organized
for the sustenance of man, in the fruit of the vine, which have
not been either entirely or partially changed in the direction of
decay; and we have in their stead, resulting from the destruction
of the gluten and sugar, alcohol, the most pernicious poison known
to, or used by, man. It would seem that the great change which is
wrought upon the pure grape juice by leaven, should satisfy
every New Churchman that fermented wine is not suitable for a
drink or for sacramental purposes. The Church of the New
man.
if
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FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
Jerusalem using leavened wine in the most Holy Supper! Only
think of it, dear reader. Is it strange that this most useful and
beneficial ordinance is not more regularly attended by the mem-
bers of our societies?
The Passover was one of the representatives which our Lord
did not abrogate. From the whole of the Jewish representative
worship these two, Baptism and the Most Holy Supper, were
passed over into the first Christian Church; and then con-
tinued into the New and Everlasting Church now being built up.
"Of all those representatives the Lord retained but two, which
were to contain in one complex whatever related to the internal
Church. These two are Baptism instead of washings, and the
Holy Supper instead of the lamb which was sacrificed every day,
and particularly at the feast of the Passover." (T. C. R. 670.)
It will be seen, then, that the Holy Supper was wholly represent-
ative and correspondential, and that the correspondences which
pertained to the Jewish Passover, so far as leaven which always
has an evil signification is concerned, belong to this in every
particular.
We know that in the Passover everything leavened was strictly
prohibited, and as we have seen in preceding chapters, we have
every reason to suppose that the Lord took the Passover cup
when He instituted the Holy Supper, and consequently that it
was unfermented wine which He styled the fruit of the vine.
The following is Swedenborg's formula for preparing bread for
the Holy Supper:
"That in the Holy Supper, bread (which is there fine flour mixed with oil)
and wine signify love and faith, thus the all of worship." (A. C. 4581.)
There is no leaven here, and nothing leavened, for Swedenborg
draws the above from the meat offerings and drink offerings de-
scribed in Leviticus xxiii. and Numbers xv. Will our brethren
of the New Jerusalem Magazine please note this? Swedenborg,
in speaking of our Lord's remarks after He had instituted the
Holy Supper, says: "Good from truth and truth from good,
whereby the intellectual principle is made new, or the man is
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
269
made spiritual, is signified by the fruit of the vine; the appropri-
ation thereof is signified by drinking. To drink denotes to ap-
propriate, and is predicated of truth. That this is not done fully
but in the other life, is signified by, until that day when I shall
drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom.' That the
fruit of the vine does not mean must or wine [non mustum nec
vinum], but somewhat heavenly of the Lord's kingdom, is
very manifest.”
(A. C. 5113.) It is perfectly clear from the
above that Swedenborg did not understand that the material wine
which the Lord and His disciples had been using when He in-
stituted the Holy Supper was fermented wine. It is certain that
He had in mind unfermented wine by his using the terms must or
wine. So that if we accept Swedenborg as authority as to the
kind of wine used by the Lord and His disciples in this Holy
Ordinance, there is no doubt but that they used unfermented
wine.
Why should we not follow the Lord's example, and use
unfermented wine instead of fermented or leavened wine?
Why should we persist in using an intoxicating wine which
will cause stupor, drunkenness, insanity, disease and death, and
which we know, according to the philosophy of the Church,
has its origin from hell, and which Swedenborg directly compares
to falses from evil, as we have seen? (A. E. 1035.)
Can we
imagine it possible, that Swedenborg would have compared a
wine which is suitable for use in the most Holy Supper to the
worst kind of falses-falses from evil? Please remember that he
gives us no chance to doubt as to the kind of wine to which he
refers in this comparison; it is the wine that causeth drunken-
ness. Is it possible that the New Church can prosper while it
uses such a wine in this most Holy Ordinance, and while many
of its preachers, writers, and members justify and advocate its
use as a beverage, and set the example of using it? Is it not
time that we of the New Jerusalem Church "put a difference
between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean"?
"Do not drink wine, nor drink that maketh drunken,"-Lev. x,
8, 9. (A, C, 1072.)
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FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
The Writings tell us that, "To prevent also the celestial princi-
ple of the Lord, which is the Lord's proprium, and which alone
is celestial and holy, being commixed with man's proprium which
is profane, in any representative rite, they were enjoined not to
sacrifice or offer the blood of the sacrifice on what was leavened
(Ex. xxiii. 18; xxxiv. 25), what was leavened signifying what
was corrupt and defiled." (A. C. 1001.) "Whereas, the con-
junction of the Lord with mankind is effected by love and charity,
and faith thence, those celestial and spiritual things were repre-
sented by the unleavened bread, which was to be eaten on the
days of the Passover, and it was to prevent the defilement of those
things by anything profane, that what was fermented was so
severely prohibited, that they who ate it should be cut off; for
they who profane things celestial and spiritual must needs
perish." (A. C. 2342.)
How wonderfully clear the science of correspondences makes
this entire subject. "The false," says Swedenborg, "does not
accord with good, but destroys good, for the false is of evil, and
truth is of good." (A. C. 7909.)
(A.
"Leaven denotes the false," we are told by Swedenborg.
C. 7906.) And as good in truth, which nourishes and gives sub-
stance to the regenerating spirit of man, is destroyed by the false,
if man imbibes and appropriates the false; so leaven in its action
on unfermented wine, to the extent that fermentation proceeds,
perverts, destroys, separates, or precipitates everything which nour-
ishes the material body of man as good does his spirit. It destroys
the gluten, the albumen, the sugar, the phosphorus, the malic acid,
bitartrate of potash, and the tartrate of lime, which give substance
to the wine, and which cause it, when boiled, to form a rich, thick
syrup, and if boiled a sufficient length of time, a comparatively solid
body, capable of being restored to its original integrity by the addi
tion of water. You can get no rich syrup, and little or no valuable
solid body of food substance from what is regarded as good, well-
fermented wine; for the bread portion which nourishes the material
body of man as good in truth does his spiritual body, has been
mostly destroyed by leaven.. Surely, an intelligent New Church-
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
271
man need not go beyond the clear correspondences in this case to
be satisfied that fermented wine is in no way a suitable article for
any one to imbibe, or to be used as sacramental wine. If any one
is not satisfied, he has only to contrast the different action of
unfermented and fermented wine upon the body and mind of
man. The former nourishes and builds up the body, without any
unnatural excitement; the sweet, which corresponds to spiritual
delights, makes glad the heart of man; it creates no unnatural
appetite, and therefore does not require to be taken in increased
quantities to satisfy the appetite for it; it causes no disease pecu-
liar to itself, even when taken in excess-no disease which any
other healthy article taken in excess might not cause.
We scarce need repeat how totally different from all this is the
action of fermented wine. It gives comparatively little nourish-
ment to the human body, for most of its nourishing portion has been
destroyed. It causes the most intense excitement-even to in-
sanity and we all know of the infernal delights which it excites; of
the perverted appetite which is not satisfied, as in the case of
healthy articles, with a regular supply, but demands an increase
until drunkenness or other forms of disease ensue. We are all fami-
liar with the fearful diseases which it causes-the drunkenness,
insanity, delirium tremens, gout, etc. Surely, we must lay aside
our common sense, and close our eyes, ears, and nostrils to what
we see, hear and smell around us, before we can even begin to
justify the use of fermented wine, for any purpose, except as a
medicine, as we use other poisons.
New Churchmen, who have erroneously thought the Word
favored moderate drinking of fermented wine as innocent and
useful may be aided in accepting the truth upon this subject, by
reflecting that while Christendom has for eighteen hundred years
believed the Word taught there were no marriages in heaven,
Swedenborg shows that the Word really teaches that there are
marriages in heaven. The change from what has been accepted.
as the teaching of the Word to its real teaching is, to say the
least, not as great in the case of wine as in that of marriage, for a
patient and careful examination of the letter of the Sacred Scrip-
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FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
tures in the original languages in which they were written, has
satisfied many of the ablest scholars of the age, and among them
the late Professor George Bush, that the good wine of the Word,
which is a blessing is always unfermented wine, and never fer-
mented wine, as we have abundantly shown in preceding pages.
A writer in the New Jerusalem Magazine, in criticizing one of
the editorials which has been noticed in this work, says:
"Pharaoh's butler, in his dream, took the grapes and pressed
them into Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
Liquor thus obtained and drank could not be fermented; yet in
the A. C. 5120, it is regarded as wine, and in the early part of
the number it is so called.
"When treating of the first-fruits which were to be offered to
the Lord, Swedenborg says (A. C. 9223): 'The first-fruits of the
vintage were the first-fruits of wine, of must, and of oil.' Wine,
here, certainly excludes unfermented grape juice. But a little
further on he says: By the first-fruits of corn and wine in this
verse, are meant all the first-fruits of the harvest and vintage
just now spoken of above.' Here wine most certainly includes
all the meaning of wine and must in the former sentence. It
proves, also, that whenever he speaks of the first-fruits of wine,
he means the term to include all forms of grape juice, unless
other terms are used."
The above writer, in the sentence which has been placed in
italics, makes an admission which facts did not require him to
make, and his construction is directly contradicted by Sweden-
borg in the next quotation which he makes, and the writer seems
to be aware of his mistake, but apparently he does not see how
he can correct it. As we have seen, fermented wine, or wine
polluted by ferment, is never the fruit of the vintage, but is pro-
duced by leaven or ferment, whereas wine which resulted from
boiling the sweet must until it would keep, as was so generally
practised by the ancients as we have seen, was in every respect
the fruit of the vintage, for it contained nothing but what was pro-
duced by the vine; it was strictly unfermented wine—and among
the first-fruits of the vintage, for it was boiled before fermentation
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
273
had commenced, and, as we have seen, it was the wine par excel-
lence of the ancients.
The Rev. C. H. Fowler, in his excellent work on "The Wines
of the Bible," says:
"Let me give you for a moment an inside look. Here is a
young man, gentle, cultured, with his nerves on the surface and
his heart in his hand and his soul in his eye, pushes within the
reach of this great charmer. It may be in your house on New
Year's day he takes his first taste. He finds that that did not
kill him; he tries it again; he is pressed with work; he drinks
to strengthen himself, and soon the old story is repeated over in
his case-friendless, homeless, ragged, blear-eyed, bloated,
oozing, staggering, creaking in every joint, covered with filth,
making his way down to death. That is one process. There is
an army of nearly two millions of cases like this. Nearly one
hundred thousand annually drop into a drunkard's grave. But
that is not all. Go to that home; what is the process there?
The wife is as gentle as any woman in the land, trained with
the utmost care, never has known what it is to feel the pressure
of any need, goes out into that home; soon she finds that there
is a shadow by the door. She shudders; she is anxious. Late
hours when the husband comes home alarm her; she smells
his breath; she misses the accustomed luxuries; ornaments
cease to come in, the old ornaments by and by move out; the
spoons are sold and gone; the forks follow; one article after
another vanishes; the Bible goes, the fence is broken down, the
windows are broken out, the gate falls off, the sidewalk is torn
up-it is shabby and wretched; then somebody else wants even
this house, and the one in the alley is cheaper, and they move
into the alley. Now go in. No furniture but a bench; no fire,
and it is winter, and the children are huddled together trying to
keep warm. The father comes in only half-drunk, mad for
more liquor; abuses the woman he had sworn to protect; the
children cower in the corner, and the last words they hear are
the oaths of their father, and the last sight they see is the pale
and patient face of the mother. Her friends have left her long
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FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
ago, lost sight of her; she has dropped out of social life; she
has almost forgotten the girls she knew when she was a girl;
there she is! In the morn the father is gone, and the children
see her cold face clotted with her blood. That is the work of
this monster.
"You may take any one of the great army of haggard women that
groan and stagger on without hope under the load of shame and
in the grip of perpetual want; or any one of the great multitude
of children worse than orphans, inheriting a bondage of disease
and corruption, bred in alleys, dandled in the lap of sin, trained
to crime, and doomed to ignorance and infamy; you may take
any one of these human tatters, torn loose from all social re-
straints and left to flutter in the gales of passion and burn in the
fires of delirium, and I will stake this case for the condemnation
of this hoary infinite evil at the bar of eternal justice upon a
single sigh or sob from any one of this great host of victims.
If sentence against this monster was not instantaneous and over-
whelming in the light of human thought, the good Christ would
be shut up to open and almighty war for the capture and puri-
fication of the eternal throne. It is not thinkable that God can
either approve these crimes or stand idly by in this great conflict."
We appeal to you, dear brethren and sisters of the New
Church, who see the truth upon this subject, to arise and let your
light shine; to combine or organize and exert your utmost power,
looking to the Lord for strength and wisdom, to overthrow this
fearful evil, which is destroying the bright prospects of the young,
and making so many homes desolate, and destroying the germs
of heavenly life in so many souls.
It is surely high time that the members of the New Church
in this country should follow the example of their brethren in
Great Britain, and muster their forces for a conflict with the
fearful evil of wine, beer, and whisky-drinking. Our people
here should not be behind the New Church people in England
and Scotland in perceiving this evil, and desiring to rid the New
Church of all responsibility for its continuance among us. Many
believe, with the writer, that the Word of the Lord, the writings
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
275
of the Church, and the laws of natural life and health all clearly
require them to abstain themselves, and to induce and encourage
others to abstain from intoxicating drinks, and this duty they are
ready to perform if a way to it is opened to them. A scattered
multitude cannot drive from its citadel an enemy so strongly for-
tified by social custom, and sustained by confirmed habit, as this
is. For successful opposition to this giant evil, both silent con-
viction and isolated action will continue to be insufficient.
What they have done in Great Britain we need to do here—
that is, to organize our Bands of Hope in our Churches, and then
our General Conference; and we especially need to interest
our young people in this great work of the Church, and thus
strive to lead them into a life of shunning evils as sins against
the Lord, and to labor for the welfare of others. This work,
in order to be made fully successful, must be a work of the
New Church. It will help our young people to remain in the
Church, by giving them something to do, not only for those in
the Church, but also for those around them outside of the Church;
and thus by showing them that the Church is a living, working
organization, and that it will save many of them and others from
ruin, it will lead them to feel that the Church is really an ark of
safety.
We also need that our periodicals should be renovated, so that
they can enter our homes laden with the truths of our Lord's
New Church, without countenancing, or excusing or encouraging
the use of intoxicating drinks; and so that they will assail, without
fear or favor, the various dreadful evils which are both physically
and spiritually so destructive to the human race, instead of
being either silent or directly opposing needed reforms. Such
periodicals would command the respect of the multitude of men
and women, who, belonging to no Church organization, are
striving to shun such evils, and favorably impress them toward
the new doctrines. Such periodicals would enter the drunkard's
home, conveying wholesome words of warning to the evil-doer,
and of hope to the worse than widowed wife and fatherless chil-
dren, encouraging them to bear their great sorrow-unsurpassed
276
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
:
by any on earth-with Christian patience and fortitude, and to
look to the Lord for help and strength. But send a paper or
periodical which either advocates, or excuses and justifies, and
thereby encourages the use of fermented wines and other drinks
of an intoxicating nature, how different the result; only the
tippler and confirmed drunkard in the family will be attracted to
such a paper, and to the Church whose doctrines it advocates.
To the poor, broken-hearted, crushed mother, who is suffering
mentally and physically, as only the wife of a drunkard can
suffer, and who is struggling for life, and to feed and clothe her
half-starved and ragged children, what consolution or encourage-
ment does it give to such a needy one, as she reads and per-
ceives that the periodical encourages her children to follow
in the footsteps of their drunken father, by countenancing the
drinking of fermented wines and liquors-temperately, of course?
That which may encourage her children may encourage yours
and mine, dear reader. Do you feel like taking such a fearful
responsibility, kind parent?
We need also that our periodicals should, first of all, teach men,
women and children what are the individual evils which are so
destructive and injurious to our race, both physically and spiritu-
ally, and then to teach them to shun such evils as sins against
God, and that to shun evils as sins against God is to do good;
it does good by placing the Lord always before us, and thus
developing a sense of reverence for His name. To shun the
use of the drunkard's cup, tobacco, opium, the habit of tight-
dressing, idleness, and the like manifold evils does good by pre-
serving ourselves free from the physical and mental suffering and
disease which such indulgences and habits are capable of causing,
and thereby prolonging our lives and our sphere of usefulness
while we are in this world, and increasing our capacity and oppor-
tunity for good works. To shun such evils does even more good
by the excellent example it sets before others, especially to chil-
dren and young men and maidens.
Outside of the surrounding churches of to-day is a vast multi-
tude in a comparatively Gentile state, as the writer has frequently
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
277
intimated, and here it would seem is our field for missionary labor,
and it is "white and ready for the harvest." The printed page,
especially in the form of a periodical, is an efficient, cheap, and
quiet missionary, and it excites little combat and jealousy. If
our periodicals were made interesting by items of news, discovery,
the arts, and especially if they were to lead, as they should, to
interest all in the great reforms of the new age, by presenting
spiritual motives, as well as natural, they would command the
respect and support of many who do not now belong to the New
Church; and primarily, if they contained the choice extracts from
the Writings of Swedenborg, the pithy comments of many of the
collateral writings of the Church, and if they were to avoid all
merely speculative articles upon impracticable subjects, such per-
iodicals would quickly lead many to attend our Churches, and to
read the Writings of Swedenborg, and thus come into the light of
the New Jerusalem.
Has the Church any more important aims than these, alike to
promulgate her doctrines, and to protect her own members and
the young people from the direful evils which constantly sur-
round them? What better plan can be adopted, or one more
likely to attract the attention of those around us, who are striving
to shun evils, and who inwardly desire to live a pure and good
life, and are therefore good ground for the seedsman?
Our periodicals should be worthy of our glorious cause, and a
credit to the New Church now being built up, by leading in every
good work. A true faith is important, but a good, useful and
orderly life is surely not less necessary. The two must be
united, and such principles should be upheld strongly and un-
compromisingly by our periodicals, for their existence on any
other foundation will surely bring them to a fall, sooner or later,
and deservedly so, for religion is of the Life. Our teachers and
writers, and especially our periodicals, in order that they may com-
mand the respect of the men of the incoming age, must point out
the individual evils which are so injurious and destructive to our
race, openly proclaim that they are evils, and strive to lead men
to shun them as sins against God.
A New Church periodical
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FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
which fails to do this, at this day, has no legitimate excuse for a
continued existence; and especially some of our periodicals must
cease to lend aid and comfort to the manufacturers, sellers, and
drinkers of intoxicating liquors, or they need not expect to receive
the patronage of the earnest men and women of the Church of
the New Jerusalem much longer.
The Rev. Newman Hall, D.D., of London, gives statistics
which show that, from the use of intoxicating drinks, ten thousand
members are lost to the Christian Churches every year.
We need not expect to overcome such a fearful evil as wine-
drinking in a community without a contest; for in the individual
man, who has acquired a taste for this seductive fluid, it is a life-
and-death struggle, and, if he escapes from a drunkard's grave, it
is by a life-long warfare that he succeeds.
Then, again, we have to remember, as the Rev. Dr. Samson
says: that, "when any change in popular customs is proposed,
the suggestion for reform implies, first, that the common opinion
is erroneous; second, that interests involved are imperiled; and,
third, that conduct before unchallenged is censured. This three-
fold difficulty is to be met and overcome; pride of intellectual
oversight; sacrifice of personal interest; and admission of faults
in practice. It is easy to make, in general, the admission that
no mind can have taken in the whole field of truth; that no
man is wholly free from the promptings of self-interest; and
that no human being was ever perfect in life. It is hard, how-
ever, to bring one's self up to the point where without prejudice,
selfishness or preference, the rule of newly discovered truth, duty
and Christian humility can be made dominant. If this be hard
to attain in minds specially thoughtful and conscientious, it is yet
harder to bring a community, or an age, up to the full spirit of
reform. There has never been a great reform in social habits, in
politics, in morals, or in religion, that has not required many
generations to make the new view and new life thorough and
pervasive."
If we laymen consider how these things cannot help but
influence the clergy, we shall be kept from two mistakes-from
$21
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
279
expecting too much assistance from them in this struggle against
the fearful evil of wine and whisky-drinking, and consequent
intemperance, and also from unjust and harsh criticism concern-
ing them. Some are in ignorance, because they are still bound
in the forms, ceremonies and falsities of a consummated Church,
so that they see not the light of the New Jerusalem that shines
around them; others are reading and pondering, and opening
their hearts to these great truths; and a few, we are happy to
say, are in full accord with us in helping on this needful reform,
both by their example and teaching; and the number of these
is sure to increase.
We should remember, too, that great reforms have rarely com-
menced with the clergy, for they are generally conservative and
wedded to prevailing views, if not confirmed therein. Abraham,
the called-of-the-Lord, was not a clergyman. The disciples, who
followed the Lord when on earth, were not chosen from the
Jewish priesthood. Emanuel Swedenborg, the herald of the New
Dispensation from God to man, was not chosen from the Chris-
tian priesthood. Wilberforce and Garrison, the leaders of the army
of freedom against slavery, were not clergymen. Moses, the chosen
leader of the children of Israel, was not a clergyman; but Aaron,
whom Moses withstood, and whose idolatrous calf he ground to
pieces, was already chosen the High Priest of the Church; yet it
was only as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses that Israel
was able to overcome Amalek (Ex. xvii. 12), and the priests bear-
ing the Ark entered first of all into the Promised Land (Josh. iii.
13). So that even though the clergy may not lead, at first, in the
warfare against such external evils as we have been considering,
yet we require their support, and in due time we shall have it. It
is their province to lead in good works and minister in holy ordi-
nances, and so we hope and believe it will be with our own ministers
whom we honor and love for the sake of their office. When the
battle has fairly begun, and the clergy, seeing the truth and freed
from their old prejudices, shall have taken their proper place among
the leaders of the Lord's host in its conflicts with those evils which
are destroying the bodies and souls of men ; then, then, indeed, the
280
FINAL APPEAL TO THE MEN AND
victory will be assured. Then the Church of God, a well-marshalled
army, fighting in solid phalanx on the side of truth and love, of
justice and mercy, of temperance in all good uses and total absti-
nence from all evil uses, shall go on from victory to victory, till the
drinking of fermented wine and whisky is forever banished from
the Church and the world.
No man or soldier ever enlisted in a more noble or more
worthy cause than this. The enslavement of man by his fellow-
man is bad enough, but it is only natural slavery after all, for the
slave is free to will and to think right; and if he is so restrained
that he cannot always do what he believes to be right, it is not his
fault. His understanding may be unclouded by his bondage,
and his will left free; but oh! how different from all this, how
much more fearful is the slavery which results from the use of
intoxicating drinks, where the strongest will is powerless and the
clearest intellect is clouded until the truth cannot be recognized,
or if seen is denied.
Go, kind reader, as the writer has done, to the bedside of men
of naturally strong wills and clear intellects, as they are recover-
ing from an attack of delirium tremens, and behold the utter
desolation of the poor slaves, and the despair with which they
look forward to the future, then answer if African slavery was not
tame when compared with the wild, mad slavery which results
from the indulgence of fermented liquors. A very intelligent
man whom the writer had just attended during an attack of this
disease, was asked to give a history of his connection with intoxi-
cating drinks. He replied that when a young man he found that
he was getting too fond of such stimulants, and he resolved to
abandon them forever, and for fifteen years he never tasted them.
In the meantime he married, and became the father of several
children. One evening when he and his wife were visiting some
friends, the lady of the house passed around some fermented
wine, and invited him to take a glass. "For the first time within
fifteen years," he said, "I was seriously tempted to drink. I
turned to my wife, and asked her if I should take a glass; she
replied that she did not think one glass would hurt me; but that
WOMEN OF THE NEW CHURCH.
281
one glass was my ruin. My old appetite returned with renewed
strength, and you know the result." Alas, poor man ! The
writer knew but too well the sad results which had flowed to him
and his distressed wife and children from that one glass of fer-
mented wine, presented by a lady friend; for during one attack of
delirium tremens, in an attempt to escape from imaginary foes,
he attempted to kill himself, by springing with all of his strength
and jamming his head against a door-frame, laying his scalp open
for several inches; and on another occasion he was insane for
several weeks after an attack. Little did that lady dream of the
dreadful injury she was doing her middle-aged guest by presenting
him with a glass of wine; little does any lady know of the harm
she may do to any one, especially to the young, when she presents
this seductive fluid to their lips. Let us all remember the words
of Holy Writ: "Woe to him that giveth his neighbor drink; and
puttest thy bottle to him."
And now, dear brethren and sisters of the New Church, we
have seen that the Word of the Lord, as translated by Emanuel
Swedenborg, teaches that a "drink that maketh drunken" is
unholy and unclean, and we know that fermented wine will cause
drunkenness; we are taught in the writings of the Church that
all substances which are poisonous and will harm and kill men,
have their origin from hell, and we know that fermented wine
has in all ages done this and is doing it to-day all around us; and
Swedenborg actually compares such wine as causes drunkenness
to falses from evil, as we have seen; and even the Academy of
the New Church claims (see Words for the New Church, vol. VII.
page 133) to have seen that it consequently corresponds to falses.
from evil, which is undoubtedly correct, for it produces natural
drunkenness and insanity, as falses from evil do spiritual drunken-
ness and insanity; it must therefore correspond to such falses. We
are clearly taught by the sciences of this day that the use of fer-
mented wine is not only entirely unnecessary during health, but
also that it tends to pollute, disease, and destroy the material body,
and to cause the most fearful mental perversions, not unfrequently
even to insanity; knowing all this, as many of us certainly do,
}
282
FINAL APPEAL TO THE NEW CHURCH.
can we consistently-conscientiously if you please continue to
partake of leavened or fermented wine in the most holy ordinance
of the Lord's Supper? Some of us we know have not unfre-
quently felt that it was almost, if not quite, a profanation to par-
take of such a fluid, and have even absented ourselves from the
Lord's Table, for this reason.
Now is such a course right,
and have we done our duty? Have we requested the societies
to which we belong to furnish unfermented wine for such mem-
bers as have conscientious scruples against using fermented wine?
If we have not done this, should we not do so before absent-
ing ourselves from this most needed ordinance? As members of
societies, we have rights which our brethren are bound to respect;
and we should remember that they have rights which we are
equally bound to respect. Those who conscientiously desire to
use fermented wine should certainly have the privilege of doing
$0. The freedom we desire for ourselves we should cheerfully
grant to others in the bonds of charity, for in no other way can
unity be preserved in the Church. "In certainty, unity; in
doubt, liberty; in all things, charity."
In concluding this work, the writer desires to repeat that it is
his settled conviction that very little real abiding headway can be
made against the present drinking habits, and the consequent
drunkenness which exists around us, until fermented wine is ban-
ished from the communion tables in our Churches; for its pres-
ence there, especially its exclusive presence, gives it character
and credit everywhere where the influence of the Churches
which use it is felt. The use of fermented wine as communion
wine is a fearful evil and source of "woe" to the New Church, a
cruel injury to some of its members, an injustice to others, a temp-
tation to the young, and a stumbling-block to multitudes who
otherwise might be attracted to the Church by our beautiful and
rational doctrines, which have descended from the Lord out of
heaven to purify, heal, and bless the nations of the earth. Let
us never rest until this evil is put away from the Church.
A REPLY
ΤΟ
"The Academy's" Review
OF
"THE WINE QUESTION IN THE LIGHT OF THE
NEW DISPENSATION.”
CC
BY
JOHN ELLIS, M. D.,
"" ઃઃ
INSANITY, AND
AUTHOR OF THE AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE,
DEFORMITY," AN ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY,' SKEPTICISM
AND DIVINE REVELATION, "'"PURE WINE, FERMENTED
2) 66
WINE, THE WINE QUESTION IN THE LIGHT
OF THE NEW DISPENSATION," ETC.
By the blood out of the wine-press is meant the juice (mustum), and wine
(vinum) from the clusters that were trodden, and the juice of the grape
(mustum) and wine have a similar signification (or by must and wine
like things are signified).”—A. R. 653.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
283
1883.
The author has not obtained a
66
Copyright" on this book. It is
therefore free to all. He has written it with no expectation of
making money; it has been electrotyped, and if any one, for any
purpose, desires to print an edition of not less than one thousand
volumes, the author will cheerfully give the use of his plates, for he
has but one desire in publishing it, and that is to benefit his fellow-
man.
A copy of this work, in a paper cover, will be sent free, postage
paid, to any reader of and believer in the doctrines revealed by the
Lord in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, who does not receive
a copy soon after it is published, who will send his or her name and
address to Dr. John Ellis, 157 Chambers street, New York, N. Y.,
during the year 1883. The author desires that none but New
Churchmen should apply, and he desires to send but one copy to a
family.
284
PREFACE,
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
287
INTRODUCTORY.
Wine in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English Languages-Wine a
Generic Word-Communion Wine and Wine as a Beverage,
CHAPTER II.
STRANGE ASSUMPTIONS AND WONDERFUL IGNORING.
Qualifications necessary for a Writer on this Question-Ungenerous
Language of the Review-"The Academy" ignores its Former
Correct Teaching on Spiritual Drunkenness Curious Assumption
and Ignoring Does Wine always mean Fermented Wine?-
Strong Drink, in the Word-Older Dictionaries also recognize
Unfermented Wine,
CHAPTER III.
ASSUMPTION THAT THERE IS BUT ONE KIND OF WINE-IGNOR
ING EVERYTHING WHICH CONFLICTS THEREWITH.
Mistranslation of Swedenborg-Noah's Drunkenness-Eli and Han-
nah-Unfermented Grape Juice called Wine. in the Word-
Rev. William Guthrie on Wine, in the Word,
CHAPTER IV.
ASSUMPTION THAT ALCOHOLIC AND FERMENTED DRINKS ARE NOT
POISONS, AND IGNORING THE TEACHINGS OF THE WORD, THE
WRITINGS OF THE CHURCH, AND CONCLUSIONS OF SCIENCE.
""
Comparisons and Correspondences--Punch in the Spiritual London—
The Animal Kingdom" and Fermented Drinks-Is Alcohol a
Poison ?-Swedenborg versus "The Academy on Whiskey-
Alcohol as a Remedy - Hereditary Effects of
Effects of
Drinks,
CHAPTER V.
Alcoholic
WINES OF THE ANCIENTS-ASSUMPTION THAT THE ANCIENTS DID NOT
PRESERVE UNFERMENTED WINES, AND IGNORING ALL THE TESTI-
MONY TO THE CONTRARY.
Wine Preserved Unfermented by the Ancients - Wilkinson and
Dr. Sampson on Egyptian Wine-Making-Fermented and Unfer-
mented Wine among the Ancient Heathen - Wine preserved by
Boiling-Use of Wine in France,
289
307
336
351
379
285
285
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
PAGE.
ASSUMPTION THAT SWEET AND SUGAR HAVE A LOW, IF NOT AN EVIL
CORRESPONDENCE, IN COMPARISON WITH SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS;
AND IGNORING THE DIRECT TESTIMONY OF SWEDENBORG, AND THE
INNOCENT TASTE OF INFANCY.
Sweet and Sugar-Fermentations Spiritual and Natural—Alcohol
compared in its Effects to the Doctrine of Faith alone—Warnings
-Wine and the False Compared-Infestation,
CHAPTER VII.
WINE IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH, ETC.
Dictionaries and Swedenborg both recognize Unfermented Wine-
The Wine used for the Holy Supper-Passover Wine-Early
Christian Writers on Wine,
398
416
CHAPTER VIII.
ASSUMPTION THAT MUST AND THE BLOOD OF THE GRAPE WHEN USED
IN A GOOD SENSE, GENERALLY MEAN FERMENTING OR FERMENTED
GRAPE-JUICE-IGNORING THE FACT THAT WHEN SO USED THEY
NEVER CAN HAVE SUCH A SIGNIFICATION.
Good Signification of Must-Must is New Unfermented Wine, and
has the same signification as Wine-Blood of the Grape—Cor-
respondences,
CHAPTER IX.
NOBLE WINE-NEW WINE
SOLIDIFIED-MINOR ASSUMPTIONS-WINE
OF CANA.
Musta Vinorum Concreta-Fallacious Reasoning of "The Academy''
-Signification of Lees-Accusations of Falsification met-Spirit of
the Review-Wine of Cana,
CHAPTER X.
436
454
FERMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTS IN PRESERVING
WINE.
UNFERMENTED
Preserving Wine Unfermented by Sweet Oil and Corking-By Keep-
ing it Cool-By Boiling-Letter of Dr. George F. Foote on the
Preservation of Unfermented Wine-Mr. Albert P. Schack's
Experiments,
476
CHAPTER XI.
COMMUNION WINE AND CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Unfermented Must distinctly recognized by Swedenborg as suitable for
a Communion Wine-Fermenting Must and Fermented Wine are
never so recognized as suitable by him,
CHAPTER XII.
""
THE NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS AND THE WINE QUESTION.
The New Jerusalem Messenger"-The "New Church Life'
The "New Jerusalem Magazine"-The "Morning Light,
Communication from Mr. W. J. Parsons-Letter from Dr. George
F, Foote,
501
514
517
PREFACE.
THIS Volume, like the preceding one on the wine ques-
tion, has been written amid the cares and responsibilities of
an extensive business. It has required much reading of a
variety of works, and the reading and writing requisite
have taxed the time and strength of the author to the
utmost. But he has been sustained and encouraged in his
work by kind words of cheer, sympathy and good will from
a number of the clergy and a large number of the laity of
the Church; and more than this, he has received many help-
ful suggestions from both, and also has had his attention
called to important passages in the Writings of the Church,
some of which would probably have escaped his own ob-
servation, and without which the reply would not have been
as complete and satisfactory as he has aimed to make it.
While the writer desires thus publicly to express his thanks
for the valuable assistance which he has received from those
entertaining views in accordance with his own, he is neither
unmindful of, nor ungrateful for, the words of kindly criti-
cism which he has occasionally received from those enter-
taining opposite opinions. In so far as they have disclosed
objections to, or misapprehension of, the author's views
that might not have occurred to him, they have enabled
him to present his argument in a clearer light than he would
otherwise have done.
As the reader of the following pages will perceive, the
great misfortune of the writers of "The Academy" has
been either a lack of knowledge of the Sacred Scrip-
tures in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, and of
the testimony of the ancients, and of Swedenborg's writings
287
288
PREFACE.
in Latin, or an almost total neglect to consult carefully the
above sources of information before writing upon a subject
of so great importance to the Church and the world. It
seems especially unfortunate for the New Church that men,
either so unqualified or so entirely unprepared, should
attempt to write dogmatically upon a subject which involves
so intimately the welfare and happiness of such vast multi-
tudes of their fellow-men. Webster and Worcester, they
say, define wine to be the fermented juice of the grape.
The word wine is very generally used for the juice of the
grape in the English Bible, and in the English translations
of Swedenborg's writings. "The Academy" writers do not
go back to the original languages in which the Word and
the Writings were written, to find what word or words were
used, nor do they go to the writings of the ancients to
ascertain what meaning was attached to the words, but
they assume that any word translated into wine always
means fermented wine. This is a fearful mistake, and one
which has involved the peace and happiness of many a
family of the New Church, and even the good name of the
Church itself. It is also certainly most remarkable that
persons familiar with the writings of Swedenborg should so
ignore the science of correspondences, in the consideration
of this subject, as "The Academy" writers have done;
and it is strange that they should be so destitute of a
knowledge of the light which is thrown upon this question
by the recent discoveries of science, for, knowing the facts,
we cannot suppose that they would ignore them.
In concluding this preface, the writer desires especially
to acknowledge, with feelings of thankfulness, the assist-
ance, in the preparation of this work, of Dr. J. Harrison
Forbes, a good Latin scholar, familiar with Swedenborg's
Latin works, who, in the preparation of several chapters,
and especially the one on Must, has rendered the most
valuable assistance, and without whose aid the work would
have been less perfect than it is,
A REPLY*
-TO-
"The Academy's" Review of "The Wine Question
in the Light of the New Dispensation."
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
In a recent issue of "Words for the New Church" (No. X.)
there is a review of "The Wine Question," etc., in which the
book and the author are treated with but scant courtesy.
This would be of small moment in itself, if the review were
written in that spirit which shows a loving desire to set mis-
taken men right by valid argument; and rather examines
a question to see where the truth is, than to find sophistical
argument to uphold an erroneous assumption, or confirm a
preconceived notion. Nothing has been further from the
mind of the author than a desire to excite personal contro-
versy; and his book was written and published under a deep
sense of the obligations resting upon him, as a New Church-
man, to point out the erroneous teaching of "The Academy"
and others, in so far as it encouraged the use of intoxicat-
ing drinks, both socially, and at the Communion table. The
writer felt that he would be justly liable to blame if he
failed to set forth what he believed to be the true teaching
of the Word and the Writings of the New Church on the
289
290 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
question at issue; and after reading carefully the review to
which he has alluded, though he sees much to regret in the
spirit with which others, himself and his work are treated,
yet in the arguments and assumptions that are advanced, he
is compelled to say that he sees nothing which requires any
change of view in himself on the points at issue, or in any
degree lessens the confidence which he has all along felt in
the impregnability of the position which he holds, in com-
mon with large numbers of New Churchmen, on this vital
question.
66
As a prelude to this reply, the writer desires to state that
in his use of the term "Old Church" (which "The Academy"
in its review has so frequently applied to the views of the
writer and the advocates of total abstinence so unjustly and
unfairly, and which he has felt it proper to return to The
Academy" justly and fairly, as the reader will see), he intends
no disrespect to the prevailing religious denominations in
the midst of which we dwell; but the term Old Church, as
he applies it in the following pages, refers simply to the
fallen Church, which was consummated at the last judgment
in 1757, and to the doctrines of that Church, as they linger
in the religious world.
In most of the prevailing religious organizations around us,
the writer sees increasing manifestations of natural good in
their efforts for the freedom, education and elevation of our
race; and in the kindly and charitable spirit which is being
manifested one toward another among the various hitherto
conflicting sects; and also in their efforts to ameliorate the
condition of the poor and helpless, the insane and the
prisoner; and especially in their efforts to unite and co-
operate in stemming the tide of this fearful evil of drinking
intoxicating drinks and consequent drunkenness. From all
of these indications in the Christian world, and the progress
of religious views among the men of most of the Christian de-
nominations, he perceives that the fig tree is putting forth its
tender branches and leaves, and consequently that summer
THE HEBREW, GREEK AND LATIN WORDS FOR WINE.291
is nigh at hand. But in the present, and also in the former
review by "The Academy" of his writings on the wine
question, he is sorry to be compelled to confess that he sees
very few manifestations of a spirit of justice, benevolence,
kindness, charity, or even of tolerance; so that he really
fears that summer is very far distant from "The Academy."
WINE IN THE HEBREW, GREEK, LATIN AND ENGLISH
LANGUAGES.
The first grand assumption, and the one upon which all
"The Academy's" arguments rest, is that the English word
wine, when used without any qualification or qualifying word,
always means fermented grape-juice-fermented wine; and
that the corresponding words, in Latin (vinum), Greek,
(oinos), and Hebrew (yayin) always mean, when thus used
in any of these languages, fermented, and never unfermented
grape-juice; and that Swedenborg always has reference to
fermented grape-juice whenever he uses the Latin word for
wine-vinum.
Now, if it can be shown, even in one of these languages,
that this representation is not true, the force of their argu-
ment will be broken; but when we have made it clear to the
reader, as we propose to do, by numerous examples from
the Bible, the writings of the Church, and from ancient and
modern writers, that their assumption is contrary to the facts
in every one of these languages, then the reader will be
able to judge how much assumption and how little scholar-
ship"The Academy " have brought to the discussion of this
question.
Now, we have only to take our Bibles and the works
of Swedenborg, and read their pages in these different
languages, to see their tower, erected with so much assur-
ance, crumble into ruins beyond the possibility of re-
construction. First, as to the English word, wine. The
Bible, which is older than any of the "Old Church" diction-
292 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
aries upon which "The Academy" relies, has been trans-
lated from the Hebrew and Greek languages. The word
which “The Academy" claim always denotes fermented wine
in the Hebrew language, is yayin. Now the question arises
at once, is yayin the only word in the Hebrew of the Old
Testament which is translated by the English word wine,
and by the Greek word oinos, and the Latin word vinum ?
(our friends of "The Academy" will please remember that, in
this discussion, we have to do with the Bible as well as with
Webster and Worcester). If it is not, and if it can be proven
that there are other Hebrew words, which clearly do not
always mean fermented wine in the Hebrew language, and
yet which are translated into our language by the word
wine, and into Greek and Latin by oinos and vinum, what be-
comes of the assumptions and arguments of "The Academy?"
Let us see. "With corn and wine (tërosh, pronounced tee-
rosh) have I sustained him" (Gen. xxvii. 37).
“God give
thee of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, and
plenty of corn and wine (tërosh)" (Gen. xxvii. 28). "There-
fore, they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and
shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat,
and for wine (tirosh), and for oil, and for the young of the
flock and of the herd" (Jeremiah xxxi. 12). "And the
earth shall hear the corn, and the wine (tirosh), and the
oil" (Hosea ii. 22). Swedenborg translates tirosh into the
Latin by mustum; whereas in our English version of the
Bible, it is translated wine in the above passages, and in
many others.
How mistaken, in the estimation of the
gentlemen of "The Academy," the translators of the English
Bible, and even the translators of some of Swedenborg's
writings, must have been to translate the Hebrew word
tërosh (Latin, mustum; English, must), by the English
word wine, when the N. C. Academy says wine always
means fermented wine. Just read the following from
the A. S. P. & P. Society's edition of the A. R., and
weep at the ignorance of the translators,
"In presses
WINE, IN HEBREW, GREEK AND LATIN.
293
wine (mustum), is expressed from clusters of grapes, and oil
from olives; and from the wine (mustum-Swedenborg's
Latin) and oil, which are expressed, is perceived the quality
of the grapes and olives" (A. R. 651). In the above quota-
tions from the Word and the Writings, and in a large num-
ber of others which we shall produce in this reply, we have
the translators of the Bible, and of the Writings, translating
mustum by wine; must as it exists in the grape, and as it is
trodden from the grape in the press, and as it flows from
the press, translated into English by our word wine. Why
do not the gentlenen of "The Academy" send these trans-
lators a copy of Webster's and Worcester's dictionaries?
They might certainly do as much as this, to enable them
to "understand their mother-tongue."
But the above is not the worst "The Academy" will have
to encounter; for Swedenborg himself, as we shall show the
reader, distinctly recognizes the juice of the grape as it is
squeezed from the cluster, as it is trodden from the grapes,
and as it flows from the press, as wine (vinum); and yet our
reviewers claim that wine in English, and vinum in Latin,
always mean fermented grape-juice. Now, there is a great
lack of knowledge somewhere; that is certain; and we
trust the reader will be able to judge where it lies before
he gets through with his examination of this question.
6
Corn and wine] "The 'dew of heaven' included all
kinds of moisture necessary to the 'fatness of the earth';
and this fatness' is partially defined by the concluding
clause, and (or even) plenty of corn and wine.' The
Hebrew is dahgan ve-tirosh-not corn made up into bread,
nor vine-fruit made into wine-but the actual growth of the
field." Bible Commentary.
"That thou mayest gather in thy corn, thy wine (tërosh),
and thine oil" (Deut. xi. 14). . . . "By the corn, wine (mustum),
and oil, which they should gather, are signified every good
and truth of the external and internal man" (A. E. 376). Can
any kind of corn, wine, and oil signify anything more to
294 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S " REVIEW.
man than every good and truth of the external and internal
man ?
€
"The word tërosh occurs thirty-eight times in the Hebrew
Bible. It is connected with corn and the fruit of the olive
and the orchard nineteen times; with corn alone, seven
times with the vine, three times; and is otherwise named
five times in all, thirty-eight times. It is translated in the
Authorized Version twenty-six times by wine, eleven times
by new wine (Neh. x. 39, xiii. 5, 12; Prov. iii. 10; Isa. xxiv.
7, lxv. 8; Hos. iv. 11, ix. 2; Joel i. 10; Hag. i. 11; Zach.
ix. 17), and once (Micah vi. 15), by 'sweet wine,' where
the margin has new wine."
It is translated into Greek in the Septuagint as follows:-
"The Lxx. renders tirosh in every case but twice by
oinos, the generic name for yayin; the exceptions being
Isa. lxv. 8, where rhox, 'grape-stone,' is given, and Hos.
iv. 11, where the rendering is methusma, 'strong drink.'
Aquila's version in Deut. vii. 13 has oporismon, ‘autumnal
fruit,' and in Isa. xxiv. 7, parorismos, fruit out of sea-
son;' but very possibly paror is a transcriber's error for
apor, the reading in Deut. vii. 13.”
It is translated into Latin-"The Vulgate, though as a
rule translating tïrosh by vinum, 'wine,' has some excep-
tions :-Deut. vii. 13, vindemia, 'vintage-fruit ;' Neh. x. 37,
vindemia; Isa. xxiv. 7, vindemia; Isa. lxv. 8, granum,
grain,'-young grape; Hos. iv. 11, ebrietas, drunken-
ness. —Bible Commentary.
""
*
a
So it will be seen that there are two Hebrew words at
least, yayin and tirosh, which are translated into the Eng-
lish Bible by the word wine; one of which (yayin), as we
shall see, is a strictly generic name, and may represent
either fermented or unfermented wine, and the other
(tirosh) rarely means, but occasionally may, fermented
wine; perhaps in not more than two or three instances in
the whole Bible.
In addition to the words yayin and tirosh, there are
WINE, A GENERIC WORD.
295
several other words in the Hebrew Bible which are trans-
lated into English by our word "wine;" and it is reasonably
certain that all of these words do not always mean fer-
mented wine. A more accurate knowledge of their Hebrew,
Greek, Latin and English Bibles, and of the Latin of the
writings of the Church, would have saved "The Academy"
from making such assumptions, and from using arguments
so entirely unsustained by the facts in the case.
We will turn now to the Greek New Testament. Here
we find but two words used for the juice of the grape ;
oinos, which is like yayin in Hebrew, a generic term cover-
ing all kinds of wine; and gleukos, translated sweet wine,
which occurs but once. We have seen above that both
yayin and tirosh are generally, but not always, translated
into the Greek Bible by oinos, and into the Latin Bible by
vinum; showing conclusively that in both of these languages
oinos in the Greek and vinum in Latin are generic words,
covering both the Hebrew yayin and tirosh, or fermented
and unfermented wines; and, as already shown, both of these
words are translated into English by the word "wine," which
therefore of itself renders our English word wine, so far as
the Bible is concerned, a generic word, meaning all kinds
of wine, fermented and unfermented.
Mr. John Stuart Mill, in his "System of Logic," has
truly said: "A generic term is always liable to become
limited to a single species, if people have occasion to think
and speak of that species much oftener than of anything
else contained in the genus. [As our brethren of "The
Academy" seem to have of fermented wines as wine.-E.]
The tide of custom first drifts the word on the shore of a
particular meaning, then retires and leaves it there."
"The following are the thirteen words of the Original
Scriptures which, unfortunately for the English reader,
have all been commingled and confused under the transla-
tion of the single term WINE, either with or without an
adjective of qualification, such as 'new,' 'sweet,' 'mixed'
296
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
or 'strong,' namely: In Hebrew, yayin, khamar, shakar,
mesek, ahsis, soveh, tirosh, ashishah, shemarim; in Greek,
oinos, gleukos, oxos and akraton. There are, besides,
closely associated with these words, two others the
Hebrew adjective khemer (foaming) and khometz, trans-
lated 'vinegar.' When persons attempt to argue from the
Authorized Version [and the English and other dictionaries.
as do our brethren of "The Academy," as we shall see.—E.]
the merits of the wine question, no wonder they fall into
inextricable difficulties and pernicious delusions. Mr. De
Quincey's observation, in his article on The Philosophy
of Herodotus,' is exceedingly apposite: 'How often do we
hear people commenting on the Scriptures, and raising up
aerial edifices of argument, in which every iota of the logic
rests, unconsciously to themselves, upon the accidental
words of the English version, and melts away when applied
to the original text! so that, in fact, the whole has no more
strength than if it were built upon a pun or an équivoque.'
Nor is it the unlearned alone who are apt to fall into this
fallacy."-Bible Commentary.
(
So far as the Latin of Swedenborg is concerned, we will
here give but a few quotations, translated into English, to
show how far the assumptions of "The Academy" professors
are from the truth, when viewed from the standpoint of his
writings.
"And I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's
cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand" (Gen. xl. 11).
"This (the last statement) signifies the appropriation by the
interior natural, as appears (1) from the signification of to
give the cup, thus wine (vinum) to drink, as denoting to ap-
propriate" (A. C. 5119-20). Here Swedenborg calls the
juice of the grape, just squeezed from the grapes, vinum.
Again: "As grapes represent charity, so does wine (vinum)
the faith thence derived, because it is obtained from grapes.
(A. C. 1071.)-[Not from the destructive action of leaven
after the juice has left the grapes. E.]
UNFERMENTED GRAPE-JUICE CALLED WINE.
297
"And the truths of good are understood by the vintage
and by the wine (vinum) in the wine presses " (A. E.,
376). [Not in the fermenting vats. E.] Now, how are the
gentlemen of "The Academy" going to get around such
clear and positive testimony as the above? and this is but a
small share of what we shall produce from the Word of the
Lord and the writings of the Church, aside from science,
to show that their views, as expressed in their review, have
not the slightest foundation in truth.
Swedenborg stands not alone in classing unfermented
grape juice, just as it is pressed, as wine. " Dr. Adam
Clarke, in his note on the butler's dream, says: From
this we find that wine anciently was the mere expressed
juice of the grape, without fermentation. The saky, or
cup-bearer, took the bunch, pressed the juice into the cup,
and instantly delivered it into the hands of his master.
This was anciently the yayin of the Hebrews, the oinos of
the Greeks, and the mustum of the ancient Latins.' In
his tract on the Sacrament he says vinum in place of
mustum.
66
Josephus' version of the butler's speech is as follows:
'He said
that by the king's permission he pressed
•
•
the grapes into a goblet, and having strained the sweet-wine,
he gave it to the king to drink, and that he received it
graciously.
6
"Matthew Henry, the prince of practical commentators,
observes: Probably it had been usual with them to press
the full, ripe grapes immediately into Pharaoh's cup, the
simplicity of that age not being acquainted with the modern
art of making the wine fine.' Bishop Lowth (on Isa. v. 2)
observes: 'See Gen. xl. 11, by which it should seem that
they (the Egyptians) drank the fresh juice pressed from the
grape, which was called oinos ampelinos-Herodotus, ii. 37.'
But in the opinion of some critics the phrase oinos ampeli-
nos, 'wine of the vineyard,' is used simply to distinguish,
not one kind of grape-juice from another, but grape wine
298 A REPLY TÔ “THE ACADEMY’S” REVIEW.
from palm wine, barley wine (beer), etc. Sir G. Wilkinson,
however, has obviously an eye to vineyard wine freshly
made when he speaks of it as one of the offerings to the
gods of Egypt, and as 'one of the most delicious bever-
ages of a hot climate, and one which is commonly used in
Spain and other countries at the present day.' —(‘Anc.
Egypt,' v. p. 366.) As to palm wine, he remarks: The
modern name of it in Egypt is lowbgeh. In flavor it resem-
bles a very new light wine, and may be drunk in great
quantity when taken from the tree, but as soon as fermenta-
tion has commenced its intoxicating qualities have a pow-
erful and speedy effect.""-(Ibid. iii., p. 375.)—Bible Com-
mentary.
Although the writer had in his work on the wine question,
as he thought, produced evidence enough to satisfy every
one who is so far free from prejudice and pre-conceived
ideas as to be able to examine this question fairly, that fer-
mented wine in itself is never the good wine of the Word
and the Writings; and that according to the philosophy of
the New Church, being a poison and capable of injuring
and killing men when used as a beverage, as men use other
beverages, it clearly has its origin from hell, and in itself it
never has a good correspondence; and consequently, that it
is never suitable for use as a beverage during health, nor as a
communion wine; yet, as "The Academy" of the New Church,
in "Words for the New Church," have thought proper to assail
his views in no gentle language, and to represent them as
false, "false," "false," "utterly false," he feels that it is
alike his duty and his privilege to reply. The reader, in the
foregoing pages, has seen how entirely opposed to all the
facts is their chief assumption that there is no other wine
but fermented wines. As the writer intends to examine this
assumption more at length, when he comes to examine the
various assumptions and ignorings contained in "The
Academy's" review, he here simply desires to lay down a few
principles which he believes to be beyond dispute. Of one
COMMUNION WINE AND WINE AS A BEVERAGE.
299
thing he is certain, "The Academy," in their review, have.
failed to overthrow or weaken any one position which the
writer has taken in his work on the wine question; and, in all
their efforts, by their combined wisdom, they have made but a
single point against his work; and in fact, as the reader will
see when he reaches it, even that is not a full point, and
is of little or no consequence, comparatively, in the discus-
sion of this question. That mistake, on his part, the writer
will cheerfully admit, but everything else-every position
which he took in that work-he will substantiate in this,
"line upon line and precept upon precept."
The writer has alluded above to the "combined wisdom
of "The Academy," for he believes, on good authority, that
their review, in "Words for the New Church" was not written
by any one member of "The Academy," but that several
writers were concerned in its production.
COMMUNION WINE AND WINE AS A BEVERAGE.
Should the Communion be administered in unfermented
wine, and should such wine be used as a beverage by
healthy men? are important and practical questions.
If we examine this subject carefully, uninfluenced by
preconceived ideas, in the light of the letter of the Word,
the testimony of ancient writers, the philosophy of the
New Church, the science of correspondences, and the sci-
ences of this day, we shall find, from all these sources, but
one answer; and that is that either unfermented must or
new wine, or unfermented wine alone is the wine which
should be used in this most holy ordinance and as a bever-
age; and never a wine that "biteth like a serpent and
stingeth like an adder," or a fermented wine.
That during the various periods when the Sacred Scrip-
tures were written, the ancients prepared and used two
kinds of wine the one unfermented and the other fer-
mented-which were both called wine, in the Hebrew
yayin, in the Greek oinos, and in Latin vinum, is beyond
300 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S’· REVIEW.
question; for we have the testimony of Plato, Columella,
Pliny, Aristotle, Virgil, Horace and Plutarch that unfer-
mented and unintoxicating wines were prepared and used;
and the processes by which such wines were prepared and
preserved, as described by some of the above writers, are
the very processes used successfully at this day.
We also know that the same kinds of unfermented wines,
prepared precisely as the ancients prepared theirs, but
sometimes called by other names, have been used from
their time until the present; and are even now somewhat
extensively manufactured and used. Many religious
societies, and some of our New Church societies, are using
these wines for sacramental purposes. Such are the
historical facts running parallel with divine revelation,
which cannot be ignored in a fair and intelligent consid-
eration of this subject-the New Church Academy to
the contrary notwithstanding.
That able philologist, Professor Moses Stuart, says:
"Facts show that the ancients not only preserved wine un-
fermented, but regarded it as of a higher flavor
and finer quality than fermented wine. My final
conclusion is this: that, whenever the Scriptures speak of
wine as a comfort, a blessing, or a libation to God, and
rank it with such articles as corn and oil, they mean-they
can mean-only such wine as contained no alcohol that could
have a mischievous tendency; that wherein they denounce
it, prohibit it, and connect it with drunkenness and reveling,
they can mean only alcoholic or intoxicating wine.
"If I take the position that God's Word and works en-
tirely harmonize, I must take the position that the case
before us is as I have represented it to be."
If we bear in mind that Palestine is a warm country, and
how difficult it is in warm weather, even by the aid of our
strong bottles and casks, to prevent fermented wine from
changing into vinegar; we can readily perceive how much
more difficult it must have been for the ancients to preserve,
TWO KINDS OF MUST AND WINE.
301
for any considerable length of time, fermented wine in their
leather bottles, earthen jars, and imperfect casks; especially
as they had no distilled alcohol to add to it. Understand-
ing their methods of preparing unfermented wines, as de-
scribed by ancient writers, we can readily see that they
could have had no difficulty in preserving unfermented
wine, entirely free from alcohol, for years and even for
centuries, as they claim to have done. We are, therefore,
driven to the conclusion that much, if not most, of their
really old wines were unfermented.
Leaven, and all substances leavened, were strictly pro-
hibited in the most holy ordinances of the Jewish Church,
excepting in the free-will offerings and in the wave offering,
where the leaven in the bread was destroyed, and the alco-
hol driven off by heat. And many, if not most, of the con-
forming Jews, even at this day, do not use leavened or fer-
mented wine in such ordinances; preferring to use wine
made from raisins, when they cannot get other unfermented
wine.
If we examine this subject in the light of science, we find
that there are two kinds of must or new wine; the one un-
fermenting, and the other fermenting; and that there are
two kinds of wine and of old wine. The one kind is pre-
served from fermentation by boiling, or by settling the sub-
stance in which fermentation commences, in casks or bottles
kept cool in springs or pools of water, or in the cool earth,
or by sulphurization, or by some of the other processes
described by ancient and modern writers; the other kind of
wine is fermented wine. These two kinds of wine are en-
tirely distinct in their essential chemical composition. Un-
fermented wine contains almost all of the constituents which
are required to nourish the body of man.
mented wine, all of these nutritious substances have been
either destroyed, precipitated, changed, or polluted by the
presence of alcohol, glycerine, vinegar and other substances
which are never found in the healthy fruit of the vine. In their
In a well fer-
302 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
effects on man-when taken into the stomach as beverages
these two kinds of wine are as distinct as light is from
darkness, or as good is from evil. Unfermented wine sup-
plies the orderly wants of the body, giving substance,
strength and health; and it never causes drunkenness, nor
any specific disease. Fermented wine, on the other hand,
gives little substance or strength; and when used freely, as
we use other beverages, it causes an unnatural appetite,
which healthy fluids will not satisfy, and then requires to be
taken in increasing quantities to satisfy the appetite
which itself has created; and it causes specific dis-
eases as characteristic of its chief ingredient-alco-
hol-as are those caused by any other known poison.
It hangs out its sign upon the face; it shows itself
in the haggard frame and trembling limbs ; it produces gout
and many other serious and fatal diseases ; it in-
terferes with the freedom and rationality of man, by
causing mental confusion, unnatural excitement, drunken-
ness and insanity. To our race as a whole, viewing
its effects in the past and present on the body and
mind, it has proved itself by far the most fearful and
deadly poison known to man. All this is beyond question;
and even in our day the alcohol contained in fermented
wine, beer and distilled liquors, is hurting and killing more
of the human family than all other poisons put together.
"Yes, equalling," as Mr. Gladstone has asserted, "the com-
bined calamities of war, pestilence and famine." Looking
at this question in the light of human reason, common sense,
and of science, as well as of Divine revelation, is there,
can there be, any doubt as to which of these two kinds of
wine should be used in the most holy ordinance of the
Church? Swedenborg tells us, in the D. L. and W. 339,
that "all things that do hurt and kill men have their origin
from hell, and we know very well that fermented wine will
do and does this, every day, all around us. In the A. E.,
1035, Swedenborg says; "Falsities from evil can be com-
""
THE SIGNIFICATION OF MUST AND WINE.
303
pared to wine and strong drink which induce intoxication."
In speaking of the effects of the doctrine of justification by
faith alone on the clergy, Swedenborg says: "And since
they are intoxicated in all their thoughts by that doctrine,
just as if they had drunk of the vinous spirit called alcohol,
therefore in such a state of inebriation they cannot discern
this most essential tenet of the Church, viz., that Jehovah
God descended and assumed the Humanity" (T. C. R.,
No. 98).
Again Swedenborg says :
"Inasmuch as drunkenness was
a type of insanity in regard to truths of faith, therefore it
was also made a representative, and this prohibition was
given to Aaron: 'Do not drink wine, nor drink that maketh
drunken, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the
Tabernacle of the Congregation, lest ye die ;-that ye may
put a difference between holy and unholy, and between
unclean and clean '"-Levit. x. 8-9. (A. C. 1072).
There certainly is no excuse for the use of fermented
wine as a Communion wine by the New Church, for Swe-
denborg declares positively, in a general declaration, that
"must, like wine, signifies truth derived from the good of
charity" (A. E. 695), and that new wine is the Divine
Truth of the New Testament, consequently of the New
Church (A. R. 316).
Again, Hosea ii., 21-23, "By the corn, the wine (mustum)
and the oil, are signified all things pertaining to spiritual
nourishment, which are the goods of love and charity, and
the truths of faith" (A. E. 304).
We all know very well that Swedenborg, in the above
quotations, could not have had reference to must, and new
wine undergoing the process of fermentation, and therefore
full of leaven, for we know that leaven or ferment is an un-
clean substance. It, therefore, must have been unfermented
must or new wine, which he declares has the same signifi-
cation as wine. Now, to what kind of wine does Sweden-
borg here refer to unfermented wine which has the same
304 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
harmless, nourishing qualities, and the same chemical com-
position as the unfermented must, and the new wine,
which are strictly analogous to blood, and are really the
fruit of the vine; or does he refer to fermented wine which
has not the same chemical composition, the active ingre-
dients of which have never been produced by the vine,
and which has little or no resemblance to blood in its
essential composition, but which is a poisonous compound
of heterogeneous substances-alcohol, vinegar, glycerine,
etc.? Surely not to the last, but to corn, mustum and oil.
In Zechariah ix. 17, "How great is His goodness, and
how great is His beauty: corn maketh the young men to
grow, and new wine (mustum) the virgins:' treating also of
the Lord; and by His goodness and beauty is understood
the Divine good and Divine truth; corn makes the young
men grow, and new wine (mustum) the virgins, signifies that
the understanding of truth, and the affection of truth, is
formed by good and by truth from Him" (A. E. 863).
Revelations xiv., 20, "For by the blood out of the wine-
press is meant the juice and wine (mustum et vinum) from the
clusters that were trodden, and the juice (mustum) of the
grape and wine (vinum) have a similar signification"
(similia significantur, A. R. 653).
It is perfectly clear that the blood and juice of the grape
have a similar signification to wine, because they have a
similar composition; whereas, as we have noticed above,
the pure juice of the grape and unfermented wine hold a
similar relation to fermented wine, both as to their chemical
composition and their effects on man when he drinks them,
that light does to darkness, that heaven does to hell. The
former are nutritious drinks, and give substance, strength
and health; the latter gives unnatural excitement, disease,
drunkenness, insanity, and death in a vast multitude of
cases. Unfermented juice of the grape is wine.
In closing this preliminary chapter, we desire especially
to call the attention of the reader to the fact that there is
CONCLUDING INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
305
not the slightest resemblance between the results which
follow the spiritual regeneration of man and those which
follow the fermentation of wine; for the one is directly the
opposite of the other, and can only be compared as to par-
ticular qualities. In the regeneration of man, good and
truth overcome the evil and the false; whereas, in the fer-
mentation of the juice of the grape, leaven, which corres-
ponds to the evil and false, if not restrained in its action
by man's ingenuity, overcomes and destroys all the nutri-
tious substances which the Lord has organized in the grape,
until there are none left; and it always overcomes and
destroys to the extent that fermentation is allowed to pro-
gress. Chemists tell us, that in most of our old fermented
wines, as they exist in our markets at this day, the sugar,
which corresponds to spiritual delights, has been entirely
destroyed. It is surely strange that any intelligent New
Churchman should justify, and even advocate as necessary,
the use of such wines for communion wines.
In our work on the wine question, we called the attention of
"The Academy," and all others, to the above facts-that the
physical results of fermentation correspond in no respect to
the spiritual results of regeneration—and yet "The Academy"
make no attempt to reply. They simply ignore entirely this
essential point of the argument. It is evident, from their many
unwarranted assumptions, and their ignoring of things which
we shall see cannot be ignored, and from the spirit apparently
manifested in their review, that the work on the "Wine Ques-
tion" has touched "The Academy" at a vital point in the esti-
mation of the members of that organization. Surely, if "The
Academy" cannot justify their own advocacy and use of
intoxicating wine and well-selected "whiskey" against the
arguments of "unauthorized laymen" who advocate total
abstinence from such drinks, it is difficult to see how, to the
satisfaction of intelligent New Churchmen, they will be able
to sustain unquestioned their authority as teachers in other
points of doctrine and life. As the reader, in his progress,
306 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
will see more and more clearly, the great difficulty with
"The Academy" is that they have attempted to ride rough-
shod over the advocates of total abstinence from all intoxi-
cating drinks, without themselves, in their combined wisdom,
being masters of the subject. "The Academy" will find,
sooner or later, that it is not wise to act thus.
The writer desires here to reaffirm clearly and distinctly
the views advanced in his former works: First; that the
good wine of the Word of the Lord and of the writings of
the Church, which has a good signification or correspond-
ence in itself, is never a leavened wine. Second; more
especially, it is never must or new wine which is being
leavened or fermented, and which therefore is full of
leaven and the heterogeneous substances which are pro-
duced by leaven, all of which must, to a greater or less
extent, be drank if such must or new wine is used as a
drink. Third; that the moment leaven enters must or new
wine, and commences its work of disorganization and de-
struction, the fluid is polluted, and can never again in itself
have a good signification; but, if applied to a good use, its
use may perhaps have a good signification, precisely as the
excessive use or abuse of a good wine may have a bad
signification. It is known that leaven is never found in
grapes, but that its germs come from the atmosphere. We
may admit the atmosphere, if we only exclude such germs,
then the juice of grapes will never ferment; and without fer-
mentation there will be no alcohol, for alcohol is produced
by ferment. Now, the writer thinks it should be manifest
to every New Churchman, that if the pure, unfermented
juice of the grape has a good signification, the fermenting,
or fermented, can never have. On the other hand, if fer-
menting and fermented grape-juice has a good significa-
tion, it is impossible that the unfermented can have; for in
their origin and essential composition, and in their effects
on man, they are as opposite as heaven is from hell!
CHAPTER II. ·
STRANGE ASSUMPTIONS AND WONDERFUL IGNORING.
"The Academy" commences its review in the following
language:
"THE WINE QUESTION, in the light of the New Dispensation." By
JOHN ELLIS, M.D. Published by the Author. New York, 1882.
"This book contains, in two hundred and twenty-eight pages, the
author's defense of his position of total abstinence. It is divided into
fourteen chapters, treating respectively of alcohol as a poison, fermented
and unfermented wines, their history and Biblical use, communion wine,
and counter-reviews of articles in New Church periodicals.
After a few preliminary remarks "The Academy" say:
"As the author writes as one having knowledge and authority, we
naturally ask what qualifications he brings to the inquiry.”
There is one qualification so necessary for a writer to
possess for a full and fair consideration of moral and
spiritual questions, that all other qualifications, however
high in degree or necessary in their nature, avail nothing
without it. There must be not only a sincere desire to
find where the truth lies, but also a determination to fol-
low that truth whithersoever it may lead. This is especi-
ally the case in an inquiry like the present, where long-
established customs, pre-conceived ideas, hereditary incli-
nations, and even acquired appetites, are involved. Without
this qualification, we all know that having eyes we may
see not, and having ears we may hear not.
fairly begin to discern the real falsity of
Before we can
views we may
hold, we must, by hearkening to the truth, have come intc
a state of doubt as to our opinions: for truth alone can
show us our errors. The priests and scribes possessed.
every qualification except this one, for judging of the Lord's
307
308
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
claim; but for lack of this, while they listened to the
truths He spake, they closed their hearts against them,
and listened only that they might entangle Him in His
words. Blinded by their prejudices, seeing they would
not see, and hearing they would not hear.
Thus Swedenborg says: "Those who are in falses, and
especially those who are in evils, are said to be bound and
in prison; not that they are in any bonds, but because they
are not in freedom; those who are not in freedom being in-
teriorly bound; for those who have confirmed themselves
in what is false are no longer in freedom of choosing and
accepting the truth, and those who have much confirmed
themselves therein are not in freedom to see it, still less to
acknowledge and believe it, for they are in the persuasion
that what is false is true, and what is true is false; so
powerful is this persuasion, that it takes away all freedom of
thinking anything else, consequently it holds the thought it-
self in bonds and as it were in a prison. This I had much.
opportunity of being convinced of, experimentally, from
those in the other life who have been in a persuasion of the
false by confirmations in themselves; they do not at all ad-
mit truths, but reflect or strike them back again, and this
with an obstinacy proportionate to the degree of persuasion;
especially when the false is grounded in evil, or when evil
has persuaded them" (A. C. 5096).
The writer was born of parents who belonged to one of
the prevailing sects. He well remembers hearing his grand-
father, when an old man, after taking a glass of cider-
brandy, exclaim: "One of the good gifts of God, if taken
with faith and prayer." Until he was about eighteen years
of age, his father set him an example of using fermented
cider and cider-brandy, in moderate quantities; and he him-
self used these articles occasionally, as other young men did.
He was never baptized, or a member of any church organ-
ization, until he joined the New Church. When about
eighteen years of age, in the dawning light of the New
QUALIFICATIONS OF WRITERS.
309
Jerusalem, he saw the evil of drinking intoxicating drinks,
and he resolved to put this evil away from his life. That
resolution, with the help of the Lord, he has faithfully kept.
Having seen the false views which descended through his
ancestors from the consummated state of the First Christian
Church, and rejected them; and striven, as he thinks, faith-
fully, to put away the inherited and acquired inclination.
from his life, every New Churchman can see that he should
be in freedom upon this subject, and that he has the first
and by far the most important qualification for judging cor-
rectly between truth and error, as to the use of intoxicating
drinks. And he will further say that, all things considered,
no man in the New Church has had better facilities for ex-
amining this subject; and no one has more critically, care-
fully and faithfully examined it in all its various aspects for
the last forty years than has the present writer. How stand
the editors of "Words for the New Church" in regard to this
first qualification named above? We will let them speak
for themselves.
"We have thus far seen that the author, in his linguistic, scientific,
and historical arguments, has blindly followed the Old Church writers on
the subject without taking the trouble of giving to their statements any
critical investigation. The whole mass of the ferment of falses from self-
derived intelligence in the Old Church has thus been emptied into the
New Church. In his theological argument the author has applied the
same course of falsification and perversion to the truths of the internal
sense, as the Old Church had applied to the truths of the letter.
((
Some slight excuse may be found in the fact that before the writer
had become acquainted with the New Church, and, indeed before he had
come to years of discretion (see p. 207), he had already espoused the
cause of abstinence, and having imbibed with avidity the falsities of the
Old Church writers, so as to make it difficult for him to receive the truth
on this subject as presented by the New Church, he was unwilling to
receive the new wine 'offered by the New Church on this subject, but
holds to this day that the old is better.'"
How much truth there is in the above representation we
leave to the reader, who has read our work on the wine
310 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
question and who will read this review, to judge for himself;
but it is evident that the editors have not recognized, as
such, the falsities of the "Old Church "which they are try-
ing to introduce into the New Church as new wine; and
therefore we can hardly expect them to see the truth.
Every intelligent man understands that the present drink-
ing habits have descended to us from the consummated
state of the First Christian Church, and that the present
great temperance reformation had no existence until long
after the Last Judgment. When the light and heat of the
New Dispensation began to illuminate the minds and warm
the hearts of men, a few men who were trying to form their
"lives according to the precepts of charity," and thus were
open to the influx from the New Heavens, saw the fearful
evils which result from the use of intoxicating drinks.
They examined this question with a care and thoroughness,
as we will show, of which the above editors have no con-
ception, and came to the conclusion that, in the light of the
Word of the Lord and of science, it was wrong to use such
drinks during health. Consequently, they gave up their use
and began to teach others to do the same; until now, more
than one-half of the people in the United States, including
a number of our New Church clergy and many of the
laity, have ceased to use them at all; and the conscientious
abstinence of the latter is not in consequence of any pre-
conceived notions or "falsities of the Old Church writers,"
as "The Academy" say; but because, having thoroughly ex-
amined the question in the light of the Word and the
Writings of the Church, they see no other course that they
can take. Yet the editors have the audacity to stigmatize
them, and the reform they advocate, in such terms as these:
"The whole opposition to wine as it is now developing in the vastate
Church is but an ultimatum of opposition and repugnance to the truths
of the internal sense of the Word to which wine corresponds. In utter
disregard of the import of language, and of the teachings of science,
history, and theology, the author sees in this downward step of the dead
THE UNGENEROUS LANGUAGE OF THE REVIEW. 311
Church an upward step, and so exhorts the New Church to follow the
corruption of the Old! Surely, such gross perversion is without a par-
allel. Never in the New Church has such a mass of false statements
been crowded into the same narrow limits as we find in this book on the
wine question."
Such language as is contained in this and the previous
quotations, is an offence to all charitable and liberal-minded
men, and not creditable to a New Church Organization, nor to
Christianity. Are there no New Churchmen outside of "The
Academy?" Has the Lord more than one Church on this
earth to-day? If he has not, and "The Academy" is that
Church, where belong the earnest, charitable men who are
laboring so hard to enlighten and elevate our race both in
and outside of the nominal New Church? Let the "Herald
of the New Dispensation" answer.
"Life constitutes the Church, but not doctrine, except so
far as it be of the life; hence it is evident, that the Church
of the Lord is not here or there, but that it is everywhere,
as well within those kingdoms where the Church is, as out
of them, where the life is formed according to the precepts
of charity. Hence it is that the Church of the Lord is
spread through the universal orb, and yet that it is one;
for when life constitutes the Church, and not doctrine
separate from life, then the Church is one; but
but when
doctrine constitutes the Church, then there are several
(A. C. 8152).
Again the editors say:
But
"From a careful perusal of the work we are convinced that the author
either has no adequate knowledge of the sacred tongues, or he has grossly
perverted them. Common charity forbids the latter conclusion.
how far it is compatible with true charity to claim to teach authoritatively
that which we do not understand, and concerning which we do not even
use the means of instruction always at hand, namely, dictionaries, and
works of unbiased learned men, we leave to the decision of the reader."
If assumptions of superior learning, knowledge and au-
thority, and the cry of false, false, false! with a grand
312 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
climax, like that quoted in a preceding paragraph, were
regarded as unanswerable arguments by New Churchmen,
then the reader will see from the above quotations, and
such as we will hereafter make, that the prospects for the
success of the principles of total abstinence from all intoxi-
cating drinks during health, and for their banishment from
the communion tables in the New Church would be hopeless.
This would especially be the case if we were to admit the
assumption so boldly set forth by "The Academy's" serial,
that the greatest and most needed reform of this new age,
which had no existence until less than a century ago, is
evil and false and every way wrong, and belongs to the
"Old Church" or Old Dispensation, because members of
the surrounding sects, as well as acknowledged New
Churchmen, are found among its advocates.
Do not the editors know that the movements which have
done so much to remedy wrongs and ameliorate the con-
dition of all classes of men, are from the Lord and the New
Heavens, notwithstanding many who are not members of
our external New Church organizations co-operate in them,
and are often foremost in labors of love?
If theological teachers can only be allowed quietly to
assume, unquestioned, whatever they please, and to totally
ignore whatever does not accord with their views, even
though it may have been their own express teaching, and if
churchmen will tolerate them in such a course, then, indeed,
they can prove almost any false doctrine to be heavenly wis-
dom; their own imaginings they can prove to be sublime
truths, which it is unlawful and wrong for any one—espe-
cially for a layman to question for a moment. Hear what
our critics have to say:
"Surely the doctrines of the Church are in great danger of being
perverted and misapplied when those without proper training and educa-
tion undertake to instruct. (p. 442.)-[Surely this is the danger, as the
reader has seen in the preceding chapter and will see in what follows, in
THE UNGENEROUS LANGUAGE OF THE REVIEW. 313
the teaching of “The Academy " upon this subject.-E.] In some cases,
the opinionated ignorance of friends does more harm to a cause than the
attacks of the most malicious foes. The present seems to be such a case.
* * * And this terrible sin (profanation) is involved in the insinua-
tion that the weak may be tempted to their ruin by partaking of the repre-
sentative of the Holy Blood of our Lord!" (p. 448).
There is generally something odious about an insinua-
tion, and that is, perhaps, the reason why the word is
used above. But we did not insinuate anything of the
kind that the words of our critics imply. We declared
openly that a specific evil resulted from the practice we were
deprecating. So we are not liable to the sin of profanation
if it results only from insinuation. But, if it is profanation
to state the fact-vouched for by physicians, clergymen and
laymen—that men have been tempted to their ruin by par-
taking of fermented wine at the Lord's Supper, then we are
guilty. Do you not rather see evidence in such facts that
the use of fermented wine is a profanation that should be
put away from so holy an ordinance ?
The spirit manifested in such language as is contained in
the above quotations, and other similar ones we shall make,
will remind the reader of the following passage from Liebig;
"From the moment the imagination is allowed to solve
questions left undecided by researches, investigation ceases
-truth remains unascertained; and there is not only this
negative evil, but in error we create a monster, envious,
malignant and obstinate-which, when at length truth en-
deavors to make its way, crosses its path, combats, and
strives to annihilate it." But its enemies cannot anni-
hilate the truth on the wine question; for the thorough and
careful researches and investigations of many most compe-
tent men, of which they are either ignorant, or which they
ignore, have made this whole subject so plain that the way-
faring man, though a fool, need not err therein.
The reader will see, as we progress in this review, that the
entire arguments and positions of the editors of "Words
314 A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
for the New Church" are based: First, on assumptions which
have not the slighest foundation in truth or facts. Second,
on the rejection of the positive teachings of the Word of the
Lord, ancient history, the writings of the Church, modern
science, including the science of correspondences, and last,
if not least, repudiation of their own express teachings in
their previous notice of the writer's tract on the wine ques-
tion. The assumptions of the above editors are, as we
shall see, simply wonderful, and their ignorings are astound-
ing: surpassing anything the writer had ever seen or heard
before.
Intelligent reader, just look at the following, which we
quote from our work on the wine question: "Although we
had exposed the error in our tract, and called special atten-
tion to it, to which reference is made, yet we are very
happy to reproduce the essential part of the testimony of
"The Academy's" argument in reply to the writer in the
New Jerusalem Magazine. For the point is a very essential
one in this discussion—in fact, as will hereafter be seen, a
vital one.
Speaking of the errors into which the writer in the New
Jerusalem Magazine had fallen, "The Academy's" organ
says:
"A more serious error is the statement that the imbibing of more
truths than we are ready to apply to the various uses of life makes us
spiritual drunkards. This view must have crept into the New Church
from the Old, for there is nothing in the Writings of Swedenborg which
sustains such an opinion. Spiritual drunkenness is something quite dif-
ferent from this, as we learn from the Writings. We read in the
'Arcana :'
* * *
"Those are called drunkards who believe nothing but what they
comprehend, and therefore investigate the mysteries of faith; in conse-
quence of which they necessarily fall into errors.
The error
and insanity hence derived are called in the Word drunkenness, and souls
or spirits in another life, who argue about the truths of faith and against
them, become like drunkards, conducting themselves similarly.' (A. C.
1072).
-
“THE ACADEMY” IGNORING ITS OWN ASSUMPTIONS.3 15
"To be intoxicated from the cup is to be insane from falses' (A. C.
5120, 9960).
"So in the 'Apocalypse Revealed':
"To be made drunk with the wine of whoredom signifies to become
insane in spiritual things from the falsification of the truths of the Word ;
here from the adulteration of them.' (A. R. 721; see also A. E. 1035,
376).
"But nowhere do we find a statement that if we imbibe more truths
than we are ready to apply to the various uses of life, we are spiritual
drunkards,'
"
'Surely he cannot be called intemperate who stores his memory with
more truths than he is ready to apply, else all school-children would be
spiritual drunkards. Man becomes a spiritual drunkard only when, from
self-intelligence, he argues about truths, and especially if against
them.
• The more truths a man acquires the better, that his rational princi-
ple may thence be formed, and that these truths may serve in his memory
as vessels to receive faith and charity.
"For we read;
•‘That faith is perfected in proportion to the number and coherence
of truths. Now, since faith in its essence is truth, it follows that faith
becomes more and more perfectly spiritual in proportion to the number
and coherence of truths, and consequently less and less sensual-natural ;
for it is thus exalted into a higher region of the mind, from whence it
views below it in the natural world numberless circumstances and proofs
that tend to confirm it. True faith, by means of such a number of
truths cohering, as in a fascicle or bundle, becomes also more illustrated,
more perceptible, more evident, and more clear; it acquires, also, a greater
capacity of being conjoined with the goods of charity, and hence of being
in a state of greater alienation from evils; and it becomes by degrees
more and more removed from the allurements of the eye and the lusts of
the flesh, and consequently is rendered happier in itself; it becomes par-
ticularly more powerful against evils and falses, and thence more and
more a living and a saving faith" (T. C. R., 352).
"How
To all of which the present writer responded:
wonderful that 'The Academy' of the New Church, with
all its intelligence and wisdom, in its zeal to expose the errors
into which the writer in the New Jerusalem Magazine had
manifestly fallen, should have been so forgetful of its
position as to stultify its own argument, and so completely
316
A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
overturn the platform upon which itself was standing, as it
does in the above quotations from its serial.
"If, then, the imbibing of spiritual truths never causes.
spiritual drunkenness, as is so clearly proven, how certain
it is that the drinking of natural fluids, which legitimately
correspond to spiritual truths, can never cause natural
drunkenness. In other words, as fermented wine and
whiskey do cause natural drunkenness, it is perfectly clear
and as certain as correspondences are true, that these fluids
do not correspond to genuine spiritual truths which never
cause spiritual drunkenness."
Although, as it will be seen, the attention of the editors
was called to the fact that this was a vital point upon which
this whole question might rest; and the legitimate con-
clusion which must be reached if the doctrine they so
clearly teach is true, was shown them, what reply did the
editors make? Not any, not one word; they simply ignored
the whole question, although it would be difficult to make
a point more clearly against their views on the wine ques-
tion than was there made, and that, too, from their own
teaching, yet they totally ignored it.
Now, it must be evident to every intelligent New Church-
man, that "The Academy" should either prove clearly that
what they have taught in the above extracts is false, or
that they must sooner or later give up this whole contest,
and acknowledge that fermented wine is not the wine
which corresponds to spiritual truths; for admitting the
above doctrine to be true, viz.: that the imbibing of
more genuine unperverted spiritual truths than we are
ready to apply to the various uses of life never makes us
spiritual drunkards-then they have not even the vestige
of ground upon which to stand in advocating intoxicating
drinks.
*
That natural drunkenness corresponds to spiritual drunk-
enness is clearly taught by Swedenborg both directly and
indirectly, and by correspondences, as in the passage
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL DRUNKENNESS.
317
quoted by "The Academy" above, viz.: "To be intoxicated.
from the cup is to be insane from falses" (A. C. 5120, 9960).
In his work on the wine question (p. 15 and 44), the writer
called attention to this point in the following language,
all of which is ignored in their review :
"If natural drunkenness corresponds to spiritual drunk-
enness, as it unquestionably does, is it not absolutely cer-
tain that the cause of natural drunkenness must corres-
pond to the cause of spiritual drunkenness? Is it not a
universal law that like effects from like causes flow?
'Delirium in truths by falses is spiritual inebriation,'
'And they who falsify the Word are spiritually inebriated '
(A. E. 887).
"That to be drunk signifies to be insane in spiritual
things from the falses of evil' (Swedenborg's Index to
the A. E.).
"Inasmuch as drunkenness was a type of insanity in
regard to truths of faith, therefore it was also made a
representative, and this prohibition was given to Aaron:
'Do not drink wine, nor drink that maketh drunken, thou,
nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the Tabernacle of
the Congregation, lest ye die—that you may put a differ-
ence between holy and unholy, and between unclean and
clean'-Levit. x. 8-9. (A. C. 1072).
"Can anything be clearer than that such wine and ströng
drink as cause natural drunkenness correspond to falses
from evil, which cause the spiritual inebriation or insanity
to which natural drunkenness corresponds?
"There is but one substance in nature that causes natu-
ral drunkenness, and that is alcohol, wherever found, be it
in whiskey, fermented wine or beer-it therefore corres
ponds to the falsification of the Word from evil.”
The advocates for total abstinence from intoxicating
drinks and for their banishment from the Lord's table in
the New Church might rest their case here, and it could
never be overthrown.
318
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIE N.
A CURIOUS ASSUMPTION AND IGNORING.
Assumption that the author of the "Wine Question, etc,”
and the advocates of total abstinence do not understand
the true meaning of the word wine, notwithstanding all
the evidence to the contrary.
As the writer intends to meet fully and fairly every crit-
icism, argument and objection which the above editors have
made to the views of the advocates of total abstinence as
presented in his book, he will allow them, in the following
pages, to speak at length in their own words; only here and
there where it seems necessary to save a more lengthy ex-
planation at the end of the quotation, he will insert in
brackets, signed E. whatever he may have to say.
In regard to the lamentable ignorance of the present
writer, the editors of "Words for the New Church
say:
"Further, we are met with the query, Does the author sufficiently
understand his own mother tongue, and does he use words with a meaning
foreign to their recognized sense? This question is forced on us by
statements like the following: 'We know there are wines and strong
drinks which are never unholy or unclean-wines every way suitable for
use in the most holy ordinance of the Lord's Supper-wine that never
maketh drunken.' (p. 44.) 'It is not wines, but intoxicating wines
that earnest Christian leaders seek to have exchanged for the ancient un-
intoxicating wines.' (p. 197.) Wine, according to Worcester and
Webster, signifies the fermented juice of grapes.' How, then, can
wine, fermented juice, be called 'wine that never maketh drunken,' and
how can it be claimed that 'some fermented grape-juice' gives intoxicat-
ing wine, while other wine (fermented grape-juice) is unintoxicating?”
[Has the writer ever claimed either?-E.]
" 'It is evident that the author uses the word wine in an unauthorized
sense."-[That we have already seen in the preceding pages is not true,
and shall see the same hereafter.—E.]
We are, indeed, well aware that he wishes to make it appear as if
Worcester and Webster define wine as unfermented grape-juice. But he
does not, as would be naturally expected, turn to the definition of wine
but evasively inquires into the definition of must."—[No one questions
but that the word wine includes fermented wine; therefore, why should
WINE, ACCORDING TO THE DICTIONARIES.
319
he go to the dictionaries to find if that was included? He simply went
to find if must or unfermented grape-juice was included under the name
wine, and found that it was.-E.]
"Worcester is careful to call must 'the juice of the grape,' and does not
call it simply wine, but new wine. Webster, less careful, defines it as
wine pressed from the grape not fermented,' thus contradicting his own
definition of the word wine.-[It is barely possible that Webster under-
stood what he wanted to say quite as well as the above editors do.-E.]
Yet the author, in his blind zeal, exclaims So that both authorities say
that the unfermented juice of the grape is wine.' (p. 167). The straight-
forward course, which would be chosen by any one who is desirous of find-
ing out the real truth, would be to go to Worcester's and Webster's defi-
nition of wine. Here he would at once see that both these authorities
are very clear, and agree perfectly; for Worcester defines wine as: 'The
fermented juice of the grape, a spirituous liquor,' and also 'the fermented
juice of certain fruits,' thus not allowing any application to unfermented
beverages at all; and Webster defines it as: 1. 'The fermented juice of
grapes; a beverage prepared from grapes by squeezing out their juice,
and allowing it to ferment. 2. Hence a liquor or beverage resembling
that prepared from grapes yielded by other kinds of fruit. 3. The effect
of drinking wine in excess, intoxication.' Thus we see that the author,
in claiming for himself these authorities, has allowed his zeal to outstrip
his discretion. We dwell so long on this point because it illustrates the
general mode of demonstration of the writers on abstinence, and of our
author in particular. There is everywhere apparent an attempt to con-
fuse common perception by some misleading twist or turn.-[We think
that a little more knowledge, charity, gentleness and modesty would have
saved our brethren of "The Academy" from many an awkward position.
E.] Since scholars are aware that the recognized meaning of the English
word wine is the fermented juice of the grape, or of other fruits, it is
evident that, when the Latin dictionaries translate vinum with wine,
they thereby declare that vinum in Latin signifies the fermented juice of
the grape; and so, when Swedenborg uses the word vinum unqualified,
he means fermented grape-juice."
And all this is proved from Webster's and Worcester's
dictionaries—how simple it all is! Fermented grape-juice is
called wine, by Webster and Worcester-that is impressed
upon us; it is true, they also call must wine; but that must
be ignored. “Latin dictionaries translate vinum with wine;
they thereby declare that vinum in Latin signifies the fer-
320 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
mented juice of the grape; and so, when Swedenborg uses
the word vinum unqualified, he means fermented grape-
juice." Now, we will see what the editors have to say about
Greek and Hebrew dictionaries, for their entire argument,
save a slight allusion to commentaries, depends upon the
dictionaries for a foundation. In this reply we will omit the
Greek and Hebrew characters, as their equivalent in italics
are recognized by all.
'When we consult the Greek, we find that the term used for wine in
the New Testament is oinos. The meanings of this word, as given in
our largest Greek Lexicon, that of Liddel and Scott, are the following:
'1. The fermented juice of the grape; 2. The fermented juice of apples,
pears, etc., cider, perry; 3. A fermented liquor made from barley or
wheat, a kind of beer.' And this very complete dictionary of the Greek
tongue knows of no unfermented liquor under the name of oinos. There
is no doubt, therefore, that the beverage into which the water was changed
at Cana being oinos, was also 'fermented grape-juice.' [This assump-
tion will be considered hereafter.-E.] The ingenious way in which
the author tries to circumvent the well-established definitions acknowl-
edged by all scholars and learned men is as remarkable as his misapplica-
tion of Worcester and Webster. [Indeed! we will see.-E.]
"The Hebrew word yayin (wine), according to the great authorities,
Fürst and Gesenius, signifies wine, which, as we have seen, is understood
by the learned to mean 'fermented grape-juice.' Gesenius distinctly de-
clares it to be equivalent to oinos and to vinum."
A little better knowledge of their Hebrew, Greek, Latin
and English Bibles, and of Swedenborg's works in Latin,
would have saved the gentlemen of "The Academy" from
such fearful mistakes upon this great practical question of
life as they have made in the last three quotations above-
all in the interest of intoxicating drinks, and thus of drunk-
enness; for all history and experience show that if such.
drinks are used as beverages, drunkenness will certainly
follow in a fearful number of cases. We have clearly seen
in the first chapter of this reply to their review, that so far
as the Bible in the above languages and the Writings of the
Church are concerned, the representations contained in the
DOES WINE ALWAYS MEAN FERMENTED WINE? 321
above extracts-that yayin in Hebrew, oinos in Greek, vinum
in Latin and wine in English, always mean fermented wine
—are not true in regard to any one of these languages. In
Job xxxii. 19, we read: 'Behold, my belly, like wine (yayin),
has no vent; like new bottles, it is rent.' Here, it is certain,
yayin is not applied to fermented wine but to must, and fer-
menting must. So in Nehemiah v. 18, we read of 'all sorts of
wine' (yayin). So in Isaiah xvi. 10, 'the treaders shall tread
out no wine (yayin) in their presses. "Yayin is here applied
either to the grapes yielding yayin, or to the expressed juice
as it flows from under the treader's feet. The treading is
also said to take place in the yeqeb, showing that the yeqeb
included the place of treading as well as the reservoir into
which the liquor ran."-Bible Com.
Again, in Jeremiah xlviii. 33, "And I have caused wine
(yayin) to fail from the wine-presses: none shall tread with
shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting."
"And the truths of good are understood by the vintage
and by the wine (vinum) in the wine presses" (A. E. 376).
The above illustrations will, for the present, speak for
the Hebrew Bible.
In the Hebrew we have tirosh, which occurs thirty-eight
times in the Hebrew Bible, and which unquestionably means
must, unfermented or fermenting. The writer thinks, after
a somewhat careful examination, that Swedenborg rarely,
if ever, translates this word into the Latin by vinum (wine),
but by mustum. Yet this word is translated in the Greek
Bible, with the exception of once or twice, by oinos, which
is the Greek generic name for wine. So we see that the
Greek word oinos does actually include the Hebrew word
tërosh in all but two instances in which the latter occurs in
the Old Testament. How does this accord with the repre-
sentations of the gentlemen of "The Academy?" Let us
look a moment at the Latin Bible, and here we shall find
that, with five or six exceptions out of the thirty-eight in
which tirosh appears in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is trans-
322 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S ’ REVIEW.
lated in the Latin vulgate by vinum, the Latin for wine;
and yet our brethren of "The Academy" would try to make
us believe that vinum always means fermented wine: Now,
let us come to the English Bible and see what truth there
is in the representation of our brethren of “The Academy"
that the word wine always means fermented wine. We find
that the Hebrew word tirosh, which Swedenborg so uni-
formly translates by mustum, in the authorized English ver-
sion of the Scriptures, is translated twenty-six times by the
word wine, eleven times by new wine, and once by sweet
wine. Is it not strange that, among all the members of “The
Academy" engaged upon their review, there was not a
single man possessing sufficient knowledge of the Hebrew,
Greek, Latin and English Bible, and the Latin of Sweden-
borg, to know that their writings and representations in
regard to wine were not true, but were entirely contrary to
the accessible facts in the case. If there had been a single
man in “The Academy" possessing the required knowledge,
we cannot for a moment suppose that he would have con-
sented to the re-publication of their review in a pamphlet
form, and to the sending it out to the Church after it had
appeared in "Words for the New Church." If such is the
dearth of knowledge upon a great practical question like
this among those who claim to be "authorized" teachers of
the Church, does not the New Church clearly need "un-
authorized" teachers?
Now, we will here hastily see what the above editors
attempt to prove from the dictionaries as to must. But first,
the writer will state that he claimed in his work on the wine
question that there are to-day, and have been in all past
ages, two kinds of must, two kinds of new wine, and two
kinds of wine; one kind unfermented, unintoxicating and
harmless when temperately used; and always in itself hav-
ing a good signification, although its abuse may not have a
good signification; the other kind of must, new wine and
wine either fermenting or fermented and intoxicating,
MUST AND NEW WINE.
323
is injurious, however temperately used by a healthy man,
and that in itself it never has a good signification, as it
clearly, according to Swedenborg, has its origin from hell.
It may be applied to a good use as a remedy, and in the
arts, when its use may have a good signification. The
writer also claims that science to-day recognizes these two
kinds of must-new wine and wine; and that the Word of
the Lord distinctly recognizes and describes them clearly
by their effects on man, so that there can be no mistake as
to which is meant; and that a large number of ancients
who wrote during the prophetical and apostolic days recog-
nize these two kinds of must-new wine and wine; and
that the writings of our Church distinctly recognize them.
The editors say:
'Must, Latin mustum, is translated fresh, new or unfermented wine.
But as the fresh or new wine speedily begins to ferment, must also signi-
fies partially fermented grape-juice. This much is granted by the author
(p. 48).
"When we pass to the Greek this is still more manifest. The term
which the author quotes as signifying the sweet, unfermented juice of the
grape is gleukos, which in Liddel and Scott's Greek Lexicon is regarded
as equal to the Latin mustum, must, and is translated sweet new wine.
Still even this must, in the only passage in which it is found in the New
Testament, signifies fermented and intoxicating wine: 'Others mocking
said, These men are full of must (gleukos). But Peter
•
said
These are not drunken (methuouson), seeing it is but the third
hour of the day.' (Acts ii. 13-15).”
A French writer accused Prudhomme of being a
(( water
drinker," really meaning the opposite-namely, a brandy
tippler. So others, mocking, said: "These men are full
of gleukos-sweet wine! Meaning, on the contrary, that
they were full, not of gleukos (unfermented wine), but of
some more potent drink," is the interpretation given by
some writers. So that it is not only possible, in view of
the above, but rendered quite certain by other evidence,
that the editors are mistaken in their positive declaration
that fermented wine is referred to in this "only passage
324 - A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
which is found in the New Testament" where gleukos is
named.
"The Academy" continue:
"Indeed, it is well known that more drunkenness occurs in the wine-
producing countries about the time of new wine than at any other, and
this from drinking the partially-fermented must while it still retains some
of its sweetness.”
This statement concerning drunkenness seems to be
called forth by what immediately precedes it, and to inti-
mate plainly that it was the time of new wine or vintage
season when the Apostles were thus mocked. A little
attention to the climate and seasons of Palestine and to
the Jewish feasts would have shown "The Academy" that
the time of new wine or vintage is in September, and the
feast of Pentecost occurs in May; so it was eight months
after the grape harvest, and therefore the intimation of
"The Academy" is misleading. It is a matter of small
moment, only it shows how easily and learnedly men can
write about what they know little of.
Our critics continue:
"While we see that the gleukos in the New Testament is fermented
and intoxicating-[This, as we have shown above, we have not seen,
but it is simply assumed from the dictionaries-E.]-still more is this
the case with the new wine, which is compared to the truths of the
New Testament and the New Church (A. R. 316). This is conclusively
proved by two considerations: First, Swedenborg, in translating it, does
not use the ambiguous term mustum, but the term vinum, which, as we have
-[From Webster's, Worcester's and the Latin dictionaries, by ignoring
the fact that must and unfermented wine have been included under the
generic name of wine.-E.]-is 'the fermented juice of the grape;' a`d,
Second, This term is the translation of the Greek oinos neos, and oinos, as
we have seen―[As has been assumed, with how much truth the reader can
judge for himself.-E.]-signifies fermented grape-juice. The author of
the work before us, indeed, devotes several pages to show that a fermented
wine would not in any case burst the (skins) bottles. But he merely proves
his unacquaintance with the subject. Those who are acquainted with wine
making know that the primary fermentation is followed by secondary fer-
mentations, occurring periodically for several years, until full purity iş
UNFERMENTED WINE IN A SKIN BOTTLE.
325
reached. On account of this secondary fermentation it is that new wine
(oinos neos) needs new bottles."
The reader will find this subject fully discussed in ouí
work on the wine question; here, in reply to the above in-
correct representation, the writer will simply give an experi-
ment performed by Dr. Norman Kerr, and detailed in his
work, "Unfermented Wine a Fact." But first we will say
it was a very common custom among the ancients to boil
their wines, as the writer has shown in his work on the wine
question; and yet Dr. Kerr did not even bring the wine to
the boiling point in his experiment. "Mr. Clifford and I
heated a quantity of freshly-expressed juice to 180 degrees
Fah., being 32 degrees below point of boiling, 212 degrees
Fah., on 14th March, 1878, poured it, unstrained, at once into.
a new pig-skin, and tied the skin tightly close up to the
contents. After this bottle had hung in a mean tempera-
ture of 54 degrees Fah. for two months, in an atmosphere
impregnated with yeast germs, we carefully examined the
juice, and found no traces of alcohol."
Again the reviewers say :
<
'In the Hebrew, too, the term translated must or new wine generally
means fermented wine. Gesenius, who is one of the chief authorities in
Hebrew, says in his great dictionary: Tirosh (new wine), so called
because it gets possession of the brain and inebriates.' In sustaining
this derivation he quotes Hosea iv. 11: 'Whoredom and wine and new
wine take away the heart, i. e., the understanding.'
Professor Tayler Lewis, in a letter to Dr. F. R. Lees, of
England, says: "I regard Gesenius' derivation of tïrosh,
from yarash, 'to possess,' because 'it possesses the brain of
the one who drinks,' and must therefore be intoxicating,
as one of the most absurd etymologies ever offered. Had
it come originally from some English or American scholar,
instead of our 'learned German,' it would have been hooteȧ
as utterly unworthy of notice." Still more: Gesenius him-
self, in Isaiah xxiv. 7, gives to 'tërosh' the sense of 'clus-
ters, thus denying his own etymology, 'to inebriate.
Thayer.
326
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
The Academy" editors cite Gesenius and Fürst as
authorities for the rendering of tirosh. They fail to tell
the reader, what he sees above, that Gesenius does not uni-
formly render tirosh wine, but sometimes grapes, and in so
far differs from "The Academy." Fürst's translation, as
we see it below, "The Academy" consider as “a less
felicitous rendering;" and we do not wonder, for it is
almost exactly our definition, "what is gotten from grapes.
and other fruits." (The italics are "The Academy's.")
Surely, not even "The Academy" will deny that grape-
juice and unfermented wine are "gotten from grapes."
"Fürst defines it as mead, which seems a less felicitous rendering, and
he gives to it the meaning of what is gotten from grapes and other fruits.
As Swedenborg uses the Latin term mustum to translate tïrosh, and as
tërosh is recognized as intoxicating in the Hebrew, the same force must
evidently apply to the term mustum when used by Swedenborg. [Tirosh
is rarely recognized as fermented, as we have seen, and shall see hereafter.
It will be seen just above upon what a slight foundation this broad
assumption rests.-E.] The English translator of the Hebrew Lexicon of
Gesenius has the following remarks on tërosh : 'All the passages (in the
Word) go to show that tïrosh is new wine of the first year, the wine-crop
or vintage of the season; and hence it is mostly coupled with wine and oil
as a product of the land. That it was intoxicating is shown by Hosea
iv. II.' Thus we see that not only is wine always used for the fermented
juice of the grape, but also new wine is wine which is passing, or has
passed, through its first and chief fermentation, and is therefore usually
intoxicating. Smith, in his 'Dictionary of the Bible,' indeed considers
the tïrosh or new wine in Hosea iv. II, as 'the climax of engrossing influ-
ences.' So we see that the author is altogether in error when he teaches
that yayin, oinos and vinum, as also tïrosh, gleukos and mustum, in the
Word and the Writings, when used in a good sense, signify unfermented
wine. [To the pitiable plight is “ The Academy" driven of justifying the
use of a fermenting wine as a beverage and as a communion wine, as will
be seen above.-E.] But the perversion of the author becomes more glaring
when we examine his definition of strong drink (Hebrew, shechar; Greek,
sikera; Latin, sicera). This word is derived from the verb shachar, to be
drunk, and all scholars agree that it signifies intoxicating drink." (See
Fürst and Gesenius.)
Unfortunately for the assertion of the gentlemen of "The
STRONG DRINK IN THE WORD.
327
Academy," all scholars, especially those who nave examined
the subject the most critically, do not agree with them.
No one pretends that it does not often in the Word refer to
an intoxicating drink. The writer simply claimed that it
does not necessarily or always refer to such a drink. Dr.
F. R. Lees and Rev. Dawson Burns, in their commentary,
say: "Shakar (sometimes written shechar, shekar) signifies
'sweet drink,' expressed from fruits other than the grape,
and drunk in an unfermented or fermented state." Rev.
Wm. Ritchie, of Scotland, says: "Shechar means luscious
drink, or sweet syrup, especially of sugar or honey, of dates
or of the palm tree. The Hebrew word is usually rendered
by the translators of our English Bible 'strong drink.' This
is not a happy rendering of the original term. The epithet
'strong,' for which there is nothing equivalent in the
Hebrew, conveys the idea that the drink is highly intoxi-
cating. But Shechar, of itself, conveys no such idea."
Young's Concordance defines Shechar-" Sweet drink
(what satiates or intoxicates)." "The Academy" say:
"As a convenient general term it was also introduced into the Greek
as sikera, which is defined in Liddel and Scott's Dictionary as 'a fer-
mented liquor, strong drink (Hebrew shakar, to be intoxicated).' It was
also introduced into Latin as sicera, and this is defined in White and
Riddle's Latin Dictionary as 'A kind of spirituous, intoxicating drink.'
A word, the derivation, as well as the usage and signification of which is
so clear, might have been expected to be safe from perversion. But the
author describes it as a luscious drink or sweet syrup of sugar or
honey, of dates or of the palm-tree' (p. 56), and he forthwith devotes two
and a half pages to a consideration of this new (intoxicating) syrup.
says: 'The very fact that strong drink in the Word sometimes has a good
signification
* * is evidence that in an unpolluted and unperverted
*
C
He
state it (the intoxicating drink)-[This is not a fair representation of the
writer's views. It is like: "Others mocking said, these men are full of
new wine."-E.]-could neither have been fermented nor have
been a drugged drink.' (p. 57.) A mind that can content itself
with such a miserable begging of the question is evidently outside
of the reach of any logical reasoning. The entire scriptural and
philological reasoning of the author might be summed up in the asser-
tion Fermented drinks are evil, therefore wine (fermented grape-juice)
328
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
and strong drink (intoxicating drink) when mentioned in a good sense in
the Word, must have been unfermented. All the pseudo-learning of
the abstinence writers quoted by the author amounts to no more than
this, when tested by standard dictionaries and learned commentaries.”
Dr. F. R. Lees and Rev. Dawson Burns, in their com-
mentary, which is by far the most able and elaborate that
has ever been written upon this subject, say:
66 2.
SHAHKAR-Connected as root or derivative with
shakar, 'sweet drink'-strictly implies, as Gesenius states,
'to drink to the full,' generally with an implied sweetness
of the article consumed, whether the sweet juice of the
grape or other fruits. Whenever the juice had fermented,
or had become intoxicating by drugs, this plentiful use
would lead to intoxication, and give to the verb the second-
ary sense of inebriation in the drinker. Inebriation, how-
ever, must not be inferred unless the context suggests such
a condition. It is translated 'drunk,' 'drunken,' ' drunken
man,' or 'drunkard,' in the Authorized Version in Gen. 9.
21; Deut. 32. 42; 1 Sam. 1. 14; 25. 36; 2 Sam. 11. 13 ;
Job. 12. 25; Psa. 107. 27; Prov. 26. 9; Isa. 19. 14; 24. 20;
28. 1; 28. 3; 29. 9; 49. 26; 51. 21; 63. 6; Jer. 23. 9; 25.
27; 48. 26; 51. 7; 51. 39; 51. 57; Lam. 4. 21; Joel 1. 5;
Nah. 3. 11; Hab. 2. 15. It is translated 'were merry' in
Gen. 43. 34; drink abundantly' in Cant. 5. 1. In Psa. 69.
12, where the A. V. gives 'drunkards,' the Hebrew is
'drinkers of shakar.”
The writer made a quotation from a recent writer in
regard to a syrup made by boiling the juice of sweet
grapes, which reads as follows:
"It is this syrup with which it is repeatedly declared by
Moses the land of promise 'flowed' (Ex. iii. 8), etc.; and
though the honey of bees, gathered mainly from the
grapes, is, when flowing from the comb, called by the same
name, because it is substantially the same article (as Jud.
xiv. 8, 1 Sam. xiv. 25, 29), yet the debsh of Moses is almost
always the product of the grape prepared by boiling. In
BOILED WINE AND HONEY.
329
only three cases, out of nearly fifty, does the word refer to
the product prepared by bees rather than by man."
The editors declare that, according to their favorite dic-
tionaries, there are only two cases where syrup formed from
grapes is meant, and that Swedenborg translates the word
by mel, which signifies honey, eight times, which may be all
correct, though the inference they would have the reader
draw may admit of question; but as the point is no way
essential in this discussion, we waive its further considera-
tion, after simply quoting the following:
"Gesenius [whom "The Academy" class among the
highest authorities] says that the honey sent by Jacob to
Joseph (Gen. xliii. 11) was 'WINE boiled down to the con-
sistency of syrup.' The boiling must have taken place
before fermentation, since fermented wine cannot be boiled
down to a syrup.
Whatever it was, he calls it 'wine.'
"Communion Wine." Rev. W. M. Thayer.
It will be seen from the above that Gesenius is rather
hard on
"The Academy's" idea that there is no wine but
fermented wine.
Finally, "The Academy" editors sum up the linguistic.
aspect of our work on the wine question as follows:
'We see therefore that in its linguistic aspect, the work under re-
view is altogether in contradiction to what the learned world knows on
this subject. And the author's opinions being altogether opposed to the
facts of the case are false."
And so we are contemptuously dismissed. We do not
here care to impugn the scholarship of "The Academy,"
for of it we know little, and will say less; but we are free
to assert that they have written upon this subject without
having given it the consideration its importance demands.
Forgetting the indispensable rule, Audi alteram partem—
"Hear the other side;" and, accustomed to think there
could be only one side to the question, they have not been
at the trouble to examine what was said where they unwar-
rantably assumed there was nothing that could be said.
330
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
They went out to battle like Goliah, with sword and spear
and shield, clad in their usual armor, to crush their adver-
sary as men of war from their youth would crush a strip-
ling from the sheepfold. But the armor is useless either
for attack or defence, and their opponent remains un-
crushed. In going over the review, the reader must have
noticed the tone of authority and the spirit of contempt
for a layman who had presumed to express convictions not
in accord with those of "The Academy." It is not, how-
ever, the domineering spirit or the uncourteous manner of
saying what might have been expressed more forcibly in
kindlier words, that we would speak of now. We would
call the attention of the reader to the reiterated charge,
especially calculated to excite unreasoning prejudice
against our views, that we have blindly followed and are
seeking to bring into the New Church the doctrines of
"Old Church" writers. Surely, the reader thinks, "The
Academy," after they have seen us, as they think, stranded
on this rock, will pass by on the other side; but, alas! he
will be surprised to see them running upon the same rock,
and will reflect wonderingly on the fact that the writers
upon whom they depend, and whom they cite as unquestion-
able authority, are all of them what they call "Old Church"
writers, living near or after the consummation of the age.
We have no reason to believe that any of these lexicog-
raphers, when they wrote, had specially examined this
subject, and we have every reason to suppose that they all
thought it right and proper to use fermented wine, and,
without doubt, most if not all of them were in the habit of
drinking it.
The writer and many other New Churchmen and a host
of "Old Churchmen," numbering many of the best scholars
the world has contained, since the dawning light of the
New Jerusalem began to illuminate the mental horizon,
have not been satisfied with the superficial views of this
subject, to be derived from the dictionaries and commen-
WINE IN ANCIENT AND MODERN LANGUAGES. 331
taries alluded to above. Seeing the fearful evils which
had resulted and were resulting from the use of intoxicat-
ing drinks; earnest, consciencious men began to inquire,
"Is it true that the Bible really justifies and approves of
the use of intoxicating wine?" Very soon the question
arose,"
May not common honesty demand that we inter-
pret the Scriptures with the eye, the taste and the usages
of the ancients; and, not with the eye, the taste and usages
of the moderns?"
“As Dr. Beard says 'It is among the native Aramæan
population that the old traditions, knowledge and NAMES
are to be learnt'-not in towns where the language and
habits are corrupted with a foreign population. Ten years
back only a few philologists knew that wine, 100, 200, 300
and 1800 years ago, included 'unfermented wines,' but the
fact is not less certain, because modern usage and taste
have changed. A modern dictionary cannot destroy the
former meaning of antique words, but ought to preserve
their respective and successive senses by careful induction
of historical usage. The Bible is not written in technical
language, and the Encyclopædia Americana (Boston, 1855,)
concedes that 'the juice of grapes, when newly expressed,
and before it has begun to ferment, is called must, and, in
common language, sweet wine.'"-Bible Com.
Not knowing these important facts, for knowing them
we cannot for a moment suppose that they persistently
ignore them, our critics continually exclaim: There is
but one kind of wine, because 'wine' is defined in the dic-
tionaries as the fermented juice of the grape.'
Scholars who have the most critically examined this
question tell us :
"This is not true of the oldest dictionaries, and the
modern ones cannot settle the usage of words in ancient
times but only induction from the literature of antiquity.
A modern lexicon may define wine as 'the fermented juice
of the grape,' but what said the greatest of the logicians of
332
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
Discoursing
the thirteenth century-Thomas Aquinas ?
(the original can be seen in Migne's Patrologiæ, 4th book,
74th sec. 5th art.) of the proper substance to be used in
the eucharist, he says: Grape-juice (mustum) has the
specific quality of wine'-speciem vini. The objector falls
into the fallacy of excluding the 'mare' from the genus
'horse'; for, though fermented juice is wine,' it is so
not to the exclusion of the first form of wine-namely, the
unfermented juice. That the Angelical Doctor' was
right, usage will show :
6
Hippocrates (B. C. 400), in his work on diet, says,—
•
• Glukus is less fitted to make the head heavy than
OTHER WINE (oinòdeos).'
Athenæus, the Grammarian (A. D. 280), in his 'Ban-
quet' (lib. i. s. 54):
6
The Mitylenæans have a sweet wine (glukun OINON),
what they call prodromos, and others call it protropos.
And again (ii. 24), he says to the dyspeptic tippler,-
'Let him take sweet wine, either mixed with water or
warmed, especially that kind called protropos, the sweet
Lesbian glukus, as being good for the stomach; for sweet
WINE (oinos) does not make the head heavy.'
Dioscorides (A. D. 90), in his 'Materia Medica,' express-
ly ranks the Roman SAPA, 'boiled wine'-Hebrew sovai
or sobai-under the 'genus VINI.'
6
،
Lord Bacon, in his Natural History' (1597), says,—
As wines which at first pressing run gently yield a more
pleasant taste,
so observations which flow from
Scripture gently expressed and naturally expounded are most
wholesome and sweet.'
Parkinson (1640), in the 'Theatrum Botanicum,' says:
The juice or liquor pressed out of the grape is called
VINUM-wine.'
6
W. Robertson, M. A., Cambridge (1693), in 'Phraseologia
Generalis'-WINE; vinum, MERUM.-New WINE, mustum.
-New wine that runs out without pressing; mustum lixi-
"THE ACADEMY " AND THE DICTIONARIES.
333
vium.-WINE prest. VINUM tortivum.-WINE yet on the
tree; VINUM pendens.'
E. Chambers, F. R. S., in his 'Cyclopædia' (6th Ed.
1750), has the following, a mere translation from an older
French dictionary:
<
(
WINE, in France, is distinguishable into-Mère-goutte,
'mother-drop'; which is the 'VIRGIN-WINE,'-which runs of
itself out of a tap in the vat. Must, surmust, or stum ;
which is the WINE or liquor in the vat, after the grapes
have been trod. Pressed WINE, VIN de pressurage,' is that
squeezed with a press out of the grapes. Sweet WINE, VIN
doux,' is that which has not yet fermented. Natural WINE
is such as comes from the grape without mixture. Burnt
WINE is that boiled up with sugar. There is also a sort of
Malmsey WINE, made by boiling of Muscadine.' ”—Bible
Commentary.
So "The Academy" will see that they are not even sus-
tained in their views by the dictionaries and encyclopædias.
When this inquiry was first raised as to what the Sacred
Scriptures really teach as to wines, it became manifest that
for a correct understanding of the apparently conflicting
passages, it was necessary not only to study the Sacred
Scriptures in the original languages more critically and
carefully, but also to study the habits and customs of the
ancients, at the various periods when the different books of
the Word were written. Diligent students commenced the
careful study of the writings of the ancients with special
reference to points we are considering; and they have gath-
ered an immense amount of information which shows con-
clusively that the ancients were in the habit of making
two kinds of wine, one unfermented and the other fer-
mented, and that they were both called wine. Of one kind,
ancient writers say it will not intoxicate; but of the other,
that it will. Many of these men who have made these re-
searches have written works which are as accessible to the
gentlemen of "The Academy" as they are to the writer and
334 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
to other New Churchmen; and while there is no reason why
they should not have examined them, there are many reasons
why they should have done so. The writer, in his work,
called attention to, and made quotations from, a large num-
ber of such works. Take, for instance, "The Temperance
Bible Commentary," containing 469 pages, written by Dr.
F. R. Lees and Rev. Dawson Burns, in which every word and
sentence in the Bible referring to wine and strong drink
have been most critically examined, both as to the origin of
the words and as to their true meaning, and all illustrated
by the habits and customs of the ancients.
The above-named work is the result of years of the most
careful investigation, research and study, and of this work
distinguished scholars have said:
"It is unique in its kind as a collection and fair presen-
tation of everything in Scripture that can possibly bear on
the question. It sets before us the whole matter-Hebrew,
Greek, Latin, Syriac, Chaldee.
"Regarded simply as a Biblical treatise, having no
reference to a much disputed moral question, it would be
pronounced by scholars a work of high philological value."
-Professor TAYLER LEWIS, Union College.
兽
​"The more I look into this noble work, the more do I
admire its breadth, depth, and exhaustiveness. It is a
truly grand contribution."-Professor GUTHRIE, Glasgow.
Now, we ask every intelligent reader, if such a work as
the above and numerous other works, all the result of a
special examination of this subject, to which we called the at-
tention of our readers, in our book on the wine question, are
not more reliable and trustworthy than "The Academy's
"Old Church" dictionaries, encyclopædias and commen-
taries written by men who had given the subject no special
examination? Please remember that the dictionaries, etc.,
to which the editors refer, and upon which they rely, were
all written by "Old Churchmen," whom they seem to
hold in such contempt.
THE VIEWS OF PROF. BUSH.
335
At an early period of the temperance reformation, "Mr.
E. E. Delavan, having been referred to Prof. Bush, as a
learned Biblical scholar from whom he might obtain correct
information as to Bible temperance, visited him in his
library, and stated to him his views on the wine question.
With promptness he condemned them, and, referring to a
text, he said: 'This verse upsets your theory.' When asked
to refer to the original, he did so, and with amazement,
said: 'No permission to drink intoxicating wine here. I
do not care about wine, and it is very seldom that I taste
it, but I felt until now at liberty to drink, in moderation,
from this verse' Being entreated to make this a subject
of special and particular examination, he said he would.
At a subsequent visit he thus greeted Mr. Delavan: 'You
have the whole ground, and, in time, the whole Christian
world will be obliged to adopt your views.' At the request
of Mr. Delavan, he published his views in the New York
Observer (Enquirer, August, 1869). This testimony is the
more valuable as it is not only the result of a careful examina-
tion of the original languages, but the honest surrender to
the force of evidence of a previous conviction.”—Bible
Wines, by the Rev. Wm. Patton, D. D.
Prof. Bush lived at a period when it was almost univer-
sally believed to be right to drink fermented wine; he felt
free to use it, but was not regularly addicted to its use,
nor was he so strongly confirmed in his belief but that he
could in freedom examine the question in the light of the
Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. Can we really think his
opinion, formed after a critical examination of the subject,
is entitled to no more respect than "The Academy's?"
CHAPTER III.
ASSUMPTION THAT THERE IS BUT ONE KIND OF WINE-
<
•
IGNORING EVERYTHING WHICH CONFLICTS THEREWITH.
“The Academy” say :
The author, indeed, endeavors to show that Swedenborg recognizes
two kinds of wine, both called vinum, the one fermented and the other
unfermented but the only passage which he brings to support this strange
assertion is mistranslated, and thus rendered is quoted eighteen times in
the course of the book. It is found first on the title-page, and reads:
'Such wines and strong drink (?) as cause drunkenness.' This would
seem to imply that there are also wines and strong drink which do not
cause drunkenness. Any scholar would at once know that since wine is
fermented grape-juice, and strong drink is in the original 'intoxicating
drink,'-[That this is always the case our best scholars deny-E.]—the
passage, as the author quotes it, would mean 'Such fermented grape-
juice and intoxicating drink as cause intoxication.' [Is this a fair and
just representation ?-E.] And as this would be evidently absurd, the
scholar would at once go to the Latin to rectify the mistranslation. If the
author had pursued this course he would have seen that the passage simply
reads in the original: Wine and strong drink which cause intoxication,'
thus leaving no support whatever to his fancies."
;
What seems a little pleasantry in the above may be in-
tended for sarcasm. A man need not even be a scholar to
know that fermented grape-juice is wine, provided it has
not become vinegar; but it seems there are men, who arro-
gate to themselves credit for scholarship, who do not at
once know that wine is not always fermented grape-juice,
because unfermented grape-juice is also wine; and it is on
this point the question turns, notwithstanding the pointless
sarcasm and logic of "The Academy." When the editors.
affirm that "any scholar would at once know that, since
wine is fermented grape-juice," etc., they speak as might a
backwoodsman when told of white bear skins. Who knew
336
FERMENTED WINE AND FALSES FROM EVIL. 337
bears better than he? For he had hunted them, and they
him; so we hear him reply, in "Academy" logic: "Any
fool would know that, since bears are black, there can be
no white bear skins." But there are white bears, and there
is unfermented wine, despite "The Academy's" logic.
The translators of the "Apocalypse Explained" were good
Latin scholars, and it is evident they did not put in the
words "such" and "as" without honestly thinking that
it made Swedenborg's meaning more clear. The words
were certainly not put in accidentally, or through mistake,
and it is quite evident the translators were not influenced
by total abstinence views. We followed the present trans-
lation because it is the accepted translation, and while we
do not think that the translators erred in giving for the
general reader their somewhat free rendering of this pas-
sage, yet we think, when critically examined, it will be seen
that the literal translation is really more satisfactory to the
advocates of total abstinence, and shows more conclusively
that there are two kinds of wine than the received trans-
lation. Let us look at the two translations a moment.
Swedenborg does not in his comparison immediately pre-
ceding this compare falses not from evil to water, nor
to waters, nor to an abuse, or intemperate use of water,
and for the very good reason that water corresponds to
truth. Now, is there no intimation, or representation, if you
please, that there is another kind of water which is pure
and corresponds to truth, when he compares falses, not
from evil, not to pure water, but to impure water, as he
does? So when Swedenborg compares falses from evil, he
does not, according to "The Academy's" translation, com-
pare them to wine nor to strong drink, for he well knew
that pure wine and strong drink have a good signification, nor
does he compare falses from evil to an abuse or intemper-
ate use of wine and strong drink; but in language which
is just as plain as it is possible to use, he compares such
falses to wine and strong drink that induce drunkenness."
6
338
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
He clearly and distinctly describes the kinds of wine and
strong drink, to which he refers, by their effects on man.
Why should he do this if there were, in his estimation, but one
kind of wine, and that fermented wine? It cannot be
denied that he speaks of the inherent quality of the wine,
and there is not the slightest allusion to its excessive use or
..abuse.
"The Academy" claim, in their notice of the present
writer's tract on pure wine, to have shown that Sweden-
borg's comparisons were written according to correspond-
ence: according to their own teaching then, is it not perfectly
clear and certain that fermented wine corresponds to falses
from evil; and if so, must there not be a good wine which
corresponds to spiritual truths? The advocates for total
abstinence might rest their case here, and "The Academy"
could never overthrow it. They could not take the first
step without denying their own doctrines.
NOAH'S DRUNKENNESS.
""
The editors say: "The author probably reaches the climax of his
falsification of history in the following ;
"The time was in those lands (Palestine, etc.) when fermented wine
was not called wine at all, but it existed under other names, and unfer-
mented wine was the wine' (p. 69). This assertion is made without the
least particle of foundation, and is one of the many fictions with which
the author strives to support his position,"
The above statement was made from memory,
based upon a statement in Rev. William Thayer's
munion Wine," which reads as follows:
and was
"Com-
"The numerous authorities already cited to show that
unfermented grape-juice is wine, also prove that unfer-
-mented wine existed.
((
Here, then, in spite of assertions to the contrary, is the
thing which we call unfermented wine. No quibble about
the use of terms can avail, for here is the thing, by what-
ever name it is called. The name of it may have been
WINE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.
339
different in different ages; for, as we have seen, Pliny says,
that intoxicating wine, vinum, was once called temetum;
and in the East now, krasion has displaced the classical
oinos."
The writer cheerfully admits that his statement, "in
those lands," was too general, for it had no other founda-
tion than the above, but, as already stated, it was made
from memory without having the work containing the above
statement before him.
The editors continue :
The fact that from the first the term wine (yayin) signified true-
i. e., fermented wine, is evident that its earliest mention in the Bible is
in the history of Noah, where it is referred to as an intoxicating bever-
age. The fact that this is not real but correspondential history does
not in the least affect the argument ;-[The reader will please bear this
in mind.-E.]—for we see from it that the writer who penned this state-
ment, and the people who read it in far-off antiquity (like Worcester and
Webster of this day), knew of wine simply as the fermented juice of
the grape, which when taken in excess produces intoxication. [Unfor-
tunately for the gentlemen of “ The Academy," we have seen in the pre-
ceding chapter, the dictionaries do also recognize unfermented grape-
juice, which does not produce intoxication, as wine.-E.] That wine
(yayin) preserved this signification throughout the whole of Bible history
may be evident to any one from careful consideration. [No one questions
but that intoxicating wine is often referred to.-E.] Intoxicating wine is
evidently referred to in the story of Lot (1898 B. C.), also in the story
of Hannah (1171 B. C.)—' Eli said unto her, how long wilt thou be
drunken? Put away thy wine from thee.' And Hannah answered, ‘I
have neither drunk wine nor strong drink.' This passage not only
proves the quality of the wine used at that time, but also shows the
falsity of the author's quotation: 'It is beyond all reasonable doubt that
orthodox Judaism has ever and always rejected alcoholic or fermented
wine at sacred feasts.' It shows how careless of the truth are the up-
holders of abstinence when they wish to prove their points. So again in
the case of Nabal (1060 B. C.): 'Nabal's heart was merry within him,
for he was very drunken. But it came to pass in the morning, when the
wine was gone from Nabal,' etc. So we read of 'Amnon's heart merry
with wine' (1032 B.C.); and in Isaiah (758 B.C.)—'They have erred
through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way.' In Jere-
miah (599 B.C.) we read; I am like a drunken man, and like a man
340 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S
REVIEW.
whom wine has overcome.' In Zechariah (518 B.C.), 'They shall drink
and make a noise as through wine." And they of Ephraim shall be
like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine.' Cer-
tainly in these passages, taken from the various books of the Old Testa-
ment, wine is not our author's grape-jelly! Wine is there just what it is
now defined to be-'the fermented juice of the grape.' Therefore the
author's assertion to the contrary is wholly unsupported by the Word of
God, and is utterly false."
Now, it is difficult to see what many of the above passages
from the Word have to do with the subject under considera-
tion, unless it may be to show that in those days they had
fermented wine, which caused drunkenness then as now;
but, so far as we are aware, no one has called this in
question.
But we would call the reader's attention especially to one
of the above quotations, and if it proves what "The
Academy" assert, viz., that fermented wine was used at
Jewish feasts, then "The Academy" are right to call atten-
tion to it, and to make the best possible use of it; but if
"The Academy" are utterly wrong in their inferences from
the incident it mentions, how erroneous are their conclu-
sions? Hannah's supposed drunkenness proves nothing
as to the permitted use of fermented wine at a sacred
feast; for, 1st, she had not used wine at all, and, 2d,
she was reproved on the supposition that she had used
wine; and Eli said unto her, "How long wilt thou
be drunken ? Put away thy wine from thee.
Hannah said, I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink."
"Granted," "The Academy" may say, "but the presump-
tion that she was drunk shows that fermented wine was per-
mitted, and Eli only reproved the excess." If we grant this
argument let us see what follows from it. In the next
chapter Eli reproves another irregularity, this time in his
sons, who officiated in the priesthood. "Now, Eli heard
all that his sons did unto all Israel, and how they lay with
the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, And he said, Why do ye such things,
And
ELI'S SONS-TWO KINDS OF WINE.
341
for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people." Now,
the sin that Eli reproved in his sons was fornication, but,
according to the logic of "The Academy," this reproof of
Eli's sons was not a reproof of fornication generally, or of
priestly fornication especially, but it shows that fornication
was allowed by orthodox Jews at religious feasts, and is
simply given because these two men were too promiscuous
and exceeded the bounds of moderation.
The truth is those were evil times, and good Eli prob-
ably saw around him drunkenness and shamelessness-
almost inseparable companions-and he strove to put away
what led to them. It is hard that his reproof of them as
irregularities and sins should be brought forward as a
proof that they were allowed, and that we are careless of
truth. We do not believe that "The Academy" are as
careless of truth as they appear to be in their reasoning
and citations. If the writer cannot clearly sustain his
views by the Word of the Lord and the writings of the
Church, and confirm them by ancient history and science,
then let them be judged "utterly false."
"The Academy" say that there is but one kind of WINE
recognized in the Word and Writings, and that this is fer-
mented wine. The present writer says that there are two
kinds : one fermented and poisonous, the other unfermented
and harmless-the one a curse, when used as a beverage,
the other a blessing: and that these two kinds of wine are
distinctly characterized by their effects on man, when he
uses them as a beverage.
Although the writer has abundantly shown in the pre-
ceding pages that the sacred Scriptures in the Hebrew,
Greek, Latin and English languages recognize both un-
fermented and fermented grape juice as wine, still
as "The Academy" repeatedly ignore all this, it becomes
necessary to reply by line upon line of positive proof,
especially from the writings of the Church.
"Wine, vinum, denotes the false grounded in evil, No.
7.
342
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
6377, hence the wine (vinum) of fornication denotes
the false grounded in the perversion of truth" (A. C. 8904).
There is not the slightest allusion here to abuse, improper
uses or excessive use, but to the quality of the wine.
"And the wine-press was trodden without the city. That
hereby is signified the production of the false grounded in evil
from hell, appears from the signification of treading the wine-
press, as denoting to produce truth from good, and, in the
opposite sense, to produce false from evil, for grapes of
which wine (vinum) is made in the wine-press, signify
the good of charity, and, in the opposite sense, evil, and
from good is produced truth, from evil the false" (A. E.
922). Without the city, in the above passage, we are told
denotes from hell, and from hell we know grows nothing
but wild, sour, bitter, or poisonous grapes.
"As grapes represent charity, so does wine (vinum) the
faith thence derived, for wine (vinum) is from grapes
(A. C. 1071). Vinum (wine) Swedenborg tells us is from
grapes; where is the ferment or leaven? Is the essential
ingredient in fermented wine, alcohol, ever obtained directly
from grapes? Never, and grapes never produced a single
drop of fermented wine, for the latter is produced by leaven
in its destructive action on the nourishing substances
organized by the Lord in the grape.
6
We read in Isaiah: "Thus saith Jehovah, as the new
wine (mustum) is found in the cluster, and he saith, ' Destroy
it not, because a blessing is in it' (lxv. 8); the cluster
means charity, and new wine (mustum) its goods and truths
(A. C. 1071).
The above is a general declaration, it will be seen, as to
new wine or must in the cluster. There is no allusion to
the natural principle in the above; it is only when predi-
cated of the natural that must has such a signification.
Must in the cluster is of necessity unfermented must, and
contains neither leaven nor alcohol. Hosea iii. 1.2,
"Wine
(vinum) signifies truths of doctrine from the Word, grapes
NOAH'S DRUNKENNESS NOT CAUSED BY GOOD WINE.343
signify the good from whence truths are derived ” (A. E.
374). [This is clear and straight.-E.]
Jeremiah xxxi. 12: "Here by wheat, new wine (mustum)
and oil are signified goods and truths of every kind"
(A. E. 376).
Now, after the above clear and distinct statement as to
the signification of must, is it really necessary to ferment
our wine in order to get a wine which corresponds to truth?
"every kind" of truth would seem to include about all.
As to Noah's drunkenness, we read :
"His drinking of the wine denotes his desire to search
into the doctrines of faith, as is proved by the signification
of wine. A vineyard, or a vine, as has been shown, repre-
sents the spiritual church, or the man of that church; and
a grape, and bunches, and clusters of grapes are the fruits
thereof, and signify charity and what appertains to it.
Now, wine denotes the faith thence derived, and all that
belongs to it; and thus the grape is the celestial principle
of that church, and wine its spiritual principle; the former,
as has been often previously observed, having relation to
the will, and the latter to the understanding. That his
drinking of the wine signifies his desire to search into the
tenets of faith, and this, by reasonings, is evident from the
fact of his being drunken-that is, falling into errors"
(A. C. 1071).
The reader will please bear in mind that Noah planted a
vineyard, and he drank of the wine from that vineyard, the
vineyard of his own planting; and his doing this, Sweden-
borg tells us, "signifies his desire to search into the tenets
of faith, and this by reasonings ;" and the result was drunk-
enness or falling into errors. Our editors tell us above that
"the fact that this is not real but correspondential history
does not in the least affect the argument." Now, we will ask
the reader if good natural wine, which has a good sig-
nification, corresponds to such desires and false reason-
ings as caused Noah's drunkenness? We know that it
344
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
does not; for Swedenborg gives us, in the very para-
graph above from the A. C., most beautifully the true
signification of the vine, grape and wine.
"The grape
is the celestial principle of that Church: and the wine
its spiritual principle." The grape, we see, was pure and
not fermented, and the same was true of the wine; both
were as the Lord made them: whereas, fermented wine,
like the wine which Noah drank, is strictly man-made, or
the result of human skill and ingenuity aided by leaven;
and in a warm climate it requires no little skill to properly
ferment and preserve fermented wine, and prevent it from
changing into vinegar. Noah's drunkenness, the reader
will bear in mind, was not caused by an abuse or excess of
good wine, or of truth and true reasonings, any more than
natural drunkenness can be caused by unfermented wine,
which we know is impossible. In the light of correspond-
ences and the spiritual sense of the Word, have we not
here, in the very first chapter of the Word, where wine and
drunkenness are mentioned, positive evidence that there
are two kinds of natural wine; one which will not cause
drunkenness and another which will-clearly described?
The good wine we find associated with corn and oil, and
as being one of the greatest blessings, and we can with no
more propriety assume that such passages mean fermented
wine, than we can that corn means whiskey, and oil rancid
oil. The word wine is admitted by our able scholars to be
a generic word including all kinds of wine. Even in
Nehemiah v. 18, we have the phrase, "all sorts of wine"
(yayin).
"YAYIN (by some written Yin, Yain or Ain) stands
generically for the expressed juice of the grape-the con-
text sometimes indicating whether the juice had undergone
or not the process of fermentation. It is mentioned 141
times."
"As a generic term yayin became applicable to wine of
four species:
UNFERMENTED GRAPE-JUICE CALLED WINE (YA YIN).345
こ
​"(a) It is used sometimes in the sense of the vinum
pendens of the Latins. As Cato speaks of the 'hanging
wine' (de re rustica, cxlvii.), so Deut. xxviii. 39 refers to
yayin as a thing to be gathered by men or eaten by worms.
In Isa. xvi. 10 and Jer. xlviii. it is used for the grapes to be
trodden in the vat (see Gesenius). In Psa. civ. 15, Jer. xl.
10, 12, possibly in Isa. lv. 1, probably in Deut. xiv. 26, it is
applied to 'the grape in the cluster.' The Rabbins have a
similar use of the word. Baal Hatturim, in Deut. xvi. 1I,
says, 'At Pentecost, when corn is reaped, and wine is now
in the grapes.' In wine countries, the common language
applied to the growing grapes is, 'the wine blooms." The
grape cure is called the 'wein cur.' In Spain they say, una
buena cosecha de vino, 'a good gathering of wine.'-(Father
Connelly's Diccionario Nuevo, Madrid, 1798.) A traveler
in the Pyrenees says, 'Flocks of sheep and goats enliven
the hills; corn and wine, flax and oil, hang on the slopes '--
(Collins' Voyages, 1796, p. 82).
"(b) Yayin, as used very frequently for the foaming
blood of the grape,' was, as we have said, probably applied
to the expressed juice because of its turbid appearance.
Perhaps the claret grape, which has red juice, suggested
the metaphor, 'He washed his garments in yayin, his clothes
in the blood of grapes.' (Compare Gen. xlix. 12 with Isa,
lxiii. 1-3).
In Job xxxii. 19 the word is applied to the
must-wine, translated by the Septuagint gleukos. Cant. v. I
(compared with vii. 9) refers to a sweet, innocent yayin,
which might be drunk 'abundantly' by young women. A
peculiar use of the corresponding Chaldee term, khamar, is
occasionally found in the Targums. Wine reserved in its
grapes' (Targum on Cant. viii. 2). On Cant. i. 14 we fall
back on the other sense: They took clusters of grapes
and pressed wine out of them.'
(
"(c) In Prov. ix. 2, 5, yayin seems to point to a boiled
wine, or syrup, the thickness of which made it needful to
mingle water with it before drinking; while, unmixed with
:
346
A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
fluid, it was probably consumed with milk (Isa. lv. 1; com-
pare v. 23, Ezek. xxvii. 18).
"(d) There was also the yayin mixed with drugs of vari-
ous sorts; the mixed wine of the sensualist, spiced and
inebriating; a cup of still stronger ingredients, used as the
emblem of Divine judgments, 'the cup of malediction'
(Psa. lxxv. 8); the 'turbid wine' full of poison.”—Temper-
ance Bible Commentary.
And yet our editorial critics boldly claim that the He-
brew word yayin, never means anything else than fermented
wine. How strange, for in Jeremiah xl. 10,12. we read :
"But gather ye wine (yayin), and summer fruits and oils,"
and we read that they "gathered wine and summer fruits
very much." Chapter xlviii. 33, "And I have caused wine
(yayin) to fail from the wine-presses." In Isaiah xvi. 10, “The
treaders shall tread out no wine (yayin) from their presses."
Isa. lv., "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat;
yea, come, buy wine (yayin) and milk without money and
without price." Now, can any sane man believe that in
the above passages a reference is made to a wine which has
been polluted by leaven-a fermented and intoxicating
wine? We know to the contrary.
The light which is thrown upon this whole subject by the
philosophy of the New Church, and the science of corres-
pondences, renders it perfectly clear, as we have seen in
the preceding pages, and we shall see hereafter, that there
are two kinds of wine, both called wine in the Word and in
the Writings, one unfermented and unintoxicating, and the
other fermented and intoxicating. Swedenborg tells us
that "Whereas all truth is from good, as all wine (vinum)
is from grapes, therefore by wine in the Word is signified
truth from good" (A. E. 918). If all wine is from grapes,
as Swedenborg assures us, and the grapes do not contain
any alcohol, which is the essential ingredient in fermented
wine, and the one for which man aided by leaven ferments
REV. WM. GUTHRIE ON WINE (YAYIN).
347
it, how can we claim that fermented wine, which is full of
alcohol, is the fruit of the vine, or that it has a good signifi-
cation; especially when we know, as we do, that the alco-
hol is not even the product of the vine, but that it is pro-
duced by the actual destruction of the gluten and sugar,
both good and useful ingredients of the wine, by ferment
or leaven, which signifies "the false of evil," and "the evil
and the false," which, Swedenborg tells us, "should not be
mixed with things good and true?"
Again, we are told that, "By the produce of the wine-
press was signified all the truth of the good of the Church, the
same as by wine " (A. E. 799). Can we have anything more
than all?
Not a single drop of fermented wine was ever pressed
by a wine-press from sound, healthy grapes. Can anything
be plainer than this? Yet all this, and everything else,
which militates against their pet theory, and which con-
demns the use of intoxicating beverages, the editors who
represent "The Academy" ignore absolutely.
Rev. Dr. H. Johnson, in his tract on the wine of the Word,
speaking of the various passages of Scripture where unfer-
mented wine is signified, says truly in regard to the good wine
of the Word; and Swedenborg, we have seen, fully sustains
him: “Here, then, is frequent reference to the pure, unfer-
mented juice of the grape, just trodden out of the presses,
just gathered for the vintage, even found in the cluster.
And here this grape-juice is repeatedly, and by the Jews them-
selves in their own Scriptures, called WINE, both yayin and
tirosh.
'
Now, by no possible device of reason or fetch of logic
can this be made the wine that is a mocker.' Wine fresh
from the cluster or the press mocks or deceives no man.
The guile of the serpent has not yet entered it, for alcohol
requires time and a process for its formation."
Rev. Wm. Guthrie, of Scotland, an able scholar, who has
examined the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures with great care,
348
A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
gives in his work as a result of his inquiry, the following
strong words :
THE RESULT OF INQUIRY ON YAIN.
"We have thus carefully examined all that the Bible says
about yain, and what is the result? We have not found, in
all these passages of the Word of God, the shadow of a
sanction for the use of intoxicating wine. We have looked
at Scripture warnings respecting wine; we have seen them
to be distinct and emphatic against inebriating drink. We
have considered Scripture promises and permissions of
wine; we have found them affording no countenance to
the use of intoxicating drink. We have reviewed every
mode of Scripture expression regarding wine; we have dis-
covered nowhere either an explicit or implied sanction of
intoxicating drink. Our ear has been attentive to the
Divine Oracle to hear approval of this, if approval is given;
but in all these one hundred and forty-one utterances of
the Almighty voice, we have found not one sanction of the
use of intoxicating or inebriating wine. Yet this word we
have considered is the key to our position. If a breach in
the defence we offer can be made, it must be here, on what
the Bible says about yain. Here the argument must be
made good for the sanction of intoxicating drink, if it is
to be established at all. Nevertheless, as seems to us, it
here most signally fails; and our conclusion is, that no
countenance is given, by any one of these texts, to the use
of wine which intoxicates. On this branch of our inquiry,
then, we have set aside one hundred and forty-one of the
Bible witnesses; and by proving their silence as to an oppo-
site testimony, we have shown that the truth lies on our
side.
"Nor must those opposed to us be allowed here the benefit
of a subterfuge to which some do not scruple to flee. They
appeal to these warning texts n proof that Scripture wines
were intoxicating, and then they refer to the approval texts
RESULT OF INQUIRY ON YAYIN (WINE).
349
for the Divine sanction of it. They quote the one to find
the quality of the liquor; they quote the other for the
approbation of God on it. Who does not see that this is to
join what God has put asunder, and to build an argument
on a foundation of sand? Go, if you will, to both these
parts of the Word of God, but take heed that you say not
you find anything there but what He has put in it! Go to
the one part, and find there, if you will, the intoxicating
principle of a liquor as apparent in its specified effects.
Stand there; listen with profound awe to God's warning
against the use of this soul-destroying thing. Go to the
other part, and find there, if you will, expression of Divine
approval, as apparent in word or emblem. Abide there,
mark well the voice of the Holy One, yet say, if you can
find here a syllable of approval of what intoxicates. Here,
then you have got two things in the Bible-the intoxicating
quality of a drink defined, the divine approbation of a
drink expressed; but what you still want is these two
things joined together, so as to show that that Divine
approbation rests on that intoxicating drink. Till you can
show the connection between these two things, we protest
against their alliance; we protest not less against your
going to one class of Scripture texts to prove one thing,
and repairing to a second to prove quite another. Once
more we say, it is in the approval texts where your argu-
ment must stand or fall. Go to these-they are not many
in number-examine them one by one. We concede to
you, God in these approves of wine; and we demand of
you proof in these texts that that wine is intoxicating. We
require this proof, not in vague inference or far-fetched
argument, but established by intelligible deduction from
the plain words of God. Surely, if the Author of the
Bible meant to give his sanction to intoxicating drink
anywhere in His Word, some hint of it will be found in
His expressions respecting wine, which He distinctly
approves. Yet where is there one word or hint to this
350 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
effect throughout the entire Scriptures? We believe the
Divine Book will be searched for this in vain. There is
warning, there is admonition, there is reproof, but there
is, we believe, not one word of approval or sanction of
the use of intoxicating liquor in the whole Bible."
Impelled by a conviction of the practical importance of
this question, the writer has devoted much time and labor
to an examination of the writings of Swedenborg, and before
doing this he put away the false doctrines of the "Old
Church" (of which he had never been a member) upon this
subject; and he does not hesitate to say, as the result of his
labor, that there is not a single passage in Swedenborg's writ -
ings, which, fairly interpreted in the light of the fundamental
principles inculcated therein, will justify the use of fer-
mented wine as a beverage or as a communion wine; but
there are, as he has already shown and will hereafter show,
a large number of passages, which either directly or indi-
rectly clearly teach that a wine which will intoxicate is a
perverted wine, and is "unholy and unclean," and that it is
justly compared by Swedenborg to falses from evil, and be-
yond all question, being an unclean and poisonous substance,
it has its origin or life from hell, according to the philosophy
of the New Church.
How can New Churchmen, with the clear light which is
thrown upon this subject by the spiritual sense of the Word,
the science of correspondences, and the express teachings
of Swedenborg, continue to justify the use of fermented
wine as a beverage and as a communion wine?
CHAPTER IV.
ASSUMPTION THAT ALCOHOLIC AND
FERMENTED
DRINKS
ARE NOT POISONS; AND IGNORING THE TEACHINGS
OF THE WORD, THE WRITINGS OF THE CHURCH, AND
CONCLUSIONS OF SCIENCE.
A TRULY marvelous assumption and ignoring is contained
in the following from "Words for the New Church;" more
surprising because coming from men making the preten-
sions that are made by its editors:
"The author is equally at fault when, from his inner consciousness
he develops the signification of alcohol. We read, ' Pure spirit we know,
by its effects, corresponds to falses from evil' (p. 150). 'We know both
from its origin and effects, that it (alcohol) corresponds to infernal delights'
(p. 161). Now when we turn to the Writings we find that the author is
nowhere sustained in this assertion, but, on the contrary, he is in open
and irreconcilable conflict with their teachings; for the only passage in
which the signification of alcohol is referred to is in Conjugial Love where
spiritual purification is compared with the rectification of natural spirits
and wisdom purified with alcohol (C. L. 145). · We are aware that the
author disputes the correctness of this comparison, and also that compar-
isons in the Word and in the Writings are made in accordance with corres-
pondence [Can "The Academy" tell us where he has done this? He has
certainly disputed their interpretation of such comparisons.-E.]; but our
readers will have little difficulty in choosing between the statements of
the Writings and the assertions of our author."
Is it possible that our editors have never read the “True
Christian Religion?" The writer can hardly think it; but
if they have, how can they ignore the following compari-
son? In speaking of the effects of the doctrine of "Jus
tification by faith alone" on the clergy, Swedenborg says:
"And since they are intoxicated in all their thoughts by
that doctrine, just as if they had drunk of the vinous
spirit called alcohol, therefore, in such a state of inebria-
351
352 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
tion they cannot discern this most essential tenet of the
Church, viz. that Jehovah God descended, and assumed
the humanity"—(T. C. R. 98).
There is no allusion to excess here: it is drinking vinous
spirit itself which produces physical and mental inebriation,
as the above doctrine does spiritual inebriation. The in-
herent quality or life of the alcohol, without any regard
to its abuse or excessive use, carefully described by its ef-
fects on man, when he drinks it, is compared to the false
doctrine which causes spiritual inebriation; whereas, in
the comparison in "Conjugial Love," the purity of wisdom
purified is compared simply to the purity of the alcohol
after it has been, as far as possible by the various processes
named, freed from its water and other impurities. It is
clearly manifest that this comparison has no reference to
this purified alcohol as a beverage, for pure alcohol cannot
be thus used.
A writer over the signature A. S., in a New Church
periodical, in reply to an editorial criticism on the "Wine
Question," says:
"In your criticism of Dr. Ellis's article on the wine ques-
tion, you, with an apparent flourish of trumpets, say, ‘But he
neglects to quote C. L. 145, where it is stated that 'wisdom
purified may be compared to alcohol;' this is certainly a
very strange omission on the part of our correspondent.'
To this we would reply that a better comparison could not
have been given; but you stop short at the wrong place, for,
inasmuch as it would be improper for us to drink at the bro-
ken cistern of our 'purified wisdom,' it would also be equally
improper to drink of the alcohol to which it is compared;
certain is it, that either draught would produce intoxication
according to the degree it was partaken of. If the one is
wrong, the other is wrong also, otherwise the comparison
fails."
In the A. C. 8226, Swedenborg likens or compares the
order which exists in the hells with the order which exists
PUNCH IN THE SPIRITUAL LONDON.
353
in the heavens; but from this comparison have we any rea-
son to suppose that a life here in accordance with the order
which exists in the hells, however temperately indulged in,
or however diluted, if you please, would have a good
signification and would be a true life?
"If there is no difference between comparisons and cor-
respondences, the Lord himself, said to come like a thief
in the night, would be accountable for the evil man whom
He is merely likened to or compared with." (H. S. Sutton
in The Morning Light.)
The entire arguments of our opponents, with a single
exception alluded to below, it will be seen depend on “Old
Church" dictionaries, and upon a few comparisons to be found
in Swedenborg's writings, which, as is seen above, and in the
writer's work on the wine question, must have a different
interpretation from that given by the advocates of intoxi-
cating drinks; or Swedenborg contradicts Swedenborg, and
conflicts with scientific facts with which he was unques-
tionably familiar, just as distinctly and clearly as it is possi-
ble for him to do. The writer, in his previous work, en-
deavored to show, as he will in this, that Swedenborg is
always in accord with himself and with science; but that
our opponents place a forced and erroneous interpretation
upon these comparisons, when they strive by them to jus-
tify the use of fermented wine and alcoholic drinks.
Aside from Swedenborg's comparisons, we know of but
one passage in all his writings which can be so construed
as to appear to justify the use of intoxicating drinks; and
as the editors seem to be fond of parading it in their
columns, they evidently regard it as a very important one,
therefore we may as well introduce it here:
Conversing with the spirits of the spiritual London, where, be it
remembered, men were preparing for heaven, Swedenborg asked concern-
ing wines, liquors, beers, cocoa, tea, etc. The reply was that there were
such things there. 'I asked,' he continues, 'likewise concerning the
liquor called punch.' The reply was that this liquor is also with them, but
it is given only to the sincere and industrious' (S. D. vol. iv. p. 88),
354 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
This passage from "Words for the New Church," we
understand, is floating around in the secular press; whether
to the advantage of the "New Church" or not the reader
can judge for himself. As it is manifestly the strongest
passage, apparently, favoring their side of this question,
which they are able to bring, and is placed as a part of
their "incontestable testimony," the present writer does not
feel disposed to censure them for parading it in their col-
umns. But he would simply intimate to the editors that
the spirits named above, however "sincere and indus-
trious," before they can be admitted into heaven, will have
to come into a state in which they can act from higher
motives than such as can be gratified by a glass of punch.
It is not strange that many men who have cultivated a love
for punch in this world, even though they are not interiorly
evil men, should still desire it when they enter the spiritual
world, and should be willing to work for it there as they
have done here. Our doctrines teach us plainly that it is
better to strive to put away such evils in this world, for
then we shall be able to see the truth upon this subject,
which we can never see clearly until we are in a measure
willing to abstain from the evils which the truth condemns.
For Swedenborg says: "Man is able of himself to ab-
stain from evils, but he cannot of himself receive good;
the reason why man of himself abstains from evils is, because
the Lord continually flows in into the the will of man with
that endeavor, and thereby puts in his freedom to desist
from evils, also to apply himself to good; the Lord likewise
gives him the faculty of understanding truth, but the rea-
son why he does not understand is, because he is not willing
to understand, and this on account of evil which is of life,
for the false defends evil, and truth damns it” (A. C. 8307).
Now it is perfectly clear from the above, that, notwith-
standing the fearful results which follow, and always have
followed, the drinking of intoxicating drinks, no man
while he continues to drink them can see clearly either
'THE ANIMAL KINGDOM" AND FERMENTED DRINKS.355
their deadly nature as drinks, or the evil of drinking them,
for he is not willing to see. Physically, such fluids satisfy
the actual demands of his perverted physical appetite and
organization, and make the drinker feel good and cheer
him every time he drinks them, precisely as indulging in
spiritual evils satisfies the evil man. Knowing this, we can
clearly understand how difficult it is for the drinkers of
intoxicating drinks, while they continue to indulge their
appetite, to see that it is wrong to use them. The laws of
physical and spiritual life are strictly in harmony, for the
one corresponds to the other. Therefore no free, intelli-
gent New Churchman can admit that the judgment of any
one who habitually uses such drinks, or who has strongly
confirmed himself in the idea that it is right to do so, is as
reliable as to the propriety of using them as is the judgment
of one who has clearly seen and voluntarily put away this
evil.
Our editors strive to justify the use of intoxicating drinks
by attempting to show from Swedenborg's "Animal King-
dom" a comparison between distillation and the process of
digestion. The following are the quotations which they
make from the above work, with a few of their own
remarks:
“And, too, Swedenborg declares that new wine is not readily digested ;
for he says, 'the chyle sometimes contains crude vegetable emulsions,
effluvia, juices, and vapid portions of new wine [By vapid portions of
new wine he could mean nothing more nor less than the products of the
fermentation occurring in such wine.-E.] or of unfermented or unclari-
fied beer. Hence, the lymph is a kind of ultimate saliva, whose office it
is to digest the chyle itself.' ('Animal Kingdom,' Part I., p. 220). He
never says this of good, old, generous wines. [Of course not, after the
process of fermentation has been in a measure completed, for these vapid
products of fermentation are not there in sufficient quantity. —E.] ·
"The blood receives pabulum from the various classes into which
chemicals are divided. And substances which are employed for food are
resolvable into these same classes in the processes of digestion and assim-
ilation. So perfect is the comparison between the manufacture of alcohol
and digestion, that Swedenborg explains the two phenomena as nearly
356 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
identical. [Well, supposing the two processes are somewhat alike, what
then! It can hardly be claimed that the "Animal Kingdom" was written
according to correspondences.-E.] He says: 'The heat first sends off
phlegm (meaning water), as in the mouth and fauces, then the weaker,
and afterwards the more rectified spirits ["The Academy" surely would not
have the reader understand by "rectified spirits" that Swendenborg here
means alcohol, or even fermented wine, or anything resembling in chemi-
cal composition either.-E.], as in the stomach; next oils, gradually
inore and more dense, and at length fetid, as in the intestines; the residue
being a caput mortuum, or fæces” (Animal Kingdom, Part I. p. 162).
Referring to digestion, Swedenborg says: 'The office of menstruum
is not confined to the saliva, but extends to all kinds of liquids taken by
the mouth, as water, milk, syrups, juices, beer, wine, SPIRITS; which the
stomach therefore desires, sometimes with a certain secret craving"
(Animal Kingdom).
This last quotation contains a hint and suggestion so
totally antagonistic to the use to which "The Academy"
have endeavored to apply the above quotations, that it is not
strange that, in endeavoring to prove by them that alcoholic
drinks are not poisonous, they totally overlooked and ignored
the important lesson which they-especially the last-teach.
They can hardly fail to be aware that the stomach sometimes
desires the articles which they have placed in italics and capi-
tals, "with a certain secret craving," and we ought, as New
Churchmen, to know that such secret cravings are never
orderly; and that substances which beget such unnatural
cravings are always poisonous. Let the gentlemen of "The
Academy" reflect a little upon this, for it may be useful to
both them and others.
Again the editors say:
"Consulting the Writings, we find Swedenborg making use of his chem-
ico-physiological knowledge to confirm corresponding spiritual truths."
Exactly so; therefore, if we would arrive at a correct
conclusion, as to what he teaches upon the wine question,
it will never do to ignore scientific facts and truths with
which he was certainly familiar. Take, for instance, the
passage in the T. C. R. 404, which is quoted in season and
ANALOGIES BETWEEN DIGESTION AND FERMENTATION.357
out of season, and is the main dependence of our
opponents against the use of unfermented wine, which
reads as follows: "The must of wine unfermented
has a pleasant taste, but infests the stomach," and see
the light which is thrown upon this passage by one
of the above quotations from the "Animal Kingdom".
"vapid portions of new wine, or of unfermented or unclarified
beer”—that is, new wine or beer still undergoing the pro-
cess of fermentation; full of leaven or yeast and its prod-
ucts, of gas, etc. The present writer, in his work, inti-
mated that it was such products of fermentation which
Swedenborg had in mind when he spoke of the must of
wine infesting the stomach; for we know that the must of
wine unfermented does not lose the name of must, or be-
come fermented wine, until the process of fermentation is
in a great measure completed. This is what the writer
represented in his former works, and the editors of "The
Academy" exclaim of his representation: "This is a gross
perversion of the clear meaning of Swedenborg's words!"
Yet in the review before us, they quote these passages from
the "Animal Kingdom," which, when taken in connection
with the common application of the word must of wine, illus-
trate clearly and confirm beyond a reasonable doubt the
correctness of the interpretation upon which this point of
our argument rests.
We all know that grapes are freely eaten, and that from
the days of Joseph of old the juice of grapes just expressed
has been drunk in moderation with impunity; but if too
freely used it will produce looseness of the bowels.
"The Academy" continue:
Thus, there is a series of analogies between digestion, fermentation,
and regeneration, extending to the highest and purest productions of the
respective processes. [As the writer has shown in his work, these com-
parisons refer to the processes and the clearness and purity of the prod-
ucts, and not to the inherent quality of the products, as articles of food
and drink.-E.]
358
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
In some places the clarification of wine makes the comparison; in
others, its homogeneity is referred to (D.P. 25). In still others, its nobility
(see below). Again, elevation into a purer aura is mentioned, comparing
the chemical altitude of alcohol to the raising of the mind by regenera-
tian into a superior aura (C. L. 145). And, finally, spiritual wisdom is
compared with alcohol, both because it is highly rectified spirits, and be-
cause of its ardor (C. L. 145).
But when this culmination is reached, and alcohol and wisdom stand
forth as parallels, the author of the book under review would have us
drop the figure and declare the comparison at an end. The one product
he regards as essentially hellish, the other, of course, essentially heavenly."
The author does not admit the correctness of "The
Academy's" interpretation of the above comparisons. He
sees that in their reviews they have omitted a comparison con-
tained in the “True Christian Religion," which teaches a very
different doctrine from that which they are striving to incul-
cate. Although the present writer has once given it on a
preceding page, it may be well to reproduce it here, and
leave the reader to judge as to the value of the editors'
grand culmination, and their heavenly fluid. As to the
effects of the doctrine of "justification by faith alone" on
the clergy, Swedenborg says:
"And since they are intoxicated in all their thoughts by
that doctrine, just as if they had drunk of the vinous spirit
called alcohol, therefore in such a state of inebriation they
cannot discern this most essential tenet of the Church, viz.
that Jehovah God descended, and assumed the humanity.
(T. C. R. 98).
But the editors continue, speaking of the author of the
work on "The Wine Question :"
"His ground for this false assumption is that alcohol is a poison and
that fermentation is evil, and its resultant evil, also.
And he quotes
Swedenborg to sustain his position."
Yes, he does; and just above they have one of the many
quotations which he has made, proving conclusively that
alcohol is a poison; and that clearly its origin, according
to the philosophy of the New Church, is from hell.
IS ALCOHOL A POISÓN ?
359
"Alcohol may indeed become a poison when taken in concentrated
form, as when separated from the wine or liquor and used in quantity.
[We are glad to see even this admission, for it is a point gained.-E.]
And this calls up another point in the book before us. The author con-
tinually declares against drinking alcohol, coupled with the assertion that
it is a poison. We have, indeed, used the term alcohol in place of alco-
holic beverages. But this is unavoidable in considering scientific state-
ments as to doses, etc., for alcohol is the only proper basis of compari-
son. But we had no idea that our readers, especially one who lays claim
to any scientific education, would fail to understand us."
This is cool, most decidedly. After parading Sweden-
borg's comparison, where spiritual purification is compared
with the purification of natural spirits, and wisdom purified
is compared with alcohol most highly rectified, and then
using this comparison to justify the use of whiskey and
other intoxicating drinks, to thus turn upon the author
simply because he has shown conclusively that this com-
parison has no reference to alcohol as a beverage, but
only to the process of purification and to its purity, from
the fact that pure alcohol cannot be used as a beverage, is
turning a very short corner, indeed. But our critics con-
tinue :
"Whether or not absolute alcohol is poisonous has nothing to do with
the question before us.”
""
But it has everything to do with the use of the com-
parison. If that comparison, of which "The Academy"
make so much, is germain to this question, then "absolute
alcohol" has to do with it, too; because what "The
Academy" call the culmination. concerns only “abso-
lute alcohol," the highly rectified spirit from which every
other ingredient necessary to punch has been carefully
eliminated. In the "culmination," as seen by "The
Academy," spiritual wisdom is compared with alcohol, both
because it is highly rectified and because of its ardor. Do
not they perceive what they say so plainly, and that they
scold us for saying the same thing, viz.: that it is special
qualities, purity, ardor, clearness, etc., of the product of
360 A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
distillation that are compared to spiritual wisdom, and not
the alcohol?
not.
"The Academy" say:
“And the whole argument of the author based thereon is false and
misleading. The question at issue is whether or not alcoholic beverages
are injurious or poisonous. [If "The Academy" mean that this is the
main question, they are right; if that it is the only question, they are
What do the Word and Writings teach concerning such beverages?
is also at point; for, in less than two lines further on, they write; “And
further, we claim that alcohol itself has a good correspondence." On
this last we take direct issue, as they know.-E.] We assert, in contra-
diction to the author-[And to Swedenborg, and to the ablest medical
authorities, ancient and modern, and every day's observation.-E.]—that
such beverages are not poisonous; and, further, we claim that alcohol
itself has a good correspondence. [This claim can never be substantiated,
either by a single fact or a legitimate argument drawn from the Word of
the Lord, the writings of the Church, the facts of science, or the experi-
ence of mankind in any age of the world.-E.] It becomes poisonous
only when so concentrated as to become productive of injury by its very
ardor. [This, we have seen, and shall hereafter see, is a very serious
mistake of theirs.-E.] The sun's rays, concentrated, destroy life; are
they therefore poisonous? An atmosphere of pure oxygen is by no means
salubrious; is it therefore poisonous ?
'Even granting, for argument's sake, that pure alcohol in quantity poi-
sons, it does not follow that the same alcohol properly swathed, like the
sun's rays in the atmospheres, or the oxygen in association with a large
volume of nitrogen, is poisonous. There are in nature a number of
substances which are of great use, but which when concentrated act as
poisons."
What do "The Academy" mean by "pure alcohol
* * * properly swathed, like the sun's rays in the
atmospheres, or the oxygen in association with a large vol-
ume of nitrogen”? The sun's rays are not swathed in the
atmospheres, that we are aware of, and we cannot conceive
of oxygen swathed in association with nitrogen. To swathe
means to bind a child with bands and rollers, to wrap in
swaddling-clothes, to bind, confine. If the expression is
to be understood literally, we would "swathe " alcohol so
tight that it could never be taken out of its bands.
ALCOHOL IS A POISON.
361
But if, by a poetic license, the word swathed is used
in the sense of diluted or mixed, and having already
conceded pure alcohol to be a poison unfit to drink, they
mean here to affirm that, in the form of whiskey, beer, or
fermented wine, alcohol is beneficial as a beverage, their
argument is weaker than an ounce of alcohol would be if it
were "swathed" in a barrel of water. Hitherto they have
been proving its excellence to grow with its thorough dis-
tillation—a purer aura was reached as the chemical purity
of the alcohol was increased. But if they mix sugar, water
and lemons with their alcohol, what becomes of the highly
rectified spirit and the ardor in which they tell us is found
the culmination of its comparison? Have "The Academy"
editors never heard of a wise man sawing off the branch
on which he is sitting?
·
We all know that the sunlight as it descends to us, tem-
pered by the atmosphere, and the oxygen as it exists in the
atmosphere, are beneficial to man; although in a concen-
trated and separate state they may be injurious; but is
this any evidence that "swathed" alcohol in the form of
fermented wine, beer, or "whiskey" is useful, or that it is
not a poison when these fluids which contain it are used as
beverages? We must remember that any poison used may
be used in quantities so small as not to produce any imme-
diate manifest symptoms of poisoning, and yet not be
harmless. Rum blossoms on the face, redness of the eyes,
chronic diseases of the stomach, kidneys and brain, and
even delirium tremens may result from drinking alcohol
and fermented fluids, without the individual ever having
been drunk, in the common acceptation of the word. There
are certain characteristics of poisons which distinguish
them from healthy articles of food and drink, and which
define them as poisons by a dictionary of higher authority
than any written by man. The simple truths of the Word,
and of the Word Opened, at this day excite no unnatural
spiritual appetite, and never cause spiritual drunkenness :
362 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
whereas fermented wine, beer and whiskey, and other
alcoholic drinks, excite an unnatural appetite, a "certain
secret craving," which no food or other drink will satisfy.
This appetite grows by what it feeds upon, and continually
demands a larger amount of alcohol to appease its craving;
until at length a quantity sufficient to kill a man unaccus-
tomed to its use will be insufficient to satisfy the consum-
ing desire which impels the victim onward, at an ever-
quickening speed, in the road of drunkenness, disease and
death. And all through the ages alcoholic drinks have
caused just such sin and misery, disease and death as they
are causing to-day everywhere around us.
In all this, dear reader, is there no evidence that such.
drinks differ radically in their inherent quality, and life,
from the sun's genial rays which warm and cheer us, the
oxygen in the air which is so essential to our being, and
the acknowledged healthy beverages which we use? It is
so strange that intelligent men, especially that New Church-
men, should even attempt to, defend the use of such drinks.
How can they do so, in view of a vast army of drunkards
estimated at fifty thousand strong, in these United States,
marching down to a dishonored grave annually, their ranks
all supplied from the ranks of temperate drinkers? As to
the wonderfully poisonous character of alcoholic drinks, the
half can never be told in this world. Are the poverty, drunken-
ness, crime and insanity, which manifestly flow, or result from
the use of intoxicating drinks, and make more than three
hundred thousand homes in this beautiful land most deso-
late and wretched, no evidence of the poisonous character
of such drinks? Do we ever see any similar results flowing
from the use of pure water, milk, or the unfermented juice
of the grape, or of any other wholesome fruit? If all this
and the direct testimony which the writer, in his work on
the wine question, has gathered from the Word of the Lord,
and the writings of the Church, and scientific researches,
do not prove that alcohol is a poison, where can we find
ARE ALCOHOLIC DRINKS NORMAL STIMULI? 363
proof that anything that exists on earth is a poison? But
notwithstanding all this, our critics continue:
"We have thus demonstrated that alcoholic beverages are normal
stimuli, food, heat-producers, and agents in the digestion of aliments.
This is deduced from the concurrent testimony of eminent scientists;
and, above all, from the teachings of Swedenborg as a philosopher and as
a theologian."
That such beverages are normal stimulants has never
been demonstrated; and by the knowledge we have of their
effects we know they are not such. Supposing scientists
have proved that a portion of the alcohol used is appro-
priated to heat and nourish the body, every scientist will
also tell you that it would be equally true of all poisonous
vegetables, reptiles and filthy vermin, if they were used as
food. But is that any evidence that as a whole they are
suitable for human food?
It is said to be a saying among lawyers that, when you
have a bad cause to defend, "abuse your opponent's
attorney "our critics continue:
"The quotations which the author of the book under consideration
makes from scientific works are inappropriate, partisan, or utterly false.
And hence his numerous reiterations that alcohol, wine, etc., are poisons,
infernal putrified substances, etc., may deceive the ignorant by the force
of their repetition. But they are empty phrases to those who view the
whole subject from the rational, and find confirmations in the plain state-
ments of the Word and the Word Opened."
The writer would simply hint to the gentlemen of "The
Academy" that here lies their great trouble; they have
got the cart before the horse. Viewing this subject from
the rational, or their own reason, and seeking confirma-
tions from the statements of the Word and the Word
Opened, is very like what Noah did when a certain misfor-
tune befell him, according to the Word Opened, as we have
seen in the preceding pages. Such a course has filled the
world with false doctrines, and bodes no good to the New
Church. The Word and the Word Opened should be our
364 A REPLY TO “ THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
first guide, and then afterward it may be lawful to seek
confirmations from science. A putting away of pre-con-
ceived ideas, which evidently descended to "The Academy"
from the "Old Church," and a more careful study of the
Word and the Writings of the Church, we are quite sure,
will enable them to see this whole subject in a very differ-
ent light. But if we would find the truth we must seek it
as little children, with a teachable mind. And there is an-
other all-important requisite; if we are in the habit of using
such drinks, we must bring to the examination of this ques-
tion a fixed purpose to abstain from them so soon as we
perceive that the truth upon this subject condemns their
use. Strong confirmations prevent us from seeing truths,
but not so effectually as a disposition that seeks after
truths pertaining to doctrine and life, without any desire or
intention of incorporating those truths in our belief and
life. Let us remember that external evils of life are not
harmless; and that we should put them away; and that
the Lord gives us the ability to do this. It is a law of Di-
vine Providence that man, as of himself, should remove
evils as sins in the external man; for thus and not otherwise
the Lord has power to remove evils in the internal man,
and at the same time, in such a case, in the external man.-
U. T. 510-566; D. P. 100-129; N. J. D. 159-173.
Our critics continue:
"Swedenborg does not give us falsities and contradictions. If in one
place he asserts that wine is fermented and has a good correspondence,
and in another that it may be drunk, he does not assert in a third place
that properly used it is a hellish substance.'
Are" The Academy" denying something we have af-
firmed, or affirming something we have denied; or are they
merely setting forth propositions of their own in such shape
as to make it appear that we affirmed the contrary? Swe-
denborg asserts that wine has a good correspondence, and
that it may be drunk; and these assertions of "The Acad-
emy" we have never denied, but have always maintained, as
SWEDENBORG'S TESTIMONY AS TO WHISKEY. 365
in duty bound. But he does not anywhere assert that fer-
mented wine has a good correspondence, nor does he af-
firm anywhere of fermented wine that it may be drunk as a
beverage. He does assert of poisons and of things that
hurt and kill men that they are from hell. And what kills
and hurts worse than this does? Nor did we ever assert
that there is no proper use for fermented wine and alcoholic
mixtures, as "The Academy" seems to insinuate. We be-
lieve there is as proper and legitimate a use for them as
there is for opium; and we know of no one who ever af-
firmed the contrary. Why do "The Academy" so persist-
ently ignore our argument, or turn aside from it and set
up these men of straw to knock down? We think "The
Academy" editors must have read the passage we are com-
menting on just before they wrote the following sentence:
'A mind that can content itself with such a miserable beg-
ging of the question is evidently outside of the reach of
any logical reasoning.”
Our critics continue :
'So, when we endeavor to comprehend the true meaning of Sweden-
borg's words to the Swedish Diet, we apply our knowledge of his views
of alcohol and conclude accordingly. If, as a physiologist, he considers
spirits a menstruum of digestion [Which the stomach, as Swedenborg tells
us, "desires sometimes with a certain secret craving," and we know what
that means.-E.], if, as a theologian, he speaks of liquor as an admitted
beverage [We would like to know where he has ever done this except
in his account of life in the spiritual London.-E,], commands the
use of fermented wine in the Holy Supper [This we have clearly seen
and shall hereafter see, he has never done.-E.], and declares that the
regenerating man may drink wine to excite in himself charity, can he, as
a correspondent, call whiskey pernicious because it is alcoholic? [We
will let him speak for himself.-E.]
The rational answer to the question of perniciousness is plainly
given in the book under notice, in a quotation from Swedenborg: 'The
immoderate use of spirituous liquors will be the downfall of the Swedish
people.' The perniciousness lies in immoderateness."
Can "The Academy" show us where Swedenborg has ever
said "that a regenerating man may drink fermented wine.
366
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
to excite in himself charity ?" This assumption seems to
rest on the dictionaries; and even then by ignoring what
they say as to must and the juice of the grape being wine ;
and still further by assuming that an unnatural stimulant,
having its origin from hell, is superior for this purpose to a
natural one created by the Lord. The above is a very singu-
lar statement indeed. We know that while a moderate use
of a poison like alcoholic drinks or tobacco might seriously
injure a people, yet if their use was always moderate it
would not be likely to cause the downfall of a people; but
the trouble is these poisons are seductive, and all experi-
ence shows that a large number cannot use them moder-
ately. Swedenborg, therefore, while fully believing that
spirituous liquors are pernicious, might very properly say
that their immoderate use would be the downfall of the
Swedish people, and that without approving of their use in
any quantity. He makes no qualification of his declaration.
that whiskey is a pernicious drink and he even intimates, as it
will be seen, that it is so pernicious that it impairs the mor-
ality of his countrymen. Does a harmless drink do this?
It will be seen that the two quotations from his writings
contained below, on which the editors make the above
comments, were not written at the same time, and that both
are indepedent statements of his views, and read as follows:
TESTIMONY OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.
On the fly-leaf of one of his theological MSS., he wrote:
"The immoderate use of spirituous liquors will be the
downfall of the Swedish people." In his Memorial to the
Swedish Diet, of November 17th, 1760, (three years after
the Last Judgment,) Swedenborg says: "If the distilling
of whiskey-provided the public can be prevailed upon to
accede to the measure—were farmed out in all judicial dis-
tricts, and also in towns, to the highest bidder, a consider-
able revenue might be obtained for the country, and the
consumption of grain might also be reduced; that is, if the
“THE ACADEMY" AND SWEDENBORG ON WHISKEY.307
consumption of whiskey cannot be done away
away with
altogether, which would be more desirable for the country's
welfare and morality than all the income which could be
realized from so pernicious a drink." Documents concern-
ing Swedenborg, by Rev. R. L. Tafel, vol. 1, page 493.
In contrast with the above from Swedenborg, we will give a
quotation from "Words for the New Church," No. VII.,
showing how the editors of that serial esteem the effects of
what S. calls "so pernicious a drink."
In speaking of alcoholic preparations, and the excitement
which follows the use of intoxicating drinks, "Words for
the New Church" says:
"In view of the fact that many wine-merchants and distillers, partici-
pating in the greedy desire for gain, adulterate their productions, it becomes
necessary to be careful in selecting liquors for consumption, as well as for
experimentation.
'Much of the whiskey which is sold as pure, contains amylic alcohol,
the fusel oil, which is acrid, offensive, and highly injurious to the system.
"Of the various articies now in the market, we may make a judicious
selection, depending not only upon our taste, but also upon the respective
liquors.
"Ideas flow more freely, the senses are more acute. As the ambrosial
odor of wine greets the nostrils, the affections are vivified, and thus is
formed a social sphere which transforms a listless company into a chatty,
brilliant, and entertaining party. Rudeness and incivility give place to
æsthetic refinement, and charity finds one of its most delightful recrea-
tions."
Can the reader believe that all this is not contrary in
every respect to what Swedenborg says above? Every ob-
serving man understands fully that the state of excite-
ment named above is but the first stage of drunkenness,
and that violence and woe lie but one very short step
beyond, and all experience shows that this step is sure to
be taken by many who progress thus far.
If Swedenborg felt that alcoholic drinks were really so
good and useful in our social life as the editors in the
above quotation represent, could he have declared that
it would be better for his country's morality and welfare
368
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
that whiskey should be done away with altogether? Is
it reasonable to suppose that his views were in harmony
with those of the above editors? Judge ye.
“
We have no passage in Swedenborg's writings where
he speaks of liquor as an admitted beverage," except-
ing the one already noticed in the S. D., in the allusion
to punch, in his conversation with the spirits in the spiritual
London.
At the time when Swedenborg wrote, when it was gen-
erally thought to be right to drink alcoholic drinks "tem-
perately," and even at this day, among those who so think,
it is not strange that spirits should give punch to such
new-comers as had been strongly addicted to the use of in-
toxicants on earth, and were also "industrious and sincere;"
that is, to such as were industriously and sincerely striv-
ing to put away this evil-to lessen or prevent the fear-
ful sufferings which frequently result here, and undoubt-
edly do there when the use of intoxicating drinks is
suddenly discontinued; for it is no more than the phy-
sician does here, nor more than the writer has not un-
frequently done for patients who had been hard drinkers,
to prevent delirium tremens. It was not given to the evil,
because there would, in that world, be no object in sav-
ing them from the suffering, for they could only be de-
terred from the further use of intoxicants by suffering
the legitimate consequences of their transgressions. It is
not for a moment to be supposed that every man who
drinks intoxicating drinks is an evil man ; and we trust
that many of such, and even some who have been hard
drinkers, especially where the inclination to drink is hered-
itary, when they get into the spiritual world will be led
into heaven; though their guides may think it best to give
some of the latter class an occasional glass of punch, to
alleviate their suffering. But that any intelligent New
Churchman should bring such a passage from Swedenborg's
Spiritual Diary to justify himself, and encourage others in
ALCOHOL AS A REMEDY.
369
drinking whiskey, fermented wine, and other intoxicating
drinks, which have destroyed so many of our fellow-men,
body and soul, and which Swedenborg assured us in
his day, threatened the downfall of the Swedish people,
and from which, as to fermented wine, a distinguished
French writer expresses the same fears for the French peo-
ple, is perfectly astonishing! Surely, wonders will never
cease!
"The Academy" continue:
"When we turn to science we might expect something better, as the
author's profession would seem to necessitate a certain amount of scien-
tific culture. But what knowledge of science the writer may have, has
been made subservient to a false principle, and therefore falsified, as will
be seen in what follows. In reply to a former article in the Serial, our
author says:
“That alcohol, like other poisons, may sometimes be used advantage-
ously, as a remedy, we do not question. Its action is to paralyze the
capillary vessels, and thereby fill them with blood, and in cases of hemor-
rhage, by thus temporarily storing up the blood in these minute vessels,
and preventing the heart from forcing it out of the body through the rup-
tured vessels, and by thus congesting the minute vessels of the brain, it
prevents fatal syncope or fainting, and when thus used as a medicine it is
useful.'
One unacquainted with physiology might think this a true explanation
of the modus operandi of brandy. But a very superficial reading will de-
monstrate its utter falsity.
"In the first place though, we wish to state that we did not allude to
hemorrhage, and we do not see how we could have been so misunder-
stood. Our words were that diluted brandy 'may save life when the
parturient woman is exhausted and the uterus fails in its expulsive ef-
forts.' We referred to the power of brandy in effecting contractions of
the uterine fibers with consequent increase of labor-pains."
This is a very uncertain and unsafe remedy for such
a purpose, as every careful physician will tell the editors;
and so true is this, in the writer's estimation, that it never
occurred to him that they could have had reference to its
use in any other case than one of hemorrhage.
Our critics continue;
370. A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
"But granting the writer's interpretation of our meaning, we neverthe-
less decidedly differ with him in his attempted physiological explanation
of the action of alcohol.
"Picture to the mind a woman seized with dangerous hemorrhage. In
a few moments her body becomes cold, and she is almost pulseless. The
breathing is superficial, and the pale face wears the anxious look of ap-
proaching death. Brandy is administered, and soon the bleeding ceases,
the radial pulse is felt to increase in volume while it lessens in rapidity;
the breathing is more deeply drawn, and warmth replaces the clammy
coldness of the skin. Did the remedy employed work those changes by
paralyzing the capillaries? The author of the work before us says yes;
but Ringer, Wood, Bartholow, Pavy, Bache, Stillé, and a host of others,
whom even Dr. Ellis would hardly regard as comparatively obscure
writers,' say no.
"The author, probably following Richardson, mistakes the dilatation
of the arterioles caused by alcohol for paralysis. Such dilatation of neces-
sity augments the amount of blood in the small vessels, but not to be
retained there in storage, as would be the case in paralysis. On the con-
trary, to keep them full, the heart must send more at a time in each pulse,
and so must receive more from the venous system; hence the circulation
quickened, not retarded. And the increased volume of blood in the
various organs stimulates them to more vigorous activity. Thus the
uterus is induced to contract, and to close its gaping vessels, through
which the life's blood was pouring out. The action of the heart is also
quickened by a direct effect of the brandy on its structure, making it do
more than average work in a given time."
But "The Academy" seems to forget a few facts. First:
there is only a certain quantity of blood in the body. Sec-
ond: the heart can only send forth what it receives. Third:
if the blood is stored temporarily in the capillaries, how can
the heart get hold of it to send it forth? It has no inde-
pendent supply of blood, aside from what it receives from
the veins.
It is true that the writer follows Richardson, precisely
for the reason that he follows Harvey, Franklin, Sweden-
borg, and other innovators, when he is able to see that the
ideas which they inculcate are true, and are in harmony
with all other truths. Richardson is one of the latest, and
the most careful experimenter which we have, as to the ef-
ALCOHOL AS A REMEDY UNRELIABLE.
371
fects of alcoholic drinks when taken into the stomach. He
has critically, carefully and systematically experimented with
such liquids for years, specially to ascertain their effects.
upon the human system. No other writer has done this to
the same extent; therefore his opinions are better entitled
to respect than the opinions of the writers named above.
Look for a moment at the case presented above; a case of
hemorrhage where the body has lost a large quantity of
blood, and is hovering between life and death for the want
of this fluid. Richardson's theory says, give the patient
brandy, for the patient is liable to die immediately from
fainting, or in other words for the want of blood in the
brain; now the brandy will produce partial temporary par-
alysis of the capillary vessels of the brain, and prevent them
from forcing the blood out-of the brain, and thus by retain-
ing the blood prevent fatal fainting or syncope. The cap-
illaries in the surface of and throughout the body will be
congested by this paralysis and retain their blood, and owing
to the presence of the warm blood, there will be a sensation
of warmth over the surface of the body; the capillaries of
the uterus will be distended with blood from this paralysis
of its vessels, and being supplied with the requisite blood,
the uterine contractions continue, or return if suspended
and the patient may be saved. Even in making this admis-
sion as to the possible value of alcohol as a remedy in such
a case, the writer feels that it is his duty to state, that it is
very unsafe and unreliable, far inferior, in the estimation of
many of our most intelligent physicians, to other remedies.
having a more specific action. We see the effects of this
paralysis of the capillaries in the habitual drinker in his red
eyes and rum blossoms, congested liver, stomach, lungs and
brain; and in his inability to withstand the cold or heat, or
to endure the same amount of physical or mental exertion
for any length of time as the total abstainer. In habitual
drinkers, to use the elegant language of "The Academy,"
"the blood slinks away into the capillaries," therefore their
372 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S " REVIEW.
redness of face and eyes, notwithstanding the represen-
tation to the contrary by "The Academy" in the following
sentence:
"To assert, then, that brandy makes the blood slink away into the
capillaries, is to say what experimentation and daily observation flatly
contradict."
Every one who has ever seen the bloated and flushed face
of a man under the influence of intoxicating drinks can
readily understand how far "The Academy's" representa-
tion is from the truth.
Dr. Richardson, as the result of his experiments, reaches
the following conclusions:
"I find alcohol to be an agent that gives no strength;
that reduces the tone of the blood-vessels and the heart;
that reduces the nervous power; that builds up no tissues;
can be of no use to me or any other animal as a substance
for food.
'On the minute blood-vessels, those vessels which form
the terminals of the arteries and in which the vital acts of
nutrition and production of animal heat and force are car-
ried on, alcohol produces a paralyzing effect, as does the
nitrate of amyl. Hence the flush of the face and hands
which we observe in those who have partaken freely of
wine. This flush extends to all parts, to the brain, to the
lungs, to the digestive organs. Carried to its full extent it
becomes a congestion, and in those who are long habitu-
ated to excess of alcohol the permanency of the conges-
tion is seen in the discolored, blotched skin, and, too often,
in the disorganization which is planted in the vital organs,
the lungs, the liver, the kidney, the brain.
At first it par-
alyzes those nervous fibers of the organic or vegetative sys-
tem which control the minute vessels of the circulation. By
this means a larger supply of blood is driven by the heart
into the nervous centers, and nervous action from them is
first excited, afterward blunted; the brain is in a glow, and
that stage of mental exhilaration which is considered the
HEREDITARY EFFECTS OF INTOXICATING DRINKS. 373
cheering and exciting stage of wine-drinking is experienced.
After a time, if the action progresses, the opposite condi-
tion obtains; the function of the higher mental centers is
depressed, the mere animal centers remain uncontrolled
masters of the intellectual man, and the man sinks into the
lower animal in everything but shape of material body. In
the lower animals a state of actual madness accompanies
this stage, and in man, sometimes, the same terrible condi-
tion is also witnessed.
"In this manner, by the course of experiment, I learned,
step by step, that the true action of alcohol, in a physiolog-
ical point of view, is to create paralysis of nervous power.
It acts precisely as I had seen nitrate of amyl and some
other chemical bodies act.”
HEREDITARY RESULTS OF THE USE OF INTOXICATING
DRINKS.
Dr. Nathan Allen, in his tract on the "Effects of Alcohol
on Offspring," says:
(6
First, then, what is alcohol? By this term it is intended
to include the property in all drinks that intoxicates, whether
found in brandy, gin, wine, whiskey, or even in beer or cider;
for it is the intoxicating property that gives these drinks
their significance and makes them attractive.
"Alcohol is an artificial product, obtained by fermenta-
tion, and is never found in a simple state. It is a poison,
both in its nature and effects; is pronounced as such by the
highest authorities, and proved to be such by the tests of
chemistry, as well as of physiology. Alcohol, unadulterated,
is a pure poison, and though taken into the system in a
diluted state without at first apparently any injurious effects,
it is still a poison, and does the work of a poisonous agent.
"All standard books on poisons-of which Christison's
is, perhaps, the highest authority-represent alcohol as a
poison. Says Christison: 'It constitutes a powerful nar-
374
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
cotic poison.' Carpenter, author of the best work on physi
ology extant, says that alcohol is a dangerous poison.'
All standard works upon chemistry classify it among the
poisons. The best writers on Materia Medica describe
alcohol as a poison. Pereira, perhaps the most distinguished
among these writers, calls it both an irritant and fatal
poison.' The French, and the British, and the American
Dispensatories-high authorities everywhere in such matters
-describe alcohol as a 'powerful irritant poison, rapidly
causing intoxication and, in large quantities, death.' Med-
ical dictionaries say the same thing; in fact, all standard
writers on the subject agree in this description."
One of the saddest and most fearful of the results which
flow from the use of intoxicating drinks, and one which.
should cause every philanthropist and Christian to hesitate
before ever using, continuing the use, or justifying the use,
of such drinks, is the fact that drinking parents transmit to
their offspring a tendency to many of the diseases which
they develop in themselves; such as gout and organic dis-
eases of the brain, lungs, liver and kidneys. Nor is this the
worst which is liable to result, for mental as well as physical
tendencies are often transmitted, even to epilepsy, insanity
and idiocy.
Aristotle taught that "drunken women bring forth chil-
dren like unto themselves ;" and Plutarch writes that " one
drunkard begets another."
"Hereditary Alcoholism is an undeniable fact"-said
Dr. Lunier, of Paris, at the Brussels Congress.
"Alcoholism strikes man not only in his own person,
but also in his descendants. The children of the alcoholic
parent are stamped, as it were, with a fatal sign that often
seals their doom and death in an early age."-Dr. Lunier,
of the French Medico-Psychological Society.
In a "Report to the Massachusetts Legislature on
Idiocy," Dr. S. G. Howe says: "The habits of the parents
of three hundred of the idiots were learned, and one hun-
HEREDITARY EFFECTS OF INTOXICATING DRINKS. 375
dred and forty-five, or nearly one-half, were reported as
known to be habitual drunkards."
Mr. Darwin says:
"It is remarkable that all the diseases
arising from drinking spirituous or fermented liquors are
liable to become hereditary, even to the third generation,
increasing, if the cause be continued, till the family be-
comes extinct.”
Dr. Brown, a well-known English writer on insanity, says:
"The drunkard not only enfeebles and weakens his own
nervous system, but entails mental disease upon his fam-
ily."
"Of many manifestations of alcoholic heredity, epilepsy
is the most common."-M. Taquet.
Dr. Richardson says: "There can be no reasonable
doubt, in fine, that not the least painful and unavoidable
effects of intemperance in alcohol are the physical and
mental debility and disease it entails on posterity. Dar-
win, in 'The Botanic Garden,' in 1794, pointed out this
fixed and immutable law. Nearly all the diseases spring-
ing from indulgence in distilled and fermented liquors are
liable to become hereditary, and to descend to at least
three or four generations, unless the hereditary tendency
be starved out by uncompromising and persistent absten-
tion from all intoxicating drinks. This is no speculative
theory, no visionary hypothesis. It is a well-grounded be-
lief founded on accurate observation—a legitimate conclu-
sion deduced from extended experience, and based on
incontrovertible facts."
While the writer does not think that a child ever inherits
an appetite for intoxicating drinks, yet it is unquestionably
true that the children of drinking parents inherit a tendency
which makes it especially dangerous for them ever to par-
take of such drinks, and yet they are perfectly safe from all
craving for them so long as they let them entirely alone. In
regard to this inclination Dr. Richardson says :
"The inherited drink-crave, where it exists, even when
376
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
from the absence of temptation or from the strength of reso-
lute will it has never been made manifest, is always latent,
and ever ready to be lit up at the faintest alcoholic provo-
cation. The smallest sip of the weakest form of fermented
or distilled liquor has power to set in a blaze the hidden,
unhallowed fire. Persons ignorant of the inexorable law of
heredity in alcohol, indiscriminately rebuke and denounce
the vicious drunkard and the diseased dipsomaniac. But
to medical experts it is as clear as is their own existence
that there are multitudes of persons of both sexes and in all
positions in life, who, though they may never have yielded
to the enticements around them, are yet branded with the
red-hot iron of alcoholic heredity. There is no nobler sight
on earth than the triumph of such weighted ones over their
lurking and implacable foe—a foe the more terrible that it
lies concealed within their own bosom. The only safety
for all such lies in entire and unconditional abstinence
from all alcoholic drinks. Such must shun all the alcohols.
Every fermented and distilled liquor is their enemy.
Though added horrors, such as delirium tremens, may be
heaped up by a resort to impure spirits and the heavier
alcohols, the purest ethylic alcohol, or the weakest and most
delicate fermented wine, is strong enough to awaken the
dormant appetite, and provoke a thirst too often, alas!
quenched only in death. Whatever their station or their
accomplishments, the subjects of the inherited drink-crave
can abstain or can drink to excess, but drink moderately
they can not. If, in a state of consciousness, they taste an
alcoholic beverage at all, whether on the plea of sickness at
the prescription of a physician, or on the plea of religion at
the exhortation of a priest, they are in imminent danger.
Their whole system is, as it were, set on fire. Unless happily
enabled to master the giant appetite in the very first moment
of its re-awakened life, they are truly taken possession of
by a physical demon-a demon easily raised, but once
raised, almost beyond the power of even a Hercules to slay.
WHY INTOXICATING DRINKS SHOULD NOT BE USED.377
"To prevent misapprehension, it is as well here to state
that all the evil resulting from hereditary alcoholism may
be transmitted by parents who have never been noted for their
drunkenness. Long continued habitual excessive indulgence
in intoxicating drinks to an extent far short of pronounced
intoxication is not only sufficient to originate and hand
down the morbid tendency, but is much more likely to do
so than even oft-repeated drunken outbreaks with intervals
of perfect sobriety between.
"Men and women on whom this dread inheritance has
been forced without their consent are everywhere around
us, bravely struggling to lead a pure and sober life; and
would it not be but an act of justice to make every church,
every home, and every land safe for all such afflicted ones
by the expulsion of all intoxicating beverages from our
sacred services, from our social gathering, and from within
our borders ?"
There can be no question but that many children actually
acquire an appetite for intoxicating drinks from nursing
women who drink fermented and alcoholic drinks while they
are nursing; and physicians, we are sorry to say, are often
blamable for prescribing such drinks to nursing women.
When the Word of the Lord, as we have seen, pronounces
"wine and drink that maketh drunken " unholy and un-
clean; and the wise man of old tells us that we should not
even look upon fermented wine, for "at last it biteth like
a serpent and stingeth like an adder;" and Swedenborg
compares such drinks as cause drunkenness in their effects
upon men, to the effects of the doctrine of faith alone
upon the clergy, and to falses from evil; is it not time that
we, New Churchmen, should put away this evil from our
midst; especially when science, as the result of the most
careful and critical experiments and observations, speaks to
us in such plain language as the above? The teachers and
writers of "The Academy" must heed the Word of the Lord,
the Writings of the Church, and the testimony of Science,
378
THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
A REPLY TO
rr
and put away this evil, and cease to teach young men, who
are training for the ministry of our church, that it is right
to use intoxicating drinks; or their "Academy," their serial
and periodical, will cease to be patronized by the intelligent
men and women of our church who care for the welfare of
their children.
Seeing what we do all around us of the fearful effects of
the use of intoxicating drinks, and with the experience of at
least two-thirds of the community (including women and
children) who abstain from their use, proving that they are
entirely unnecessary for health and happiness; is it pos-
sible that any thoughtful New Church parent, who has
examined this subject, even superficially, can be willing
that his children should be taught by the precepts, and per-
haps by the example of their religious teachers, that it is
right and expedient to use as beverages fermented wine
and whiskey-substances which we know from all experi-
ence will cause drunkenness sooner or later in a large
number of those who drink them? From statistics ga-
thered in different localities, the highest number which the
writer has noticed who become drunkards of those who
drink intoxicating drinks is two out of seven, the lowest is
one out of thirteen. We also know very well that a very
large number who never acquire the reputation of being
drunkards become irritable, moody, easily excited and
subject to diseases of the brain, kidneys, liver, heart, lungs
or stomach, and multitudes, from the effects of these
drinks, die sooner than they otherwise would. Can care-
ful parents be expected to support or countenance institu-
tions, teachers and periodicals which directly encourage
habits that lead to such dreadful results?
1
WINES OF THE
CHAPTER V.
ANCIENTS—ASSUMPTION THAT THE AN-
CIENTS DID NOT PRESERVE UNFERMENTED WINES, AND
IGNORING ALL THE TESTIMONY TO THE CONTRARY.
THE review we are considering is based upon the assump-
tion that there is nothing answering to the name of wine,
unless it has been through a process of fermentation, con-
sequently that unfermented grape-juice is not wine; and,
furthermore, that it has never been known under the name
(wine) applied to fermented grape-juice. It maintains, also,
that the ancients had the same standard that itself has
adopted; and that whenever in Scripture, or other ancient
writings, a word is used that is translated wine in the
English version, there the original allusion is to juice that
has passed through the process of fermentation. Every-
thing that will not accommodate itself to these assumptions
is either stigmatized as "false," "utterly false," "a series
of falsifications and perversions," "a miserable begging of
the question," or else it is ignored and passed over so en-
tirely that the reader of the review only can have no ade-
quate knowledge of the argument of the book reviewed,
or of the facts presented in it. In accordance with these
methods, there is nowhere in the review the slightest allu-
sion to the fact that the ancients prepared and preserved
unfermented grape-juice as wines; nor to the other fact,
that such wines are prepared and preserved at this day.
They do, indeed, admit that grape-jam, jelly, or syrup has
been prepared and preserved; but it is assumed all through
the review that there have never been, and are not at
present, any old unfermented wines, or even preserved grape-
juice, which can neither be classed as jam, jelly, or syrup.
379
380 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
They do not attempt to answer the evidence which the
writer produced from many ancient authors, showing that
unfermented grape-juice, called by them wine, was in use
during their day; and even describing the processes by
which they prepared and preserved these wines-processes
which will make neither jam, jelly nor syrup. In
the same manner they pass over the testimony of
living witnesses which the author produced-Dr. Nor-
man Kerr, of England, and of others-that they had
actually prepared, preserved and drank such unfer-
mented grape juice or wine, prepared by some of the
very processes by which the ancients preserved theirs; and
the present writer stated that he himself had tried success-
fully one of the processes described by ancient writers:
yet all this testimony is actually ignored; yes, more than this,
the writer is boldly accused of publishing "a series of falsifi-
cations and perversions." What are we to think of such a
course of conduct and of such language?
Can the reader imagine it possible that such men as
Pliny, Columella, Varro, Cato, Virgil, Plutarch, Horace and
Aristotle were penning falsehoods in the interest of teeto-
talers of this day, when, writing more than eighteen hun-
dred years ago, they either speak of wines which would not
intoxicate, or describe methods of preserving grape-juice, or
wine, by which (as has been proved by recent experiments)
fermentation is effectually prevented. How can "The
Academy" ignore such testimony; and how can they
ignore the fact that unfermented wines are to-day manu-
factured by some of the very processes described by the
ancients, and sold and used as sacramental wines quite
extensively? The writer intends to describe more fully
the results of various experiments which he and others
have made in the preservation of unfermented wines, in a
chapter near to, or at, the end of this reply.
The writer is happy to say that, in every other contro-
versy or discussion of which he has had any knowledge, he
THE EGYPTIAN WINE-MAKING.
381
has never seen among men who were regarded as honor-
able, such systematic ignoring or denial of well-established
facts, accompanied by such apparent inability to state cor-
rectly the argument of an opponent, as is to be found in
"The Academy's" review of his work; and especially of
those portions which treat of the wines of the ancients,
and of unfermented wines, ancient and modern. This
portion of the review opens with the following ungenerous
language on page 436 ·
46
We have demonstrated that the book in its linguistic and scientific as-
pects, is but a series of falsifications and perversions; we shall now see that
this is equally true of the historic portions. [We leave the reader to judge
on which side the falsifications and perversions" lie.—E.]
((
'One of the most striking perversions is an attempted explanation of
Egyptian wine-making. It is also illustrated with an engraving (pp. 78, 79).
This figure, the author supposes, is an exhibition of 'the straining of the
saccharine from albuminous ingredients in grape-juice.' 'The immediate
drawing off and storing of the strained juice' is considered proved by the
fact that both operations are shown on the same plate. Then it is pre-
sumed that ‘a coating of olive oil is poured on the top of the grape-juice
of the jars.' Wilkinson furnishes us with these pictures and also with their
true explanation. He supplies other pictures, too, which flatly contradict
the false explanations given in the book before us.
Who is the most competent to decide whether Wilkinson's
explanation is correct or not, and whether the other pictures
contradict the "false explanations" given in the author's book
on "The Wine Question "-"The Academy," who have sim-
ply, perchance, read Wilkinson; or men who have gone over
the ground, examined the originals from which Wilkinson's
pictures were made, and then found themselves unable to
adopt Wilkinson's conclusions, and who, to test the matter,
have actually manufactured wine by the process represented
in the pictures and as explained in the book?
Our critics continue :
'He (Wilkinson) says: 'After the fermentation was over, the juice
was taken out in small vases with a long spout, and poured into earth-
enware jars, which corresponded to the cadi, or amphora, of the Romans ’
382
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
C
(Wilkinson, vol. ii., p. 157). We also read there that the consump-
tion of wine in Egypt was very great, is evident from the sculptures,
and from the accounts of ancient authors, some of whom have censured
the Egyptians for an immoderate love of excess; and so much did
the quantity used exceed that made in the country, that in the time of
Herodotus, twice every year a large importation was received from Phoni-
cia and Greece' (p. 168. Wilkinson does not in treating of Egyptian
vineyards and wines make any mention of the preservation of unfermented
grape-juice. [Very likely he was not aware of such wines ever having
been preserved by the ancients, but still entertained the idea of the "Old
Church ”—that there were no preserved wines, but fermented wines.-
E.] On the other hand, he gives pictures of drunken Egyptians carried
home from carousals (p. 168), and even of Egyptian women, who had
partaken to excess (p. 167). It is hardly necessary for him to add (p.166)
that 'the Egyptian women were
were not restricted in their use of wine.'
[No one, so far as we are aware, has questioned but that the Egyptian
men and women drank fermented wine; and we all know the result-
Egypt fell to the lowest state of degradation.-E.] Wilkinson adds, ‘In
Greece, women enjoyed the same privileges regarding wine as in Egypt'
-[And through what a dreary, dark night this once proud nation has
passed.-E.]-(p. 167), and that though in the early times of Rome wine
was forbidden to females, and even to men under thirty years of age, ‘it
was afterwards allowed them on the plea of health, and no better method
could have been devised for removing the restriction' (p. 166). [Yes, yes!
gentlemen, this plea has undermined many a family; for, when intoxicat-
ing drinks begin to be used-not only by the men, but also by the women
-not only families, but also nations, perish.-E.] 'Athenæus con-
cludes that they (the Egyptians) were a people systematically addicted to
intemperance' (p. 169). We further learn that 'in offerings to the Egyp-
tian deities wine frequently occurs' (p. 164).
'We can hardly believe that the author of the book is guilty of the
systematic deception which is apparent in this copying of a plate and in
giving an explanation thereof the very opposite to that given by Wilkin-
son, from which it was taken. The author must have taken the picture
and explanation from Dr. Sampson, without consulting the original at all.
But if so, how unreliable is his book."
Is it not strange, gentle reader, that "The Academy" should
impute to Dr. Sampson systematic deception, in printing
a plate and giving an interpretation different from that given
by Wilkinson, and to the writer for copying the same and
accepting the interpretation of the former instead of the
;
DR. SAMPSON AND EGYPTIAN WINE-MAKING.
383
latter? Because "The Academy," with their “Old Church”
ideas have accepted the interpretation of Wilkinson, who,
very likely, believed as they do that there is no other
wine than fermented wine, does it follow that Dr. Sampson
and the present writer, who know that the ancients prepared
with care and preserved unfermented wines which they
called wine, were practicing "systematic deception " when
one gave and the other accepted an interpretation in strict
harmony with experiments which both had tried? To say
nothing of the experiment which the present writer told the
reader, in his work, he had tried, Dr. Sampson tells us in
his work on "Science the Interpreter of History as to Un-
fermented Wines," that he had preserved wine in accord.
ance with his interpretation for a year entirely unfermented,
in which a chemist could not detect even a trace of alcohol.
Now, if the writers of "The Academy" have not read his
work, how "unreliable" is their review! If they have
read it, how can they, as honorable men, talk about there
being apparent "systematic deception" on the part of the
present writer when he copied this plate, and gave Dr.
Sampson's interpretation of it, and told them that he him-
self had preserved wine unfermented in accordance with it?
That the reader may be able to see how unfair the above
criticisms of "The Academy" are, we will make a few
extracts from Dr. Sampson's work named above, in which
he replies to other critics; but first we will say that the
reader will find in Dr. Sampson's two works on this ques-
tion the results of a most careful and critical examination
into the origin and meaning of the words wine and must
in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Italian, French, Ger-
man and English languages by one who, as the reader may
see from the extracts which we will make, spared no pains
to prepare himself for his work.
Rev. Dr. G. W. Sampson says, in regard to the studies
which preceded his writing the "Divine Law as to Wine,"
that: "The statement which follows seems called for by criti-
384 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
cisms passed on this latest issue of the National Temperance
Society. Familiar in boyhood with Gill's Talmudic cita-
tions, with Jahn's Hebrew Archæology, and like works,
having received a special training for seven years under
Dr. Hackett in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, five years were
given to special preparation. for a journey in the East,
made in the years 1847-8. The works on Egypt of
Napoleon's savants, and of Champollion, Rossellini, and
Wilkinson were made familiar; the French, Italian and
Arabic languages were studied for ordinary intercourse;
and special letters from Secretary Marcy and President
Polk gave introduction to French and English as well as to
American authorities, which secured access to varied
sources of information. Six months were passed between
Alexandria and Beyroot; an entire week being given to
Thebes alone, where Lepsius had just opened new tombs.
Companions of high official station, such as the Comte de
Gasparin, were associates, sometimes for weeks; and many
special fields have since been reviewed.
"Intercourse with eminent statesmen, and the duty of
instruction to law students in ethics, impressed the rule of
seeking experts as the interpreters of records; and hence
the resort to German and French authorities in forming a
judgment as to the meaning of terms relating to wines and
their preparation, which terms are found in the succession
of tongues that serve as so many links in preserving and
explaining ancient records by modern traditions. Associ-
ated in educational work, partly as colleagues and partly
as advisors, with men like Professors Gale, Page and
Henry, the habit of thorough collation of facts, as well as
of testing conclusions by experiment, was formed. Both
these rules of study were called into requisition in the
research required to find that harmony among witnesses as
to truth which can be traced in all preserved records
which treat of wines."-(" Science the Interpreter of History
as to Unfermented Wine.")
EGYPTIAN WINE PRESSES,
385
Nor did Dr. Sampson rest satisfied with the above
sources of information; but he has by experiment shown
that must can be preserved free from fermentation for more
than a year by the very process which he believes to have
been illustrated by the plate which the writer copied from
his book. He tells us that in October, 1879, he filled a
phial with the juice of Catawba grapes, from which the pulp
had been carefully strained. This he covered with a film
of olive oil, and set away in a closet. On the 31st of June,
1881, one year and four months from the time of the prepa-
ration, the bottle was placed in the hands of a chemist,
recommended by Dr. C. F. Chandler and by Prof. C. F.
Joy, of the School of Mines. The chemist, Dr. C. S.
Allen, Ph. B., certified that, after a careful examination, he
could detect no alcohol in the juice covered with oil.
From the foregoing the reader will be able to judge
whether Dr. Sampson's testimony upon the subject of wines,
and his interpretation of the vintage-scenes pictured on the
tomb-walls, are entitled to our respect or not. The follow-
ing is his interpretation of the plate under consideration :
"But another stage of backward transit brings us to the
'protropos' of the Greeks; or the oozing juice of the clusters
on the vine caught in pans as it dripped before the harvest.
Thence, again, we find ourselves in Egypt; especially in the
vintage-scenes pictured on the tomb-walls of Beni Hassan
in Upper Egypt, sculptured and painted in the days of
Joseph. We scan the two presses, and the method of
separating and storing the sugary juice without the ferment-
ing pulp. The more carefully prepared is that from the
small twist-press. A sack, about three feet long, is fastened
by a ring at one end to a stout post; a rope at the other end
passes through a hole in another post; a strong staff, about
four feet long, is turned by three men; while a fourth
attends to a large pan into which the juice squeezed from
the sack is falling in drops. The larger press is an im-
mense vat in which ten or twelve youths are treading the
386 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
grapes with their feet. From two orifices, one near the
top and the other near the bottom, flow streams of
juice. The upper stream, evidently furnished with an
inside strainer, as Wilkinson intimates (Anct. Egypt.,
c. v.) flows into a small tub, whence an attendant dips the
fresh and strained must, with a large-nosed scoop, into jars;
over which, when filled, another attendant pours from a
smaller scoop, what we may now regard fresh oil; while
other attendants set away these jars, with or without covers,
in the store-house. It is not to be wondered at that minds,
having thus before them the connected facts, see in this an
explanation of the butler's dream, interpreted by Joseph
(Gen. xl. 11), and of the Hebrew 'tirosh,' familiar to Isaac
(Gen. xxvii. 28, 37).
"To this custom of preserving must and other fruit prod-
ucts by oil, Pliny and Columella allude; Columella saying
(xii. 19) that 'before the must is poured into the jars
(vasa),' they should be saturated with good oil.'"
"Virgil describes the presses, with strainers, which fur-
nished the pure juice without ferment; as he in youth worked
at them. First, There were the foot-vats; in which the
vintage foamed on the full brims,' as he with his comrades.
'tinged the naked ancles with new must' (Geor. II. 6, 8).
Second, There was the wist or torcular press; with its
cloth-sacks (cola), its twisting staves (prela); from which,
in 'great drops' (guttæ), gathered and flowing 'as streams
(undæ), the bottles to preserve it were filled (Geor. II.
240-245). So completely did the straining process of the
twist-press prevail, that it gave the specific name' torculum,'
or 'torcular,' among the 'Rustic' writers, to wine-presses
in general; as the student of Cato, Varro, Columella and
Pliny, whose observations covered three centuries, will note.
More than this: Jerome, with incomparable facilities for a
correct judgment, finds this method of straining the unfer-
menting juice from the fermenting pulp, a controlling idea,
from Moses to his own day; as his universal use of the
SWEDENBORG CALLS WHISKEY A PERNICIOUS DRINK. 387
neuter-plural adjective 'torculara,' or twist-press apparatus
indicates."--Divine Law as to Wines.
The next accusations by "The Academy" are as follows:
"Our space does not permit us to enter with equal fulness into the
refutation of the many similar statements in the book, but we will at least
make mention of the following:
'In speaking of fermented grape-juice the author says: 'It was re-
garded so polluted, that even the ancient heathen would not dare to offer
it to their gods' (p. 153). That this is false in reference to the Egyp-
tians, we have already proved; that it is false with respect to the Greeks
is equally evident; for it is always in their offerings called oinos, and this,
as we have seen, signifies the fermented juice of the grape. It is equally
erroneous with respect to the Romans, for their libations were of vinum,
which is also the fermented juice of the grape."
As we have abundantly shown in preceding chapters, it
is not true that oinos and vinum always signify fermented
wine. The writer spoke of the ancient heathen, but when
in Egypt, Greece and Rome they began to offer fermented
wine to their gods, and when men, and especially women,
began to drink it, those mighty nations of antiquity fell to
rise no more, even to this day-fell as Swedenborg feared
the Swedish nation would fall in his day, when on the fly-leaf
of one of his theological MSS. he wrote: "The immoderate
use of spirituous liquors will be the downfall of the Swedish
people." And when, in his memorial to the Swedish Diet,
of November 17th, 1760, three years after the Last Judg-
ment, he says: "If the distilling of whiskey-provided the
public can be prevailed upon to accede to the measure—
were farmed out in all judicial districts, and also in towns,
to the highest bidder, a considerable revenue might be ob-
tained for the country, and the consumption of grain might
also be reduced; that is, if the consumption of whiskey can-
not be done away with altogether, which would be more
desirable for the country's welfare and morality than all the
income which could be realized from so pernicious a drink.”
Pliny says (c. 18): 'The wines of the early ages were
* ‘Wines began,’he con
employed as medicine,'
*
*
388
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
tinues, 'to be authorized in the six hundredth year of the
city.' He adds that even then it was used 'sparingly;' that
women never drank it except 'for health;' and that 'since
this is consistent with religion (constat religione) it was held
impious (nefastum) to offer wine to gods.'
"Athenæus (Deipn. I. 25) mentions especially 'sweet,
light, and boiled' Egyptian wines; and states, that the
Egyptians, like the Greeks, in worshipping the sun, the
deification of pure light, 'make their libations of honey
(grape-syrup), as they never bring wines to the altars of the
gods.' Philo the Jew and Clement the Christian indicate
the religious spirit of the Egyptians, in describing the
abstinence of the specially devout of their respective
religions.
"The laws of the Brahmins of India, embodied in the
twelve chapters of the Institutes of Menu, indicate that
modern reform is behind the ancients, who, in the earliest
ages, had embodied in law the duty of abstaining from in-
toxicating liquors. The opening chapter declares that 'im-
memorial custom is transcendant law' (I. 108).
66
Among persons to be shunned in society is 'a drinker
of intoxicating spirits' (III. 159). Repeated lists of articles
of food which may be presented as oblations to the Deity,
and which the Brahmin may receive and eat, such as milk,
clarified butter and honey, are given; but no 'spirituous
liquor' is admitted.
"The penance required varies according to the knowl-
edge or ignorance of the drinker. 'Any twice-born man
who has intentionally drunk spirit of rice may drink more
of the same spirit when set on fire, and atone for his offence
by severely burning his body; or he may drink boiling,
until he die, the urine of a cow,' etc. (XI. 91). While the
penalty of intentional drinking is so fearful as well as dis-
gusting, it is added, 'Or, if he tasted it unknowingly, he
may expiate the sin of drinking spirituous liquor by-a
long list of humiliating penances lasting 'a whole year'
UNİNTOXICATING WINE AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 389
(XI. 92). Farther on, wearisome penances are prescribed.
for a Brahmin who shall even smell the breath of a man
who has been drinking spirits' (XI. 150); or shall 'have
tasted unknowingly
* * * anything that has touched
spirituous liquors' (XI. 151). Proceeding then to the pen-
alties to be followed in the future world, we read (XII. 56):
'A priest who has drunk spirituous liquor shall migrate into
the form of a smaller or larger worm or insect, of a moth,
or a fly feeding on ordure, or of some ravenous animal.'
The Divine Law as to Wines.
Again, "The Academy" say: "The author states (p. 67) that the Les-
bian wine mentioned by Horace was perfectly harmless and unintoxicat-
ing. He evidently supposes it to have been unfermented. But in that he
is altogether mistaken, for it is called by ancient authors oinos, or vinum,
and this, we have repeatedly shown, is fermented. [This the reader has
seen, in the 1st and 2d chapters of this reply, "The Academy " has not
shown, and cannot show, simply because the representation that these
terms always denote fermented wine is incorrect.-E.]. It was simply a
light ladies' wine, which, like some of the Egyptian and some of the lighter
modern wines, was exhilarating because fermented; but not intoxicating
unless taken in very large quantities."
Now, it would be well to apply a little common sense to
this question, and inquire who would be likely to know best
as to the quality of the Lesbian wine, and whether it would
intoxicate or not "The Academy" writers, who live nine-
teen hundred years after, or Horace, who lived where and
wrote when this wine was used, and who declares that it
would not intoxicate? We know that all fermented wine
will intoxicate, and it is not unlikely that there were varie-
ties of Lesbian wines which would intoxicate; but if this
could be proved it would not invalidate the above state-
ment in the least, for we know that where unintoxicating
wines are made intoxicating wines can be made also. On
the same page of the writer's work on "The Wine Ques-
tion" there was the statement of “ Aristotle, born 384
years B. C., who assures us that the wine of Arcadia was
so thick that it was necessary to scrape it from the skin
396 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
bottles in which it was contained, and to dissolve the scrap-
ings in water before drinking it."
And we will here add that Aristotle, in his "Meteorology"
(I. 4, c. 9), speaking of "sweet wine," says, "It would not
intoxicate."
"Some of the celebrated Opimian wine mentioned by
Pliny had, in his day, two centuries after its production, the
consistence of honey."— Wines of the Bible.
Now, do "The Academy" really think these thick wines,
which were as thick as honey, and one of which had to be
scraped from the skin bottles, and dissolved in water before
they could be drank, were fermented wines? It is quite
evident they do not so think, as they do not allude to
them; and yet these were among the celebrated wines of
antiquity.
"Polybius says (sixth book): 'Among the Romans,
women were forbidden to drink wine; they drank a wine
that was called passon (Latin passum), and this was made
from dried grapes or raisins. As a drink it very much
resembled Ægosthenian and Cretan (gleukos) sweet wine,
and which is used for the purpose of allaying thirst.' Ælian
makes a similar statement in Var. His., lib. 2, cap. 38. So,
also, Athenæus, in lib. 10, cap. 7. Also, Valerius Maximus
in lib. 2, cap. 1. Also, Pliny, Nat. His., lib. 14, cap. 13.
"Here is positive proof that unfermented wine existed,
since Roman ladies, who were forbidden to drink intoxicat-
ing wine, could drink this.
“Even Dr. W. H. Rule, in his Brief Inquiry,' confesses
that unfermented grape-juice was the protropos or pro-
dromos OINOS of the Greeks' (p. 7). The same hostile writer
has the following: 'The women of Rome and Latium were
called abs-tem-ious, because they abstained from wine,
TEMETUM, prisca lingua, apellabatur, called temetum in their
most ancient language (Fabri Thesaurus).' But the women
did not abstain from must, either fresh or preserved.
* * * He allows, too, that Tirosh (translated, new wine)
BOILED WINES, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
391
is also spoken of as in the unfermented state. ”—(Communion
wine-Thayer.)
Again our reviewers say:
"The author's ignorance of the process of making and of preserving
wine, causes him to make several ludicrous mistakes. In every process of
the regular manufacture of wine, he discovers some way of preserving
must. Thus it is well known that in Southern Europe part of the wine
is sometimes boiled, and is then mixed with one-half or two-thirds of the
same quantity of fermented wine to give it additional sweetness. Such
wines are made in comparatively small quantities in Spain, Italy, the
Canary Islands, and sometimes in Syria; these are the Malaga and simi-
lar sweet wines. These, as is well known, contain about twice as much
alcohol as the ordinary wines (from 15 to 23 per cent.), yet the author
mistakes them for syrup!
"As the author did not know that boiling the wine was only a part of
the making of fermented wine, he was entirely unable to see how in
Syria they could boil wine, and still have fermented wine."
Unfortunately for the above representations, the author
knew that boiled wines were sometimes used in the manu-
facture of fermented wines; but, from anything he has ever
written or said, have "The Academy" the slightest reason
to suppose that "he was entirely unable to see how in
Syria they could boil wine, and still have fermented wine ?"
Our critics continue :
'He starts with an extravagant statement as to the prevalent custom
of boiling wine in the following words. The wines of Syria are most
of them prepared by boiling, immediately after they are expressed from
the grape, till they are considerably reduced in quantity, when they
were put into jars or large bottles, and preserved for use.' The Doctor
(Bowring) adds, that 'the habit of boiling wine is almost universal [in
Syrial' (p. 70). [Perhaps Dr. Bowring knew the facts as well as our
critics.-E]. If this refers to wine making, the very important fact is
omitted that this boiled juice is added to fermented wine. [Their very
important fact was omitted simply because it was not true that such a
use was generally made of such boiled wines.-E.] It may, however,
refer to the preparation of syrup or grape-jelly by the Mohammedans,
who are not allowed either to make or drink wine. But that boiled
grape-jelly or syrup is not called wine, either in Syria or elsewhere, is
plainly apparent in the book itself, where we read: 'Certain missionaries
392
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
a few years ago declared that there were no unfermentea wines used in
Palestine at that day, and that by careful inquiry they could not hear of
any such wines.' But the author consoles himself by adding: 'But it is
evident, from the testimony we shall adduce from other missionaries and
travellers, that if they had inquired for boiled grape-juice or dibs, and had
been familiar with the writings of the ancients, who describe the method
of boiling, and who called such boiled grape-juice wine (?), and spoke of
it as the best wine (?), they would have made no such statements as they
did; for they were undoubtedly honest, but lacking in a knowledge of the
necessary facts, which would have enabled them to speak understand-
ingly' (p. 69):
'Who that was lacking in knowledge, the missionaries or their self-
satisfied critic, is probably by this time clear to the reader. No doubt had
they asked for grape-syrup or jelly, jam or preserves, they might have
received some; but the people knew better than to call such articles
wine."
We will answer the above by allowing the missionaries,
travelers and authors, modern and ancient, to speak for
themselves.
Rev. Henry Homes, missionary to Constantinople, wrote
in the "Bibliotheca Sacra," May, 1848: "Simple grape-
juice, without the addition of any earth to neutralize the
acidity, is boiled from four to five hours, so as to reduce it
to ONE-FOURTH the quantity put in. After the boiling, for
preserving it cool, and that it may be less liable to ferment,
it is put into earthen instead of wooden vessels, closely tied
over with skin to exclude the air. * * * It, ordinarily,
has not a particle of intoxicating quality, being used freely
by both Mohammedans and Christians. Some which I have
had on hand for two years has undergone no change."
And he adds that, "in the manner of making and preserv-
ing it, it seems to correspond with the recipes and descrip-
tions of certain drinks included by some of the ancients,
under the appellation, 'wine.'
Dr. Norman Kerr, in his work, "Unfermented Wine a
Fact," says: "I have drank of a most pleasing and re-
freshing liquor, cheering to the heart and nourishing to the
body, as thin as any full-bodied Tokay, four years and a
WINE PRESERVED BY BOILING.
393
half old-the pure juice of the grape boiled. It was im-
ported in casks from the East, and after undergoing the
great heat of a prolonged voyage on the Mediterranean, was
poured into Winchester quarts, the corks being sealed as
those of whiskey jars generally are. A month ago the
liquor, after being carefully examined and found absolutely
free from alcohol, was decanted, and though it has been
kept in common wine bottles, it has shown no appearance
of fermenting; there is no ferment in it to set up fermenta-
tion; it has neither, while boiling, dissolved the antiseptic
lining of goatskins, nor cracked the glass that encloses it
for it was poured into the bottles while cool.
"Need I add more? And yet, I must. The name of this
impossible, aged, unfermented, unintoxicating liquor in
one Eastern language at this very hour means WINE!"
In his work on the wine question, the writer produced the
testimony of a large number of witnesses, both ancient and
recent, as to the custom and purpose of boiling wines, and
the authors quoted do not intimate that such boiled wines
were generally used to manufacture fermented wines, as re-
presented by "The Academy," nor have we the slightest
reason to believe they were commonly so used. We take
from page 67 the following:
((
Archbishop Potter, born A.D. 1674, in his 'Grecian An-
tiquities' (Edinburgh edition, 1813, vol. ii. p. 360), says:
'The Lacedæmonians used to boil their wines upon the fire
till the fifth part was consumed; then after four years were
expired began to drink them.' He refers to Democritus, a
celebrated philosopher, who travelled over the greater part
of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and who died 361 B.C.; also, to
Palladius, a Greek physician, as making a similar statement.
These ancient authorities called the boiled juice of the grape
wine, and the learned archbishop brings forward their testi-
mony without the slightest intimation that the boiled juice
was not wine in the judgment of the ancients.”—Bible Wines.
Now, intelligent reader, have you any reason to suppose
394 A ŘEPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
that the ancients did not drink these wines, but that they
used them solely to manufacture fermented wines? It does
seem strange, with the amount of testimony which the writer
produced before them, that "The Academy" editors can
write and represent as they do! "The Academy" should
know, if they do not, that there is not the slightest difficulty
in keeping such boiled wines unfermented.
Again "The Academy" say:
Then, again, when the wine is fully fermented and is to be protected
against acetic fermentation, it is poured into casks which have been fumi-
gated with sulphur. This is described by the author in these words; 'The
last process in wine-making is sulphurization; its object is to secure the
most long-continued preservation of all wines, even of the very commonest,
(p. 78). The fact is stated with some approach to correctness, but yet
the author's use of the fact is altogether false, for we read (p. 66) 'they
also used sulphur to neutralize the yeast or gluten' (p. 66). The real
use is the expulsion of oxygen from the casks, so as to prevent the wine
from passing from the vinous to the acetic fermentation."
Dr. Norman Kerr, in the work referred to above, says:
"Not long ago,' says my lamented friend, Professor James
Miller, the eminent surgeon, 'I made the acquaintance of an
extensive wine-grower on the Moselle. 'Have you any unfer-
mented wine-juice of the grape?" said I. 'Tons,' said he. 'How
old?' 'Some of it fully ten years.' And then he went on
to explain two modes of preserving it in its pure, natural,
unfermented state: one by the boiling process, another by
the sulphur cure-both precisely as practiced in olden
times' (Nephalism, pp. 147, 148).
The must is poured
strongly sulphured
"The process is exceedingly simple.
into barrels or bottles which have been
by the burning of sulphur matches. More matches are
burnt from time to time, and the lid, bung, or cork is securely
fastened (Thud. and Dupré, p. 396; Sutton, pp. 163, 164;
Redding, 2d ed., p. 42). This must never ferments (Mus-
pratt, Chem. II. 1119; Redding, p. 42; Sutton, pp. 163, 164).”
The writer is told that some of the growers in this coun-
try preserve the unfermented wine by this method.
THE USE OF WINE IN FRANCË.
393
Since writing the above, we have conversed with an
extensive wine grower of New Jersey, who assures us that
he preserves unfermented wine by this process, and fur-
nishes it to the churches for communion wine, and to hos-
pitals and physicians for medical purposes.
Again "The Academy" say:
As to the use of wine in France the author in one passage declares.
'As to the use of ordinary wine, it is almost entirely confined to the men.
It is proverbial that if a young woman is known to be in the habit of
using it, she is unlikely to receive proposals of marriage' (p. 72). [Au-
thority for this statement Mr. Alsop, minister of the Society of Friends.
-E.] The falsity of this statement is proved by the author himself in
his slander on the French nation: 'Drunkenness is the beginning and
end of life in the great French industrial centres. At Lille, 25 per cent.
of the men and 12 per cent. of the women are confirmed drunkards' (p.
85). [Authority for this statement a French magazine quoted by Dr.
Sampson.-E.] 'Women rival the men in drunkenness. At Lille, at
Rouen, there are some so saturated with it that their infants refuse to take
the breast of a sober woman,' [Authority, M. Jules Simon.-E.] 'The
French go about it as a business. I never saw so many women drunk’
(p. 85). [Authority, Dr. E. N. Kirk, of Boston.-E.] We see that
abstinence writers are able to furnish testimony on the same subject of
the most conflicting character whenever it suits their 'good cause.
If "The Academy" were to characterize this mixing up
and garbling of quotations, they would call it something
worse than "falsification," "intentional and not accidental;"
but while we are sure "The Academy" do not intend to
falsify at all, we do think they should have told their
readers that in the first quotations (p. 72) we distinctly
limited our statements to the wine-producing districts in
the south of France; while at p. 82 we as distinctly speak
of two manufacturing towns-Lille, in the extremest northern
corner of France, and Rouen, which is not far south of
Lille.
Our critics continue:
“The truth of course lies between these two exaggerations. The French
as a nation use fermented wine, and generally in moderation. Drunkards
in France, as elsewhere, are the exception. One of the queerest blun-
396 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
ders of the author in connection with the above exaggerated statements
of drunkenness in France is the following: 'Look at the peasant at his
meals in the vine-bearing districts! Instead of milk, he has a basin of
pure and unadulterated blood of the grape. In this, its native original
state, it is a plain, simple, and wholesome liquid, which at every repast
becomes to the husbandman what milk is to the shepherd-not a luxury,
but a necessity; not an intoxicating but a nutritive beverage'” (p. 71).
The testimony of a number of distinguished Frenchmen,
which is contained in the writer's work on the wine question,
"The Academy" do not care to reproduce in their review;
if they had done so, they would hardly have had the hardi-
hood to accuse the writer of slandering the French nation,
for quoting, as he did, from distinguished travelers and
Frenchmen, statements in which they could hardly have
had any motive for making false representations as to facts.
The writer will reproduce one or two of them here:
"In France, Montalembert said, in the National Assembly,
as early as 1850, 'Where there is a wine-shop, there are the
elements of disease, and the frighful source of all that is at
enmity with the interests of the workman.' In 1872, the
French Goverment appointed a committee to report on the
national vice of wine-drinking. In the report of their Secre-
tary, they say, after citing the fearful demoralization pro-
duced by wine before, during, and after the war with
Prussia: There is one point on which the French Assembly
thought and felt alike.
To restore France to her
right position, their moral and physical powers must be
given back to her people.
*To combat a propen-
* * *
*
*
sity, which has long been regarded as venial, because it
seemed to debase and corrupt only the individual, but the
prodigious extension of which has resulted in a menace to
society at large, and in the temporary humiliation of the
country, seemed incumbent on the men to whom that country
has entrusted the task of investigating, and remedying its
evils."
Now, the present writer is disposed to think that there
has been a little slandering done by somebody. Whether
WINE-DRINKING CAUSES DRUNKENNESS.
397
the parties guilty are the above distinguished writers, and
several others not named, and the present writer, who sim-
ply quoted their testimony, which he has every reason to
believe to be true; or "The Academy" editors, who accuse
him of slandering the French nation, let the reader judge.
Many persons who have not examined this subject are.
ready to attribute the evil of drunkenness around them not
to wine, but to distilled spirits-whiskey, brandy, gin, etc.—
and they imagine that the increased use of wine and beer
will lessen the evil. If these will bear in mind the fact that
in Europe and western Asia all the drunkenness which
existed up to the sixth century was caused by drinking fer-
mented wine and other fermented drinks-for the art of
distillation had not been discovered-he can but see that
the use of fermented wine is not likely to lessen the drunk-
enness in any community, as history shows that drunkenness
prevailed fearfully before the introduction of distilled.
liquors. Every day's observation shows us that almost all
the drunkards in our country commenced their career by
drinking fermented wine and beer.
As to "one of the queerest blunders of the author,"
which he is accused of making, he is assured by travelers
that it is no blunder, but simply the truth. We are not
surprised that it seems absolutely incredible to the gentle-
men of "The Academy" that any sane peasant could pre-
fer to drink with his bread the sweet unfermented blood
of the grape, rather than intoxicating wine; but “The
Academy's" incredulity does not invalidate or alter the
fact vouched for by travelers.
CHAPTER VI.
ASSUMPTION THAT SWEET AND SUGAR HAVE A LOW,
IF NOT AN EVIL CORRESPONDENCE, IN COMPARI-
SON WITH SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS; AND IGNORING THE
DIRECT TESTIMONY OF SWEDENBORG, AND THE INNOCENT
TASTE OF INFANCY.
How any one can speak as lightly and almost contempt-
uously of sweet and sugar, which the Lord has organized
for the use of man in the grape and other fruits; and in
the sweet juices of maple trees, cane, beets and of other
vegetables; which is so delightful to the taste of the infant
and adult; and which, when temperately used, is so useful,
as the editors of "Words for the New Church" do in the
following and other quotations which we shall make, is en-
tirely beyond the comprehension of the present writer.
They say:
"Another instance of false teaching is where the author exalts sugar
above what is spirituous. [Alcoholic.
[Alcoholic.-E.] We read of ‘sugar, so de-
lightful to the unperverted taste' (p. 22); 'the delightful sugar is per-
verted by leaven into alcohol' (p. 136); 'alcohol developed by the destruc-
tion of a heaven-born substance, sugar' (p. 120); 'the sugar which is so
delightful, and which corresponds to spiritual delights' (p. 94). The
author sees nothing but what is pure and heavenly in sweetness and in
sugar.
"It will probably be of some interest to mention the internal sense of
honey, which in the Word stands as the representative of sweetness.
Honey signifies delight which comes from the good and true, or from
their affection, and it especially signifies external delight, thus that of the
exterior natural; because this delight is of such a nature, that it is from
the world through sensual things, and thus contains within itself many
things from the love of the world; therefore it was forbidden that honey
should be used in meat-offerings, concerning which it is thus written in
Leviticus: No meat-offering, which ye shall bring unto Jehovah, shall
398
SWEET AND HONEY.
399
be made with leaven, for ye shall not burn any leaven, or any honey, in
any offering made by fire unto Jehovah' (ii. 11), where honey denotes such
external delight, which because it contains in it somewhat from the
love of the world, was also like leaven, on which account it was prohib-
ited (A. C. 5620).
“This passage teaches us several important points; First, that sugar
(or its representative in the Bible, honey), which the author calls heaven-
born 'and so delightful,' is really in the Word accounted so unclean that
it was not allowed to 'be offered upon any offering made by fire;' Sec-
ondly, it is said to be, like leaven, rather hard for those who glorified it
as heaven-born and as signifying spiritual delight;' and, Thirdly, external
delight, to which honey corresponds, contains in it somewhat from the
love of the world."
How any intelligent New Churchman could thus deliber-
ately confound sugar or sweet organized by the Lord, with
honey collected and modified by bees, seems marvelous.
Perhaps, on reflection, it is not so strange that those who
exalt alcoholic liquors (manufactured and "swathed" by
the ingenuity of man, aided by leaven,) above sugar or
sweet organized by the Lord in the vegetable kingdom,
should thus confound the two.
We will see what Swedenborg has to say about sweet:
"Everything sweet in the natural world corresponds to
what is delightful and pleasant in the spiritual world" (A.
C. 5620). Again: "Sweet signifies what is delightful from
the good of truth and the truth of good" (A. E. 618). Again:
"And the waters were made sweet-that hereby is signified
that hence truths were made delightful, appears from the
signification of sweet, as denoting what is delightful, for
sweet in the internal sense is the sweet of life, which is one
with delight; and from the signification of waters as denot-
ing truths.
* * Hence it is, that so long as good
flows in and is received, so long truths appear delightful;
but as soon as good does not flow in, that is, as soon as evil
begins to predominate and prevent the influx of good, in-
stantly there is felt a sensation of what is undelightful in
regard to truth; for truth and evil naturally reject and hold
each other in aversion" (A. C. 8356).
*
400. A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
The writer thinks that the above clear and positive quo-
tations from Swedenborg are conclusive as to the significa-
tion of sugar and sweet; for they are not simply compari-
sons which may not be clearly understood on a superficial
reading. Before we confirm ourselves in doctrines as im-
portant as those which we are now considering-important
not only to ourselves, but to our children and children's
children for countless generations-let us be sure that our
views are clearly taught in the Word and in the Writings.
It seems to the writer that no man, who has read his
Bible and the Writings of our Church carefully and without
prejudice, can doubt but that sweet, as organized by the
Lord in the juice of wholesome, nourishing vegetables, has
a good signification-when unperverted and unadulterated,
always good. Now, if we turn to science and to our senses,
the beautiful correspondence between the natural and
spiritual would seem to make this whole question clear to
every one who is willing to see the truth, and is in freedom
to see it. First: sugar or sweet is delightful to the palate,
not simply of the adult man with his perversions of taste,
but also of the new-born infant in his innocence; while the
flavor of fermented wine and whiskey is never delightful to
the infant or to the unperverted palate of the adult, unless
largely covered by sugar. Science teaches us that one of
the chief uses of sugar or sweet, when used as an article of
diet, is to warm the body, and thus make glad the physical
heart of man. Swedenborg tells us above that, "Sweet sig-
nifies what is delightful from the good of truth, and the truth
of good." Sweet renders both water which corresponds to
truth, and the food which corresponds to good, delightful;
the natural delight corresponding to spiritual delight. We
have here a starting point, for the correspondence of sweet
is unquestionably good—one of the highest. Sweet is one
of the main constituents in the blood of the grape and of
man; and in the juice of the grape which flows on pressure.
It is the sugar or sweet which makes the water, gluten and
FERMENTATIONS-SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL.
401
other nourishing materials contained in the grape so de-
lightful. It is the sugar which makes even the dried grapes,
or raisins, so palatable. Not a single drop-not even the
smallest fraction of a drop-of alcohol was ever found in a
sound grape. It is said that alcohol has been found even
in the atmosphere; and if the careful experimenter was in
the habit of using alcohol, or took the air for his experi-
ments from the neighborhood of those who were in the habit
of using it, we do not wonder that he should be able to find,
what our nostrils in like circumstances so readily detect:
but the Lord has organized no alcohol in the grape; for
the good sweet grape is pure, and has not, like man, to be
regenerated by temptations and fermentations; and as it
has had no change corresponding to the separation of the
will and understanding in man, if it commences to decay, it
must go on, unless restrained by man, until complete disor-
ganization results. We come now to the consideration of
the subject of fermentation, and the origin of that which
corresponds to falses from evil or alcohol, in the juice of
the grape; and we will hear what our editors have to say.
“The author seems to wholly misunderstand the use of ferments. We
are taught that the Divine Providence of the Lord causes that evil, and
falsity may serve for purification (D. P. 21). This is effected in various
ways-one of which is as follows:
Spiritual fermentations take place in many ways, for there are evils
and at the same time falsities, which being let into societies, do the like
as ferments put into meal and must, by means of which, heterogeneities
are separated and homogeneities are conjoined, and it becomes pure and
clear" (D. P. 25).
The writer does not feel that the representation of the
meaning of the passage from No. 25 of the Divine Providence
is correct by any means. We will first give, for the benefit
of such of our readers as are acquainted with that language,
Swedenborg's Latin; and then the translation of the same
as it is rendered in the "Rotch Edition" of that work:
"Fermentationes spirituales, fiunt multis modis, tam in
402
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
caelis quam in terris: sed in mundo nesciuntur quid sunt,
et quomodo fiunt; sunt enim mala et simul falsa, quae
immissa Societatibus similiter faciunt sicut fermenta im-
missa farinis et mustis, per quae separantur heterogenea,
et conjunguntur homogenea, et fit purum et clarum.”
"Spiritual fermentations take place in many ways, in the
heavens as well as on earth; but in the world it is not
known what they are, and how they are effected. For there
are evils having falsities with them, which do a work, when
introduced into societies, like that done by the things put
into meal and into new wine to cause fermentation, by which
heterogeneous things are separated and homogeneous things
conjoined, and purity and clearness are the result."
If purity results to the meal, it is not, as we well know,
until after it has been purified by heat, or has been baked,
for until then it is full of leaven and its products; and so it
would seem it must be with spiritual fermentations, they do
not purify, but it is the Divine love to which natural heat
corresponds, which, flowing in, purifies the spirit of man.
The result in the must is clearness. It is not said to be
pure, and we know that it is not pure, in any good sense of
this word; for it causes drunkenness, which never results
either spiritually, or naturally, from imbibing pure unper
verted truth; or its natural correspondent, pure, unper-
verted wine; for these are heaven born, and can never
cause drunkenness, unless perverted by man. We must
remember that fermented wine is never purified by heat,
and consequently that it is pre-eminently a leavened sub-
stance.
Unlike man, the juice of the grape has not fallen; conse-
quently it does not require purifying until leaven has com-
menced its work of destruction. The unfermented juice as
it flows from the press may contain shreds of the cellular
structure of the grapes (which can be readily separated by
straining), and of albuminous matters, which interfere with
its transparency; but the latter are good, wholesome articles
HETEROGENEITIES IN MEAL AND MUST.
403
of food; and when grape-jelly is made, they enter into the
jelly, and help to give it body. In the unfermented wine
they can readily be removed by filtering, by keeping cool
and settling, or by boiling and skimming-processes well-
known to the ancients, and carefully described by ancient
writers, as the writer has shown in his work on "The Wine
Question," and elsewhere in this work. Please remember
first, that according to Swedenborg, the grape, the blood of
the grape, and the juice of the grape have all an unques-
tionably good correspondence, as the writer has shown in
this and in his former work. Corn, also, and meal, have a
like good correspondence, for all these substances have been
carefully organized in the vegetable kingdom, by the Lord,
for the sustenance of man. Leaven, we are told by Sweden-
borg, signifies "the evil and the false, which should not be
mixed with things good and true." It is never born in the
grape, but its germs float in the atmosphere. Now, it
hardly seems right for us to mix leaven with our food and
drink, or to permit it to be mixed; but if we practically de-
stroy it and drive off its products by heat, soon after it has
commenced its action, as we do in baking our bread, no
great harm can ensue; for heat has a good correspondence
when legitimately used, and it purifies the bread. Leaven,
then, is to the meal, flour, or pure juice of the grape, strictly
a heterogeneous substance, and by its action on the wine
it developes other heterogeneous substances. It is, there-
fore, perfectly clear that the heterogeneities referred to by
Swedenborg are the ferment and substances generated by
the ferment, when it is put or let into the meal and must;
and if, by "and it becomes pure and clear," he had any
reference to these natural substances, he could certainly
have had reference only to the purity and clearness of the
fermented wine, as fermented wine; but, as to the meal, it
is difficult to see how he could have applied the terms
"pure and clear" to it at all after fermentation. The writer,
therefore, inclines to the opinion that he had reference to
404
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
the change which takes place in the spirit of man, as he
intimated in his work on the wine question; but, be that as
it may, it is perfectly certain that Swedenborg had no refer-
ence to the inherent quality of unbaked fermented, or
leavened bread and unboiled leavened wine, for he tells us
that "what is leavened denotes what is falsified” (A. C.
8051), and Swedenborg does not contradict himself. He
leaves us no chance to doubt as to the real quality of the
meal and must, both before and after they have passed
through the process of leavening or fermenting. The fact
that he thus associates the leavening of meal with that of
must is an important point in the consideration of this sub-
ject. Swedenborg says:
"Flour or meal signifies celestial truth, and wheat celes-
tial good" (A. R. 778). Are these impure? Have we any
natural substances of a higher signification?
“Fine flour,
and also meal, denote truth which is from good” (A. C.
9995).
Now, my brethren, do you really think the above sub-
stances can be purified by leavening them? No! no! For
again he says:
"The thing falsified, which is signified by what is leav-
ened, and the false, which is signified by leaven, differ in
this, that the thing falsified is truth applied to confirm evil,
and the false is everything that is contrary to truth" (A. C.
8062).
* * *
"By its being unleavened, or not fermented, is signified.
that it should be sincere, consequently from a sincere
heart, and free from things unclean.
Fine flour
made into cakes in general represented the same thing as
bread, viz.: the celestial principle of love, and its farina
the spiritual principle " (A. C. 2177).
Again our critics say:
As usual, the author is at variance with revealed facts. Here the
homogeneity of wine is referred to. [This is, to
[This is, to say the least, very ques-
tionable.-E.] But the author, nevertheless, declares that fermented
ALCOHOL IN ITS EFFECTS COMPARED TO FAITH ALONE. 405
wine is not homogeneous. [Yes, he does; for it is certainly true that it is
not a homogeneous fluid-E.] Now, what is the 'like' in these two fermen-
tations referred to above? Evidently the separation of heterogeneities; the
removal of the foul and turbid mess of decomposed grape, and that of the
evils and falsities which becloud the mind. [But there are no such
'heterogeneities' in the juice of the grape before leaven enters it, for the
Lord has organized it in the grape; and there is no such 'foul and turbid
mess of decomposed grape' until it is produced by the leaven or ferment.
—E.] But such removal supposes a cause, an active force. Hence, the
'like' extends to the purifying forces at work. In the one case, regener-
ation, this force is spiritual truth. In the other, it is a similar principle
in the grape; for the grape is a corresponding form of good. In the one
case, this preservative force, good by means of truth, rejects evils and
falsities as heterogeneities, and conjoins all that agree. In the other,
alcohol, formed of a fiery principle, clothed with the finer elements of the
grape, is the preservative force, which aids in the precipitation of decom-
posed nitrogenous matter, excess of bitartrates, fungi, etc., constituting
the lees, and conjoins homogeneities into one invigorating, pure, whole-
some wine. By its action on the acids, ethers and volatile oils are evolved,
from which arises the vinous odor, now first produced. [So different
from the odor of a vineyard and of pure unfermented wine. Present the
two to a child for the first time and see which he will prefer.—E.] And
finally, by commingling in the most intimate of unions with all the ingre-
dients of the new wine, there is formed a smooth, rich, oily, and perfectly
clear liquid-' wine which maketh glad the heart of man.
""
The likeness, then, extends to properties of wine, chiefly to proper-
ties of the alcohol it contains. And hence, when by distillation the latter
is obtained pure, it is very appropriately compared to wisdom" (C. L.
145).
In C. L. 145, after alcohol has not only been distilled,
but has also passed through various processes, named by
Swedenborg (which our critics strangely neglect to no- *
tice), to free it from all water and other impurities, it is
appropriately compared as to its purity to wisdom; but in the
T. C. R. 98, we find, as we have elsewhere shown, alco-
hol as to its inherent quality, or ability to make men drunk,
compared to the doctrine of faith alone in its ability to make
men spiritually drunk. There is no way of evading or
weakening the force of this comparison, for both are com-
pared by their effects on man-alcohol causing natural in-
406
A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
toxication, as the false doctrine named causes spiritual in-
toxication; the one corresponding to the other.
Alas! alas!! the wise men of old spake of fermented
wine in a different language from that which "The
Academy" use when they talk so enthusiastically of it as
"an invigorating, pure and wholesome wine," "a smooth,
rich, oily and perfectly clear liquid," "which transforms a
listless company into a chatty, brilliant and entertaining
party." Solomon speaks not of rudeness and incivility
banished by it, but of woe and contention brought in; not
provoking the sparkle of brilliant wit, but redness of eyes;
not causing æsthetic refinement and chatty entertainment,
but causeless wounds and foolish babbling; and "at the
last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."
The Word of the Lord tells us: "Their wine is the poison
of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps" (Deut. xxxii.
33). We know fermented wine is the natural ultimate of
such wine. The fifth "Pentalogue of Budda" (B. C. 560),
runs thus: "Obey the law, walk steadily in the path of
purity, and drink not liquors that intoxicate and disturb
the reason."
"Wine deceiveth him that drinketh it."-THE VULGATE,
Hab. ii., 5.
"How exceeding strong is wine! it causeth all men to err
that drink it. -I ESDRAS iii. 18.
"Water makes those who drink nothing else very inge-
nious, but wine obscures and clouds the mind."-EUBULUS,
B. C. 375.
"I admire those who desire no other beverage than
water, avoiding wine as they do fire. Hence arise irregular
desires and licentious conduct. The circulation is hastened.
The body inflames the soul."-CLEMENT, of Alexandria,
A. D. 180.
In all of the above testimony from the wise men of old, and
from the Word of the Lord, there is not the slightest allusion
to excess; it is the fermented wine itself which is condemned.
WARNINGS AGAINST THE USE OF WINË. 407
"History says: 'All nations who drank intoxicating wine,
in all conditions of climate and culture, have erred through
its use and gone out of the way.' Scripture responds:
'Israel, God's chosen nation—her priests, her teachers, her
princes and kings, drank wine in bowls, and were swallowed
up of wine, wherefore they were sent into captivity.'
"Experience says: 'The common and social use of in-
toxicants, alcoholic or otherwise, has a physical tendency to
create an intemperate appetite, insatiate as the grave, making
Slaves of thousands.' The Bible answers: 'Wine deceiveth
a lofty man, and enlargeth his desire as hell (Hab. ii. 5); it
bringeth poverty and pain, sorrow and remorse upon him,
yet he crieth, 'I will seek it yet again' (Prov. xxiii. 35).
"Morality teaches: Wine is dangerous-it slowly but
surely ensnares and enslaves the Will. Terrible is the
power of this tricksy spirit to allure; it causeth all men, of
whatever rank, to err.' The Bible re-echoes: 'Wine is a
mocker; wine is a defrauder. Woe to him that giveth his
neighbor drink!' (Hab. ii. 15).
"Virtue exclaims: 'Wine stimulates the sensual nature,
and narcotizes the moral and spiritual: whence arise
irregular desires.' The Bible replies: 'Look not upon it,
lest thine eyes look upon strange women, and thine heart
go after perverse things' (Prov. xxiii. 33).
Experiment proves that 'alcohol is a disturber of the
brain, and decreases consciousness and the perception of
light, and “casts darkness over the soul"" (Eubulus). Scrip-
ture correspondingly commands: That God's priests, while
doing His work, shall drink no strong drink, lest they die.'
"Physiology announces that, 'the maximum strength of
man can only be realized by abstinence from alcoholic wine,
which cuts short the life of growing cells, and stunts the
growth of young animals.' Scripture records that 'when
the strongest man was to be reared, an angel from heaven
imposed the practice of abstinence upon both mother and
child.'
408
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
"Science declares that 'intoxicating wine is not food (in
any true sense); that alcohol is a mere drug; that it should
be prescribed as carefully as any other poisonous agent; that,
as a poison, it ranks with strychnine, opium, and tobacco.'
And Scripture finally anticipates all this, for, in text after
text, such wine is not only described as acting like the poison
'of the serpent and the basilisk,' but actually called a poison
(Deut. xxxii. 33: Hos. vii. 5; Hab. i. 15)."-Temperance
Bible Commentary.
How can the gentlemen of "The Academy" talk of fer-
mented wine making the heart of man glad, when we all
know that it makes men mad; and is a fruitful cause of
crime, poverty, disease, insanity, and premature death; and
that its use makes the hearts of countless multitudes of
wives, children, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters,
unspeakably sad? Have they no sympathy for these count-
less sufferers?
But, to return to the above extract from "Words to the
New Church." There is one groundless assumption in
it, which is fatal to the whole argument of its editors, as the
reader will readily see-the "preservative force." In the
child, we have remains of goodness and truth stored up by
the Lord, without which the man could not be regenerated;
but, unfortunately for the argument of our editors, alcohol,
the other preservative force, has never been stored up by
the Lord in the grape, but even the leaven, which produces
it, has been carefully excluded from this noble fruit.
Our critics inquire: "Now, what is the 'like' in these
two fermentations referred to above?" We will let Sweden-
borg reply, and we trust his answer will be satisfactory to
them. He says:
"The reason why what is unleavened signifies what is
purified is because leaven signifies what is false derived from
evil; hence, what is unleavened signifies what is pure, or
without that false principle. The reason why leaven signi-
fies what is false derived from evil is, because this false prin-
WINE AND THE FALSE COMPARED.
409
ciple defiles good and also truth, likewise because it excites
combat, for on the approach of that false principle to good,
heat is produced, and as it approaches to truth it excites
collision" (A. C. 9992).
This is precisely what follows when leaven approaches
new wine; however transparent, beautiful and clear the
wine may be, it soon becomes warm, thick and muddy, or
defiled. Here you have natural results, which are like the
spiritual results. In the one instance, good and truth are
defiled; in the other, natural substances, which correspond
to good and truth, are defiled. Can anything be clearer
than this? The Word of the Lord, illuminated by the Writ-
ings of the Church, leaves us no possibility of doubt as to
the true character of intoxicating wine; and that it has its
origin from hell is beyond question. Swedenborg says:
"The cup of the wine of anger denotes the false which
gives birth to evil. The reason why the false which gives.
birth to evil is signified is, because as wine intoxicates and
makes insane, so does the false; spiritual intoxication being
nothing but insanity induced by reasonings concerning
what is to be believed, when nothing is believed which is
not comprehended; hence come falses, and from falses
evils” (A. C. 5120). It is clear from the above that the
causes of natural intoxication correspond to the causes of
spiritual intoxication.
Our brethren of "The Academy" seem never to have dis-
covered the above comparison. In view of all this, how can
the editors pretend or claim that a leavened or fermented
wine, full of alcohol, which is manifestly an effete product
of leaven, and which we know will cause natural drunken-
ness, is a suitable beverage for a healthy man to drink, or
to be used as a Communion wine?
Alcohol is produced by the decomposition of sugar by
that unclean substance called leaven or ferment, a sub-
stance which seems to exist upon the border line between
the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Like animals it pos-
410 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
sesses the capacity of appropriating organized vegetable
substances to its own nourishment, and of changing them
into substances of a very different character from what
they were when it came in contact with them İn the
process heat is produced and carbonic acid gas is given off;
and alcohol seems to hold a similar relation to the leaven
that urea and urine do to the human body. The reader
will now understand why the writer spoke of alcohol as an
effete substance.
What is striking, it is so poisonous that when it reaches a
certain per cent. in the wine it destroys the activity if not the
very life of the leaven or ferment itself, precisely as man
would sicken and perish amid the excretions from his body, if
they were not carefully removed. Let the man who cannot
restrain his appetite drink such pernicious stuff if he will,
but do not let us defile the Temple of the Lord-the
temple not made with hands-by its use as a Communion
wine. No-no! my brethren, this will never do.
For what relation has fermented wine, polluted as it
always is with the poisonous and vile products of leaven,
such as alcohol, glycerine, vinegar and other acids, etc.,
which result from the action of ferment-with the sugar,
corresponding to spiritual delights, often entirely gone-
with the albumen and gluten which nourish the brain and
muscles to a great extent cast out—with the other organized
substances that enter into the bones and structures, all
either destroyed, cast down as dregs, or polluted by the
poisonous products of leaven-what relation has such a
wine as this to blood? And how can "The Academy"
seriously maintain that we must use this polluted thing, vile
in itself and evil in its effects, as a representative of the
blood of our Lord? Only think, dear reader, of using such
a wine in the most holy ordinance of the Lord's Supper,
instead of the pure, unpolluted juice of the grape, the real
fruit and product of the vine!
"Wine," says Swedenborg, "signifies the same as blood,
"THE ACADEMY" BEWILDERED "GARBLING." 411
as is very clear from the Lord's words: Jesus took the cup,
saying, 'This is my blood (Matt. 26, Mark 14, Luke 22);
and also from these: 'He washed his garments in wine,
and his clothes in the blood of grapes (Gen. 49, 11). This
was spoken of the Lord: 'Jehovah of hosts will make unto
all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees
(Isaiah 25, 6); this was spoken of the sacrament of the Holy
Supper, which was to be instituted by the Lord-the juice of
the vine which they should drink new in the kingdom of
heaven (Matt. 26, 2, Mark 14, 25, Luke 22, 17 and 18), signi-
fies only the truth of the New Heaven and the New Church.”
(T. C. R. 708).
In the following quotation from "The Academy's" review,
the writer has restored, in brackets, what "The Academy'
omitted, that the reader may have in connection with "The
Academy" criticisms his views fairly before him. The reason
why "The Academy" abbreviated the paragraph will be
manifest to the reader by the time he has read it in
conjunction with "The Academy's" comments:
“Another palpable physiological error in the pamphlet is contained in
the following: 'Good, pure, clean water, the unfermented blood of the
grape [wine or must, as it flows from the press, unfermented new and
old wine,] good sound wheat and other grains [suitable for human food,
and fresh meal and flour made from the same,] sweet, unleavened bread,
good fresh mutton and beef from healthy cattle [and many other whole-
some articles not here enumerated, when used as drink and food,] supply
the wants of the human body and give substance and thus strength, with-
out causing any unnatural excitement or depression, or any disease
peculiar to the article used, however freely it may be taken, and without
causing any unnatural appetite which other healty articles will not satisfy,
and without requiring to be taken in gradually increasing quantities to
satisfy the appetite for them, and which therefore in their action are not
seductive, are all good uses, according to the philosophy of Swedenborg,
and always have a good signification and correspondence, and they are
never evil or bad uses, and they never have a bad signification or corres-
pondence. [But these good uses, as we have already intimated, may be
abused, used to excess, or improperly used; but abuse, excessive or im-
proper use does not destroy them as good uses, and they are still good
412
A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY’S” REVIEW.
uses, and have a good signification and correspondence, however much
their abuse may injure the individual misusing them. Their improper
use, abuse, or excessive use may have a bad signification, but the sub-
stances themselves never have, for they are the good gifts of God, and
always correspond to truths and good affections. Swedenborg says: 'As
meats and drinks recreate the natural life, so good affections and genuine
truths corresponding to them recreate the spiritual life.' (Swedenborg's
Index to the A. C.)]
On
"If the reader is not out of breath and perplexed with this long and
involved sentence, which, by the way, we took the liberty of abbreviating
somewhat, we desire to tax his patience with a line or two more.
another page the author says: 'The sweet, which corresponds to spiritual
delights, causes no disease which any other healthy article taken in excess
might not cause.
The reader will see that advantage sometimes results from
having a "long and involved sentence;" for in the present
case, by the time "The Academy" had finished their abbre-
viation, they evidently became so bewildered that they for-
got all about "another palpable physiological error," with
which they commenced so vigorously, and did not even
attempt to tell what the error was, but wandered off upon
the subject of sweet and sugar. Well, let us see what "The
Academy" has to say upon the subject of sweet in this con-
nection, for, as the reader will see, both here and elsewhere
in their review, sweet repeatedly seems to infest the brain,
if not the stomach, of "The Academy:"
"To say that intemperance in sweets does not lead to peculiar diseased
states, is an error. Sugar in excess causes dropsy, swollen liver, emacia-
tion, pallor, and even chlorosis. Sugar, says Hering, spoils the temper
and unfits our women for the duties of life. It dulls the mind, while it
renders the temper irritable and peevish. This is unique, and is by no
means the same as 'any other healthy article taken in excess' will cause.
,,
Similar results the writer has seen follow the use of starch,
in excess, when individuals have attempted to live almost
exclusively upon superfine flour bread. Sugar, starch and
oil are principally appropriated to warm the body, and if
taken in excess to the neglect or exclusion of other necessary
food, the body as a whole is not nourished, and they burden
GRAPE CURE AND GRAPES AS FOOD.
413
the liver and other organs, interfering with their functions
by the excessive quantity of healthy food for which there
is no present demand in the organization, and thus giving rise
to the symptoms named above. Now, this excessive use or
abuse of good, healthy food, was specially alluded to in the
portion of the paragraph which our brethren of "The
Academy" excluded. No intelligent, sensible physician or
physiologist would ever think of classing sugar with poisons.
like alcohol or alcoholic drinks, for, temperately used, it is
a good, useful article, necessary during health: but this is
never true of intoxicating drinks.
Again the reviewers say:
""
'Phillips writes approvingly of the grape-cure; but, referring to its ex-
cessive use,
he says: 'With less constancy, but still with much frequency,
grapes act in a laxative or even a decidedly purgative manner; and if this
is carried to excess there may be excoriation of the tongue, chronic diar-
rhoea, and an aphthous condition of the whole alimentary canal.'
Grapes, like many other fruits, contain, in a concentrated
form, certain substances very useful as food, and they cure
certain diseases, not as poisons cure, but by supplying the
natural wants of the body, which have been lacking in super-
fine flour and other food; upon which such patients as
are cured by grapes have been previously living. That
the excessive use of grapes and other fruits, or even
their free use by one unaccustomed to them, will cause such
symptoms as described, is undoubtedly true; and it is
equally true that if a man unaccustomed to its use, eats
freely of fresh beef, or drinks hard water, or even soft water,
similar disturbance of the bowels is liable to result; yet all
this does not justify "The Academy" in its attempts to clas-
sify the temporary derangement resulting from the change
of water, or from excess in the use of grapes or wholesome
food, with the fearful and permanent effects of alcoholic
drinks when used as a beverage. There is in Nature
a broad difference between useful, nourishing substances,
which clearly have their origin from Heaven, according
414
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
to the philosophy of the New Church, and poisons which
have their origin from Hell, and while the former may be
abused in their use, to use the latter as food or drink, is to
pervert and destroy our physical organizations; and above
all other known substances, intoxicating drinks are well
known to pervert and impair not only man's physical
organization, but also his mental and spiritual organization
-for they make drunk and insane. But this matter of
sugar and sweet seems to trouble "The Academy" greatly,
as will be seen by the following:
"It is to the deleterious effects of the sugar, etc., in the must that
Swedenborg refers in True Christian Religion, 404. The must of wine
unfermented has a pleasant taste, but infests the stomach.
We will place beside the above a little of Swedenborg's
own experience with fermented wine, and see which infests
the stomach the most-unfermented or fermented wine. In
the Intellectual Repository for April, 1817, a letter states
that Mr. Shearsmith, with whom Swedenborg lodged in
London, said he never knew him drink any intoxicating
liquor, "excepting once, when on a visit, he drank one or
two glasses of wine, which disordered him for two or three
days." We think it safe to presume that he never suffered
as severely as this from unfermented must. "The Acad-
emy" say:
Alluding to this passage the author of the pamphlet remarks that
must fermenting is spoken of by Swedenborg as disagreeing with the
stomach (p. 105). Such wine, he remarks on another page, is turbid and
foul, and in this state is unwholesome to the stomach (p. 152).”
"But this is a gross perversion of the clear meaning of Swedenborg's
words. The words are must of wine unfermented;' and cannot mean
'wine while fermenting,' as the author asserts (p. 105). For how can
that be pleasant to the taste, which, according to the author's admission,
is turbid and foul?"
And yet every one who has tasted of fermenting wine or
cider knows very well that it has a sparkling, pleasant taste,
and not a few have had their stomachs "infested" by such
1
INFESTATION BY ALCOHOLIC DRINKS.
415
fluids. It is well known that fermenting grape juice is
regarded as must of wine unfermented, until the process of
fermentation is far advanced; and at Swedenborg's day,
when there was rarely any attempt to preserve the juice of
the grape from fermenting, it was rarely seen, excepting
by the manufacturer, in any other state than fermenting;
so that we do not by any means think it is so unreasonable
to presume that it was to fermenting must that Sweden-
borg referred. In fact, as the reader will see elsewhere in
this reply, “The Academy" has furnished us, from one of
his scientific works, presumptive evidence that it was
actually fermenting must which he had in mind when he
wrote the above.
We have but to visit the neighborhood of drinking
saloons to see men whose stomachs are manifestly infested
by fermented and alcoholic drinks, supporting themselves.
against lamp-posts, and the side-walks often show, by the
substances strewn thereon, how serious was the infestation.
Now, when the gentlemen of "The Academy" are able to
bring one-tenth of the evidence that strictly unfermented
grape juice infests the stomach that we have that fermented
wine infests the stomach, then it will do for them to talk
about the pure juice of the grape infesting the stomach.
One thing they will do well to remember, and that is, that
it never infests the head.
CHAPTER VII.
WINE IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH, ETC.
"The Academy" say:
Quite as unfounded are the declarations of the author concerning
the fruit of the vine.' He proves, indeed, to his own satisfaction, that
wine is not the fruit of the vine, but then we have seen that in such mat-
ters he is easily satisfied, Perhaps in his ignorance of the language he
supposed that the term here used for fruit is the word usually employed
for fruit in Greek. But the term is not karpos, but a more general term,
gennema, which really signifies 'that which is produced.' And it is well-
known that wine and must are both the product of the vine, though neither
could in strict literalness be called 'a fruit.'”
Unfermented wine and must are strictly produced by the
vine, and contain all the essential qualities and ingredients.
of the fruit of the vine, but the essential ingredient for
which men seek fermented wine-alcohol-is never produced
by the vine, but is produced by leaven.
Our critics continue:
“But even on this point we are not dependent alone on the explanation
of the learned, for we read: 'By the product (genimen) of the vine or the
wine (vinum), which the Lord will drink new with them in the kingdom
of His Father . . . is understood that from His Divine Human then
will be all the Divine Truth in heaven and in the Church, wherefore he
also calls it new' (A. E. 376). And again, 'Because by wine (vinum,
fermented grape-juice) is meant the Divine Truth nourishing spiritual
life, there the Lord saith to them; 'I say unto you, that I will not drink
of the produce (genimen) of the vine from henceforth,' etc. (A. E. 329).
Here again the fruit or produce of the vine is shown to mean nothing
else than wine—i. e., fermented grape-juice.”
In the above quotation we find reiterated the assumption
on which the argument of the review rests—which is, in
fact, the entire argument of the review-viz., that all wine
is fermented, and the unwarrantableness of which we have
already so fully shown. But "The Academy" return to it
416
"THE ACADEMY'S" STRANGE ARGUMENTS.
417
so often and present it in such varied shapes, and on so
many occasions, that we are constrained against our will to
repeatedly show how groundless it is.
They profess to found their argument upon the diction-
aries. Worcester and Webster are their authorities. Now,
we and they agree that fermented grape-juice is wine.
One great question that divides us is concerning must, or
unfermented grape-juice. They go to the dictionaries, to
their own authorities, and find that both of them agree
in defining must-"wine," "new wine pressed from the
grapes, but not fermented." Can any definition be clearer
than this? Can words speak more plainly than these?
Who, we ask respectfully, is most in accord with the dic-
tionaries-we, who say that must is "new wine,"
"“unfer-
mented wine," or "The Academy," who deny that it is
wine at all, and speak of their lexicographer, Webster, as
wanting in care because he defines must as "wine pressed
from the grapes not fermented?" We accept the defini-
tions of "Wine: fermented grape-juice;" and of "Must:
wine pressed from the grape not fermented;" for, so far as
they go, both are correct. But we cannot think "The
Academy's" course fair in this matter. They drag us to
the dictionaries to decide the question at issue. They
then appeal at once from the decision of their self-chosen
judges, and where it is against their view they seek, by
special pleading, to empty it of force. And while they do
this they point at us, who accept the definitions unre-
servedly, and accuse us of wishing to confuse common
perception by misleading turns and twists! We are sorry,
but we cannot help thinking of the man who cries "Stop
thief! STOP THIEF!!" that he may escape while the pur-
suers are searching the pockets of some innocent man.
There is no assumption more contrary to the facts of the
case and the dictum of their own chosen authorities than
that with which the last quotation closes: "nothing else
than wine-i, e., fermented grape-juice,"
418
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
In like manner they appeal to the Writings, and interpret
Swedenborg against himself, in spite of what the context
may show his meaning to be. If they can only find vinum,
they cry at once the erroneous assumption from Webster
and Worcester, and against both of them: “Wine-i. e.,
fermented wine." But, as in the quotation above,
"The
Academy" are especially careful not to notice other state-
ments of Swedenborg which would show the groundlessness
of their assumptions.
Swedenborg says: "That in the Holy Supper, bread
(which is there fine flour mixed with oil) and wine signify
love and faith, thus the all of worship" (A. C. 4581.)
There is no leaven here, and nothing leavened, for
Swedenborg, in speaking of our Lord's remarks after He
had instituted the Holy Supper, says: "Good from truth
and truth from good, whereby the intellectual principle is
made new, or the man is made spiritual, is signified by the
fruit of the vine; the appropriation thereof is signified by
drinking. To drink denotes to appropriate, and is predicated
of truth. That this is not done fully but in the other life,
is signified by, 'until that day when I shall drink it new
with you in My Father's kingdom.' That the fruit of the
vine does not mean must or wine [non mustum nec vinum],
but somewhat heavenly of the Lord's kingdom, is very
manifest" (A. C. 5113). It is perfectly clear from the above
that Swedenborg did not understand that the material wine
which the Lord and His disciples used when He instituted
the Holy Supper was fermented wine. It is certain
that he had in mind unfermented wine, by his using the
terms must or wine. So that if we accept Swedenborg as
authority as to the kind of wine used by the Lord and His
disciples in this Holy Ordinance, we must admit that they
used unfermented wine.
Again "The Academy" say:
(6
•
The author asserts, on the authority of some abstinence writers, that
the Jews never used fermented grape-juice at their feasts. This we have
LEAVENED WINE AND STRONG DRINK.
419
already disproved from those passages which show that both at the time
of Hannah and at the marriage at Cana the fermented grape-juice was
used."
This assumption by "The Academy" of case proved
by Eli's undeserved reproof of Hannah we have already
replied to. "The Academy" considers this one of their
strong "proof texts." We have shown, on page 56, not
only how it utterly fails to support the argument of "The
Academy," but how strongly it tends to disprove it. Neither
have we any reason, as we have seen, to suppose that the
wine used at Cana, which the Lord made, was fermented
wine. We cannot for a moment suppose that the Lord
made a leavened wine when we read in His Word what He
says about leaven and things leavened. We must remem-
ber that fermented wine is never purified by heat, as is
leavened bread.
Our critics continue:
"Another plain Scripture passage on the subject is the command as to
the observance of the feasts: And thou shalt bestow that money for
whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine
(yayin―fermented juice of the grape), or for strong drink (shechar—in-
toxicating drink), or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat
before the Lord, thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine house-
hold' (Deut. xvi. 26). So we see that the Lord has left no ambiguity as
to how the holy feasts were to be observed.'
""
Our ablest scholars, who have most carefully ex-
amined this subject, do not agree with "The Academy,"
as the reader will see below and elsewhere in this reply.
6
"OR FOR WINE OR FOR STRONG DRINK] Hebrew, u-vay-
yayin, u-vash-shakar, and for wine, and for sweet drink;'
the Lxx. ee epi oino, ee epi sikera, or for wine, or for sicera.'
The Vulgate has vinum quoque et siceram, wine also and
sicera.' The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan read, uba-
khamar khadath v'attiq, 'for wine, new and old.' The Syriac
has 'for wine and sicera.' The Arabic has 'for wine and
expressed juice' (etzer). Aquila's rendering of shakar is the
only part of the verse preserved—methuṣmati, which some
420 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
6
render 'for an intoxicating drink;' but he may have used
methusma in the strict and original sense of its root methuo,
'to drink largely of what is sweet.'
'AND THOU SHALT EAT THEM] Hebrew, ve-akaltah,
' and thou shalt eat.' Them' is supplied by the English
translators, being absent from the text, which reads, and
thou shalt eat there.' The Vulgate has simply and thou
shalt eat.'
"Devout Israelites with their families going up from a
distance to the House of God would find it burdensome or
impossible to take with them in substance the tithes of the
corn-field, the vineyard, and the orchard, and the firstlings
of herd and fold. They were, therefore, permitted to con-
vert these tithes into money, and on their arrival at the
sacred capital to purchase with this money things corre-
sponding to those they could not conveniently convey from
their homes. Instead of tïrosh and yitzhar, they might buy
yayin (the juice of tirosh) and shakar (the juice of other
fruits), or 'whatever their soul lusted after' (i. e. if desired
in a good, not in an evil sense, for this is here the meaning
of avah), or whatever their soul 'desired,'-literally, 'asked
from itself,' which is the marginal reading. This compre-
hensive permission was implicitly limited by two conditions
-Ist, that the things so purchased were good in themselves;
2d, that they were not prohibited by the Levitical law. It
has been held by some that this regulation sanctioned the
use of intoxicating drinks; but—
66
Nothing is said of the inebriating quality of the drinks
named; and the permission would have been fully observed
by the use of unfermented yayin and shakar.”—Bible Com-
mentary.
"The Academy" continue:
"We also see that the drink-offering was always of yayin or fermented
grape-juice, and this as well at the feast of first fruits (Lev. xxiii. 13) as
at the daily sacrifice (Exodus xxix. 40). [But, unfortunately for our
critics, yayin does not always mean fermented grape-juice, as they repre-
THE WINE USED FOR THE HOLY SUPPER. 421
sent.
This we have abundantly shown in the first and other chapters of
this reply.-E.] It is really surprising how, in the face of so many indis-
putable facts, the writers on abstinence, quoted by our author, could boldly
make statements which plainly conflict with the declarations of the Word."
Why do the editors write thus when they know perfectly
well that we receive implicitly every "declaration of the
Word" and deny no "indisputable fact" contained therein?
It is not the facts of the Word that we deny, but the inter-
pretations of “The Academy," which they put forth as the
facts and teaching of the Church and the Word.
Our critics continue:
"As the use of wine-i. e., the fermented grape-juice-[This is purely
an assumption, for we have no evidence that fermented grape-juice was
ever enjoined, as the reader has seen.-E.]—was enjoined at all sacred
feasts and used by the Israelites, so also at the passover, as the author
suggests, the LORD very probably used the passover wine, which was fer-
mented. And this was the wine used by the Apostles in celebrating the
Holy Supper, as we see from the terms oinos and vinum employed by all
the early writers on the subject. This is also plainly shown in the re-
proof in the Epistle to the Corinthians: 'When ye come together there-
fore into one place, this is not to eat the LORD's Supper. For in eating every
one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry and another
is drunken.' The ancient liturgies, in which the service of the Holy
Supper is given, always denominate the wine partaken of oinos or vinum.
In agreement with this ancient usage Swedenborg always uses the term
vinum for the wine at the Holy Supper, and never the term mustum,
much less mustum infermentatum.”
This we have seen, on the third page of this chapter, is
not correct, and shall show the same by several quotations
hereafter. Gentlemen who, if we can judge from several
similar assertions found in their review, are not very familiar
with the Writings of the Church, should certainly be more
careful about making such positive unqualified assertions
upon such an important subject.
Our critics further say:
There can be, therefore, no doubt in the mind of scholars that the wine
required for the Holy Supper is fermented grape-juice; and that this alone
is the proper ultimate for the representation of the Divine Truth.”
422 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
Adam Clark says in his comment on this passage, quoted
above by "The Academy " in proof that the wine used was
fermented wine, "and one is hungry and another is drunken;
methuei, was filled to the full; this is the sense of this pas-
sage in many places of Scripture." He does not believe it
contains any assertion or charge of drunkenness, but rather
of repletion or excess in the use of food and drink. The
Corinthians wrongfully made a meal of what should have
been purely a holy ordinance, and in partaking of this meal,
the richer members unkindly put to shame by their excess
and abundance those poorer members who lacked.
eaten, it was not a communion or bond of fellowship, but
rather a promoter of pride, gluttony and division. Of
pride, because the Apostle says of the rich, that they "shame
them that have not;" of division, because "in eating, every
one taketh before other his own supper;" and the natural
consequence of this separate partaking is, as the Apostle
continues, "one is hungry, and another is drunken;" one
has had barely sufficient, the other is "filled to the full.”
Thus
We think it not unlikely that men who would eat the Holy
Supper in such a spirit, might even use fermented wine, but
there is nothing in the passage above to prove it. It, like the
proof-text of Eli's reproof to Hannah, is really no proof
at all.
In 1 Cor. x., Paul tells us that we should not lust after
evil things, and intimates that by tempting Christ, we may
be destroyed by serpents, and he inquires if "the cup of
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood
of Christ." Now what relation has well fermented “ gener-
ous wine" to blood? We know that it has scarce any re-
lation; and that it makes men see serpents where none exist
in the material world has become a proverb. Verily as
Paul says: "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the
cup of devils,” and simply because they are distinct. Can
we think that a cup of fermented wine, which so frequently
makes men see devils, is not the devi.'s cup? Our brethren
THE PASSOVER WINE.
423
of "The Academy" will do well to read Paul's writings a
little more carefully.
We have, in the preceding quotations from "The
Academy's" review, several assumptions which require
special notice, although we have fully exposed some of
them in the preceding pages; but they are so repeatedly
and dogmatically re-affirmed that we do not think it well to
allow their repetition to pass unchallenged.
First, it is affirmed that the passover wine was fermented
grape-juice; and in the paragraph following the above they
quote from an article of Rabbi Isaac M. Wise to sustain
their position. So far as the writer is able to judge from
the evidence before him at present, there are now two
classes of Jews-the conforming Jews, most, if not all, of
whom do not use fermented wine; and the non-conforming
Jews, some of whom, at least, use fermented wine. The
writer thinks he is safe in saying that a large majority of
the conforming Jews never have used, and do not now use,
fermented wine at the passover. He will present some of
the testimony which, he thinks, justifies this conclusion, and
leave the reader to judge for himself.
"Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel (Vindicia Judæorum,'
printed in 1656) says: Here, at this feast (Passover), every
confection ought to be so pure as not to admit of any FER-
MENT, or anything that may fermentate.' Judge Noah, a
leading Jew of New York, informed Mr. Delavan that the
use of wine, prepared from steeped raisins, in order to avoid
fermented wine, was general among American Jews at the
Passover. Mr. A. C. Isaacs, a teacher of the Jews, having
lived among them twenty-six years before his conversion,
wrote, in 1844, 'All the Jews with whom I have ever been
acquainted use unintoxicating wine at the Passover-a wine
made in this country expressly for the occasion, and gen-
erally by themselves. Some raisins (dried grapes) are
steeped in water for a few days previous to the Passover,
the vessel being placed near the fire. This liquor is bottled
424 A REPLY TO "THE ACADÉMÝ’S” REVIEW.
off, and used at the feast of unleavened bread as the 'fruit
of the vine.' Sometimes, when time does not permit of
steeping, the raisins are boiled on the same day on which
the feast is to be celebrated at night; and when the whole
of the saccharine matter is thought to be extracted, the de-
coction is bottled off and corked; and this is the Passover
wine.' Dr. Cunningham, the learned Hebraist, says, 'What
is now chiefly used by the Jews at the Passover for wine is
a drink made of an infusion of raisins in water.'”—Rev.
W. M. Thayer's "Communion Wine."
The Rev. Wm. Guthrie, a distinguished Scotch writer,
says: "We believe satisfactory evidence can be adduced
that no fermented thing was allowed in symbolic sacrifices
among the Jews. Everything leavened or fermented was
forbidden in the offerings which had a typical meaning.
There was, indeed, a class of offerings-free-will offerings,
as well as the offerings of the first fruits-in which leavened
bread [purified by heat.-E.] was appointed, being, in part,
consumed by the offerers as food (Lev. vii. 13, xxiii. 17;
Num. xv. 20; Amos iv. 5).
Leaven, or ferment,
is a substance in a state of putrefaction; and everything in
this state is unfit to represent that 'Eternal Life, which was
with the Father, and was manifested unto us.
* * *
Dr. Norman Kerr, in his pamphlet, "Unfermented Wine
a Fact," says in regard to raisin wine, "The natural quali-
ties of the fruit are quite restored on the absorption of
water by the dried berries, and thus raisin wine is a perfect
specimen of an unfermented and unintoxicating drink.
Accordingly, we find from abundant evidence that many
ancient and modern Jews have employed this wine at the
Passover. In proof of the general practice of the most
orthodox modern Jews, it is sufficient to quote the "Ency-
clopædia Britannica," The Rabbins would seem to have
interpreted the command respecting ferment as extend-
ing to the wine as well as to the bread of the Passover.
The modern Jews, accordingly, generally use raisin wine
6
THE PASSOVER WINE.
4 25
after the injunction of the Rabbins (8th ed., Art. Pass.,
P. 333)."
Rev. Charles Beecher, in the New Englander for July,
treats of "The Emblems in the Lord's Supper," and be-
lieves that the wine was the "unfermented" juice of the
grape. His reasoning is kind, fair, full, and conclusive.
He consulted two leading Jewish rabbis in New York of
both the "liberal" and the "orthodox" school, and the
first says:
"All fermented liquids made from the five species of
grain, namely, wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye-are
excluded under the term leaven. This is undoubtedly
orthodox Jewish law, all statements to the contrary not-
withstanding."
The other said:
"Fermented wine, as everything fermented, is rigidly
excluded from our Passover fare, in accordance with the
spirit of the divine command."
Mr. Beecher, after a long discussion of the matter, says:
"So the fruit of the vine fresh pressed from the cluster
was, perhaps, the most beautiful specimen of a pure and
perfect product of ascending change or vital elaboration to
be found in the whole realm of nature. Like the crimson
tide then pulsing through his veins, there was in that cup
not the first trace of decay. This,' said He, 'is my blood.'
And His blood, whether in his veins or in the cup, was the
Life, and in it no beginnings of Death."
In a recent work (1879) written by a Jewish Rabbi, the
Rev. E. M. Myers, entitled "The Jews, their Customs and
Ceremonies, with a full account of all their Religious Ob-
servances from the Cradle to the Grave," we read that
among the strictly orthodox Jews "During the entire fes·
tival (of the Passover) no leavened food nor fermented
liquors are permitted to be used, in accordance with Scrip-
tural injunctions (Ex. xii. 15, 19, 20; Deut. xvii. 3, 4).”
This we think settles the question so far as the ortodox
428
A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
Jews are concerned, and their customs, without much ques-
tion, represent those prevailing at the time of our Lord's
advent.
So the reader will see that "The Academy" can gain nɩ
aid and comfort from the Passover wine which, they admit
above, it is very probable the Lord used at the Last Supper.
Second: the assumption that the early Christian Church
used fermented wine at the Holy Supper. Above, we have
alluded to the testimony of the apostle Paul. In his work
on the wine question, the writer brought the testimony of
some of the most distinguished writers of the early Christian
Church, showing that unfermented wine was the wine then
in use.
Jerome, born A.D. 332, assumes that it was the
fresh juice of the grape which was used by the Lord and
His disciples, and declares that "in wine is excess ;" and
among the lusts of the flesh Jerome mentions wine drinking,
and urges the duty of abstinence from wines. We brought
also the testimony of Cyril, bishop of the church in Jerusa-
lem, A.D. 380; Clement, of Alexandria A.D. 200; and
also of the writer of the Apocryphal Acts and Mathew, a
work which was in circulation in the second and third cen-
turies, in which we read: "Bring ye, as an offering, holy
bread, and having pressed out into a cup three clusters
from the vine, be communicants with me.” And yet all
this testimony of the early fathers of the church has been
ignored by "The Academy." We hardly think that it will
be any use to bring additional testimony so far as our
brethren of "The Academy" are concerned, but we doubt
not many of our readers will be pleased to know more fully
the views entertained in the primitive state of the first
Christian Church. For the following we are indebted to
the Rev. Dr. Sampson's able work.
Clement, of Alexandria, presided from A.D .191 to
202, over the earliest Christian school established at Alex-
andria, the seat of Greek learning, made illustrious from
the days of the second Ptolemy, whose library had invited
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA ON WINE.
427
the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures nearly five.
centuries before Clement lived. Trained in a complete
knowledge of Egyptian science preserved in hieroglyphics,
thoroughly versed in the whole range of Grecian wisdom,
and learned in the Old and New Testament Scriptures,
Clement has enriched all subsequent ages by his works.
Their value was realized when the Greek monks, who in
1828 entertained Champollion, showed him on a single
page of Clement the correctness of his system of hiero-
glyphic interpretation, by the earlier reading of which
single page he might have been saved years of exhaustive
study. In his treatise on "Education" (Paed. L. II. c.
53), Clement dwells at length on the natural and revealed
law as to wines; and urges abstinence on youth. He gives
a list of wines of different kinds; mentioning among them
a sweet (edus) Syrian wine. He describes the effects of
these different wines on the brain, heart and liver; he says
men do not seek wine when really thirsty, but pure
water; and he declares: 'I admire those who require no
other beverage than water, avoiding wine as they do fire.
From its use arise excessive desires and licentious con-
duct. The circulation is accelerated, and the body inflames
the soul.'
“He cites the fact that men who need unimpaired ener-
gies, as kings, must be abstemious. Following up these
teachings of reason by Scripture references, he glances
over the entire Old Testament, Apocryphal and New
Testament testimonies. He quotes Prov. xx. 1, as showing
that wine is not a fit companion (akolouthos). He cites the
wisdom of Seirach (Eccles. xxxi. 22–31), as the summary of
worldly wisdom as to wine-drinking. Coming to the New
Testament, he challenges those who perverted the New
Testament statement as to Christ. He asks: 'What was
the wine He blest?' Then, citing the special statement of
Luke as to the Passover wine, and the words of Matthew
and Mark as to the wine of the Lord's Supper, he makes
428
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
their meaning more specific for his Greek readers.
(
'
In the
words of Mark and Luke, 'of the fruit of the vine,' (tou
gennematos tes ampelou), and in those of Matthew's fuller
statement, of the fruit of the vine; (toutou tou gennematos
tes ampelou), Clement regards Christ as pointing to Him-
self, as He did in His declaration, I am the vine;' and in
order to bring out Christ's emphatic thought, he quotes as
if they were Christ's, this fuller statement, of the fruit of
the vine, even this' (tou gennematos tes ampelou, tes tautes).
To add yet greater force, he asks again: 'And what, in-
deed, was the wine drunk by the Lord when they said, 'be-
hold a gluttonous man and a wine-drinker.' His reply im-
plies that it must have been the same 'fruit of the vine'
used at the supper. Coming to the case of the Corinthians
who preceded the Lord's Supper by a common feast, as the
supper instituted by Christ was preceded by the Passover,
Clement contradicts the assertion that intoxicating wine
was there used. He indicates that it is the food, rather
than the drink of the feast to which Paul refers, and that he
reproves them for clutching at the delicacies,' for eating
beyond the demands of nourishment.' He farther inti-
mates that servants brought into the Christian Church, and
to the table set for Christian masters, unaccustomed to a
common and well-furnished table, would naturally be ig-
norant of the laws of propriety. That Paul refers to the
food rather than intoxicating wine, he thinks manifest for
these several reasons that women are present, to whom,
according to Greek sentiment, wine was prohibited; that
unseemly eagerness 'in eating' is the fault reproved; and
that the contrast made is between those 'hungry' and
those 'surfeited.' The main point, therefore, of the apos-
tle, he thinks, was to rebuke the more wealthy contributors
to the feast for tempting their weaker brethren to gluttony.
While these comments of Clement, living only a century after
John had closed his teachings, are, in many respects, in-
teresting and instructive, they are especially confirmatory
(
WINE IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
429
of the fact that intoxicating wine was not used by Christ,
or introduced at the Lord's Supper in the early Church.
"Origen, at the head of the same Alexandrian school,
A.D. 228, is equally explicit "-(Divine Law as to Wines).
Now, we doubt not the intelligent New Church reader
will agree with the author that Clement and the other
writers named above, living so soon after the apostolic
days, knew what forms of grape juice were then regarded
as wine or oinos, and what kind of wine was used as com-
munion wine in their day, and what kind the Lord and His
disciples used quite as well as do "The Academy."
Coming down a century or two later we have, says Dr.
Sampson: "Basil, the recognized head of the ancient as well
as modern Greek Church, bishop of Cappadocia, in Asia
Minor, A.D. 374 to 379, in commenting on the songs of
deliverance of men redeemed,' as was David when he
wrote Psalm xxxii. 7, as contrasted with the songs of mid-
night banqueters, cites this allusion of David as illustrating
Christ's spiritual principle in the figure of the 'new wine in
old bottles;' and he follows it with severe denunciation of
those who seek pleasure from the use of intoxicating wine.
On Isaiah v. 22, after dwelling on the 'woe' that falls on a
people when their rulers drink wine, he cites the duty of ab-
stinence taught in Moses' Law for the Nazarites, and in
Solomon's counsel, 'Look not on the wine.' Applying this
truth to ministers of the Christian religion, he says: 'It is
becoming (prepei) that ministers of the New Testament, in
like manner, abstain from wine.' Going farther, he states
this as a fact in Grecian history: 'Rulers (hoi dynastai) do
not drink wine;' and he adds: 'We who are rulers (dynastai)
likewise, to the people, should not yield in the least to
vice."
"
Again 'The Academy" say: The example of the Nazarite is
sometimes mentioned as an emblem of the Christian state, but when we
know that the state in which he had to abstain from grapes and wine sig-
nified a sensual and natural' state, but the grapes and wine (vinum
<
430. A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
=fermented grape-juice) signified the spiritual and celestial state with its
good and truth' (A. E. 918), the New Churchman will hardly cling to
that which represents the sensual and natural state, and which is recom-
mended by the author, but rather press forward to that which represents
the spiritual and celestial state with its good and truth. [The author has
never recommended men to cling to that which represents the sensual and
natural state, as he has abundantly shown in the preceding pages; but
even that would be better than to cling to that which Swedenborg com-
pares to falses from evil.-E.]. In strict agreement with this teaching of
the above passage is the following from the Adversaria:
"Lastly it is added, that then the Nazarite shall drink the wine (vinum)
which before was forbidden him, because afterward he is sanctified, for
then wine (vinum) could not intoxicate him, as it is with the regenerate
who are then not hurt by cupidities, because then the cupidities are no
more excited by nature and by the body, but they are only the excite-
ments of the natural and corporeal life. [In other words his cupidities
would not lead him to select fermented wine, and what follows is strictly
true of unfermented wine.-E.] Wine (vinum) is thus gladness or
Heavenly joy, for then it exhilarates, and only excites those things which
are of charity' (Adv. vol. iv., 6879, 6880).
'From this we see the use of wine in exciting the things which are of
charity, and this explains why wine has always accompanied every state
of high national development, and why its right preparation, preservation,
and use form one of the criteria of the state of individuals and of nations."
Ah! let the gentlemen of "The Academy" read again,
Still further (Ps. civ. 14, 15):
"He causeth the grass to
grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that
he may bring forth food out of the earth [Not out of the
fermenting vat.—E.]; and wine (yayin) that maketh glad the
heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread
which strengtheneth man's heart." Again, we read (Judges
ix. 13):
"And the vine said, Should I leave my wine.
(tërosh—must), which cheereth the heart of God and man ?”
"Professor Liebig says, 'Fermentation is nothing else
but the putrefaction of a substance containing no nitrogen.
Ferment, or yeast, is a substance in a state of putrefaction.'
The product of the vine must putrefy [or rather, more
strictly speaking, a portion of it must be decomposed.-E.]
before it can intoxicate. But this is not true of the mate
UNFERMENTED WINE CHEERS THE HEART OF MAN. 431
rials which the earth yields for bread. Hence the view that
the cluster yields intoxicating wine, just as the earth yields.
bread, has no foundation in truth; it is scientifically false."
-Rev. W. M. Thayer.
"Obviously, God can only be cheered or pleased with
the fruit of the vine as the product of his own power and
the gift of his goodness, and man is cheered with it when
he sees the ripening clusters, and when he partakes thereof.
"There is a strange impression, very current in our day,
that nothing can cheer and exhilarate but alcoholic drinks.
Is it not written, Zech. ix. 7, 'Corn shall make the young
men cheerful, and new wine (tirosh-must) the maids?' In
referring to the nutritious qualities of the corn and wine,
the prophet assigns the corn to the young men, and the new
wine (tërosh-must), to the maidens. Here the new wine,
the must, or unfermented juice, is approbated. Ps. iv. 7:
'Thou hast put gladness' (the same which is translated
cheereth in Judges ix. 13) 'in my heart, more than in the
time that their corn and wine (tërosh—must) increased.”
Rev. Dr. Patton.
The reader will please notice that the Hebrew word
tïrosh-Latin, mustum—is translated in the English Bible
by wine, in the last quotation. If our friends of "The
Academy" will study their bibles carefully, they will find,
as the writer has shown in the preceding. pages, that in
many cases this Hebrew word is translated by our word
wine; nevertheless Swedenborg translates tirosh by mustum
-English, must. Continuing their examination, they will
find that this same Hebrew word, tirosh, is (as we have
elsewhere noted) translated from the Hebrew Bible into the
Greek 36 out of the 38 times by oinos, which is the Greek
word for wine; and not by gleukos, the Greek word for must.
We were taught at school that two things each of which
is equal to a third are equal to each other, and it seems to
us that if the Greek translators' oinos, and Swedenborg's
mustum are each equal to the Hebrew tirosh, then there is
432 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
no avoiding the conclusion that unfermented wine, or must
is included in the Greek oinos, notwithstanding "The Acad-
emy's" assumption that oinos never means unfermented
wine.
The truth is, our brethren of "The Academy" will find,
if they investigate this subject as carefully as they should
have done before writing their review, that yayin in He-
brew, oinos in Greek, vinum in Latin, and wine in Eng-
lish are generic words, including all kinds of wine, fer-
mented and unfermented; and if they had even consulted
the ablest scholars of the age, they would have told them
this; and if they had carefully studied their Bible in these
different languages, and the writings of Swedenborg un-
biassed by "Old Church doctrines" which have come down
to them unquestioned from a consummated church, they
would have seen the truth, and would have avoided their
present unpleasant dilemma. No one can deny the scholar-
ship of the following gentlemen who have manifestly ex-
amined this subject much more carefully than "The
Academy" writers have done:
Professor Moses Stuart says: "Yayin is a generic word.
to designate such drinks as may be of an intoxicating nature
when fermented, and which are not so before fermentation.
It designates grape-juice, or the liquid which the fruit of
the vine yields. It may be new or old, sweet or sour, fer-
mented or unfermented, intoxicating or unintoxicating."
President E. Nott and Professor Tayler Lewis affirm that
“yayin is often restricted to the fruit of the vine in its natural
or unintoxicating state." These are high authorities.
Kitto says: "It is a very general term, including every
species of wine." Come, buy wine (yayin) and milk with-
out money and without price." Isa. lv. 1. Rev. C. H.
Fowler says, "Yayin appears in the Septuagint and New
Testament in the word oinos. This is generic, like yayin.”
Dr. Norman Kerr says: "My valued friend, one of the
most illustrious Hebraists of this century, the late Pro-
!
TEACHERS LACKING KNOWLEDGE.
433
fessor Weir, told me, twenty years ago, after presiding
at a lecture delivered by Dr. Lees to the university of which
the learned professor was so distinguished an ornament,
that he was convinced of the soundness of most of the
doctor's views on the wines of the Bible; and these views
have been, with a few unimportant exceptions, adopted by
such scholars as Professors Douglas, Eadie, Fairbairn,
Tayler Lewis and Moses Stuart, such well-known writers as
Smith, Valpy, French, Mearns, Ritchie, Burns and the
Dean of Capeton, and most continental authorities on
lexicography." "Unfermented Wine a Fact."
We ask the intelligent reader if it is not strange that
our brethren of the New Church Academy should thus
reiterate as they do in their review, that because the juice
of the grape is called oinos in Greek, and vinum in Latin,
it is necessarily fermented grape-juice, or fermented wine?
Notwithstanding that scarce anything could be further
from the truth, as the writer has abundantly shown in the
preceding pages, yet these reiterated representations are
made in no very gentle or modest language, and printed
in "The Academy's" serial, "Words for the New Church,"
and then, after all the members of "The Academy" have
had ample opportunity to discover their mistakes, this re-
view, containing these erroneous representations in regard
to wine, is deliberately printed in a pamphlet form, and
sent forth to the New Church by "The Academy." Alas!
alas !!
With a reasonable familiarity with Swedenborg's writings.
it does seem that "The Academy" should not have made
such a blunder as to vinum at least. There is a large
number of passages in Swedenborg's writings which incul-
cate a totally different doctrine from that which "The Acad-
emy " teaches, and we will set before the reader a few of
them here, in which he will see that it is impossible that
Swedenborg could have meant fermented wine by vinum in
the connection in which he has used it.
"Wine (vinum)
434
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
in the wine-press shall they not tread" (A. R. 316). . Do
the treaders tread fermented wine in the wine-press? "That
by the wine-press, and the treading thereof is signified the
production of truth from good, by reason that the grape
signifies spiritual good, and the wine (vinum) made from
the grape the truth from that good, appears from the fol-
lowing passages.
* The wine-presses overflow
with must (mustum) and oil, signifies that from the good
of charity they have truth and its delight" (A. E. 922). If
must overflowing from the press signifies truth and its de-
light, what more does wine signify?
* *
"By the blood of the grape is also signified truth from
spiritual good, the same as by wine in Deut. xxii. 14. The
reason why grapes signify the good of charity is because:
by a vineyard is signified the spiritual Church, and by a
vine the man of that Church, wherefore by clusters and
grapes, which are the fruits, are signified the goods which
constitute that Church, which are called spiritual goods,
and also goods of charity; and, whereas, all truth is from
good, as all wine (vinum) is from grapes, therefore, by wine
(vinum) in the Word, is signified truth from good” (A. E.
918). There is no room for wine from leaven-or for leavened
wine-here; for we are distinctly told that all truth is from
good, as all wine is from grapes. Truth is from the Lord,
and so are grapes and their juice.
to be polluted by falses from evil before we imbibe it,
it is certain that wine does not require to be polluted by
leaven, which corresponds to falses from evil, before we
drink it. It does seem so strange that any New Church-
man at all acquainted with correspondences should question
this.
Again, "The Academy” say:
If truth does not require
"It was,' as we are taught in the Writings of the Divine Providence,
of the LORD that (with the Catholics) in the Holy Supper, the bread is
given, which is the flesh, but not the wine (vinum), which is the blood;
and yet it is the blood which vivifies the flesh, as the wine does the bread
FERMENTED WINE PROVIDENTIALLY USED. 435
•
else they would have profaned holy things like the Jews' (A. C.
10040). There seems at the present time to be an extension of this
judgment also to the Protestant Church, in that it is beginning to substi-
tute for wine unfermented grape-juice, whereby the representative char-
acter of the Holy Supper is changed and perverted.”
If it was of the Divine Providence that wine was not
given in the Holy Supper to Catholics, is it not manifest
that when the Protestant Church separated faith from
charity and taught the doctrine of faith alone, that it was
also of the Divine Providence that this Church chose fer-
mented wine instead of the pure unfermented "fruit of the
vine" which is so strictly analogous to the blood that vivi-
fies the flesh? For what greater profanation of holy things
can there be than to substitute for, or offer as a representative
of, the blood of the Lord a liquid filled with the impurities
of leaven and emptied of almost every element analogous
to the blood which it should represent? Yet no other
fluid could so well correspond with the state of those who
held (as did almost all the Protestant Churches at the time
of the Last Judgment) the doctrine of justification by faith
alone; for it is full of that vinous spirit called alcohol, which
Swedenborg compares in its effects on man with the doc-
trine of faith alone on the clergy-the one intoxicating
physically as the other does spiritually. Can any corre-
spondence be clearer than this? And is it not of Divine
Providence, too, that as that doctrine is loosing its hold
from them, so do they begin to throw off the alcoholic
communion wine which corresponded to their spiritual in-
toxication? If this is so, how shall we account for "The
Academy's" still holding on to the wine of the "Old
Church?" Is that also of the Divine Providence? The
writer has no desire to express an opinion on this point, but
will leave the reader to judge for himself, and trusts that all
will judge charitably.
:
G
CHAPTER VIII.
ASSUMPTION THAT MUST AND THE BLOOD OF THE GRAPE,
WHEN USED IN A GOOD SENSE, GENERALLY MEAN FER-
MENTING OR FERMENTED GRAPE-JUICE. IGNORING THE
FACT THAT WHEN SO USED THEY NEVER CAN HAVE
SUCH A SIGNIFICATION.
"The Academy" say:
"As a sample of the falsification of the truth of the New Church, we
need only take the two passages chosen by the author as a motto for his
title-page. The first is 'must signifies the same as wine, viz., truth de-
rived from the good of charity and love' (A. E. 695). [The second so-
called falsification the writer has considered in a preceding chapter.-E.]
The Latin of this is, 'Mustum sicut vinum significat verum ex bono
charitatis et amoris '—' Must, like wine, signifies truth from the good of
charity and love.' So the statement that must signifies the same as wine
is not contained in this passage, the Latin for 'the same as
the same as' would be
idem ac (or idem et, que, ut, quod), sicut only signifies 'just as,' 'like as.'
Must is like wine in this, that it signifies truth from the good of charity
and love. But every student of the Writings knows that there is an end-
less variety of such truth, and that all the angels of heaven are in truth
from good and in good from truth. Must in the Hebrew and Greek
Scriptures is used in general for wine of the first year. Therefore, the
word has a similar signification in the Writings. We would expect
therefore that must, in so far as it differs from the ripened wine,
would have a more external sense. This we also find in the Writings—
'Must signifies natural truth.
Wine signifies spiritual truth'
(A. C. 3580). Must in the cluster signifies truth from good in the
natural principle' (A. C. 5117). In so far as must is well fermented and
approaches in nature to the ripe and generous wine, its signification be-
comes more interior. [Fermenting wine a good signification. Alas!
alas!! for "The Academy."-E.] Hence, though must and wine both
signify truth from good, must has a more exterior signification and wine
a more interior."
That this representation is not correct the reader can
readily see by reading the quotation in its connection from
436
THE SIGNIFICATION OF MUST.
437
the A. E. and accepting "The Academy's" translation. It
is as follows: "(Hosea, ix. 1, 2) Upon all corn-floors, signi-
fies all things of the Word and of doctrine from the Word,
for corn, of which bread is made, signifies everything that
spiritually nourishes, and the floor signifies where it is col-
lected together, consequently the Word; the floor and the
press shall not feed them, signifies, that they will not imbibe
from the Word the good things of charity and love,
thus not anything which nourishes the soul, for the floor
there denotes the Word as to the good things of charity,
and the press, as to the goods of love, and by the press is
here understood oil, for which there were presses as well as
for wine (vino); and the must shall lie to her, signifies, that
neither shall there be any truth of good, for must like wine
signifies truth derived from the good of charity and love"
(A. E. 695).
In reading the following quotation the reader will please.
notice two points: First, mustum signifies something higher
than natural truth; and, second, that the Hebrew word
tërosh is translated in the English Bible by the word wine;
but Swedenborg translates it into Latin by mustum, and the
English translators of the A. E. translate this word by wine.
How is that, if wine, as "The Academy" represent, always
means fermented wine?
6
Psalm iv. 6, 7, 8: "The heavenly joy thence derived is
understood by 'thou hast put gladness in my heart;' the
multiplication of good and truth is understood by their
corn and wine (Hebrew tirosh, Latin mustum) are increased,'
corn signifying good and wine (mustum) truth" (A. E.
365). This quotation, like the preceding one, is a general
declaration.
The writer is free to confess that he is surprised at the
promulgation of a doctrine so antagonistic to what Sweden-
borg teaches in so many passages (some of them even in
the very number from which they quote), as is contained
in the above paragraph from "Words for the New Church,"
1.
438
A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
in the following quotation from the A. C. and the repre-
sentation which precedes and follows it :
"Must signifies natural truth.
(A. C. 3580).
Wine signifies spiritual truth"
[This number was printed 5380, a mistake, evidently.]
If our brethren of "The Academy" desire to deal fairly
with this question, why do they omit the qualifying portion
of this statement? Now, intelligent reader, we will quote
this passage as Swedenborg wrote it:
"And a multitude of corn-that hereby is signified
natural good thence derived, and that by New wine (must);
is signified natural truth thence derived, appears from the
signification of corn, as denoting good, and from the
signification of new wine (must), as denoting truth, which
when predicated of the natural [principle], signifying
natural good and truth, and in such a case bread and
wine are predicated of the rational [principle].
That bread is celestial good, and that wine is spiritual
truth, thus truth from good." (See A. C. 3580). In
other places in the same number, in explanation of other
passages of Scripture, we have the following declarations:
"Speaking of the Lord's kingdom, where by new wine
(mustum) by milk and by waters are signified things spir-
itual, whose abundance is thus described." New wine
evidently includes the full signification of wine in the
above statement, and also in the following statements
from the same number: "A land of corn and of new
wine (mustum) denotes the good and truth of the Church."
"Where corn and new wine (mustum) denote good and
the truth thence derived." Does corn here mean fer-
menting mash or whiskey, and if it does not, how can
the new wine (must) which is so frequently associated with
it, mean fermenting or fermented wine? What nonsense
to think and write thus !
For the reader to understand that "The Academy" do
not correctly represent Swedenborg's teachings in the use
THE SIGNIFICATION OF MUST
439
they make of the following quotation, viz:
"Must in
the cluster signifies truth from good in the natural prin-
ciple (A. C. 5117)" he need simply read the rest of the
paragraph of which it forms a part. But before calling
attention to some of the passages therein contained, the
writer desires especially to direct attention to the fact that
unfermented grape juice, even in the estimation of "The
Academy," does not always have a bad signification; their
representations elsewhere (if we understand them cor-
rectly) to the contrary notwithstanding, or they would
not have made the above quotation, for fermented must
is never found in the cluster. If unfermented must, as
"The Academy" admits above, may correspond to nat-
ural truth, may it not to spiritual and celestial truth?
To show that it may, and does when predicated of the
spiritual and celestial principles, we will make two selec-
tions from the very paragraph which contains the above
quotation. "The Academy" make a fearful mistake when
they take a specific correspondence and represent it as
general, as the reader can but see that they do, when they
represent that unfermented must never has any higher sig-
nification than the natural principle.
In speaking of the signification of Amos ix. 13,14, Swe-
denborg says: "The subject here treated of is the estab-
lishment of a spiritual Church, which is thus described; the
conjunction of spiritual good with its truth, by the plowman
reaching to the reaper, and the conjunction of spiritual
truth with its good, by the treader of the grapes reaching
to him that draweth forth the seed: the goods of love and
charity thence derived are signified by the mountains shall
drop new wine (mustum), and the hills shall melt" (A. C.
5117). Here a spiritual signification is clearly given to must.
Again, Deut. xxxii. 14. “And thou drinkest the blood of
the grape, new wine (merum), speaking of the ancient Church,
whereof the goods of love and charity are thus described.
Each expression signifies some specific good; the blood of
440
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
the grape signifies spiritual celestial good, which is the name
given to the Divine in heaven proceeding from the Lord!
Wine [please remember it is new wine of which he is
here speaking-E.] is called the blood of grapes since each
signifies holy truth proceeding from the Lord; wine (vinum)
however, is predicated of the spiritual, and blood of the
celestial; and this being the case, wine (vinum) was en-
joined in the Holy Supper" (A. C. 5117).
<
If we turn to the A. C. 1071, we have distinctly a gen-
eral signification given to new wine or must in the cluster,
for we read: "In Isaiah: Thus saith Jehovah, as thẹ new
wine (mustum) is found in the cluster, and he saith destroy
it not, because a blessing is in it (LXV. 8), the cluster means
charity, and new wine (mustum), its goods and truths."
Again: "as grapes represent charity, so does wine (vinum)
the faith thence derived, because it is obtained from grapes.
Now can any intelligent man for a moment suppose that
reference in this last passage, is made to fermented wine,
the essential active principle of which (alcohol) is never
found in the grape, or clusters of grapes?
It does seem that with such clear teachings from the
Word and the "Word Opened," our brethren of "The Acad-
emy" ought to be able to see how entirely contrary to the
Writings is that false doctrine which was held by the "Old
Church" at its consummation, almost if not quite universally,
that there is no wine suitable for use in the Holy Supper
but intoxicating wine, which Swedenborg compares to
falses from evil; and none that can cheer the heart of man
but the drunkard's cup. But, dear reader, the prophecy is,
"Behold, I make all things new," and we shall surely have a
new wine for the New Church, and we shall "put a dif-
ference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and
clean," and our clergymen will neither "drink wine nor drink
that maketh drunken" when they "go into the tabernacle
of the congregation," for the drunkard's cup is never safe,
not even to clergymen.
THE SIGNIFICATION OF MUST.
441
How clear it is from the above statements of Swedenborg
that it was either new wine or must, or unfermented wine
—the actual fruit of the vine-which was enjoined in the
Holy Supper; and it certainly hardly seems possible that
any New Churchman can question but that it was must or
wine entirely unpolluted by leaven. We have seen that the
blood of the grape, which is undoubtedly the sweet juice in
the grape which flows when the skin is ruptured, has the
highest signification; next to that the entire juice as it is
pressed from the grape, and as it is preserved from fermenta-
tion by boiling, keeping cool, or by other of the various
processes well known to the ancients, and beginning to be
practiced at this day more and more extensively. There is
not a single passage in the Sacred Scriptures, nor a single
passage in Swedenborg's writings, which, when carefully
examined in the light of the Scriptures and Writings them-
selves, will justify the use of either fermented or ferment-
ing must or wine as a beverage, or as communion wine; nor
is there a single fact in science which will justify such a use
of fermented wine. Unfermented wine may be new or old,
as we have seen. Swedenborg, as we have shown else-
where, sometimes calls the juice of the grape, as it is
squeezed from the grapes, wine-vinum.
As to the quotation in regard to must, the present writer
used the present English translation, and he can see no rea-
son why he should not have done so; for the reader will
perceive that it in no respect perverts the meaning of the
Latin of Swedenborg. Let us look at the two translations
again. "Must signifies the same as wine, viz., truth de-
rived from the good of charity and love." "Must, like
wine, signifies truth from the good of charity and love.”
These are both clear, positive statements, that must has the
same signification as wine; and, signifying the same, either
one is satisfactory. This statement of Swedenborg, as to
the meaning of must is an independent, positive, unqualified
statement; and not a specific application, as in the passages
442 A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMÝ’S” REVIEW.
quoted above by "The Academy," where simply the natural
is referred to. Must is recognized by all writers as denot-
ing fresh pressed unfermented grape-juice, which may not
have commenced fermenting, and it is also called must until
it is either prepared so as to keep unfermented, or if it is
allowed to ferment, until the process of fermentation is in a
great measure completed; after either of these changes it
loses its appellation of must, be this a longer or a shorter
period of time.
But, gentle reader, is it not strange that the New Church
Academy, in view of all that Swedenborg says about
leaven and leavening, should claim, as they do above, that a
fermenting must has a good correspondence; a must full
of all heterogeneous substances, such as ferment, carbonic
acid gas, vinegar, glycerine, decomposing salts, and acids
and alcohol? The writer is free to confess that he never
supposed that he should find his brethren of "The Acad-
emy" gathering into such a close corner as this such
an unclean corner for leaven or ferment in the Word
and Writings is always regarded as unclean and signify-
ing what is false and evil.
"For by leaven is signified what is false, by what was
leavened truth falsified" (A. E. 329). Must, although like
new wine, it includes fermenting grape-juice, generally
means unfermented grape-juice.
Dr. Webster, in his great "Dictionary" (1828), has-
Must, new wine-wine pressed from the grape, but not
fermented." [In this definition he is only following John-
son, and others still older. B. Blount, in his Glossogra-
phia' (1670), has "New wine, that first pressed out of the
grape. E. Phillips, in his 'World of Words' (1671), has
"Wine newly pressed from the grape."]
Dr. Ure, F.R.S., the chemist, in Dictionary of Arts'
(1836), says:
"Juice, when newly expressed, and before it has begun to fer-
ment, is called must, and in common language, SWEET WINE.”
MUST DENOTES UNFERMENTED WINE.
443
F. E. J. Valpy, M.A., in Etymological Dictionary (1838),
says:
Mustus, new, fresh, young.
Hence, Mustum, i. e., VI-
NUM, fresh WINE- -as Merum for Merum VINUM."
Baron Liebeg, in 'Letters on Chemistry' (2d series, 1844),
wrote:
“If a flask be filled with grape-juice, and made air-tight,
and then kept for a few hours in boiling water.
THE WINE does not ferment" (p. 198).
"The fermentation of WINE and of beer wort are not
isolated phenomena."
"The WINE is left to ferment. One of the WINE-growers
of the Duchy," etc.
The Popular Cyclopædia (1846), which is a translation.
from the 'German Conversation Lexicon,' has the follow-
ing:
Must, the juice of the grape. In wine countries this
unfermented sweet must is distinguished from the sour must,
or unripe wine of a year old. It can be kept in close ves-
sels after the mucilage has been precipitated"-[or settled
on its lees].
"WINE.-There is only one species of wine [protropos]
made without beating, treading, or pressing; this is what
they call in Spain lagrima [tears]. The grapes, melting
with ripeness, are suspended in bunches, and the wine is
the produce of the droppings. The juice of the grape,
when newly expressed, and before it has begun to ferment,
is called MUST, and, in common language, sussur wein
[SWEET WINE]. It has an agreeable and very saccharine
taste."-Bible Commentary.
In the above, the reader will see not only what the dic-
tionaries and cyclopædias have to say about must, but he
will also notice that the above works, in open contradic-
tion, and doubtless very much to the disgust of "The
Academy," persist in calling unfermented grape-juice, wine.
Swedenborg will trouble our brethren of "The Acad
444: A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
emy a little more than the dictionaries on this subject of
must, as it will be seen by the reader. Can anything be
more positive or clearer than the following?: In speak-
ing of the internal sense of Isaiah, xxiv. 7, Swedenborg
says: "Spiritual good which should cease, is signified by
the new wine (mustum) mourning.
for by new
wine (mustum) is signified spiritual good, and its joy by
the tabret" (A. E. 323).
Joel i. 10: "The field, as also the land or earth, denote
the Church; field, the Church as to reception of truth,
and land or earth, the Church as to the perception of good:
corn denotes everything thereof in general; new wine (mus-
tum) the truth, and oil the good" (A. E. 375).
Joel ii. 24: "Here new wine (mustum), and oil signify
truth and good " (A. C. 375).
Isaiah lxii. 9: "By collecting the corn and must (mus-
tum) is signified instruction in the goods and truth of doc-
trine, and of the Church" (A. E. 630).
Joel ii. 24: "The good of brotherly and social love thence
derived, is signified by the corn-floors being full of pure
corn; and that thence they shall have the truth and good
of love to the Lord, is signified by the presses overflowing
with must (mustum) and oil; with those who are of the
celestial church of the Lord, there is the good of brotherly
and social love, which love, with those who are of the spir-
itual church, is called neighborly love, or charity" (A. E.
644).
Again: "By the floor is signified the doctrine of the
Church; by the wheat and oil are signified the goods there-
of; and by the new wine (mustum) the truths thereof" (A.
E. 543). This is in regard to the same passage in Joel.
Joel i. 10: "That field and ground denote the Church,
corn its good, and the new wine (mustum) its truth" (A.
C. 3941).
Isaiah xxiv. 7: "Fields of new wine" (merum) (A. C.
5113).
MUST HAS THE SAME SIGNIFICATION AS WINE.
445
Jeremiah xxxi. 12: "For wheat and for wine (tirosh-
mustum) (A. R. 315). Hebrew, tirosh; Latin, mustum; Eng-
lish, wine. This is very bad for "The Academy," with its
"Old Church" ideas of there being but one kind of wine,
which is called wine.
((
Holy truth is also signified by new wine, and wine (mus-
tum et vinum) in other parts of the Word" (A. R. 316).
The reader will please bear in mind that the word
wine in Hebrew, Greek,
Greek, Latin and English, is a
generic word, often used instead of must, for the juice
of the grape, as it is squeezed from grapes, as it is
trodden from grapes, and as it flows from the press, as
has been abundantly shown in the preceding pages. It
also includes the juice of grapes, as it is preserved by boil-
ing, settling in cold water, sulphurization, etc., as well as the
fermented juice. All these forms of grape-juice are cov-
ered in all the languages named, by the word wine, or ra-
ther by the word used for wine, in all of the above lan-
guages.
It is perfectly clear from the above quotations from the
Word and the Writings, that must, or unfermented grape-
juice, has the full signification of wine; in no respect does
it come short. It is certainly very remarkable that so many
of our brethren should have overlooked the fact that the
Hebrew tirosh, the Latin mustum, and the English must, or
new wine, so almost universally has a good signification
when used in the Word, that there are not more than two
or three exceptions out of the thirty-eight occasions of its
use. The bad signification given to grape-juice is, with very
few exceptions, confined to yayin and Hebrew words other
than tirosh-must. And now, as we know that many of the
wines which were regarded as the very best wines by the
ancients were preserved without fermentation by the vari-
ous processes heretofore named, have we not every reason
to suppose that the good wine of the Word and of the
Writings is always unfermented wine? The new wine
446
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
for the New Church is unfermented wine, pure as it comes
from the hands of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in
the fruit of the vine, and not a leavened wine.
We present the following somewhat lengthy passage from
the A. C., in regard to first fruits, from which the reader
will gather many ideas upon this question, which the ad-
vocates for the use of intoxicating wine seem to ignore :
"The first-fruits of thy corn, and the first-fruits of thy wine
(vini), thou shalt not delay—that hereby is signified that
since all goods and truths are from the Lord, they ought
to be ascribed to Him, and not to self, appears from the
signification of first fruits, as denoting those things which
should be in the first place; thus, which should be the
primary of all [like the grape and its juice.-E.], concerning
which signification we shall speak presently; and from the
signification of corn, as denoting the good of the truth
of faith, and from the signification of wine (vini) as denot-
ing the truth of good, thus the truth of the good of faith.
* * * Wherefore, when the first-fruits of corn and of
wine are the goods and truths of faith, it is meant that they
ought to be ascribed to the Lord, because they are from
Him; that the all of thought and of will appertaining to
man flows in, and that all good and truth is from the Lord.
***The first-fruits of the harvest were the ears of corn
parched and green; also, the sheaf which was to be shaken,
and afterwards what was from the corn-floor, which were
cakes; but the first-fruits of the vintage were the first fruits
of wine (vini), of must (musti) [Can any one doubt but
that the reference here is to the juice of the grape, before
fermentation has commenced?-E.], and of oil.
By the first-fruits of corn and wine in this verse are meant
all the first-fruits of the harvest and vintage just spoken
of above [Here the reader will see that both wine and
must are included.-E.], for in the original tongue it is said
the fullness of corn and the tear of wine (vini), [which, be-
yond question, has reference to the first drops which flow
* * *
MUST AND THE BLOOD OF THE GRAPE.
447
from grapes on the bursting of their skins.-E.], fullness de-
noting a ripe harvest, and also gathered together, and tears
denoting things which are dropped.
* * * That corn
denotes the good of faith, and wine (vinum) the truth of faith,
see in the passages above cited. That the first-fruits were to
be given to Jehovah signified, that the first principle of
the Church was to ascribe to the Lord all the goods and
truths of faith, and not to self. [Nor to spiritual leaven
and man's intellectual skill and ingenuity, as fermented
wine results from natural leaven and man's skill and inge-
nuity.-E.]. To ascribe to the Lord, is to know, to ac-
knowledge, and to believe that they are from the Lord, and
nothing of them from self. [We know this of the grape,
and the pure, unfermented juice of the grape, before leaven
and man have commenced their work of perversion-E.]
for, as was shown above, the all of faith is from the Lord.
The reason why the first-fruits had this signification is, be-
cause the first-fruits were offerings and presents, which were
thanksgivings for the produce of the earth, and an acknowl-
edgment of blessings from Jehovah, that is, from the Lord,
consequently, an acknowledgment that all things are from
Him; in the internal sense, an acknowledgment of the goods
and truths of faith, which are signified by harvest, corn, oil,
must (mustum), wine (vinum), wool and fruits, from which
the first-fruits were given" (A. C. 9223).
BLOOD OF THE GRAPE,
"The Academy" say:
"Another fancy of the author and his authorities is, that 'the blood
of the grape,' signifies unfermented wine. He brings nothing from
Scripture to justify such a supposition, but as he does in so many other
instances, he assumes that which he thinks ought to be so. Unfer-
mented must, however, is in the True Christian Religion compared to
love of the world, and it is said of it that 'it tastes sweet, but infests
the stomach' [As we have shown elsewhere, it is undoubtedly fer
menting must to which Swedenborg here refers.—E.] (T. C. R. 404).
Even must, when fermented, only corresponds to truth from good in
448
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
the natural principle [This error we have already noticed.-E.], but
wine (vinum, fermented grape-juice), corresponds to spiritual truth.
[We would like to see a single illustration from the Writings of the
Church-it clearly corresponds to falses from evil.-E.]. From this
series it is evident that 'the blood of grapes,' which denotes the good
of love, is not a step backward towards must [It surely is never a step
downwards toward the drunkard's cup.-E.], but is a peculiar kind of
fermented grape-juice; probably, as Gesenius suggests, this name comes
from the redness of certain wines. This is, indeed, plainly taught also
in the Writings. [A strange assertion; we would like to see some evi-
dence of its truthfulness.-E.]. Wine (vinum, fermented grape-juice),
is called the blood of grapes [Can they tell us where fermented grape-
juice is ever so called?-E.], because both signify the holy truth
proceeding from the Lord, but wine is predicated of the spiritual church
and blood of the celestial church (A. C. 5117; see, also, T. C. R. 706,
A. E. 918). Hence the author is entirely in darkness when he says:
Surely no one will pretend that the blood of the grape is fermented
wine' (p. 115). As we see not only the dictionaries, which are exponents
of the learning of the age, but also the Writings given by the Lord from
Heaven declare the truth of what he so rashly denies" [A very serious
mistake—where do either the dictionaries or the Writings declare that the
blood of the grape is fermented grape-juice?-E.].
(
Among the strange assumptions of "The Academy" there
is perhaps none more singular than that by the blood of the
grape is meant fermented grape juice. It certainly would
seem that this term should be free from being thus repre-
sented. Even "Old Church" commentators are wiser than
to make such a mistake.
(6
[HE WASHED HIS GARMENTS IN WINE, AND HIS CLOTHES
IN THE BLOOD OF GRAPES]. This is a striking example of the
parallelism which formed one of the features and beauties
of Hebrew poetry-the two clauses differing in language
but corresponding in sense-garments' answering to
clothes,' and 'wine' (yayin) to 'the blood of grapes'
(dam anahvim). Blood' is a poetical name for 'juice,'
and is evidence of the ancient signification of yayin as 'the
juice of the grape,' prior to fermentation. This juice,
squeezed out, is yayin, and hence the juice in the grape,
and even the grape itself, might, by a natural figure, bear
WINE AND THE BLOOD OF GRAPES.
449
the same name. [Compare Anacreon's poetical reference.
to oinos as confined in fruit upon the branches '-pepedee-
menon oporais epi kleematon (Ode 49), and the description of
the vintage-treaders letting loose the wine '-luontes
oinon].
"In Fuerst's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance, SORAQ
is defined to be a vine laden with grapes filled with a red
and superior wine "—vino, rubro ac præstanti impletis. As
to Sorek, comp. Judg. xvi. 4; Isa. v. 2; xvi. 8; Jer. ii. 21.—
Bible Commentary.
And yet, exclaim the wise men of "The Academy,"
" fer-
mented grape-juice is called the blood of the grape." How
different from what Swedenborg so beautifully teaches is
such a statement as the above! He says, "The blood of
grapes signifies truth from spiritual good, the same as
wine" (A. E. 918).
“A vineyard, or a vine, as has been shown, represents the
spiritual church, or the man of that church; and a grape,
and bunches, and clusters of grapes are the fruits thereof, and
signify charity, and what appertains to it. Now wine
(vinum) denotes the faith thence derived, and all that
belongs to it, and thus the grape is the celestial principle of
that church, and wine (vinum) its spiritual principle; the
former, as has been often previously observed, having rela-
tion to the will, and the latter to the understanding" (A. C.
1071).
"Wine (vinum) is what is spiritual from a celestial origin;
the blood of grapes the celestial principle, as received in
spiritual churches; grapes charity itself, and wine (vinum)
faith itself. * * * As grapes represent charity so does
wine (vinum) the faith thence derived, because it is obtained
from grapes, as has been shown in various passages above
quoted, when speaking of vineyards and vines” (A. C. 1071).
What can be clearer than the above? "The grape is the
celestial principle of that church;" "The blood of grapes
the celestial principle as received in spiritual churches,"
450 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
"Grapes charity itself, and wine (vinum) faith itself;" "be-
cause it is obtained from grapes "—not from leaven and
man's invention, as is fermented wine. In another passage
in his writings Swedenborg tells us that "all wine (vinum)
is from grapes" (A. E. 918). Again he tells us that
even "all the produce of the wine-press has the same signi-
fication as wine." How strange that any intelligent New
Churchman should represent as above that not only good
wine, but even the blood of the grape, means fermented
grape-juice; when it is so perfectly clear from Sweden-
borg's writings, and from the Word of the Lord, that
neither the blood of the grape, must, new wine, sweet
wine or wine, when used in a good sense, can ever mean
fermented grape-juice! All these fluids are repeatedly re-
presented as coming from the grape; without the first intima-
tion that they require to be leavened before they are per-
fected.
“And the truths of good are understood by the vintage
and by the wine (vinum) in the wine-presses" (A. E. 376).
“And I have caused wine (vinum) to fail from the wine-
presses: none shall tread with shouting" (A. E. 376).
In old fermented wines, which have not been fortified by
either sugar or other saccharine matter, or alcohol, chemists
tell us all the sugar is destroyed. How can our brethren of
"The Academy" seriously claim that these are proper
wines to use in the most Holy Supper?
66
Grapes, of which wine is made in the wine-press, signify
the good of charity, and in the opposite sense, evil, and from
good is produced truth, and from evil the false" (A. E. 922).
"By clusters and grapes, which were put into the wine-
press, is signified spiritual good; and by wine (vinum), which
is thence produced, is signified truth from that of good"
(A. E. 920).
The blood of the grape, and wine, which signifies the same
as blood of the grape, beyond question have their significa-
tion from their constituent resemblance to the blood in the
CORRESPONDENCES SHOULD NOT BE DISREGARDED. 451
human body, containing similar component parts and being
eminently capable of nourishing the body of man. There
is, perhaps, no vegetable fluid which contains so nearly all
the elements or organized substances which are required
to nourish and warm the body of man, as unfermented
grape-juice. It has the albumen for the muscles and brain;
the sugar to warm and make glad the heart of man, which is so
delightful to the taste, and corresponds to genuine spiritual
delights, the organized acids and alkaline salts required by
the bones, tendons and other structures of the body; nearly
all of which substances are either entirely or partially de-
stroyed, precipitated, or cast out by fermentation; and what
remains is polluted by the presence of vinegar, glycerine,
œnanthic and other acids and alcohol, which have resulted
from the action of leaven or ferment on the juice of the
grape. Now, Swedenborg expressly tells us: "That wine
(vinum) signifies holy truth, and in an opposite sense truth
profaned, is from correspondence" (A. R. 316).
With the above clear declaration before us, it is high time
that our opponents pay some attention to correspondences
in the consideration of this question.
Swedenborg says: "As meats and drinks recreate the
natural life, so good affections and genuine truths corre-
sponding to them recreate the spiritual life." (Sweden-
borg's Index to the A. C.)
"For by the blood out of the wine-press is meant the
juice (mustum) and wine (vinum) from the clusters that were
trodden, and the juice of the grape (mustum) and wine
(vinum) have a similar signification ” (A. R. 653).
In the face of such plain teachings is it not strange that
"The New Church Academy" should stand before the
Church and proclaim that there is no wine but fermented
wine; and that even the blood of the grape means fer-
mented wine; and should openly accuse those who call in
question such erroneous views, of falsifying the Word and
the Writings?
452 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
We have the grape as being the perfected fruit of the
vine, which has been organized by the Lord for the susten-
ance of man, and is such a delightful fruit; and the blood
or juice which exudes when the skin is ruptured, as blood
flows from the body of man if the skin is wounded, which
juice is the sweetest portion of the grape. We have seen
that these have the very highest signification. This juice
of the grape, as it exists in the grape, is strictly analogous
to blood; containing nearly, if not quite, all the constituents
required to nourish the body of man. Now, brethren, we
ask you, in the light of Divine Revelation, science and human
reason, and even of common sense; is it possible to suppose
that this juice and blood of the grape, which are the essential
parts of the grape, the moment it is pressed from the grape,
leaving behind the seeds, skin and some fibrous structures
which are comparatively useless for food or drink, loses at
once its high signification, and becomes so polluted that it is
not suitable for a communion wine, nor for a drink, until after
it has been assailed by leaven; which Swedenborg tells us
signifies the "evil and the false, which should not be mixed
with things good and true?"
ל.
The juice of the grape, we have seen, represents things
good and true; and the reason why leaven should not be
mixed with it is, because the leaven assails the substances
in it which correspond to goodness and truth; and no
such results ever flow from its action as follow success-
ful combats during the regeneration of man, because the
leaven actually destroys and casts out the good and nour-
ishing substances which correspond to good and truth,
to the extent fermentation progresses; and most of the
vile products generated by fermentation remain in to pol-
lute the wine; and we have a fluid which will produce natural
drunkenness, as falses from evil do spiritual drunkenness.
A single passage occurs in Swedenborg's writings in re-
gard to must, which seems to be one of the main-stays of
the advocates for intoxicating drinks; where Swedenborg
MUST, FERMENTED WINE AND THE STOMACH, 453
It
states that must (without much doubt referring to ferment-
ing must, as we have shown elsewhere), "tastes sweet, but
infests the stomach." Our brethren of "The Academy"
rarely, if ever, fail to refer to this passage in their articles.
Apart from their assumptions, it is their entire stock in
trade. Allowing their own interpretation of the passage—
which we do not think is correct-we have only to state a
few well-known facts to disarm this passage of all force.
is well known that fruits-apples, pears, grapes, peaches,
etc.—if eaten raw, must be eaten moderately, or they will
disturb the stomach and cause looseness of the bowels, es-
pecially with those not accustomed to their use; but tem-
perately used, they are very useful, as are also the fresh or
unfermented juices of these fruits; yet fresh unfermented
grape-juice and cider are constantly being used moderately
by multitudes with impunity and benefit, as grapes and
apples are being eaten. A fermented or generous (which
is simply a more alcoholic) wine, if partaken of in the
measure in which a person unaccustomed to the use of
either kind may drink unfermented wine with impunity,
will not only be more apt to infest the stomach, and cause
vomiting, but it will also cause drunkenness, which the unfer-
mented wine will never do. What nonsense, then, to bring
such an argument against the use of unfermented wine, and
in favor of fermented wine! It is well known that cooked
fruits are less likely to disturb the stomach than uncooked ;
also, that boiled wine is not so likely to disturb the stomach as
unboiled wine; and that unfermented grape-juice, however
preserved, becomes modified by age. Many of the ancients,
we are told, did not commence using their boiled wines un-
til after four years had expired. Yet all this is ignored by
"The Academy," in their zeal to uphold the use of intoxicat-
ing drinks. But upon this subject the truth is not with
them, and they cannot stand before the advancing light
of this new age. Truth is mighty, and will prevail! The
Lord wills it.
CHAPTER IX.
NOBLE WINE-NEW WINE SOLIDIFIED-MINOR ASSUMPTIONS
WINE OF CANA.
“The Academy" say:
When the flavor of noble wine is referred to (Coronis 22), or vinous
odor is mentioned (A. C. 1720), fermented wine is meant. For noble
wine is never unfermented. And it is well known that the peculiar
aroma of wines arises from ethers and volatile oils generated in their
manufacture. (See Pavy's Food and Dietetics).
It is, to say the least, somewhat doubtful whether reference
is had above to fermented wine when the fine flavor of noble
wine and the vinous odor are named. If "noble" is ap-
plied to denote strong alcoholic wine, without regard to
the quality of the wine aside from the fact that it contains
a large amount of alcohol, it may be true. It is certainly
true that the peculiar odor or aroma of fermented wines is
generated by the action of leaven on the juice of the grape;
but how different is this leavened aroma from the true,
natural aroma of a vineyard, of grapes, and of unfermented
wine! Has the reader ever noticed and compared the two?
We think the angels would not agree with the opinion of
our brethren of "The Academy" that "noble wine is never
unfermented." Does the reader think that the wine used
in heaven is not a noble wine, and that it has not a delight-
ful aroma?
In Swedenborg's "True Christian Religion" (Latin), there
is a passage which, so far as we know, does not appear in
the English editions that were published before the Rotch
edition; the translators evidently not knowing how to
render it, omitted it entirely. They were probably
unacquainted with the fact to which the writer called atten-
454
NEW WINE SOLIDIFIED.
455
The
tion in his work on "The Wine Question" viz: that the
ancients prepared and preserved condensed or solidified
wine, as the inhabitants of Eastern countries still do.
passage will be found in No. 742, and we will give both the
English and the Latin of the words omitted in other trans-
lations. The Rotch translation is as follows: "And the
prince, without stopping the procession, said to them,
come with me to eat bread,' and they followed him into
the dining-hall, where they saw a table magnificently pre-
pared. In the centre of it was a high pyramid of gold,
having on its forms in triple order a hundred dishes con-
taining sweet bread (panes saccharini), new wine solidified
(musta vinorum concreta), with other delicacies (lautitiis—
luxuries) made of bread and wine together (ex pane et vino
confectis). And through the middle of the pyramid there
welled up, as it were, a fountain streaming with wine like
nectar (fons saliens cum vino nectareo, with nectarious or
sweet wine), the flow of which parted at the top of the
pyramid and filled the cups."
“musta
The words omitted in former translations are
vinorum concreta"-new wine solidified. We know that
fermented wine is not the kind of wine referred to above,
for two reasons. First because fermented wine cannot
be condensed so as to form a satisfactory food product;
and from this very poor product all the alcohol would
have been driven off during the process, and the fer-
ment destroyed, so that it would then not be fermented
wine at all, to say nothing of "noble, generous, fermented
wine." Second: we know that leaven is never born in the
grape, nor is it ever the product of the vine, for its germs
come from the atmosphere; therefore, experiments show
conclusively that if we exclude the air which contains these
germs from grape-juice it will never ferment; or again, if we
admit the air, having taken care to remove all the germs of
leaven from it, vinous fermentation will not ensue. The
writer is indebted to a´ respected New Church minister for
456 A REPLY TÔ "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
the suggestion, that in heaven they can have no fermented
wine and, consequently, no alcohol-and no "whiskey," the
writer will add-because they have no leaven in the atmos-
phere of heaven. Alas, alas, for our brethren of "The
Academy!" What will they do for their generous, noble,
fermented wine and its odor and peculiar aroma when they
reach heaven? The writer is not so uncharitable and un-
generous as for a moment to intimate that they may not
reach heaven, notwithstanding their proclivities to indulge
moderately in the use of fermented wine and "whiskey;"
but he thinks it not unkind to remind them, even at the risk
of repetition, that it is a great deal more pleasant, if not
easier, to put away evils in this world than in the next;
still to those who are so strongly confirmed in the
"false doctrine of the Old Church " that they cannot see
the evil of drinking intoxicating drinks, and, therefore,
continue in this habit until death, or seeing the evil are not
able to entirely get rid of it in this world, we trust, and
have faith to believe that in their journey through the
"Spiritual London," the good spirits will do what the good
physician sometimes does here when he sees that the indi-
vidual is "sincerely and industriously" striving to over-
come this perverted appetite—give him occasionally a little
"punch" to alleviate his sufferings.
a
Let us see what "The United States Dispensatory,
standard medical work, written by Drs. Wood and Bache,
have to say of the use of generous, or strong, noble wine.
They are regarded as good authority as to the effects of
poisons or remedies by a majority of the medical profes-
sion. "Wine is consumed in most civilized countries; but
in a state of health is at least useless, if not absolutely per-
nicious. The degree of mischief which it produces depends
on the character of the wine. Thus, the light wines of
France are comparatively harmless; while the habitual use
of the stronger wines-[Generous wines.-E.]-such as
sherrý, port, madeira, etc., even though taken in modera-
LEES OF A GOOD AND BAD SIGNIFICATION.
457
•
tion, is always injurious, as having a tendency to induce
gout and apoplexy, and other diseases dependent on ple-
thora and over-stimulation. All wines, however, when used
habitually, in excess, are productive of bad consequences.
They weaken the stomach, produce disease of the liver, and
give rise to gout, dropsy, apoplexy, tremors, and not un-
frequently mania." Nor is this a new doctrine, for Aristæus,
about A.D. 100, writing on the "causes, signs and cures”
of disease, makes these statements: "The use of wine
causes angina pectoris, hemorrhage from the head, inflam-
mation of the liver, insanity, paralysis, apoplexy; and is the
most frequent cause of disease." "Wine is a medicament
in cholera and syncope, though its use is attended with
danger." Such has been the testimony of medical men in
all ages (see “Zell's Encyclopædia," article Alcohol).
Is it possible, we ask the intelligent reader, that a wine,
which, when "taken in moderation," will produce such
deleterious results, could ever have been intended by our
Heavenly Father to be used as a beverage for man, or as
suitable for use in the most holy ordinance of the Church?
After alluding to the giving of punch to the sincere and
industrious in "The Spiritual London," which we have con-
sidered elsewhere, the review continues:
"But despite such incontestable testimony Dr. Ellis remarks: 'If the
lees, which fall to the bottom from the action of leaven on wine, instead
of having a good signification have a bad signification, how can the wine
from which such lees have been separated fail to have an evil significa-
tion ?'
"By parity of reasoning, if the evils, which are removed to the sides
from the action of spiritual leaven, instead of having a good signification,
have a bad signification, how can the resulting state of the man from
which such evils have been separated fail to have an evil signification ?"
The two cases are not parallel, but are directly the op-
posite of each other, as the reader will see. In our work
on "The Wine Question," we called the attention of “The
Academy" especially to the fact that the changes which
take place during, and the results which follow natural
458 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
leavening, do not correspond, in the slightest degree, to
those which occur during, and which follow spiritual fer-
mentation. To this "The Academy" made no attempt to
reply, but ignored this question entirely; and yet the reader
will see it cannot be ignored and "The Academy's" views
on "The Wine Question" be sustained. The whole argument
turns upon this one point. If the correspondence of fer
mented wine is good, the changes which take place during
the fermentation of wine must correspond to the changes
which take place during spiritual purification; if they do
not, then it is perfectly clear to every intelligent New
Churchman, that fermented wine must go to the wall, and
be banished from use as a beverage and as a communion
wine. Now, let us look at the facts. In the spiritual puri-
fication of man, or of societies, good and truth overcome
the evil and false, and the latter are removed to the sides
or separated, as lees are separated during the fermentation
of wine. This we all admit; but how is it with natural
fermentation? We know very well the ingredients in the
juice of the grape, which the Lord has organized for the
sustenance of man, are those substances which nourish and
supply the natural wants of the body, and we know that
they correspond to goodness and truth, which nourish the
spirit of man. The substances in the juice of the grape
which nourish and warm the body are the albumen and
gluten, which nourish the brain, nerves and muscles; the
vegetable acids and alkaline salts, which nourish the liga-
ments and bones; and the sugar, which is appropriated
to warm the body. Now, these are the substances which
correspond to goodness, truth and spiritual delights; for
they nourish and delight the material body, as goodness
and truth do the spirit of man.
But when, from the atmosphere, germs of that leaven
which we are told "signifies the evil and false which should
not be mixed with things good and true," are permitted to
enter into the pure juice of the grape, what is the result?
“THE ACADEMY” DISREGARDING CORRESPONDENCES. 459
We know very well if there is any real correspondence be-
tween the natural leavening and its results, and spiritual
purification, that the substances in the wine which corres-
pond to good and truth—the albumen, sugar, etc.—should
overcome the leaven which corresponds to the evil and
false. It is here that the correspondence entirely fails, for
in the fermentation which ensues, the leaven, corresponding
to the evil and the false, to the extent that it progresses, over-
comes, and either perverts, destroys, or casts down or out
as dregs, everything in the wine that corresponds to good-
ness and truth. Nor does its work of destruction then
cease. Unless arrested by the exclusion of air, sulphuriza-
tion, or some other process, it continues till the fermented
wine is converted into vinegar. The acetous fermentation
does not wait for the conclusion of the vinous fermentation,
but commences soon after that begins, if not with it, and pro-
gresses with it, so that fermented wine, as we see it in the
markets, always contains more or less vinegar; and in old
fermented wines the sugar, which corresponds to spiritual
delights, is generally all destroyed. What kind of a wine is
this to use as Communion wine in the Church of the New
Jerusalem? A wine-the effects of which on man Sweden-
borg compares to the effects of the doctrine of salvation by
faith alone on the clergy, may have been appropriate for the
Old Church before the Last Judgment, but why should "The
Academy" condemn the new wine the pure, unfermented
fruit of the vine-which the Lord has organized and pro-
vided for us so bountifully, and cling to the fermented wine
of the Old Church, claiming that it is better than the new?
The editors say:
MINOR ASSUMPTIONS,
‘Again the author falsifies Scripture when he states that 'the people
were taught not to look upon it'-i. e., fermented wine.
This is a
garbled quotation of Ezekiel : Ezekiel reproduces the law, 'Neither
shall any priest drink wine' (xliv. 21). The reader, not thoroughly
acquainted with Scripture, would from this
quotation suppose that the
460. A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
priest was not allowed to drink wine at any time. But the author had
cmitted the half of the verse which states, 'when they enter into the
inner court.' That this partial quotation is intentional, and not acci-
dental, appears from the fact that the offense is repeated in another form
on page 215, 'Do not drink wine, nor drink that maketh drunken' (Lev. x.
8, 9). This is introduced as if it was a general prohibition, while the
fact is suppressed that this was a command 'to Aaron and his sons,'
and also that this command is further limited by the words, when ye
go into the tabernacle of the congregation.' The same perversion is
again found on page 227, where we read: 'Let us all remember the words
of Holy Writ, 'Woe to him that giveth his neighbor drink, and puttest
thy bottle to him.' From these words thus solemnly put, the unin-
formed reader would no doubt suppose that it was forbidden to give any-
one anything to drink; but here as above the meaning of the passage is
skillfully concealed by omitting the leading idea which immediately
follows and qualifies all that precedes; namely, and makest him drunkeņ
also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness.' By omitting the
qualifying phrase the whole intent of the prohibition is changed and
perverted."
In the first accusation above that the writer has falsified
Scripture, a little better acquaintance with their bibles
would have shown the editors that they were making a slight
mistake about the language they quote being a "falsifica-
tion of "Scripture." The passage is found in Proverbs;
and that there may be no misapprehension in their minds
this time the writer will quote the whole passage, and give
chapter and verse as follows (Proverbs, xxiii. 29–32):
29" Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath conten-
tions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without
cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30 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. 32 At the last it
biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”
31
We think the above language will justify the writer's
statement that "the people were taught not to look upon
the fermented wine" which the editors "glorify" so much.
In regard to the second accusation of having falsified
the Scriptures by his quotations made in the above para-
THE WINE SUITABLE FOR COMMUNION WINE. 461
graph from "Words for the New Church," the writer will
say that in a previous page of his work he had quoted the
passage in full, including the final reasons why the priest and
his sons should not drink wine, which the editors, strangely
enough, have been very careful neither to mention nor to
quote, notwithstanding all their accusations of garbling
against the present writer "O, consistency, thou art a
jewel!" We will include the quotation in a passage from
the "Arcana," which is well worthy of the consideration of
every man who justifies the use of intoxicating drinks. It
reads as follows: "Inasmuch as drunkenness was a type of
insanity in regard to truths of faith, therefore, it was also
made a representative, and this prohibition was given to
Aaron: "Do not drink wine nor drink that maketh drunken,
thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the Taber-
nacle of the Congregation, lest ye die-that ye may put a
difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean
and clean."-Levit. x. 8-9 (A. C. 1072). Having once
already quoted the passage in full in his work the writer
does not think he was guilty of any impropriety in making
the application of the command which is made at the close
of the following paragraph in his final summing up. We
reproduce it that the reader may judge our "falsification"
for himself:
"Why should we not follow the Lord's example, and use
unfermented wine instead of fermented or leavened wine?
Why should we persist in using an intoxicating wine which
will cause stupor, drunkenness, insanity, disease and death,
and which we know, according to the philosophy of the
Church, has its origin from hell, and which Swedenborg
directly compares to falses from evil, as we have seen?
(A. E. 1035). Can we imagine it possible that Sweden-
borg would have compared a wine which is suitable for use
in the most Holy Supper to the worst kind of falses—falses
from evil? Please remember that he gives us no chance to
doubt as to the kind of wine to which he refers in this com-
462 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
Is it pos
parison; it is the wine that causeth drunkenness.
sible that the New Church can prosper while it uses such a
wine in this most Holy Ordinance, and while many of its
preachers, writers and members justify and advocate its
use as a beverage, and set the example of using it? Is it
not time that we of the New Jerusalem Church 'put a dif-
ference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and
clean?' 'Do not drink wine, nor drink that maketh
(A. C. 1072).
drunken.'"-Lev. x. 8, 9.
If fermented wine in its effects on man is unholy and un-
clean, as is represented in the Word of the Lord, is it suit-
able to be used as a beverage and as sacramental wine?
As to the third accusation made by the editors, of having
falsified Scripture, the writer will say that, after detailing
the case of a reformed man who was led back to his cups
and to drunkenness by the presentation of a glass of fer-
mented wine at the hands of a lady friend, he said: "Little did
that lady dream of the dreadful injury she was doing her
middle-aged guest by presenting him with a glass of wine;
little does any lady know of the harm she may do to any
one, especially to the young, when she presents this seduc-
tive fluid to their lips. Let us all remember the Words of
Holy Writ: Woe to him that giveth his neighbor drink;
and puttest thy bottle to him.'
C
3
Now, gentle reader, do you think that the above lan-
guage justifies the following statement of the editors?
"From these words, thus solemnly put, the uninformed
reader would, no doubt, suppose that it was forbidden to
give any one anything to drink." We ask, would any one,
however stupid, ever suppose any such thing? Every one
can but understand that it is giving his . . ighbor intoxicat-
ing drinks to which reference is made. And, surely, we all
know that to give young men or women, or people of any
age intoxicating drinks, and thus encourage them in their
use by example and solicitation, is to furnish the impulse
that may end in a life of drunkenness and shame. If it
THE WRITER'S SO-CALLED FALSIFICATIONS.
463
does not make the recipient drunken at once, it will not be
the fault of the giver. We will quote the passage from the
Word in full, and the reader will see that the first cause of
woe is the giving to drink :
"Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink; that put-
test thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also; that
thou mayest look on their nakedness" (Habak. ii. 15). Of
course it is a greater cause of woe if we wilfully strive to
make a man drunken; and still greater yet, if we do this to
take advantage of his mental nakedness, to view the secrets
which he may reveal during his state of intoxication, or to
cheat him, and thus benefit ourselves by his nakedness.
But is not the giving of such drinks to our neighbor a fearful
thing to do, and does it not come fully under the condem-
nation?
We have been particular in taking up these instances of
so-called "falsification," seriatim, because we have been, all
through the review, so frequently and persistently charged
with it. We are aware that "falsification" may be either
intentional or unintentional; it may arise from misconcep-
tion and mistake, or from a desire to deceive. If it is put
forth honestly it might better be characterized as error, but
if knowingly and intentionally, then it cannot help partak-
ing of the nature and culpability of a lie, even though it
may not be a lie direct. Truth is so necessary a bond in
the social intercourse and business of life, and wilful decep-
tion has so many elements of meanness, and generally pro-
ceeds from such despicable motives, that there is scarcely
any other charge so odious to an honorable man, or any
other vice that excites loathing and comtempt equally with
this one.
There is a maxim-the most pernicious in the
world, we think-that "the end justifies the means,” but we
know that God will not be served with lies or injustice; and
while it is needful that we should work for God, in helping
our neighbor, we must be able to do it with an honest heart
and truthful words, or else leave it undone. We are con-
464 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
fident that these sentiments are common to "The Acad-
emy" and to ourselves; and we sympathize with the anguish
of heart suffered by our brethren, when they were at last
compelled by a stern sense of duty to stigmatize us as
guilty of "falsification" "intentional and not accidental."
It is in part to relieve their minds that we have written
the explanation of those troubling quotations; for we do
not think it at all necessary for any one outside "The Acad-
emy," unless they are confirmed in the same views.
و,
If this were a work on psychology it would be interesting
to follow the stages of opinion and feeling through which
the minds of "The Academy" passed while engaged upon
their "Review." As they complacently write the first page
they "are convinced that the author either has no adequate
knowledge of the sacred tongues, or he has grossly per-
verted them. Common charity forbids the latter conclu-
sion.' Our intention was right, only we knew no better.
They will just expose our ignorance and demolish our book
as kindly as possible. Evidently, they had not examined
the subject or the book critically; for, as soon as they find
Webster and Worcester define must as new wine;" "wine
pressed from the grape, not fermented," they see trouble
ahead, and their minds fill with dark suspicions. They per-
ceive more than ignorance in this book, and as their task
looms up before them they see sorrowfully that in the
modes "of writers on abstinence generally, and of our
author in particular, there is everywhere apparent an at-
tempt to confuse common perception by some misleading
twist or turn.” Their confidence has been beguiled. They
are almost ready to discard the ignorance theory, and even
their charity weakens as they exhaust their energies in fol-
lowing the "turns" and undoing the "twists."
Henceforth, in almost every page, they show some of our
"perversions" and "falsifications," and we do not with-
hold our admiration, when our brethren, in the middle of
their task, much tired and somewhat heated, still have char-
THE WRITER'S SO-CALLED FALSIFICATIONS.
465
ity to write, though doubtingly: "We can hardly believe
that the author of the book is guilty of the systematic de-
ception which is apparent;" but, when a couple of pages
further they arrive at a point where "the author probably
reaches the climax of his falsification of history," it is cer-
tain that they have risen to the occasion, and are thoroughly
warmed with their work. A passage of our book "shows
how careless of truth are the upholders of abstinence when
they wish to prove their point;" something else is "utterly
false,” and on the other page, "The whole mass of the fer-
ment of falses" has "been emptied into the New Church."
This reviewing is no child's play. It is evident that the
editors have their coats off; and when further on they dis-
cover that "the author continually perverts and falsifies
every passage of the Word and Writings which he quotes,”
it will be seen that they are working to some purpose. They
wave their pens as warriors might their swords. No first
page "common charity" now. He is not so ignorant as he
is vicious. His "falsification" is "intentional, not acci-
dental." His is a case worse for the Church "than the
attacks of the most malicious foes," and he is involved in
the "terrible sin" of profanation of the table of the Lord.
The editors have done their best, but words and the power
of language have their limits. It is not "The Academy's"
fault that the English tongue lacks words to characterize
our depravity. They find their climax in their conclu-
sion. “Our" "gross perversion is without a parallel. Never
in the New Church has such a mass of false statements been
crowded into the same narrow limits as we find in this book
on the wine question."
We cannot help but wonder at the feeling exhibited and
the vituperation expended on a work the result of so much
ignorance.
And as we trust we have removed their anxiety we may,
perhaps, be pardoned for expressing the hope that they
will hereafter remember that charity is far better in a theo-
466 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
logical review than a "slashing" article, and that it is pos-
sible to make a strong argument in a good cause without
discourteously and causelessly attributing prevarication to
those who honestly hold the opposite opinion. We inti-
mated as much as this in our book in regard to their review
of our former tracts.
THE WINE OF CANA.
"The Academy" say:
66
Proceeding from the false assumptions furnished by his Old Church
authorities, the author continually perverts and falsifies every passage
from the Writings and the Word which he quotes. We will add a few
more instances to those already mentioned. 'The wine declared by the
Master of the feast (at Cana) to be 'good wine' was good wine . . . good
because nourishing and unintoxicating' (p. 156).
That this statement is false may be seen from the term used, which is
(oinos) 'the fermented juice of the grape' (see Liddel and Scott's Greek
Lexicon). But there is another incontestable proof contained in the
passage itself; the word methusko in Greek signifies 'to make drunk, to
intoxicate;' in the passive 'to be drunk;' now this term is never used for
designating the effects from any other than intoxicating drinks. Yet we
read in this narration: 'When men have well drunk (methusthosi,
literally, are exhilarated with wine') then that which is worse,' etc. (John
ii. 10).
The late Rev. Dr. Duffield translates this word different-
ly and, as the reader will see, more sensibly: "When men
have wined-that is all." To suppose that the Lord
furnished men already in the first stages of intoxication, as
represented by "The Academy," with intoxicating wine,
which He never creates in the vine, is surely very absurd.
Our critics continue:
This also again proves the utter falsity of the author's statements where
he says, 'The Jews do not in their feasts for sacred purposes, including
the marriage feast, ever use any kind of fermented drinks.'”
Here we have an assumption, based upon "Old Church"
dictionaries, that because the wine created was called oinos,
which is the Greek word for wine, and is known by every
competent scholar to include the Hebrew tirosh (must),
THE WINE OF CANA.
467
A little
therefore it was the fermented juice of the grape.
better acquaintance with the Greek language and literature
and with the customs and habits of the ancient Greeks, as
we have seen in the preceding pages, would have saved the
editors from falling into such a grave mistake, for they
would have found that it is beyond question that oinos is a
generic term including all kinds of wine, unfermented and
fermented, like yayin in Hebrew and vinum in Latin. Both
yayin and oinos were used not only to embrace the expressed
unfermented juice of the grape, but also juice in the grape
before it is expressed. No other scholars have ever exam-
ined this whole subject as critically and carefully in an
examination extending to every passage in the Bible which
refers to wine, as have Dr. F. R. Lees and Rev. Dawson
Burns, and the writer feels that it will give the intelligent
reader pleasure to have an opportunity to read the following
extracts from their commentary upon the subject under
consideration.
"When we inquire into the actual usage of yayin and
oinos, we shall see how unfounded is the theory that limits
the sense of both terms to the fermented juice of the
grape.
"YAYIN.-Though yayin occurs 141 times in the Old Tes-
tament, the context, in a great majority of cases, does not
furnish an indication as to its condition, whether fermented
or otherwise. In the case where Jacob brings wine to Isaac,
the nature of the yayin is not hinted at, but a Jewish com-
mentator refers to it as wine that had been 'reserved in its
grapes' since the Creation—a prooi that he did not con-
sider either yayin, or the Chaldee equivalent, khamar, lim-
ited to a fermented liquid. The same usage recurs in the
Targum paraphrase of Cant. viii. 2, where the righteous
are promised the blessing of 'drinking old wine stored up
in its grapes' since the commencement of the Creation or
present dispensation. Baal Hatturim refers to wine in the
grapes' at Pentecost; and on Deut. xxii. 14, 'the pure
468
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
blood of the grape' the Targumists dwell on the quantity
of red wine which should be drawn out from one grape-
In the prophecy of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 11, we
cluster.
have-
'He shall wash his garments in wine,
And (shall wash) his clothes in the blood of grapes ;'
where the genius of Hebrew poetry requires that 'wine'
(yayin) in the first line shall be considered to answer in sense
to blood of grapes' in the second line. In Deut. xxviii.
39, 'thou shalt plant vineyards and dress (them), but the
yayin thou shalt not drink, and shalt not gather,' the allu-
sion to gathering' is most probable to yayin as wine in the
grapes, and hence as used collectively for the grapes; and
in Jer. xl. 10, 12, gathering yayin is, beyond all doubt,
spoken of the grapes in which, as in natural bottles, the
yayin is contained. In Isa. xvi. 10, 'the treaders shall
tread (out) no wine in their presses;' and Jer. xlviii. 33, ‘I
have caused wine to fall from the wine-presses; none shall
tread with shouting,' the only question in doubt can be
whether the reference is to the grapes holding the wine, or
to the wine as flowing from the grapes: no one can pre-
tend that the term is applied to the fermented juice of the
grape. In Psa. civ. 15, the yayin which makes glad the
heart of man' is classed with products of the earth, to
whose natural properties the Psalmist alludes as indicat-
ing the grace and power of the Creator. The connection
of yayin with milk (Cant. v. 1; Isa. lv. 1) brings before the
mind a rural image of fresh-pressed juice drunk with
fresh-drawn milk; and in Lam. ii. 12, the plaint of the
children- where is corn and wine?'-is most naturally
construed as pointing to a famine of the fruits of the earth,
including the fruit of the vine in its vintage state.
"OINOS.-As the Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible
nearly uniformly render yayin by oinos, all the above con-
siderations in favor of yayin as embracing unfermented
grape-juice apply also to oinos. In Deut. xxxii. 14 also,
THE WINE OF CANA.
469
the Lxx. renders 'the pure (foaming) blood of the grape'
by and the blood of the grape he drank-WINE.' The
peculiar use of yayin for the grape, as containing vine-juice,
is paralleled by the words of Nymphodorus, who speaks of
Drimacus as 'taking wine from the fields.' Among other ar-
guments against identifying oinos with fermented grape-juice
(beyond those of its derivation from yayin, and the undoubt-
ed use of gleukos to signify unfermented wine) the following
may be stated :
"(i.) The intimate relation between oinos and words used
for describing the vine and its appurtenances. The most
ancient name for 'vine' was oinee or oina; and long after
ampelos had become the common name for vine, oina re-
tained its place in poetry. Euripides has both oina (vine)
and oinantha (vine-shoot or blossom). To this category
belong oinopedee (vineyard), oinaron (vine leaf), oinaris (vine
tendril or branch), oinophutus (planted with the vine), oino-
trop (vine-prop), and many others. That there is a com-
mon etymological relation between these words and oin-os
cannot be doubted; and the fact of that relation is subvers-
ive of the theory that oinos implies the idea of the 'ferment-
ing' process.
"(ii.) There are a great variety of passages in which
wine is spoken of as produced within the grape and the
cluster. Pindar describes wine as the 'child of the vine'
(ampelou pais). Eschylus ('Agam.,' 970) describes Zeus
as bringing wine (oinon) from the green grape,' which F.
A. Paley (in his admirable edition of that poet) notices as
an allusion to the divine action in bringing the grape-juice
to maturity at the vintage.
((
Euripides ('Phoenix,' 230) refers to a particular vine
which distilled 'daily nectar-a fruitful cluster;' and the
learned editor illustrates this by the tradition that a cluster
of this vine ripened every day, and supplied the daily liba-
tion of wine for Bacchus.
"Anacreon (Ode 49) speaks of the oinos as 'offspring of
470 A REPLY TO “THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
the vine' (gonon ampelou), and as 'imprisoned (pepedeemenon)
in fruit upon the branches;' and he sings (Ode 51) of the
treaders 'letting loose the wine'-where the poetical
imagery refers not, as some one has said, to the grape-juice
as only figuratively wine, but to literal wine, as first impris-
oned, and then gaining its freedom; else the whole beauty
of the figure disappears.
"Nonnos, in his 'Bacchanal Songs,' refers (xii. 42) to
the grape bunch (botrus) as the wine producer (oinotokon);
and he describes the vineyard as flushing with the wine to
which it thus gives birth.
"(iii.) The juice of the grape at the time of pressure
is distinctly denominated oinos.
"Papias, a Christian bishop who lived at the close of the
apostolic age, relates an extravagant current prediction of
a time when the vine should grow to a wondrous size; and
each grape should yield, when pressed, twenty-five meas-
ures of wine—OINON.
66
Proclus, the Platonist philosopher, who lived in the fifth
century, and annotated the 'Works and Days' of Hesiod,
has a note on line 611, the purport of which is to explain
that after the grape bunches have been exposed ten days
to the sun, and then kept ten days in the shade, the third
process was to tread them and squeeze out the WINE-kai
triton outos epitoun ekthlibontes ton oinon.”—Temperance Bible
Commentary.
*
So it will be seen that because the wine of Cana was
called oinos, there is not the slightest ground for assuming
that it was necessarily, and on that account, fermented wine.
Messrs. Lees and Burns continue: "And when men have
well drunk (kai hotan methusthosi.) * the authorized
English version is opposed to the assumption that methuo
and methusko necessarily signify drinking in the sense of
intoxication. The governor did not refer to the inebriating
effect, but to the large quantity consumed, and this is the
primary signification of the word:
THE WINE OF CANA.
471
"The nature of the miracle is unfolded in the state-
ment that the 'water became wine '—had acquired all the
sensible properties of wine, and, according to the governor's
decision, wine of the best kind. The process of the miracle
is not explained, for it is not explicable. That the water
became alcoholic wine is an assumption which opponents of
the temperance movement have first made, and have then
put forward as an objection! 'It was wine,' they say, ‘and
that is enough for us.' But if it is enough that wine was
created, their objection evaporates at once; for unless they
can show that fermentation is essential to the nature of
wine, they have no right to assume that, besides making the
water wine, the Lord also made it wine such as they are
enamored with. That it was 'good wine,' the very best
that could be provided, is also true, but the taste of English
wine-drinkers is no standard of the taste of a Jewish archi-
triklinos, Anno Domini 30.
"The burden of proof here rests with the advocates of
alcoholic wine; and it is impossible that the slightest shadow
of proof can be advanced in behalf of their hypothesis.
Those who uphold it, generally consider that the whole of
the water was transformed into wine, but is it credible that
120 gallons of intoxicating liquor should have been pro-
vided by Christ for one wedding party, and at the end of
the drinking? What Christian would do so now? The
statement of the governor as to persons having 'well drunk'
was a general reference, and had no special application to
that particular company; yet it is highly probable that the
guests then assembled had already freely partaken of such
wine as had been provided. The case for alcoholic wine
therefore, requires it to be assumed that, in addition to a
considerable quantity of such wine before consumed, the
Lord miraculously produced a much larger quantity for the
use of the men and women collected together! But (1) this
assumption is wholly without proof; and (2) it involves a
reflection upon the wisdom of the Son of God, which ought
472 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
to insure its rejection by every reverential mind. Restrict-
ing attention, however, for the present to the contents of
the cup placed before the governor of the feast, there are
many strong reasons for rejecting the opinion that it con-
tained fermented wine.
"1. The process of fermentation is one of decay, and it
is not probable that it would have been imitated, or its
results realized, by the fiat of the Saviour. In all fermenta-
tive action, vital growth is arrested, organized matter is
disintegrated, and a retrogression ensues.
It is a passage
from more complex to more elementary form-in fact, from
diet to dirt. To produce pure grape-juice, the unfermented
fruit of the vine, would, if possible to man, be a closer
imitation of the creative plan of Providence than calling a
derivative substance into existence. It is by the growth of
food that God blesses the world; and though decay is tribu-
tary to future growth, it is in and by the growth that we dis-
cern the goodness, and glory, and purpose of His power.
The end and adaption of food is to condense power-the
power with which we live, and see, and think—by which we
realize the Divine works and glory. The whole meaning
of our Lord's metaphor, 'I am the vine and ye are the
branches,' rests on this physiological fact. If the water of life
was first made into that precious juice the blood of the vine,
and then transformed into alcohol, the Son did exactly the
contrary of that which the Father doeth in each season,
when He 'bringeth forth food out of the earth, wine that
maketh glad the heart of man.' But if Jesus did on this
occasion that which was creatively highest and best, he did
not produce a fermented and intoxicating drink.
"2. It is against the principle of scriptural and moral
analogy to suppose that the Saviour exerted His supernatural
energy to bring into being a kind of wine which had been con-
demned by Solomon and the prophets as 'a mocker' and
'defrauder,' and which the Holy Spirit had selected as an
emblem of the wrath of the Almighty.
THE WINE OF CANA.
473
3. A most beautiful and satisfactory hypothesis has
been conceived which obviates all resort to the theory of a
direct creation of alcoholic wine. It is that in the cup the
Lord repeated, but with supernatural rapidity, that mar-
velous conversion of water into 'the pure blood of the
grape' which takes place annually within the berries of the
growing vine. St. Augustine was one of the first, if not
the first, of the Christian fathers who propounded this
hypothesis, saying (in his Tractus 8, Evang. Joannis), 'For
He on that marriage day made wine in the six jars which
He ordered to be filled with water-He who now makes it
every year in the vines. For as what the servants had
poured into the water-jars was turned into wine by the
power of the Lord, so also that which the clouds pour forth
is turned into wine by the power of the self-same Lord.
But we cease to wonder at what is done every year; its
very frequency makes astonishment to fail.' So Chrysos-
tom (Homily 22 on John), Now indeed making plain that
it is He who changes into wine the water in the vines and
the rain drawn up by the roots, He produced instantly at
the wedding feast that which is formed in the plant during
a long course of time.'
Dr. Norman Kerr says, truly: "There is now no doubt as to
the poisonous influence of alcohol. All authorities on toxicol-
ogy agree on this, and the highest anti-abstaining authorities
on viniculture, the friends, defenders, and improvers of wine
manufacture (Drs. Thudicum and Dupré) admit that ‘alco-
hol is poisonous even in small doses.' We know that it is,
practically, the same alcohol which is the attraction of all
intoxicating drinks, for the soothing, anesthetic influence
of which all such drinks are taken; and we also know that
the alcohol in beer, wines, and spirits is not changed in
character and effects by the particular form in which it may
be presented. (We have not found a single physical or
chemical property possessed by wine which is not in per-
fect harmony with the assumption that it contains the alco-
474
A REPLY TÔ “THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
hol as a simple admixture, and not in any sort of combina-
tion.' Thud. and Dupré, p. 159).
"Therefore, it is patent that all alcoholic beverages are
simply mixtures of poison and water, the melancholy proof
of this being found everywhere in mental eclipse, increased
disease, and shortened life.-('I know that alcohol is a most
deleterious poison,' Sir William Gull, Evidence before Lords'
Committee.)
"This being the plain verdict of science and experience,
can we entertain the thought that the Saviour of mankind,
who gave His life to benefit man, would make and offer to
any human being even the smallest quantity of that which
is a poison to both body and brain? The very supposition
is monstrous, and the slander, if blasphemy be not the ap-
propriate term, is as groundless as it is gratuitous, as un-
just as it is ungenerous."
In regard to the "utter falsity" of the present writer's
quotation concerning the customs of the Jews, the state-
ment was not his own, but of one who would hardly in the
city of New York be accused of uttering an "utter falsity,"
and yet "The Academy" do not hesitate to represent the
statement, which was credited to him in our work on "The
Wine Question" as utterly false. What are we, as New
Churchmen, to think of such language as is used by "The
New Church Academy," or rather what are we to think of
an Academy which uses such language? The following is
the statement as it appears in our book. In it Dr. Isaacs
probably refers simply to the orthodox Jews:
Dr. S. M. Isaacs, an eminent Jewish rabbi of this city, says:
"In the Holy Land they do not commonly use fermented
wines. The best wines are preserved sweet and unfer-
mented." In reference to their customs, at their religious
festivals, he repeatedly and emphatically says: "The Jews
do not, in their feast for sacred purposes, including the mar-
riage feast, ever use any kind of fermented drinks. In
their oblations and libations, both private and public, they
THE WINE OF CANA.
475
employ the fruit of the vine-that is fresh grapes—unfer-
mented grape juice, and raisins, as the symbol of benedic-
tion. Fermentation is to them always a symbol of corrup-
tion, as in nature and science it is itself decay, rottenness."
-Bible Wines.
In concluding what we have to say upon this subject, we
think we may safely affirm that it is impossible for any intel
ligent, unbiassed New Churchman who examines this sub.
ject carefully, to believe that the wine of Cana was leavened
wine; because we know that leaven was not created directly
by the Lord, but that it receives its life from hell, and re-
sults from the perversion of truth and good by man; there
fore we can but see that it would have been contrary to
Divine order if he had created a leavened or fermented
wine.
A respected correspondent says truly:
"Would the Lord start the fermenting or decomposing
process in the water and then arrest it, as must be done in
making fermented wine? His mission was not of that
kind; it was always to restore. He was none of those
physicians who first make sick to effect a cure. And would
He, after "men have well drunk," provide that of which
the effect on men is so universally condemned in the
Word?"
We repeat that which cannot too often be repeated at
this day, that the good wine of the Word and of the
Writings is never a leavened wine; but the pure unfer-
mented juice of the grape as it flows from grapes, and also
as it is preserved from fermentation by some one of the
processes alluded to elsewhere in this and in our former
work.
*
CHAPTER X.
FERMENTATION, AND EXPERIMENTS IN PRESERVING UNFER-
MENTED WINE.
WE have had occasion repeatedly in this reply, as be-
fore in our work on "The Wine Question," to speak of the
change that ferment makes in the juice of the grape, or
new wine, changing or destroying the sugar, albumen and
other nutritious substances that are so pleasant to the taste
and so healthful to the body of man and substituting in their
place the intoxicating and poisonous spirit, alcohol. As
the correctness of our representation has been questioned,
we think it well to furnish the reader with such information
as will show him the difference in the processes by which
fermented wines are manufactured, and unfermented wines
are preserved, and to this end we propose to present for his
consideration, on the one hand, extracts from standard
works showing the cause of fermentation and the action of
ferments; and on the other, the result of experiments in
the preservation of unfermented wine by the writer himself,
as well as some of those communicated to him by others.
"It has been definitely established that the spores of
yeast are universally diffused through the air, and that so
soon as they meet with a solution containing the nutriment
necessary for their development, yeast cells are produced,
and fermentation sets in. If air be excluded from grape-
juice or any saccharine solution, no fermentation takes
place. Fresh grape-juice may be kept for years at a tem-
perature of 68° Fahr. without undergoing any change, pro-
vided it never comes in contact with the atmosphere; or if
air has been heated to redness, it may remain in contact
with a saccharine liquor for an indefinite time without pro-
476
CONDITIONS FOR FERMENTATION.
477
ducing fermentation. But as Pasteur has shown, the motes
in the air can be collected in cotton or asbestos placed in a
tube through which air has been drawn: and a piece of this
cotton or asbestos placed in a sugar solution which has been
well boiled, and cooled again, but which contains the min-
eral and albumenoidal constituents of yeast, develops fer-
mentation. Sugar solutions containing the same yeast con-
stituents, but without this air dust, undergo no alteration,
neither do those in which cotton or asbestos alone is intro-
duced. The same liquid remains unaltered if it has been
boiled in a glass flask, the neck of which is so bent that
dust cannot fall into it, the flask being afterwards left in-
closed. Moreover, it is essential that the yeast be in direct
contact with the sugar solution. A solution of sugar con-
tained in a bladder, suspended within a fermenting liquid
does not ferment, but merely takes up alcohol by diffusion."
("Encyclopædia of Chemistry," Vol. I., 1877.)
Pasteur says: "Albuminous bodies are never the fer-
ments, but the aliment of the ferments," "the true fer-
ments are living organisms."
"The sugar, whether fruit or grape sugar, left undecom-
posed at the end of fermentation in pure natural wines,
rarely amounts to more than 0.5 per cent. (½ of 1 per
cent.) being generally much less. Even this small quan-
tity is found in young wines only, and disappears as the
wine becomes aged. In fortified wines, to which alcohol
has been added to prevent secondary fermentation, and
concentrated must or the must from passulated grapes pre-
served with alcohol (Spanish dulce,' Portuguese 'jeropiga'),
or which are themselves made from raisins, whether like
Tokay with must only, and without alcohol, or like Tintilla
de Rota with boiled must, but without alcohol (arrope),
or like the liqueur wines with alcohol only, the sugar
ranges from 2 or 3 per cent. to upwards of 20 per cent.'
(Lippincott & Co.'s "Encyclopædia of Chemistry,” Vol. II.,
1879.)
478 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
Payen states that an increase of yeast takes place in fer-
mentation when the liquid, in addition to sugar, contains a
nitrogenous substance. When, on the contrary, yeast is
left in contact with a pure solution of sugar, it diminishes
both in weight and fermenting power, and finally becomes
totally inactive. It lacks other nutritious substances, as
would man were he to attempt to live on sugar alone.
Pasteur mixed yeast with a saccharine solution and albu-
minoidal substances, and exposed the whole to the air in
shallow vessels. He found that a quick and active increase
of the yeast cells took place, but that only 6 or 8 parts of
sugar were decomposed for each I part of the newly-
formed yeast. When, however, a similar mixture was made,
and the air excluded, the yeast decomposed about 100 times
its weight of sugar, but the yeast grew and multiplied very
slowly.
It appears from the experiments of Minend that the
quantity of yeast must bear a definite proportion to that of
sugar; if the sugar is in excess, part of it remains undecom-
posed, or merely undergoes a very slow after-fermentation,
often continuing for years. If, after all the sugar is decom-
posed, the fermented liquor still contains nitrogenous mat-
ter not wholly converted into yeast, putrefaction may
ensue if it is not prevented by the presence of a sufficient
quantity of alcohol, or by some other means.
For several of the above items the writer is indebted to
an article on Fermentation by Prof. C. F. Chandler, in
"Johnson's Cyclopædia," Vol. II.
The reader will see from the above that our fermented
wine is really in most instances nothing but a fermenting
wine; and if the fermenting process is not restrained by
strong casks and bottles, or other means, fermentation
never entirely ceases until entire decomposition has resulted.
It does seem so strange that any intelligent New Church-
man should claim that such a wine in which the sugar,
which corresponds to spiritual delights, is nearly or quite all
GRAPE SKINS AND FERMENTATION.
479
Please
destroyed, is suitable for use as a communion wine.
remember that all fermented wines contain alcohol, vinegar,
glycerine, succinic acid and fusel oil, substances never
found in the unfermented juice of the grape, and that such
wines will all cause drunkenness, which is never caused by
unfermented wines.
Mr. Adolph Reihlen, of Stuttgart, Germany, claims re-
cently to have discovered that the substance in which the
fermentation commences is contained in cells in the skin,
and that the germs and cells of leaven are not so dependent
on the albuminous portion of the wine for their nourish-
ment as has been heretofore supposed.
"Professor Roesler proved, by eight very interesting ex-
periments, that although the powerful matter contained in
the grape-skins generated the material which furnished
nutriment for the fermentation fungi, yet this substance,
without the presence of grape-skins, is separated into inte-
grant particles, and in this condition was not favorable to
the process of fermentation. [As fermentation ordinarily
takes place in must when it is separated from the skins, if
the above theory is correct, it can only commence in the
contents of the cells which are diffused through the must,
owing to the cells being broken in crushing and pressing
the grapes.-E.]
"In confirmation of these observations, the last experiment.
of Roesler demonstrated the fact that 'wine-must,' without
the presence of grape-skins remained entirely unfermented,
and after standing two days was covered with mould, al-
though the yeast was left in condition for free action.
[It would seem that this could only occur in case the must
was so carefully drawn off from the grape as not to get
mixed with any of the contents of the cells, which the dis-
coverer claims contains the nutriment required by the
germs and cells of leaven for their development and
growth.-E.] Even when the same fluid was boiled with
prepared skins under a cotton cover it remained, as was
480 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
expected, perfectly clear, but fermentation did not take
place; whereas the first must,' with prepared skins but
without cotton cover, up to two and eight-tenths per cent.
extract attained perfect fermentation.
"Prepared grape-şkins can be kept and used at any time
during a period of one to four years.
"Tests by this method have shown that grape-skins, young
or old, constitute the prolific field or basis upon which the
fermenting fungus grows and thrives, and have proved to
be nearly as effective as fresh ones. It has also been
demonstrated that diseased or damaged old wines can be
readily brought to a second fermentation, and restored at
pleasure without injuring their quality as old wines."
Extracts from a report by J. S. Potter, Consul, United
States Consulate, Crefeld, December 6, 1881.
Some of the passages in the above report are not alto-
gether clear, and what dependence is to be placed upon
it as a whole the writer is not prepared to say; but there
are statements in it worthy of consideration by those who
desire to preserve unfermented wines, such as boiling must
under simply a cotton cover and this cover preventing
fermentation afterwards. It can only do this by protecting
the fluid from the germs of ferment floating in the atmos-
phere.
The germs of ferment come from the atmosphere, and
lodge on the grapes and grape stems, also on presses, ves-
sels, utensils, hands etc., with which the grapes and their
juice come in contact during the manufacture of wine;
and it much more frequently happens that fermenta-
tion in the juice is caused by germs of ferment from the
above sources than it is by germs directly from the atmos-
phere. Pasteur found, by his experiments, that the germs
of ferment on the stems of grapes lost their power to cause
fermentation by the month of April, which he thinks "tends
to prove that the ferment can only appear about the time
when grapes attain maturity and that it disappears during
THE GERMS OF FERMENT FROM THE ATMOSPHERE. 481
the Winter, not to reappear before the end of the following
Summer."
Grapes and other fruits exposed to the air absorb oxygen
and give off carbonic acid gas, but Pasteur has shown by
his experiments that if we immerse unblemished grapes in
carbonic acid gas where they can absorb no oxygen, a
process analogous to fermentation takes place and alcohol
is produced without the aid of either the cells or germs of
ferment. He accounts for this by supposing that the vital
action of the cells in the fruit does not cease immediately
on immersing the fruit in the carbonic acid gas; conse-
quently, as oxygen cannot be obtained from the air to
sustain their vitality they act on the sugar in the grapes and
decompose it as do the cells of ferment; thus giving rise to
the formation of alcohol, by a process somewhat similar to
that which seems to take place in the human body when
alcohol is found in the blood of one who never drinks it.
Crush the grapes and thus destroy the vitality of the cells
of the fruit and no such result follows. Alcohol when thus
produced in the fruit, as when produced by leaven, is strictly
an effete substance, resulting from the decomposition of
sugar by living organic cells.
It is beyond question that the germs of ferment at cer-
tain seasons of the year are disseminated everywhere through
the atmosphere and lodge upon grapes and their stems, and
as soon as they find a liquid affording food and suitable
conditions for their development, they appropriate it and
fermentation soon begins. If we were able to exclude these
germs from the newly pressed wine, fermentation could
never set in. But they have already entered the pressed
juice during the process of pressing, and unless their ac-
tion is checked they will in a short time begin their work
of destruction. If the wine is closely corked or sealed,
and kept at a temperature below 42° Fahr., conditions
are wanting necessary for the development of the germs,
and they remain inactive until the wine is brought to a
482 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
higher temperature or exposed to the air. These germs,
however, may be destroyed by heating the wine to 200°
Fahr. and keeping it at that temperature for a few hours,
or by boiling the wine for a short time, after which it
will not ferment in any temperature until, by exposure
to the atmosphere, other germs have been allowed to
enter it. The vapor of sulphur, if carefully and persist-
ently applied, either destroys the germs of ferment in wine,
or so changes the substance in which they develop, that
they are rendered innocuous and incapable of propagation.
Wine producers use this process to arrest fermentation
when it has progressed as far as they think expedient.
The reader will now understand clearly that the cause of
ferment in wine is not from anything organized in the grape
or juice of the grape, but from the introduction and action
of foreign living organisms which appropriate, feed upon,
and change the nutritious and health-giving substances pro-
duced by the vine; and leave in their stead (as the results
largely of their own decomposition), the alcohol and other
substances which form fermented wine.
With these facts in his mind, the reader is presented with
an account of the result of a number of experiments made
by the writer and others in preserving the juice of the grape
unfermented; that he may contrast the result of this pre-
servative process with that of the destructive one of which
he has just been reading.
In October, 1881, the writer pressed the juice from Con-
cord grapes and strained it carefully. He filled a bottle up
to the neck with this juice and poured olive oil upon the
surface to the depth of nearly half an inch, then he simply
twisted in with his fingers a good cork which came within
about half an inch of the oil, and stood the bottle on his
dining-room mantel, at a temperature favorable for fermen-
tation. The bottle remained in this place until spring. Al-
though he frequently examined it he saw no signs of fer-
mentation, until, after removing the cork several times to
THE WRITER'S EXPERIMENTS.
483
smell of it, he began to notice a few bubbles of gas coming
from lees at the bottom up to the surface through the oil
when the cork was out. This action ceased when the cork
was returned. In one instance he found the cork pressed
out and it may have been out some hours. But there was
at no time anything like active fermentation, such as oc-
curred in other bottles treated differently. At the end of
thirteen months the writer, assisted by Mr. W. J. Parsons,
drew with a siphon a portion of the wine into a retort and
distilled about one-third of the quantity put into the re-
tort. In the distillate we could detect no alcohol either by
the smell or taste, yet on testing it chemically we detected
a trace of alcohol. There was no perceptible amount of
yeast in the bottom of the bottle, as in bottles where active
fermentation had taken place, but the lees were light and
flocculent like those in unfermented wine.
In October, 1882, the writer mashed and pressed enough
Catawba grapes to obtain juice sufficient to fill two pint
bottles and two smaller ones. He strained the juice through
four thicknesses of linen towelling, and filled four bottles,
first scalding and oiling the inside of the bottles. He then
poured olive oil upon the surface of the wine in all the
bottles to the depth of about half an inch. Three of the
bottles he left open exposed to the air, but into one of the
pint bottles he pressed and twisted with his thumb and fin-
gers a good cork. The bottles were all allowed to stand in
a temperature favorable for fermentation. In a few days
all the bottles left uncorked commenced fermenting. The
fermentation progressed rapidly, with a free discharge of
carbonic acid gas through the wine and oil from the lees at
the bottom of the bottle. The gas frequently buoyed up por-
tions of albuminous matter to the under surface of the oil,
where the gas would separate from them and they would
fall again to the bottom of the bottle. This process con-
tiuued until the lees, from being nearly the color of the
wine and light and flocculent, became white and dense, as in
484
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
the bottles exposed to the air without oil. At the end of two
months Mr. Parsons and the writer distilled portions of the
wine from those bottles and obtained alcohol.
tillate was also decidedly acid.
The dis-
The sample of wine which had been carefully corked was
allowed to stand for two months in the same atmosphere
with the bottles which fermented, but without the slightest
sign of fermenting; the lees remaining light, flocculent and
unchanged, and although frequently examined not a bubble
of gas was ever seen to ascend. The wine was beautiful
and clear, being perfectly transparent; and as it had stood
for two months after the time of harvest without any signs
of fermentation, the writer is not able to see any reason
why it might not have stood two years, if it had been left
quietly on the shelf. But he rolled the bottle in a paper
and carried it from the banks of the Hudson, in New
Jersey, to his residence in New York; and stood it in his
library. In the transit it was so shaken up that the lees
were diffused through the wine, which thereby lost its clear-
ness. In two or three days bubbles of gas were seen as-
cending through the liquid; and these increased in quan-
tity until at length the cork was forced out, and the wine
fermented rapidly. We think the experiments described
above, together with the one described by Dr. Sampson in
his work, show clearly that, with suitable care, wine can be
preserved unfermented by the above method. Please re-
member, in trying this experiment, to filter the must care-
fully; scald out your bottles, cork them carefully, and let
them stand quietly in a cool place.
- We would suggest to those who may desire to repeat
this experiment of preserving wine by the above method,
that the ancients oiled their earthen vessels inside before
filling them; and it is well to follow their example, even
with glass bottles, in order to insure the destruction of any
germs of ferment which are quite likely to be in the bottles,
unless carefully rinsed out with boiling water for a minutę
ANCIENT PRESERVATION OF UNFERMENTED WINE. 485
or two. The ancients carefully filtered their must before
putting it into their vessels, and after filling the latter they
either tied over them pieces of skin, or corked them and
sealed the cork with pitch. Thus protected the vessels were
set away in a cellar, or in as cool a place as practicable, as
has been customary in all ages. It is, as we have seen
above, absolutely essential that the bottles should be care-
fully corked, so as to exclude the atmosphere; and then the
small quantity of air between the coating of oil and the
lower end of the cork seems to be harmless.
PRESERVING WINE FROM FERMENTING BY KEEPING IT COOL.
This method of preserving wine unfermented was de-
scribed by Cato, B.C. 200, by Columella, contemporary with
the Apostles, and by Pliny. It is thus described by Pliny:
"They plunge the casks, immediately after they are filled
from the vat, into water, until winter has passed away, and
the wine has acquired the habit of being cold."
Cato says: "If you wish to have must all the year, put
the grape-juice in a flask (amphora), seal over the cork
with pitch, and lower it into the cistern (piscina). After
thirty days, take it out; it will be must all the year" (De Re
Rustica,' c. 120).
Columella says: "That must may remain always sweet,
as if it were fresh, thus do: before the grape-skins have
been put under the press, put must, the freshest possible
from the wine-vat, into a new flask, and seal and pitch it
over carefully, so that no water can get in. Then sink the
flask in cold, sweet water, so that no part of it shall be un-
covered. Then, again, after the fortieth day take it out;
and thus prepared, it will remain sweet throughout the
year."-Divine Law as to Wines.
Smith, in his "Greek and Roman Antiquities," says:
"When it was desired to preserve a quantity in the sweet
state, an amphora was taken and coated with pitch within
and without; it was filled with mustum lixivium, and corked
486
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
so as to be perfectly air-tight. It was then immersed in a
tank of cold, fresh water, or buried in wet sand, and allowed
to remain for six weeks or two months. The contents, after
this process, were found to remain unchanged for a year."
In October, 1882, following the directions of the above
ancient writers, we pressed some Concord grapes and took
the sweetest of the juice, or that which ran first without
heavy pressure, and strained it through a linen cloth. We
then took new pint beer-bottles, having a rubber cork and
wire spring to hold the cork in position, and scalded them
out with boiling water. Having filled them with the must
to the brim, we turned the cork and pressed down the
spring so as to force the cork into the liquid, thus leaving
no air, or as little as possible, on the surface of the liquid.
Four of these bottles we suspended by strings in a well and
beneath the surface of the water; two of them we hung in
a press-room, where by the aid of an ice-machine the tem-
perature ranges from 38° to 45° Fahr.-42° being the
intended temperature.
Two months after the bottles had been suspended in the
well, in company with Mr. J. B. Wayne of Detroit, we drew
up one of the bottles from the well. The wine was beauti-
ful, clear and perfectly transparent, with a large amount of
light flocculent lees, nearly the color of the wine, resting on
the bottom of the bottle. We removed the cork, and there
was not the slightest sign of fermentation. Between us we
drank about one half of the contents of the bottle, and
were delighted with it. In the estimation of the writer, no
fermented wine ever compared with it in aroma and taste.
We returned the cork to the bottle and the latter to the
well. At the end of three months and a half from the time
the bottles were first placed in the well the writer took a
second bottle, and also the one from which we had drank a
few weeks previously, from the well and carried them to his
residence in New York, where, in company with Mr. W. J.
Parsons he reopened the partly emptied bottle. A rapid
EXPERIMENTS IN PRESERVING WINE UNFERMENTED. 487
effervescence ensued, showing that a slow fermentation had
been progressing after the admission of air into the half-
filled bottle, notwithstanding it had been kept in the cool
water in the well. The full bottle, on being uncorked, pre-
sented not the slightest trace of fermentation; not a single
bubble of gas could be seen ascending through the wine,
and there was no pressure on the cork. The lees, as they
always are in unfermented wines, were light, flocculent and
floated readily in the wine as the bottle was moved; they
were composed principally of albumen and other substan-
ces which, as they exist in the wine, are but a trifle heavier
than the liquid portions. These lees are among the most
nutritious and valuable portions of the wine and may be
drank with it. These are the good lees of the Word and
the Writings, of which Swedenborg says: "By lees and
lees refined are signified truths from that good with felicity
thence derived"-(A. E. 1159).
There is therefore no occasion, except for the sake of
transparency, to draw the wine off from the lees, as the latter
all come from the grapes and are a most valuable part of
the wine and may be drank with it, or allowed to remain in
the bottom of the bottle.
Contrary to what the writer supposed at the time he
wrote the work on "The Wine Question," his experiments
have shown him that we cannot draw off a portion of a
full vessel and thus expose the wine drawn off and that re-
maining in the vessel to the action of the air without caus-
ing fermentation within a few days. The reader will please
bear this in mind. Of the four bottles which he suspended
in his well the two of which he has not given an account
were suspended by small strings which decayed, and the
bottles are supposed to be at the bottom of the well, where
he will leave them until the water is lower in the Spring or
Summer. Of the two bottles placed in the cold room, he
brought one into his office after it had been in the cold
room about two months, intending to take it to his home;
488
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S” REVIEW.
but after standing in the warm office for a few hours it
burst, simply from the expansion of the liquid: there were
no signs of fermentation in it. The reader will remember
that he filled these bottles up to the brim and pressed the
rubber cork directly into the fluid with the wire spring,
therefore there was no room for the expansion of the liquid
when it was placed in a temperature above that of the wine
when the bottle was filled. If the wine were bottled while
warmed to a higher temperature than any it would be after-
wards placed in, the danger of bursting bottles by expansion
would be obviated, however tightly the corks might press
on the wine, unless it breaks at once by the force of the
pressure. He would suggest raising the temperature of
the juice to, say, 120° Fahr. before filling the bottles,
which would not change or impair the flavor or quality of
the wine.
The other bottle in his cold room, corked with a rubber
cork and spring, on the day that the bottle burst in his
office the writer uncorked, there was no sign of fermenta-
tion. He poured from the bottle enough of the wine to
leave half an inch of space between the cork and liquid, and
replaced the cork. It is now about two months since he
uncorked the bottle for the purpose named. A little speck
of mould shows upon the surface of the liquid, and he will
open the bottle in the cold air of the room and let the
reader know if there are any signs of fermentation.
In the month of February he examined this bottle again;
there were no bubbles of gas ascending and none upon the
surface of the wine, but on removing the cork very soon
bubbles began to ascend to the surface, only a compara-
tively few of them, nothing approaching the rapid effer-
vescence which ensued when he uncorked the half-full bottle
from the well. These experiments show that the cold of
the room and the well, if there is an admission of air, is not
sufficient to entirely prevent a slow fermentation. But
when there is no air upon the surface of the liquid, the
PRESERVING WINE UNFERMENTED.
489
pressure of the cork, the cool air of the above room and
the cold water in the well, were sufficient to prevent the
development of the germs of ferment, for in no instance
has he seen any bubbles or signs of fermentation on first
opening the bottles, or on uncorking them for the first time.
He suspended also several small bottles and one quart
bottle in the cold room, simply carefully corked with good
corks, which he has removed at various times; and none of
the contents on being uncorked have shown any signs of
fermentation. From the quart bottle he filled small bottles
and gave to his friends. Whenever the contents of these
bottles or any portion of them were preserved for a few
days they commenced fermenting. The reader should un-
derstand that wine preserved by either of the two methods.
described above when uncorked and exposed to the air is
likely to ferment at any season of the year, for it is quite
sure to contain more or less germs of ferment; therefore
it should either be used soon after opening, or else scalded
upon the slightest appearance of fermentation.
PRESERVING UNFERMENTED WINE BY BOILING.
The writer preserved several bottles of wine by boiling
the must down one-fourth, leaving three-fourths the original
quantity. He intended to reduce the quantity only one-
fifth, in accordance with what we are told was extensively
the ancient custom. None of these bottles has shown the
slightest tendency to ferment, nor can they do this until air
is admitted, and not then unless the germs of ferment also
enter with it.
At boiling point, with exclusion of air.—If unfermented
grape-juice be enclosed in an air-tight vessel and heated in
boiling water, fermentation will be rendered impossible
(Gmelin, Chem. by Watts, vii. 100; Watts, ii. 625). Wine,
must, boiled and enclosed in a bladder does not ferment even
if suspended in fermenting must (Helmholtz, xxx. 434:
Watts, ii. 625; Gmelin, xv. 266).
490 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
No more care is required for preserving wine by this
process than is required to preserve fruits. It is neither
necessary to boil the juice away perceptibly nor to boil it
long enough to change its flavor. You can fill your bottles
to the brim with the grape-juice, and stand them in a ket-
tle of cold or moderately warm water. Let it stand on
the fire until the water reaches the boiling point, and retain
it at a boiling temperature for a time, as is often done
with peaches and other fruit; or you may carefully scald
out your bottles, boil your grape-juice for a few minutes,
and then fill your bottles full and cork them, first scalding
the lower ends of your corks. Press your corks right into
the liquid, and as it cools crowd them in as far as possible,
and seal them with sealing wax or pitch; and if your corks
are tight, vinous fermentation can never ensue. By heating
the wine or grape-juice to the boiling point and retaining it
there for perhaps five minutes, you have effectually destroyed
all the germs of ferment; and without them fermentation
cannot take place.
The spores of mould are not destroyed by the tempera-
ture of boiling water, consequently, if there is any air left
between your cork or cover and the wine, you may some-
times notice upon the surface of your wine a little mould such
as is sometimes noticed on canned fruit, or on preserves that
have not begun to "work," but this will not contaminate your
wine, and you will not often find it present, and when you
do, you have only to remove it and use the wine.
If wine is to be preserved by boiling in casks, the casks
should first be carefully scalded with boiling water in quan-
tity sufficient to destroy all germs of ferment, or by steam,
and the grape-juice should be poured in boiling hot, and
the cask carefully bunged while hot, first scalding the bung.
Boiling has in all ages unquestionably been one of the
measures most frequently resorted to for the preservation
of pure wine, and in the estimation of the writer it is one
of the best, as it has some advantages over most other
PRESERVING WINE UNFERMENTED.
491
methods. An important one is that the germs of ferment
in the wine are actually destroyed, so that if uncorked at
seasons of the year when there are few or no germs of fer-
ment in the air, it should keep much longer without fer-
menting than when kept by other methods, excepting the
method named by Dr. Foote on a following page, and per-
haps the one by sulphurization. As the writer has not ex-
perimented with this last method he is not able to speak
from experience, though he has confidence in its efficacy.
PRESERVATION OF UNFERMENTED WINE BY SUL-
PHURIZATION.
Chemists, as we have shown, tell us that sulphuriza-
tion, if fairly applied, will prevent fermentation. We
do not think, on further consideration, that there are.
any serious objections to this method, provided it is suf-
ficiently carried out, so as to actually prevent fermenta-
tion; which we are satisfied can be done if suitable care is
used. The sulphurous acid gas developed by the burning
sulphur, which has a strong, pungent smell, undoubtedly
enters into chemical combination, and is most likely precip-
itated in the lees; at all events the smell entirely disappears
from the wine, and however objectionable the lees may be
for use on this account, we do not think that there is any
objection to the wine. It is a very ancient method of pre-
serving wine, and it is frequently used at this day to stay
the progress of fermentation in fermented wine as well as to
prevent fermentation. In a preceding chapter of this reply
the reader will find this subject further discussed.
When the writer stated in his former work that the an-
cients used and the moderns use sulphurization to prevent
fermentation, and thus preserve wine unfermented, "The
Academy" accused him of representing that which is "al-
together false."
Mr. Alfred Speer, whose salesroom is at 16 Warren Street,
New York, who is a producer of native wines, and has large
492 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
vineyards near Passaic, N. J., manufactures quite exten-
sively unfermented wine from Oporto grapes, and sup-
plies it to many religious societies for communion pur-
poses. He informs the writer that he preserves it by
sulphurization, a process which "The Academy” tells us
is used to check fermentation in fermented wine after
fermentation has progressed as far as is desirable. The
reader can readily see that to object to wine preserved
from fermentation by sulphurization, and yet drink a fer-
mented wine which has had the same treatment, is to
strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. The writer is as-
sured by Mr. Speer that he uses nothing but sulphurization
to preserve his wine unfermented.
The writer obtained from Mr. Speer a bottle of his un-
fermented wine in February, 1883, and found it a very
pleasant and nutritious wine, without the slightest smell or
taste of sulphur. Mr. W. J. Parsons and the writer put a
portion of this wine into a retort, and distilled and condensed
about one-third of the contents of the retort. The distillate
had neither the smell nor taste of alcohol, nor did chemi-
cal tests indicate any trace of alcohol.
Here, then, we have an unfermented wine actually in the
market, which the writer thinks is far more palatable than
fermented wine, and is unpolluted by leaven and its vile
and poisonous excretions. Many religious societies are
using this wine, and there is no reason why the New Church
should not use it; and there is no excuse for our continuing
to use a leavened wine while there is an unfermented wine
already in the market.
PRESERVATION OF UNFERMENTED WINE BY FILTERING.
The only experiment made by the writer in preserving
wine by filtration was to filter some grape-juice through
four thicknesses of linen cloth, but it did not prevent fer-
mentation. To be successful it must evidently remove from
the juice the substance in which fermentation commences.
FILTERING TO PREVENT FERMENTATION.
493
More careful experiments alone can determine how ferment-
ation was prevented entirely or materially lessened as rep-
resented by ancient writers. That they produced one of
these results by filtration is certain. Only the want of
leisure has prevented the writer from experimenting more
thoroughly in this direction.
Pliny says: "The most useful wine has all its force or
strength broken by the filter." Repeatedly Pliny as well
as Varro speaks of this filtered wine as being a very sweet
wine, highly esteemed, and conceded to the ladies because
it could not intoxicate (lib. xiv., chap. 3). And Plutarch,
born A.D. 60, tells us that such wine neither inflames the
brain nor infests the mind and the passions, and is much
more pleasant to drink.
"The Delphin Notes to Horace,' lib. I, ode 2, makes
reference to the same mode of preventing fermentation.
'Be careful to prepare for yourself wine percolated and de-
fecated by the filter, and thus rendered sweet, and more in
accordance with nature, and a female taste.' The ancients,
it will be seen, dreaded the effects which might be devel-
oped in their children if the women also were allowed to
drink fermented wine. They evidently felt that there was
danger enough of their children inheriting a tendency to
drink from the fathers, but when the mothers also drank,
not only a tendency might be inherited, but an actual
appetite might also be acquired by nursing a drinking
mother. "The Academy" evidently have no such fears
a sad prospect.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Within the last few pages the writer has entered some-
what at length into a description of his experiments, for
two reasons. First: he desires to encourage all who grow
grapes to manufacture, or preserve, unfermented wine, in-
stead of fermented. Second: to impart useful practical in-
formation, as far as he is able, that experimenters need not
494
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
be discouraged or unnecessarily disappointed in their first
attempts at preserving unfermented wines.
A method very extensively practiced amomg the ancients,
as we have seen in the preceding pages, was to boil the
grape-juice down one-fifth and then keep it four years be-
fore drinking it. Wine prepared thus by boiling, must be
greatly improved in taste by age, otherwise they would not
have kept it so many years before using it. The juice of
the grape has not unfrequently been boiled from five parts
to one, and then when desired for use diluted with water.
An ancient custom, as we have seen in our previous work.
LETTER FROM DR. GEO. F. FOOTE, ON THE PRESERVATION
OF UNFERMENTED WINE.
Dear Doctor: It gives me pleasure to aid you in the
good work you are engaged upon by adding my experience
in regard to the successes that have attended my experiments
in the preservation of grape-juice known under the appel-
lation of must, sweet wine, new wine, unfermented wine and
more properly pure wine.
The spores that excite fermentation float about in the at-
mosphere as fine dust. These are invisible in the ordi-
nary light, but rendered luminous when the sun's rays
are admitted through a small opening into a darkened
room. In the path of these rays are seen myriads of
dust particles reflecting the light. These spores, as they
are wafted about by the currents of air, attach themselves to
the surface of grapes and their stems, and to other fruits;
ready to seize upon the contents so soon as the skin shall be
broken, or to drop into any vessel containing fermentative
matter, that is suitable food. From the surface of the grape
they are commingled with the wine as it flows from the press.
Here they grow and propagate with astonishing rapidity in
a favorable temperature.
Having these facts before me, I was led to a series of ex-
periments by which I have been enabled to destroy these
DR. GEO. F. FOOTE'S EXPERIMENTS.
495
spores upon the surface of the grapes as they are being in-
troduced into a room or rooms from which these spores have
been excluded, and in which the grinding, pressing, settling,
bottling and corking is accomplished. By this process, no
spores are introduced with the wine into the bottles, con-
sequently there can be no fermentation, and the wine re-
tains all its nutritive properties, and all the aroma of the
fresh fruit. There being no alcohol there can be no intoxi-
cation from its use.
It is suitable for communion purposes as the pure blood
of the grape. It is suitable for the sick, being easily di-
gested; while in its unfermented state it is rich in nutri-
tive properties. It is suitable as a drink for those who de-
sire a wholesome beverage, and when taken with bread it is
life sustaining, about the same as bread and milk.
From some of it with a vacuum pump I have extracted
its water, reducing its bulk one-half, three-fourths and even
five-sixths, the latter making a delicious syrup. All of these
have been kept for some four and five months in a room
where the temperature averages about 70° (Fahr.) and are
free from any signs of ferment.
It requires no stretch of the imagination or poetical li-
cense to fill the soul with delight while taking a draught of
this wine. A little may be taken at any time for the stom-
ach's sake with impunity. The nutritious properties of
grape-juice have not been eaten up and converted into car-
bonic acid and alcohol by these spores of ferment.
To one at all curious it is a matter of great interest to
watch this process of fermentation under the microscope.
With a magnifying power of 500 or 600 diameters, the yeast
globule is about the size of a very small pea. With a proper
temperature and in a suitable medium for food, as grape or
apple juice, you can see them grow. A full-sized cell will
throw out from its circumference several small buds that
enlarge and finally drop from the parent cell; and these
may often be seen to dart away as if in pursuit of other
496 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
pasturage. Finding a resting-place, they eat and grow and
soon become parent cells, and give birth to another crop.
Thus they multiply with great rapidity, and soon "the
whole lump is leavened."
These germs and cells are great gormandizers. They
consume the sugar and albuminous portions of the wine,
which they eat up apparently by absorption, and give out
apparently as excrement carbonic acid and alcohol, effete
substances, pregnant with poison, mischief and death.
In view of a scientific analysis, it is not strange that
Swedenborg should have defined the correspondence of
leaven as the falses of evil.
Yours, etc.,
GEO. F. FOOTE.
Knowing that Dr. Foote has been experimenting very ex-
tensively on the preservation of unfermented wine, the
writer requested him to furnish for this work the results of
his experiments. The above letter is the response to this
request.
The reader can readily see that if the results of Dr. Foote's
experiments can be verified on a large or working scale, it
is a very unexceptionable method of preserving unfermented
wine, for the wine is free from the germs of ferment, and
like wine, preserved by heating to the boiling temperature
in which they are destroyed, the wine will keep much more
readily without fermenting, when the bottles or casks are un-
corked during the seasons of the year when there are few
or no germs floating in the atmosphere.
LETTER FROM MR. ALBERT P. SCHACK, LICENTIATE, PATER-
SON, N. J.
Knowing that Mr. Schack experimented a year ago suc-
cessfully in preserving unfermented wine by keeping it cool
beneath the surface of water, and that he has been experi-
menting the past season, the writer requested him to favor
him with the results of his experiments for this work,
MR. ALBERT P. SCHACK'S EXPERIMENTS.
497
Dear Dr. Ellis:
Your favor of 16th is at hand and contents noted.
About October 1st, 1882, I pressed about thirty-five
pounds of Concord grapes by hand through coarse cotton
cloth in a cup of zinc 5 inches high and 4½ in diameter
(with a hole at bottom and perforated with small holes
throughout its length)—the vessel of a small press made for
grapes. The grapes were of medium size, but not over-ripe
or sweet, owing to the severe drought, and I had misgivings
as to whether all the juice would not sour at best. I boiled
the juice down in a granitized kettle about one-half, and
filled 17 pint bottles with the concentrated juice. That is,
about 1 pint came from 2 pounds. I poured it so as to com-
pletely fill each bottle, and pressed the common corks down
closely into the liquid, shaking it slightly to eliminate all the
air possible. This I did within 12 hours-a second time, fill-
ing up the bottles whose contents had decreased by cooling.
I did not filter the juice, but poured it in the bottles just
as it was after boiling, and slightly cooling.
I put all the bottles, except one, in a cool cellar, wrapped
separately in tissue paper, the paper being turned down
over the cork and tied with cord around the neck. The
one bottle I kept two or three days in a closet in my room,
when it turned to vinegar. It possibly might have been
above 75° there, but I do not know that it was. The cork
was loosely adjusted to the neck, not fitting it, and the air
had some access. Two of the bottles in the cellar burst,
and the contents ran out.
The rest I
took out at various times, commencing about the first of
December, and am now using some, that is, about five months
after making. The juice is of a ruby tint and delicious,
though not so sweet, on account of the poorer grapes used,
as that which I made last year. It is clear, and the dark-
red sediment is settled at the bottom of the bottles.
Two fermented.
On Christmas some of it was used at a social gathering
and pronounced "delicious." It moreover has a body, and
498 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
satisfies the unperverted taste. I open a bottle, and the
cork comes out without the slightest spring, as from a bottle
of water; and when a wineglassfull is poured out, not the
slightest bubbling of carbonic acid gas is seen. The wine is
thoroughly pure-the juice in its integrity, and has the true
flavor of the grape. It seems to strengthen me. I take
such a wineglassfull every day, and a bottle lasts me about
ten days, I believe. It keeps to the end without fermenta-
tion, although in one or two cases incipient fermentation
has ensued. I keep it in a cool room, corked carefully. The
two bottles which fermented I also opened and tasted, but
oh! what a difference. It was comparatively tasteless.
Scarcely a particle of grape-flavor remained. And so I did
not drink it. It seems to me that the world has made a
great mistake in dignifying such an inferior product by the
name of good wine; and that if a majority could only have
a generous drink of the cool, rich, pure juice, they would so
decide also.
I have been thinking lately that the Creator of the Uni-
verse, at Cana, would make such a product as He, Himself,
created, the pure, unperverted or undestroyed juice of the
grape.
It has also occurred to me lately with great force, that
since the grape denotes spiritual charity as the fruit of the
vine, the juice in it is the essence of that charity, and that
is spiritual truth, such as comes from a spiritual under-
standing of the Word (the vine). And it is difficult to see
how grape-juice, which already with perfect fitness repre-
sents spiritual truth, needs any transformation-the develop-
ment of any fresh substance in it, especially a deleterious
one, and a partial, if indeed we may not call it an entire, de-
struction of the grape, to make it represent it more perfectly.
With best wishes for the success of whatever is true and
good,
Respectfully yours,
ALBERT P. SCHACK,
LEAVENED WINE POISONOUS, NOT THE LEAVEN. 499
The cause of the fermentation of the wine in some of
Mr. Schack's bottles was unquestionably his opening them
when they were cool to fill them up, thus admitting air con-
taining germs of ferment. If they had been filled with
wine at the boiling temperature, the corks being also
perfect, or cut off and carefully sealed, fermentation would
have been impossible. The same care is required to pre-
serve wine by boiling or heating that is required to pre-
serve fruits and no more. It is not necessary that the bottle
should be absolutely full when the liquid has cooled.
We will close this chapter on fermentation and experi-
ments by noticing a phase of this question hitherto com-
paratively unnoticed:
A friend suggests that as we breathe an atmosphere which
is full of the germs of leaven and eat them upon the surface
of fruits, and drink them in drinking water and the juices of
fruits, there can be nothing very objectionable about them.
Nor do we suppose there is. They are evidently, when
thus taken, harmless; and the same is undoubtedly true of
the cells of leaven or yeast itself, if they could only be puri-
fied from the filthy, poisonous excretions and exhalations
which result from their vital action, as similar excretions
and exhalations result from a similar vital action in animals.
By baking our leavened dough in making bread we destroy
the life of the leaven, and drive off the excretions and ex-
halations which have resulted from its vital action—the al-
cohol, carbonic acid gas, vinegar and other acids and the
aroma so grateful to the nostrils of some-and the bread,
if not entirely harmless, is comparatively so, for it has been
purified by heat. The cells of leaven, like those of the
human body, have been organized by decomposing the or-
ganized substances found in the vegetable kingdom, the
albumen, gluten, sugar, etc. The flesh of the rat, mouse,
polecat, and even of the rattlesnake, if cleansed from the
excretions, exhalations and secretions which result from
the vital action in decomposing and changing organized
500
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
food, would be comparatively harmless, and some of the
human family use the flesh of these creatures for food with
at least comparative impunity; but they could not thus use
the excretions, secretions and exhalations which are de-
veloped by these creatures, any more than they can those
which are produced by leaven and exist in fermented wine,
without endangering health and life. So it is not the leaven-
cells which are so dangerous in the wine, but the leavened
wine, which is full of impurities from them.
It is therefore certain that if there is pre-eminently a
leavened substance on earth it is fermented wine; if there
is any uncleanness pertaining to leaven and substances
leavened it is to be found in fermented wine. It does
seem so strange that any New Churchman with a knowledge
of correspondences can for a moment advocate or justify
the use of intoxicating wine either as a beverage or for
communion purposes.
CHAPTER XI.
COMMUNION WINE AND CONCLUDING REMARKS.
“THE ACADEMY" represent in their review, and the same
idea is reiterated by an advocate of fermented wine in a
recent number of "The Morning Light," that Swedenborg
when referring to the wine of the Holy Supper invariably
uses the word vinum (wine). If this representation were
true it would be of no weight in this discussion, unless it
were also shown that whenever he uses the word vinum he
invariably has reference to fermented wine. We have con-
clusively and repeatedly shown in the preceding pages, by
the testimony of Swedenborg himself, that he, like the
most intelligent scholars of this day, distinctly includes
within this generic word the juice of grapes as it is
pressed from grapes; and unfermented must, as well as
fermented wine. Thus, if it were true, as claimed in these
journals (and we will show it is not), that Swedenborg
uses only vinum in reference to the Holy Supper, even
then the unwarrantable inference made both by
"The
Academy" and in the columns of the "Morning Light,”
shows with how little care the writers of the articles alluded
to have examined this subject.
To show the reader how far from the truth the above
representation is, the writer will make a few quotations
from the A. E. 376, where Swedenborg speaks of vinum
with especial reference to the Holy Supper. He com-
mences by giving the signification of vinum (wine), and
the reader will see what illustrations follow, all being taken
from the same number: "That wine (vinum) signifies spir-
itual good, or the good of charity and of faith, which in its
essence is truth, is evident from the following passages in
501
502
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
the Word." Then follow among others these passages:
''Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and
he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come,
buy wine (vinum) and milk without money and without
price' (Isa. lv. 1). That the wine (vinum) and milk here
mentioned, which were to be bought without money and
without price, do not signify milk and wine (vinum), but
things purely spiritual, to which they correspond, must be
obvious to every one; wherefore by wine (vinum) is signified
spiritual good, which in its essence is truth, as was said
above, and by milk the good of that truth.”
"So in Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in that day, that
the mountains shall drop down new wine (mustum), and the
hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall
flow with waters.' * * * By the mountains dropping
down new wine (mustum) is understood every genuine truth
derived from the good of love to the Lord" (III. 18). [Does
man receive any higher truth than every genuine truth
derived from the good of love to the Lord ?—E.]
* * *
"So in Amos: 'Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,
that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader
of grapes him that soweth the seed; and the mountains
shall drop sweet wine (mustum) and all the hills shall melt
(IX. 13).
By the mountains dropping sweet
wine (mustum) and the hills melting, is signified as above,
namely, that from the good of love to the Lord, and from
the good of neighborly love or charity, there should be
truth in abundance, sweet wine (mustum) denoting truth."
The original is, "mustum ibi seu vinum est verum”—“must
there or wine is truth."
“And again: 'It shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken
diligently unto my commandments which I command you
this day, to love Jehovah your God to serve Him with all
your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the
rain of your land in due season, the first rain and the latter
rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine
MUST HAS THE FULL SIGNIFICATION OF WINE. 503
* * *
(Hebrew, tïrosh—Latin, mustum-English, must), and thine
oil' (Deut. xi. 13, 14).
The things which were
said and commanded by Jehovah corresponded to things
spiritual, and consequently the blessings of the earth here
mentioned [among which the reader will notice must―E.]
correspond to the blessings of heaven,
fore by the corn, wine (mustum) and oil, which they should
gather, are signified every good and truth of the external
and internal man.”
* * *
Where-
"So in Jeremiah: Therefore they shall come and sing
in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the good-
ness of Jehovah, for wheat, and for wine (mustum), and for
oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd' (xxxi. 12).
Here by wheat, new wine (mustum) and oil, are signified
goods and truths of every kind."
Again in Isaiah: "The treaders shall tread out no wine
(vinum) in their presses' (xvi. 10). * * * It was cus-
tomary to sing in the vineyards and in the wine-presses
when the grapes were trodden into wine (vinum) on account
of the representation of the delights derived from truths,
which were signified by wine (vinum)." [Here we have the
juice of the grape as it is trodden from the grape called
wine (vinum)-E.]
Again in giving the signification of Jeremiah xlviii, 32,
Swedenborg says: "The truths of good are understood by
the vintage and by the wine (vinum) in the wine presses."
“And in Hosea: The floor and the wine-presses shall
not feed them, and new wine (mustum) shall fail in her.'
(ix. 2). By the floor and the wine-press are signified the
same as by corn and wine (vinum), because in the corn
floor and wine-press, corn and wine [In the original these
words, "corn and wine," are not repeated, but simply, these
they collected together.-E.] are collected together."
By the new wine (mustum) mourning, and the vine
languishing, is signified all the truth of the Church, to
mourn and to languish denoting deprivation" (A. E. 376).
504
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
It will be seen from the above extracts from this num-
ber (376) of the A. E. that Swedenborg gives to must in
no less than six cases or illustrations the full signification
of wine, and then he goes on to say:
"Who cannot see that the meat-offering and the drink-
offering, which were bread and wine, could not be pleasing
to Jehovah for worship, unless they had signified such things
as belong to heaven and the Church? From these consid-
erations it may now be evident what is involved in the bread
and wine used in the Holy Supper, namely, that bread in-
volves the good of love to the Lord derived from the Lord,
and wine, the good of faith which in its essence is truth.
Inasmuch as wine signifies the good of faith, which in its
essence is truth, therefore the Lord, when He instituted the
Sacrament of the Supper said: 'But I say unto you, I will
not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day
when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom' *
* * . By the fruit of the vine, or the wine (vinum), which
the Lord said he would drink new with them in the king-
dom of His Father, or when the kingdom of God should
come, is signified all divine truth in heaven and the church,
which would then proceed from His Divine Human Prin-
ciple; wherefore He calls it new, and in another place His
blood of the New Testament, the blood of the Lord signify-
ing the same as wine (vinum)" (A. E. 376).
We have in the above quotations, written with direct refer-
ence to the Holy Supper, the full signification of wine re-
peatedly given to must; and to unleavened must, too, be-
yond the possibility of a doubt; for it is must as dropping
from the mountains, must as it was gathered in, must as it
was trodden from the grapes, must in the wine-press, as the
reader will notice. Here, then, for every New Churchman,
we have the unfermented juice of the grape with the full
signification of wine for use in the Holy Supper. While
the blood of the grape may perhaps have the highest signifi-
cation possible, no pressed wine ever has a higher signifi-
MUST IS WINE.
505
cation than that given to must both in the above and in
many other passages which we have brought to the support
of our position. If there is a single passage in Swedenborg's
writings which clearly teaches that either leavening must or
leavened wine ever has a good signification, the writer has
yet to see it; and we call on the advocates for the use of
fermented wine to produce a single instance. We know
that fermentation, as we have already noticed, changes the
vitality or life of the wine totally, not only in its essential
structure and ingredients, but also in its ability to affect
man both physically and mentally. If unfermented must
has a good signification, how can fermenting must and fer-
mented wine ever have a good signification?
With, perhaps, the exception of Ahsis, which Swedenborg
translates into Latin by merum (sweet wine), there is no
word in the Bible used to designate the juice of grapes to
which Swedenborg so uniformly gives a good signification,
even the very highest-with the exception of the blood
of the grape-as he gives to the Hebrew tirosh,
which he translates into Latin by mustum, of which the
English is must. This word in a great majority of the
cases where it occurs in the Bible is translated in the Eng-
lish Bible by the word wine, and though Swedenborg trans-
lates it generally, if not always, by mustum, the translators
of his works often, as we have seen, render Swedenborg's
mustum by wine. This, with a one-sided view of Webster
and Worcester's dictionaries, seems to be what has led our
brethren of "The Academy" astray.
Must, as we have seen, is simply used to designate
newly-pressed wine, and it is wine, just as newly-pressed cider
is cider. We have seen in the preceding pages that the
juice of grapes as it drops from grapes, as it is squeezed
from grapes, as it is trodden from grapes, as it is pressed
from grapes, and
as it flows from the press,
wine; and has been called wine in Hebrew, Greek,
Latin and English; and that Swedenborg distinctly
is
506
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
recognizes it as wine, and repeatedly gives it as high a sig-
nification as he ever gives to any form of wine, excepting
it may be, as we have said, the blood of the grape, which
is simply the sweetest portion of the juice of the grape
which flows most readily when the skin is punctured or
ruptured. While must when predicated of the natural sig-
nifies natural truth, it is just as certain that when predi-
cated of the spiritual and celestial it signifies spiritual and
celestial truth, as it is that wine has such significations.
This is abundantly proved in the preceding quotations.
Here, then, we have, either as it is squeezed or pressed
from grapes, or as preserved by boiling, or by settling in
cold water, or even by sulphurization, the pure, unferment-
ed juice of the grape, the new wine for the new age and
the new church; a wine discarded by the first Christian
church as it approached its consummation. Shall we use
it as a sacramental wine, or shall we still cling to the
drunkard's cup, and thus set an example which has encour-
aged, and is encouraging many a member of the New Church
to travel the broad road which has led and will continue to
lead so many to sorrows and woes untold, and finally to a«
drunkard's grave and a drunkard's future? May the Lord
in his mercy open our eyes to see the truth, and enable us
to put this fearful evil away from our church, and the
drinking of intoxicating drinks away from our homes, is
the prayer of many a wife as she weeps over her husband
as he comes blear-eyed and besotted into her presence at
midnight; of many a mother as she spends the long hours
of night in watching for the return of her son from the
chatty, brilliant and entertaining company where "the
affections are vivified" by "the ambrosial odor of wine greet-
ing the nostrils." Who can realize the fearful anguish of
the mother as she beholds that her son's "ideas flow more
freely, the senses are more acute," through the excitement of
drink, and she realizes for the first time that he is becom-
ing a drunkard?
INTOXICATING COMMUNION WINE DANGEROUS. 507
There is no sorrow on earth equal to that which results
from a drunken husband, wife, son or daughter, for it is
life-long, and attended by unspeakable mortification and
vexation; and all this is caused by temperate drinking.
Stop this unnecessary habit and drunkenness will disappear.
A correspondent in "The Morning Light" (English
New Church periodical), in an excellent article on com-
munion wine, says:
"There are those amongst us who see so much of the
dreadful consequences of drinking, that we dare not on
our consciences do anything to maintain the dire delusion
that alcohol is not what Dr. Andrew Clark says it is, an
enemy to the human race.' We should taste in it, if we
tasted it, the tears of countless orphans; we smell in it,
when we smell it, the blood of murders without end.
To
us it is the cup of astonishment' that any thoughtful
Christian man or woman can bear to drink of it, seeing
what miseries its use is bringing everywhere upon man-
kind; and it is to us a 'cup of trembling,' lest we ourselves,
by failing to discourage its use in every possible way,
should be guilty of prolonging the popular delusions call-
ing it into being.
<
'Is it nothing to you, O Christians,
As ye sit around the board,
Where the feast is spread before you,
And the rich-hued wine is poured,
That a mighty spirit of evil
Dwells in that bright wine's flow,
That pleasure floats on the surface,
But danger is hiding below?
Is it nothing to you though that spirit
Walks to and fro through the land,
Scattering the seeds of mischief
Broadcast on every hand?
Those seeds are yielding a harvest
Of poverty, death, and woe,
Of ignorance, crime, and madness,
And you are helping to sow !'
!
508
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
"Shall we help to sow such seeds at all? Above all,
shall we help to sow them in our most solemn act of religion?
No, Mr.
We will not, we cannot do it. And if
our ministers and our church committees insist that we
shall receive from them either the intoxicating cup or none
other, I foresee that there will be some amongst us laymen
who will reluctantly be driven to administer the Holy Sup-
per in the true fruit of the vine to our neighbors and our-
selves.
H. S. SUTTON."
The writer cannot for a moment harbor the thought that
any such resort as the one intimated above will ever be neces-
sary. A little patience is all that is required, for no church
committee can long refuse to provide unfermented wine
for those who have conscientious scruples against partak-
ing of fermented wine. And it will not be long before all
the intelligent members of our societies will not only be
willing to use unfermented wine as a communion wine, but
will be anxious to do so. For a careful investigation of
this subject will satisfy every one that it is, to say the least,
taking the Word of the Lord and the Writings of the Church
as our guide, doubtful if fermented wine is ever suitable
for this purpose; whereas, on the other hand, there can be
no doubt but that the unfermented juice of the grape, new
or old, is suitable; and, as a dernier resort, we can always
take raisins, wash them carefully, soak them in hot water un-
til they are plump and full, and then mash and press them,
and we have a wine which is the fruit of the vine, and one
which has been used by the Jews from time immemorial,
and also by Christians from the days of the Apostles, so
that we can have no excuse for using a leavened wine. On
this point Dr. Lees has the following:
"As subsidiary evidence, we may cite the long-estab-
lished practice of nearly all the Christian communities of
the East, though widely separated from each other. Baron
Tavenier, in his 'Persian Travels' (1652), says of the Chris-
RAISIN WINE IN USE.
509
The
The
tians of St. John, whom he found very numerous at 'Bal-
sara' (Bassorah), 'In the eucharist they make use of meal
or flour, kneaded up with wine and oil; for, say they, the
body of Christ being composed of two principal parts, flesh
and blood, the flour and the wine do perfectly represent
them. To make their wine they take grapes dried in the
sun, which they call in their language zebibes, and, casting
water upon them, let them steep for so long a time.
same wine they use in the consecration of the cup.
Christians of St. Thomas, who were found on the coast of
Malabar, and claimed to have derived the Gospel from St.
Thomas, the apostle, celebrated the Lord's Supper in the
juice expressed from raisins 'softened one night in water,'
says Odoard Barbosa. 'They use in their sacrifices wine
prepared from dried grapes,' states Osorius ( De Rebus,'
1586). Ainsworth, in his Travels in Asia Minor' (Lon-
don, 1842), notes the administration of the sacrament
among the Nestorians, and adds, 'Raisin water supplied
the place of wine.' Tischendorf, in his narrative of visits
to the Coptic monasteries of Egypt, remarks that at the
eucharist the priest took the thick juice of the grape from
a glass with a spoon;' and Dr. Gobat (the Protestant
bishop of Jerusalem), in his Abyssinian Journal,' records
the reception of 'some bottles of grape wine [for the
Lord's Supper]. The wine is the juice of dried grapes
with water.' It is morally certain that the eucharistical
notices of some of the ancient Christian sects, who are rep-
resented as denouncing wine and rejecting it from the
Lord's Supper, are colored and perverted statements-
pointing simply to a refusal to use fermented wine in the
sacrament" (Tem. Com., p. 282).
There is no question but that the blood and juice of grapes,
flowing or pressed from the fruit, have a good significance
-indeed, the very highest. They contain in perhaps great-
er perfection those substances which are required to warm
510
A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
and nourish the human body, and hold a closer analogy to
human blood, than does the juice of any other fruit. There
is no other liquid organized by the Lord, in the vegetable
kingdom, that bears the name, or likeness, or constituents of
blood in an equal degree. In the Writings, as we have seen,
it corresponds to "every genuine truth derived from the
good of love to the Lord," and "every good and truth of
the external and internal man." "All the truth of the
Church" finds its correspondence in this "new wine."
When the Lord ordained His most Holy Supper, it was
the juice or "fruit of the vine " that He chose to symbol-
ize His blood, and to be drank henceforth in that holy or-
dinance. These truths admit of no contradiction, for they
are so plainly taught in the Word and Writings that they are
self-apparent to every New Churchman who is unbiased by
the false doctrines of the "Old Church." It is true also
that leaven, perverting and polluting everything it touches,
has in the Word and Writings unquestionably a bad cor-
respondence. It was not only prohibited from the Jewish
offerings, and from the food and drink of a Jew at the Pass-
over, but the very houses were to be cleansed from its pol-
luting presence.
With these things in our minds, we may well wonder
how it is possible for New Churchmen to insist that the
blood or juice of the grape is unfit for a Communion Wine,
until it has been overcome by leaven; and until that leaven
has destroyed or cast down in whole or in part, the essen-
tial nourishing ingredients of the wine; and, by filling it
with alcohol, has converted it into an intoxicating fluid!
How is it possible, we ask, that such a fluid can have a good
correspondence? How can it be suitable for a beverage
during health? Above all, how can it be a representative
wine in the Lord's Supper, when its character has under-
gone so entire a change from the "new wine" which rep-
resents "all the truth of the Church?" Considering these
things, and looking at its effects on man when he drinks it,
"THE ACADEMY" AND FERMENTED WINE. 511
can we help asking, Is it possible that any intelligent New
Churchman can have any doubt about the real quality of
such a wine, or question but that it receives its vitality from
hell?
The opinion that fermented wine was the only true wine
was generally, if not quite universally, held by "Old Church
teachers at the time of the consummation of the Old Church,
and it was therefore then regarded as the only wine suitable
for a beverage and as a communion wine. It will be seen
by the review to which the writer is replying, that the New
Church Academy still hold on firmly to that Old Church
doctrine, and are trying to drag it into the New Church, and
in its defence are ready to use the most ungenerous lan-
guage against those who oppose this false doctrine.
No prophetic voice is needed to tell "The Academy'
professors that they must ere long abandon this false
doctrine of the "Old Church
'Old Church" which encourages the
social use of the drunkard's cup, and makes its use in
the Holy Supper a religious duty. The day is not far
distant when young men trained by such professors, and
holding like sentiments with them, and looking forward
to a life of usefulness in the New Church, will find that
intelligent and conscientious laymen decline to call to
their pulpits religious teachers who feel it their duty to in-
culcate by precept and example as the doctrine of the New
Church, that fermented wine and well-selected whiskey have
the highest correspondence, and are suitable beverages for
the social circle, and that those who desire to use the unfer-
mented "fruit of the vine" in the Lord's Supper, are guilty
of profaning that holy ordinance.
Do the gentlemen of "The Academy" think that their
institution, their serial, and their periodical will be sus-
tained by men and women who care for the welfare of their
children, and wish them to lead orderly and Christian lives,
so long as they continue to directly uphold the use of in-
toxicating drinks as beverages? or that they will care to
512 A REPLY TO "THE ACADEMY'S" REVIEW.
have those children look up to and reverence as religious
guides young men who are violating (and likely to teach
and lead others to violate) the prohibition that was given
to Aaron, "Do not drink wine, nor drink that maketh
drunken, thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the
Tabernacle of the Congregation, lest ye die ;-that ye may
put a difference between holy and unholy, and between un-
clean and clean ?"—Levit. x. 8–9 (A. C. 1072). Do “The
Academy" think that there is no difference between holy
and unholy and between unclean and clean, and that they
can teach the people, by their priests and periodicals, that it
is right to drink "wine and drink that maketh drunken,"
and yet be sustained by the laity of the Church? This can
only occur in a Church which is approaching its consum-
mation.
The New Church organizations can never prosper as they
should until this fearful evil of drinking intoxicating wine
and whiskey is put away from their social life, and fer-
mented wine is discarded from their communion tables.
The religious sentiments of the people are against the use
of intoxicating drinks, and the spirit and science of this new
age are speaking against their use in tones which cannot
be withstood by any religious organization, and the latter
command the respect of the most intelligent and conscien-
tious portion of the community.
These are earnest but not unkind words. The spirit dis-
played by "The Academy" in the review we are consider-
ing, as well as in a former review, invites plain language.
In the providence of the Lord, the writer has been drawn
into this controversy, which he did not intend to provoke;
and while it would have been very gratifying and pleasant
to him to have met, in the discussion of this important ques-
tion, antagonists showing a very different spirit from that
apparently manifested in the review, yet he has endeavored
to meet their assaults upon himself and the cause which he
advocates as it becomes a layman, under the circumstances,
FALSE TEACHINGS AND PERNICIOUS EXAMPLE.
513
to meet such uncalled-for language as "The Academy” has
used toward him and toward the advocates of total absti-
nence generally.
The writer does not think it amiss to warn this new eccle-
siastical organization, which, without the requisite knowl-
edge, is manifestly aspiring to be regarded as authority in
the New Church, that its teachings and practices, if not true
and good, will not, at this day, be quietly assented to and
followed by laymen. Erroneous views, unfounded assump-
tions, and pernicious examples, when they are publicly pro-
claimed and exhibited, will be met without the slightest
hesitation, the false doctrine shown and the truth upon the
subject proclaimed; and this will be done in language such
as duty to the Church, to our neighbor, and even to "The
Acaderny" may, under the circumstances, demand. No
ecclesiastical organization in this new age will be allowed
to usurp authority over the New Church, and to enforce by
its prestige and dogmatism, such false doctrines and evil
practices upon the Church and its members as justify and
encourage the use and the drinking of intoxicating drinks.
CHAPTER XII.
THE NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS AND THE WINE QUESTION.
SOON after the publication of his work on "The Wine
Question in the light of the New Dispensation" the writer
saw, from the character of the replies to and criticisms upon
it, that it would soon be necessary to write again and at
more length than he had contemplated, in reply to the ar-
ticles that his book had drawn out on this subject. Some
of these are misleading in their character; some are writ-
ten under misapprehension of the subject; some are com-
posed of groundless assumptions, and in them so many
things are ignored, the consideration of which are neces-
sary to a fair presentation or understanding of this ques-
tion, that no course was left open to the writer except the
one he has felt it his duty to take. In order that he might
be able to do this more effectually and fairly, he has taken
all the New Church periodicals published in the English
language and has carefully read everything that has ap-
peared in them upon the subject under consideration. He
will here mention his intention not to allow any argument
upon this subject which may be printed in any of the above
periodicals before this work goes to the press to remain
unanswered, fully and fairly; or any ungrounded assump-
tion, or unjust ignoring to stand unmet or unexposed.
Wherever a discussion has arisen in a periodical, in so far
as the advocates of total abstinence have had a fair chance
to reply to their opponents, there is no necessity for repro-
ducing the discussion here; and any opposing ideas, argu-
ments or assumptions which have been fully answered in
the preceding pages of this work will not be noticed in this
chapter. There is really very little, in any of the articles
514
"THE NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER."
515
alluded to, which has not been fully met and answered over
and over again in the preceding pages; but here and there
questions are presented in a slightly different aspect from
that in which we have already considered them, and in so
far they may require more special notice.
THE NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER
QUESTION.
AND THE WINE
Soon after the publication of "The Wine Question," etc.,
the work was noticed by the editor of "The Messenger."
This notice, in the opinion of the present writer, required a
reply, which he wrote and forwarded. This led to the pub-
lication of several articles upon both sides of the question,
extending over a period of several weeks. We are very
happy to acknowledge that the advocates of temperance.
were fairly treated in this discussion, and had an opportu-
nity to reply to all the arguments and objections which
were brought against their views.
We desire the reader especially to understand that we do
not object to the discussion of this question in our periodi-
cals. We believe it should be discussed fully and fairly,
but in a spirit of kindness, and free from personalities. In
the estimation of the writer this question is one of vast im-
portance to the New Church, at present far surpassing all
other questions. Let it be fully and fairly discussed in our
periodicals, and the writer is entirely satisfied that it will
not be long before the New Church will stand head and
shoulders above all others in this grandest reform move-
ment of this new age; because in the philosophy of the
Church, and the science of correspondences unfolding the
internal sense of the Word, it has the solid rock of Di-
vine Truth upon which to stand.
"THE NEW CHURCH LIFE" AND THE WINE QUESTION.
Soon after the publication of the work on the wine ques-
tion a notice of it appeared in this periodical, which was
516
A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
evidently written from a misapprehension in many respects
of the views contained in the work. One of the conductors
of the paper in a business correspondence had intimated
that, while they did not agree with the present writer, they
were willing to discuss the question in their periodical; for
they believed in free discussion. The writer therefore re-
plied to their criticisms; and in the same number which con-
tained his reply, the editors criticized the reply in a man-
ner that rendered it necessary that, if both sides of the ques-
tion were to be fairly before the readers of the paper, there
should be a reply to their criticism. The writer, therefore,
wrote a reply, which occupied a little over two columns of
the paper; to this they published an elaborate rejoinder of
over four columns in the same number, also a short arti-
cle on the same side of the question from one of their cor-
respondents. In the same number they also inserted the
following notice, which will give the reader some idea of
what the editors regard as giving a fair hearing to both
sides of this question :
“The discussion growing out of our notice of "The Wine Question" will
cease with this number of the Life, the only exception to this being a letter
from
which will probably be published next month. A fair
hearing, we think, has been given to both sides. We have devoted so
much of our limited space to this topic because we believe free discussion to
be useful to the Church. The wine question itself is, however, important
only so far as it relates to the Holy Supper. As a question of diet it is of
but little moment.'
""
Now, it may seem to the conductors and editors of "The
New Church Life" that, while they commenced the discus-
sion by their criticisms; their closing it by an article twice
the length of the one to which they were replying, and in-
serting in the same number another short article, and then
reserving for a future number an article of three and
one-half columns in length, was giving "a fair hear-
ing." to "both sides," but the reader will readily see that
it was such a hearing as will offer very few inducements to
IS ALCOHOL A POÍSON?
517
any advocate of total abstinence to ever attempt to discuss
the question again in their columns. If they really desired.
to be fair, it would seem that they might have reserved to
their opponent at least a small portion of the space which
they occupied in their final replies.
+
Supposing that "The New Church Life" was, in a large
measure at least, under the control of "The Academy,"
the writer's expectations of what they would regard as fair
treatment were not very extravagant, and consequently he
was not specially disappointed at the result; although he
did really anticipate a little nearer approach to a free dis-
cussion of this question than what was allowed.
REPLY OF THE EDITORS OF "NEW CHURCH LIFE TO OUR
SECOND ARTICLE.
"In answering the points raised by Dr. Ellis we are much indebted to a
thorough review of his book in No. X. of Words for the New Church, and
we would refer those who desire to consider the wine question more at
length to that review. For the sake of greater perspicuity we shall take
up and discuss in order the points made by our correspondent in his com-
munication."
It is unfortunate for the editors of "The New Church
Life" that they attempt to draw water or wine from a
cistern which contains so little of either, as does the above
review in "Words for the New Church."
The editors say:
“He again asserts that the fermented juice of the grape is a poison.
Now, it is well known that whole nations use wine as a custom-
ary beverage; a great many Frenchmen, e. g., use it daily at break-
fast, as well as at dinner and supper, and yet they live to grow old, enjoy-
ing the best of health. To declare that such men are continually drinking
poison is manifestly an abuse of words; it is a statement so absurd on the
face of it that it seems like a waste of breath to contradict it."
Not so absurd as the statement above, that because some
enjoy good health and live to old age who drink wine we
find therein evidence that wine is not a poison. A more
illogical, mischievous and misleading statement could
518 A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
hardly be made and sent forth to their readers, young or
old. No reform has met more opposition than the efforts
of the authorities of town and districts in clearing out lo-
calities that are known as "fever nests," where poor and
filthy people herd together, and every condition exists for
the creation and spread of disease. Offer to touch one of
these localities and every vested interest that sets itself
against reform will point to the old men and women who
have always lived there as proof of the healthfulness of bad
air, darkness and filth.
a
There are districts where agues and intermittent fevers
are the prevailing type of disease. If in one of these a
health commission were to institute measures for better
drainage, and speak of poison of malaria, what sort of a
reply would it be to say that men had been inhaling that
particular malarial atmosphere ever since they were born,
and many of them were healthy and lived to a good old
age?
Would that account for all that disease had cut off,
or prove that malaria was not a poison? And do not the
editors know that of all the European nations none is in-
creasing so slowly as this same French nation, of whom
great many use it (wine) daily at breakfast, as well as at
dinner and supper, and yet they live to grow old and en-
joy the best of health?" The same argument would jus-
tify the use of tobacco, arsenic, opium, and every other
poison on earth, for there are many who, if they were to
use them moderately, would enjoy good health and live to
an old age.
The same argument would justify all other
evils, for many licentious men, liars, thieves, and extremely
selfish men, if they otherwise conform to the laws of health
and life, enjoy good health and live to old age; and the
editors can but know very well that there is no one of these
evils which destroys prematurely the lives of so many of
our race as does the use of intoxicating drinks. Apart from
the illogicalness of the argument which we have exposed
above, how can they, having at heart, as we trust they have,
GROUNDLESS ASSUMPTIONS.
519
the welfare of their readers, proclaim such a fearfully per-
nicious and erroneous doctrine? The almost universal
testimony of medical writers is that alcohol and fermented
wine which contains alcohol are poisons; always unsafe
and often destructive when used as beverages. Every
day's observation teaches us the same lesson, and the
Word of the Lord and the Writings of our Church con-
firm it, as we have seen and shall see more and more clearly
as we examine this question in their light, and free our
minds from the falses which have descended to us from a
consummated church.
The editors say:
"Our correspondent adds three questions, the fair answers to which he
seems to think will convince anyone that wine (i. e., fermented grape-
juice) cannot correspond to unperverted spiritual truth."
As we have repeatedly shown, "The Academy's" dic-
tionaries, the Word of the Lord, the Writings of the Church
and ancient writers declare unfermented grape-juice pressed
from the grape to be wine, notwithstanding the assumption
of "The Academy " journals to the contrary. This assump-
tion, consisting of assertion only, is put forward at all times.
and seasons; but it is as contrary as possible to the facts.
Our critics continue:
"But as the answer sought is thus in opposition to revealed truth, it is
easy to see that the course of reasoning involved in his questions must be
erroneous."
Assumption number two grows out of the former, which
has no foundation at all beyond assertion, and on these as-
sertions “it is easy to see that the course of reasoning in-
volved in his (Dr. Ellis') questions must be erroneous."
Of course it must!
Our critics continue :
"Dr. Ellis, in the form of questions, teaches the following: I. Natural
drunkenness corresponds to spiritual drunkenness, and the cause of
natural drunkenness corresponds to the cause of spiritual drunkenness.
II. Since spiritual drunkenness is never caused by genuine, unperverted
520
A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE."
spiritual truth, therefore natural drunkenness cannot be caused by a fluid
corresponding to such truth. [That certainly would seem to be self-evi-
dent.-E.] III. Therefore, as fermented wine causes natural drunken-
ness, it cannot correspond to unperverted spiritual truth. [Unquestiona-
bly true.-E.] Now, it would seem here that our correspondent has fallen
into the fallacy, common with writers on abstinence, of supposing that
wine is the cause of drunkenness, but this would be just as absurd as to
suppose that money is the cause of stealing, or a sword the cause of mur-
der. The causes of all these evils lie deeper, being evil lusts and desires.”
The fallacy is not in Dr. Ellis' reasoning, as we will show.
Money and swords have good uses; metals have good uses.
So may facsimiles of coins have a good use. Look at the
editor's fallacy. There is a law against making or possess-
ing false coins. Our critics say, "Do not retain this law.
In passing it the Legislature has fallen into the fallacy com-
mon to legislators of supposing that making or possessing
counterfeit coin is the cause of the frauds perpetrated in
passing it. The causes of this evil lie deeper, being evil
lusts, desires, etc." The reply would be, "True, but when
a man takes metal having a good use, and puts it in a die
and makes a false coin, or carries false coin with him, he
does it for the purpose of furnishing some one with means
of gratifying his evil lust and desire of defrauding." This
illustration is exactly analogous to the manufacture of fer-
mented wine, whiskey, gin, absinthe, etc., for beverages.
Grains and grapes furnished by the Lord for food are good
uses; but when man changes them into alcoholic beverages
good uses are destroyed for something which the editor de-
clares is not a cause of drunkenness, when he knows that those
wines and liquors are flavored to suit various palates, and are
sold with as much expectation that they will be used in
producing drunkenness as the maker and vender of coun-
terfeit coin has that his product will be used to defraud.
Our critics further say:
"With those who purposely set out to become drunk there is an evil
love which, no doubt, corresponds to the evil love animating those who
are spiritually drunk ; i. e., 'those who believe nothing unless they compre-
SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL DRUNKENNESS.
521
hend it, and who, therefore, inquire into the mysteries of faith, and as
this is done through sensual, scientific or philosophic things, such as man
is, it cannot be otherwise but that man should thence fall into errors.
A. C. 1072.
A.C.
No sane man, and few drunkards, if any, ever “set out to
become drunk," they strive to avoid it, but their appetite for
drink overcomes them, drives them to the cup, and drunk-
enness follows. They simply gratify their evil natural love,
which corresponds to the "evil love animating those who
are spiritually drunk," that is all.
The editors say, truly:
"The evil loves which cause both spiritual and natural drunkenness
seem to be akin and reducable to love of self and self-conceit, with such
as are 'wise in their own eyes and intelligent in their own sight.
This is strictly true; a man may be surrounded by falses,
or by intoxicating drinks, but so long as he does not drink
or appropriate them to his life, spiritually or physically,
they are simply falses not from evil, and can never cause
either spiritual or natural intoxication. When, however,
from self-love and self-conceit, he begins to imbibe them,
and thinks he can nourish his spiritual and physical organi-
zations by falses and poisonous natural substances which
correspond to such falses; and especially if he has become
so conceited as to think he can do this with safety, then he
is in the greatest possible danger of becoming both a spirit-
ual and natural drunkard. It is not, then, the existence of
falses, or of intoxicating drinks, which causes spiritual and
natural drunkenness, but the drinking or appropriating
them to our spiritual and physical organizations.
The editors say:
"Wine or strong drink is not the cause of drunkenness, but only
the means through which it is effected; so also the truths of faith,
which are perverted with the self-intelligent, are not the cause of
their errors, but merely means to them of becoming spiritually insane.
Wine, as soon as it comes into the body of the drunkard, is defiled by the
defiled vessels into which it enters, even as the truths of faith are defiled
522
A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
and perverted as soon as they enter the mind of the sensual and pervert-
ed. The real answer to these questionings would therefore be, that
spiritual drunkenness or insanity is produced when truths of faith enter
the sensual and perverted mind, and are there falsified, and that natural
drunkenness ensues when wine or strong drink enters the body of the
drunkard, and when it is therein defiled and perverted from its true use,
which is to make glad the heart of man,' and 'to excite those things
which are of charity.'
Our brethren of "The New Church Life" seem to be
strangely confused upon this subject. The truths of faith
never cause spiritual intoxication, and they are never the
means of such intoxication any more than unfermented wine
is the cause of natural intoxication. It requires perverted or
falsified truths in one case, and perverted or leavened wine
in the other, and their appropriation as nourishment for the
spirit and body of man before drunkenness can possibly
ensue.
It is never safe for any man, however good he may be,
to look upon either falses or intoxicating drinks with a
longing eye with the thought of appropriating them to
nourish either his spiritual or physical life, for at the last
they "bite like a serpent and sting like an adder." All
experience shows that the man who has hitherto led an or-
derly and sober life is sooner made insane and drunk, by
the same amount of dissipation, than the bad man and
drunkard. A man accustomed to the use of intoxicating
wine the drunkard, if you please-can drink with impu-
nity enough of such wine to make several sober Christian
men drunk, which shows conclusively that the reasoning of
the editors above is not correct. It is, then, clearly not the
body of man which defiles the wine, as is represented above,
for man, drunkard or not, can never be made drunk by drink-
ing a true or unfermented wine. It is clearly the fermented
wine which defiles the body, and it does this even though
the drinker may take it innocently and ignorantly. It will
make even the innocent child drunk if he drinks it.
It is,
then, unquestionably our yielding to either a hereditary in-
ALCOHOL ALONE WILL NOT SUSTAIN LIFE.
523
clination, or an acquired appetite, or a desire to make falses.
or intoxicating drinks our own, by appropriating or drink-
ing them, that permanently defiles the man both spiritually
and physically. The physical transgression corresponds to
the spiritual, but in both instances the good and true must
be perverted before drunkenness can possibly ensue.
The editors say:
"It is well known that alcohol, by itself, when properly diluted, will
sustain life. It is also known that it is present in the body of even the
most rigid teetotaler, and performs important uses in the animal economy.
It is evident, therefore, that it is only injurious when in a form unsuited
to be appropriated by the body, but when adapted to appropriation it is
not only pleasant but also useful."
Surely the editors make the statement contained in the
first sentence without due consideration, for no physiologist
will pretend that man can live upon alcohol. When he is
deprived of all other food he will live much longer upon
water alone than he will upon alcohol, unless the latter is
so diluted as to be present in a small proportion, and it is
only for a very limited time that he can live upon either or
both, as is well known. Then we have the old story of al-
cohol being found in the body of the most "rigid teeto-
taler," which we answered in our other work, so we will
here simply repeat that there are many other substances,
such as the constituents of the urine, fœces, etc., found in
the blood of all men-substances which we fancy even the
editors would not care to use as drink or food. We have
abundantly shown in the preceding pages, as in our first
work, that alcohol, however much diluted, is never safe as
a beverage; and we also know well that there are plenty of
drinks which are entirely harmless; therefore we have no
excuse for using a poison for this purpose.
The editors say:
"The writer launches into the usual diatribe as to the horrors entailed
by alcoholic drinks-' Fifty thousand drunkards annually dying, three
hundred thousand houses desolate,' etc. It would, of course, be in vain
524
A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
to ask for the statistical basis for such round numbers; they bear exag-
geration and guess-work on their face. Still there is no doubt that drunk-
enness is a great evil and ought to be punished. If the crusade of tee-
totalers were directed to secure the punishment of drunkenness, and es-
pecially to the punishment and reformation of confirmed drunkards, they
would perform a real use and would receive the thanks of the community.
The mistaken war against an imaginary evil has, as in other cases, al-
lowed the unchecked growth of a real and grievous evil.”
Swedenborg has told us in quotations contained in the
preceding pages that alcohol makes men insane, and every
man who has seen a drunken man knows that he is insane,
and will then say and do things, even to committing the
most horrible crimes, which he would never do when not
under the influence of liquor. And all experience shows
that the habitual drunkard has so far lost his freedom that
it is one of the most difficult things in the world for him to
restrain his appetite, for he is in a measure insane. He re-
quires something more than punishment,—our sympathy,
treatment and assistance, and perhaps restraint, as we re-
strain other insane persons. If punishment is to be admin-
istered as a deterrent at all, it certainly would seem that it
should never be delayed until the man has sacrificed his
freedom to his appetite, and thus become insane; and we
are astonished to hear such language from the editors of the
"New Church Life." Punish, if you will, Messrs. Editors,
the moderate drinker who is in freedom, rather than the con-
firmed and insane drunkard. The one is responsible for com-
mencing and pursuing an unnecessary course of life which
he well knows is liable to make him a slave to an unnatural
appetite and to cause insanity; the other is already a slave
and insane. Which of the two, if either, is most deserv-
ing of punishment for his present acts? Let the humane
man and the Christian answer. The present writer does
not believe that it is right to punish the insane, for insanity
is not criminal, but the habits which lead to it may be;
but let us be careful and not judge others unjustly or
uncharitably.
DO GENUINE TRUTHS EVER INTOXICATE?—NEVER. 525
The editors say:
Our correspondent thinks that in T. C. R. 93, ‘the inherent quality or
life of the alcohol, carefully described by its effects on man when he drinks it, is
compared to the false doctrine which causes spiritual inebriation,' but a
careful consideration of the passage does not seem to sustain this view. All
that is said there on this subject is: 'Because this [doctrine of justification
by faith alone] has intoxicated their thoughts, like the vinous spirit called
alcohol, therefore, like men intoxicated, they have not seen this most essen-
tial thing of the Church.'—T. C. R. 98. The chief point of comparison is
here that of the stupor induced on the mind by false doctrine and the stupor
induced by intoxication with the vinous spirit called alcohol. If we choose
to extend the comparison to the means used for producing stupor, we shall
find, as shown above, that the means used in the one case are truths per-
verted from their purpose of saving and enlightening, and the vinous spirit
perverted from its true use of 'exciting the things which are of charity;'
and evil is ever the perversion of a good, as the false is the perversion of the
truth.”
The reader will see plainly that it is the alcohol which
intoxicates like the false doctrine. The ability to intoxi-
cate is peculiar to both. In this respect the one clearly an-
swers to the other—the natural to the spiritual.
The one
does naturally what the other does spiritually. It is cer-
tainly strange that every New Churchman cannot see this.
We might as well attempt to "excite the things which are
of charity" by the false doctrine of faith alone, as to attempt
to do it by alcohol; both have filled the world with unkind-
ness and uncharitableness. Alcohol is never the fruit of
healthy vegetables in a healthy condition, as we have seen;
all that we have has been produced by leaven, and is not
even the fruit of the leaven but its effete product, like the
excretions from the human body.
The advocates for the use of intoxicating drinks seem to
be strangely confused upon this entire subject. "The
Academy," for instance, in their review of the writer's first
pamphlet, clearly demonstrated that truths never intoxi-
cate, which is strictly true; but here we have the editors of
"The New Church Life" telling us that they will; for they
say that spiritual intoxication is caused by "truths per-
526 A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
verted from their purpose of saving and enlightening."
The reader can but see that this is a great mistake.
It re-
quires perverted truths to intoxicate man spiritually, pre-
cisely as it requires perverted wine, or its vinous spirit called
alcohol, to intoxicate him naturally. Pure truths and pure
wine, however intemperately used, will never cause intoxi-
cation, simply because it is not their nature to intoxicate—
in other words they have nothing intoxicating in them;
they are true and good. Let us follow this a little further
to its conclusion. The comparison in T. C. R. reads, “Be-
cause this [doctrine of justification by faith alone] has in-
toxicated their thoughts like the vinous spirit called alcohol,
therefore," etc. In the quotation above the editors say
the means of stupefaction "used in the one case are
truths perverted from their purpose of saving and enlight-
ening, and [in the other case-E.] the vinous spirit per-
verted from its true use of 'exciting the things which are
of charity.'"
There is, according to the above representation, no per-
version in the substance which produces natural intoxication,
i. e., the vinous spirit, alcohol. Its use, the editors represent,
"excites the things which are of charity," unless it is per-
verted from that purpose by him who imbibes it. Now, if
there is a comparison there must be a likeness; and the doc-
trine of justification by faith alone must also be good in
itself and fulfil its "purpose of saving and enlightening." In
this case the doctrine of "justification by faith alone ” is a
good doctrine to be imbibed, though, like the vinous spirit,
it may become perverted. If, on the other hand, the doc-
trine of justification by faith alone is itself the result of the
perversion of truths from their purpose of saving and en-
lightening, and if the imbibing this perverted truth pro-
duces spiritual intoxication; then it is at once apparent
that the vinous spirit of the comparison is also the result
of the perversion of a good substance which has been
changed from a beneficial and strengthening fluid to a
SWEDENBORG'S PARTAKING OF WINE.
527
vinous spirit that causes physical intoxication. Is not this
self-evident?
The editors say:
"If Dr. Ellis is right, and the world has been using for a thousand
fears a poison instead of wine for sacramental purposes, why do the
Writings say nothing about this horrible sacrilege? And, moreover, why
did Swedenborg drink fermented wine himself, if he knew it was a poison,
and why did he suffer the sacrament to be administered to him on his
death-bed with fermented wine?"
The writer thinks that he has, in the preceding pages,
shown clearly, by a very large number of quotations, that
the Writings are anything but silent upon this subject. All
revelations which have a Divine origin are so clothed as
not to compel belief, but to leave man in freedom.
In the above extract the editors of "The New Church
Life" have placed their brethren of "The Academy" in a very
curious dilemma, from which it is difficult to see how they
can rescue their doctrines from an entire overthrow, even
if there were no other arguments against them. For all
through their review they have represented the present
writer as trying to drag the Old Church wine into the New
Church because he has advocated the use of unfermented
wine, thus representing that unfermented wine is "Old
Church" wine. Now, if their representation upon this
point is true, Swedenborg, partaking of the Holy Supper,
from one whom they would undoubtedly call an
Church" clergyman, must have partaken of unfermented
wine, and the writer will simply suggest that we may safely
follow his example, for the wine is safe and harmless. But,
but, say
"The Academy," that will never do, for that ends
our cause.
"Old
Well, let us look at this point once more. Swedenborg,
partaking of the sacrament at the hands of one of "The
Academy's" "Old Church" clergymen, as an example to
others, thought, perhaps, it was proper to partake of Old
Church wine, which was in harmony with the doctrines of
528
A REPLY TO THE "NEW CHURCH LIFE."
the consummated church. Then the question arises of
what kind of wine did he partake? Was it of what "The
Academy" call
" call "Old Church," that is, of unfermented
wine, or of what the writer calls "Old Church" wine-that
is, of fermented wine-which of the two? Well, we see
that the question, as thus shown, presents to our brethren
of "The Academy" a problem they can hardly solve. But
there is a third horn to the dilemma upon which it really
seems they might hang a better argument. The time when
Swedenborg partook of the sacrament was long after the
Last Judgment, when the Old Church came to an end, and
some time after the period when Swedenborg tells us that
the Lord called together the Apostles who followed Him
on earth and sent them forth to proclaim the New Church
doctrines throughout the spiritual world; consequently
the clergyman who administered the sacrament might, in
the estimation of "The Academy," have been a New
Church clergyman, and therefore his wine, although fer-
mented, might have been really a New Church wine. We
are not certain if this is the solution they will offer, but, as
we see no other, we think it the best they can adopt. In
conclusion, the writer will simply state that fermented wine
was almost universally used as a communion wine by the
"Old Church" for many years before the Last Judgment,
as well as at that time; consequently is it or is it not Old
Church" wine? Now when "The Academy" will tell us
whether Swedenborg partook of "Old Church" or New
Church wine we will be prepared to discuss this question
further. Swedenborg assures us he had no need of partak-
ing of the sacrament at all, but when urged to do so he
partook of it as an example. As the New Church was in
the wilderness, and the new wine for the New Church was
at that time almost unknown, he may perhaps have partaken
of that which was in use. Many New Churchmen, al-
though fully convinced that unfermented wine is the only
good wine of the Word and the Writings, have partaken of
TOTAL ABSTINENCE AND LIFE INSURANCE.
529
fermented wine at the Holy Supper, because no other was
accessible to them; but now, when the new wine for the
New Church has been cultivated and is accessible, is it
right for us to continue to use the old, and thus, by our
example, tend to lead others to believe that the "Old Church”
wine is better than the new? And, above all, is it right
that the societies to which we belong, or the clergymen to
whom we listen, should compel us to receive such with a
questioning conscience or else abstain from this most useful
ordinance?
Again the editors say:
"Dr. Ellis alleges that life insurance companies are beginning to make
a difference between abstainers and those who use alcoholic beverages.
This would probably be the only plan really excluding drunkards who
ought to be excluded, or be required to pay higher rates of insurance.
But we do not believe that any one who rationally uses these good gifts
of God would consent to pay a heavier rate because there are drunkards.
This 'beginning,' therefore, even if it has been made, will surely remain
a beginning, and will tend to make such concerns simply total abstinence
insurance companies, leaving other companies as before.
""
A beginning which commenced forty years ago is not a
very new beginning, and bonuses which have arisen from
seven per cent. to twenty-three per cent. are not likely to be
given up by sensible people. Mr. Joseph Cook has speci-
ally examined this subject, and we will make a few extracts
from his lecture on "The American and Foreign Temper-
ance Creeds:"
་
"The law of averages, as exhibited in the experience of
life assurance companies during the last forty years, has
once for all triumphantly justified the temperance principle
of total abstinence. Among serious and thoroughly well-
informed persons debate is over on this matter. Yes, my
luxurious friend, yes, my moderate drinker in the pulpit,
you are marked men, because benighted and belated.
When I was in London I took much pains to ascertain ex-
actly the facts as to the experience of British life assurance
530 A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE."
societies in making a distinction between moderate drinkers
and total abstainers. Every one knows or ought to know
that for nearly half a century now many of the best life
assurance societies of England have insured moderate
drinkers and total abstainers in separate sections, and
that a bonus has been paid to the sections made up of total
abstainers of seven, thirteen, seventeen, and, in some cases,
of twenty-three per cent. over that paid to the section of
moderate drinkers.
THE LAW OF AVERAGES.
"Here are a few commercial facts of the largest philan-
thropic significance. I have in my possession an original
letter of one of the foremost societies for life assurance in
London, and the statement is contained in it that for fifteen
years the society has been accustomed to pay every five
years bonuses to its two sections-that is, to the total ab-
stainers on the one hand, and to the moderate drinkers on
the other and that the result has been during the past six-
teen years that there have been issued 9,345 policies on the
lives of moderate drinkers, that is, of those who are not
strictly abstinent in the use of alcoholic liquors, and 3,396
on the lives of total abstainers. Of the former 524 have
died, but 91 only of the latter, or less than half the propor-
tionate number, which, of course, would be 190. Less than
one-half the number of abstainers have died, compared
with the number that died among non-abstainers who were
strictly temperate, and this in an experience of sixteen
years."
After giving the results in different assurance societies,
he says:
"To summarize details which I might easily make vol-
uminous, the experience of nearly forty years and the in-
surance of more than 100,000 lives in societies making a
distinction between temperate non-abstainers and total ab-
stainers have proved that under the law of averages a bonus
MODERATE DRINKING SHORTENS LIFE.
531
*
of from seventeen to twenty-three per cent. must be paid
to the sections of total abstainers.
'Where is the Church, where is wealthy society, where
are our circles of culture and advanced thought, where are
our serious and intelligent young men, that they are not
awake to these stern facts of mere business? I have been
citing to you not temperance documents, but the reports of
life assurance societies. They are not fanatical organi-
zations; they are not governed by this or that pet theory
as to temperance reform. Here is cool, stern business sa-
gacity applied to one of the most complicated commercial
matters, and the outcome we have in this great proposition,
sustained by the most exact application of the law of aver-
ages, is that nearly twenty-five per cent. bonus must be paid
to total abstainers above what is paid to moderate drink-
ers. Of course, many of these total abstainers have not
been such for all their lives. Their health may have been
injured in many cases by early indulgences. By and by,
when these societies come to have sections filled by men
who have been total abstainers from birth, the average of
bonuses will be higher to the temperance sections. You
ought, also, to keep in mind costantly that the section not
total abstaining is not a section of drunkards, but a section
of those who are merely moderate drinkers, respectable
men, most of them only wine drinkers.
"The law of averages in life assurance societies is now
the pedestal of adamant on which stands triumphant for
all future time, in the name of science, the abused and
once even humiliated principle of total abstinence.”
Now, gentle reader, we ask how any New Churchman, in
view of mathematical facts like the above, strives to justify
himself and encourage others in pursuing a course of mod-
erate drinking of intoxicating drinks, with the full knowl-
edge that such a course shortens the average duration of
human life to such a fearful extent. Is there no wrong in
our doing this? No sin?
532
A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
THE RESERVED ARTICLE IN "THE NEW CHUCH LIFE."
This article was written by an old and valued friend of
the writer, and, as he anticipated, in a kindly spirit. There
are but few points in it which have not been fully answered
in the preceding pages. The first passage we shall notice
is the following:
"The mere opinion, however plausible, of an unauthorized layman-
obtained from partisans pledged only to one view of the case, and these
mainly of the "Old Church "—is by no means sufficient authority to be
relied upon."
We really think our friend might have left out the allu-
sion to 66
an unauthorized layman," when he remembers that
Moses, John, Swedenborg, and even our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the opinion of the ecclesiastical authorities of their day,
were all regarded as "unauthorized laymen," but it has
taken such to move the world out of its ruts. So far as the
writer is personally concerned the term does not disturb
him at all, but as its repetition might produce an erroneous
impression in the mind of others, he would like to under-
stand its meaning and applicability to this controversy. Do
his critics mean to impute it as a fault that he is a layman ?
He does not think they would have the Church composed
only of clergy. But he is in addition "unauthorized,” “an
unauthorized layman." He is not aware that there are two
classes of laymen, and knows of no authority possessed by
his brother laymen that is not his also. When he received
the doctrine of the "New Church" and was baptized
therein, and took his place in the worship of the Church
and the support of the work, he supposed he had received
all the authority that belonged to any layman. If he did,
then he is certainly an authorized layman, and may do
whatever appertains to the duty of any layman. And if he
has done only those things which are the obligation, as well
as the privilege of a layman, then he has only done what,
as an authorized layman, he has no right to leave undone.
THE OPINION OF UNAUTHORIZED LAŸMEN. 533
But the writer has expressed his convictions on a most
important moral question, and this may be his offence.
Has he transcended the province or right of a layman in
doing this? If this is blameworthy let it be distinctly un-
derstood by the laity that this is a prerogative of the
clergy alone; and that hereafter no layman shall ven-
ture to express even a mere opinion." Meantime the
writer will say that if there is any distinction between "the
mere opinion of an unauthorized layman" and the well-
considered and deeply-settled conviction of an authorized
layman, the views which he has set before the Church be-
long to the latter class.
We hardly think, after perusing the preceding pages,
our good brother will further accuse the writer of present-
ing only one view of the case. If both sides of this ques-
tion have not fairly been placed before the reader in this
work, it is simply because the advocates of the other side
have not been able to present it, for we have reproduced
every argument in their own language.
After alluding to the various passages in the A. C. and
D. P., where Swedenborg compares spiritual and natural
fermentations, the above writer says:
"But yet, overriding all that is here stated, in the attempt to justify so
contradictory and unreasonable a position, as a dernier resort, and prob-
ably supposed to be a conclusive argument, the question is asked, 'Was
the natural blood which flowed from the Lord's side at the crucifixion
fermented blood?' For, it is added, 'that it had a similar signification
to the wine, and, if the latter was fermented, it is difficult to avoid the
conclusion that the former must have been.' (Tract on Pure Wine, etc.,
page 13.) It is not necessary to avoid this conclusion; the only wonder
is that Dr. Ellis, who, as a physician, must thoroughly understand the
formation of blood in the human body, and therefore must know that it
does undergo a process perfectly analogous to that of fermentation in
wine; so that to answer the question whether the blood which flowed
from the Lord's side had undergone such a process it would only be nec-
essary to know whether that blood was venous or arterial. If venous, it
was like the expressed blood of the grape, dark. thick, turbid and loaded
with impurities; but if arterial blood, which, breathed into from the
534
A
À REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
lungs, becomes vivified with new life-discharges from it, by a process
similar to fermentation, all its inherent impurities, and passes into the
arteries a pure, bright, red and living blood, precisely similar to wine
after it has undergone fermentation. Is not Dr. Ellis answered here?”
Our friend seems to labor under some serious misappre-
hensions. In the first place, when he supposes that the ex-
pressed blood of the grape is loaded with impurities, he is
mistaken, for it certainly has no impurities; if it is turbid
or opaque, it is simply from the albuminous portions, which
can be all removed if it is desired, by careful straining or
filtering; or by preventing fermentation, as described in the
pages of this work, by carefully corking and keeping cool
in a well of water; or by sweet oil; or again, by boiling, and
thus allowing the heavier portions to settle; as they will
in a few days. Nothing can be clearer, or more transpar-
ent and beautiful than the specimens of wine which the
writer preserved by the above methods. The color, of
course, depends upon the natural color of the juice; the
lees, which are generally abundant, are of a color similar to
that of the wine, and are light and flocculent; totally differ-
ent from the heavy lees of fermented wine, which are com-
posed of yeast and decomposed portions of the wine. But
you have only to allow the germs from the atmosphere to
come in contact with this beautiful wine, or to expose it to
the air, or to put into it a little leaven from fermenting wine,
and it soon becomes opaque and loaded with impurities
that result from the disorganization produced by leaven.
The writer is compelled to confess that he does not see
any analogy between respiration and its results and fermen-
tation, and if there really is any, it must certainly be very
distant; yet, looking in another direction, he thinks he
can satisfy his friend that we are able to witness a strict
analogy.
Man is a living being and leaven is a living substance;
both require nourishment, and both live upon substances
organized in the vegetable kingdom. In a proper men-
A COMPARISON THAT IS WONDERFUL.
5.3.5
struum and under favorable conditions, leaven buds forth and
is developed with wonderful rapidity. It cannot live upon
sugar alone, neither can it upon albumen alone, nor can it
upon the acids and alkaline salts which exist in the wine;
like man, it requires a variety of organized substances to
sustain its life, and all these are contained in the juice of
the grape.
Man appropriates grapes and their juice to his
use, but they do not leave the body, after supplying its
wants, the delicate, beautifully organized substances that
they were when they entered; but they leave in the form of
excretions from the bowels, kidneys and skin and in ex-
halations; changed in color, looks, taste and smell.
appropriates some of the same organized materials to
its own nourishment and development, and when it casts
them out they are no less changed than if they had passed
through the human body. These substances leave the
leaven, after having served its purpose, as excretions
and exhalations, and the taste of the wine has changed,
and even the smell has changed. Then, for the first time,
the "ambrosial odor," which our brethren of "The Acad-
emy" seem to prize so highly, makes its appearance and
takes the place of the delightful odor implanted by the Lord
in the fruit of the vine. Unlike man, leaven lives in the
wine and surrounded by it; and all of the excretions and
exhalations of the leaven, excepting what are cast down as
lees or escape in the form of gas, are cast out into the wine,
and give it its alcohol, its taste and its odor. Is it strange
that such a fluid should so frequently, when men drink it,
make them sick, drunk and insane ?
Preserve the blood of man as it is removed from his body,
from the germs which come from the atmosphere, and it
will not putrify. No physician would dare to have either
these germs, or the smallest portion of a drop of putrify-
ing blood injected into the blood in his veins; for he too
well understands that the result would almost surely be
death. Inject the germs of ferment, or the smallest portion
536
A REPLY TO "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
of the fermenting juice of the grape, beneath the skin of the
grape into its blood, and the consequences to the grape
will also be death. That the analogy is wonderful we can
all see.
There is but one passage more in the communication
we are considering which requires notice; and even this has
been so fully answered in the preceding pages, that if it
were not made the closing argument, and evidently put
forth as unanswerable, it would not be necessary to notice
it further. The first of it, the reader will see, has been
answered in the last page or two.
The writer says:
}
"The argument was thus presented by me in an article on this subject
in the Messenger of January 28th, 1880, in these words-I say: 'It is
not correct to beg the question, or assume that fermented wine is a poison,
or that it is polluted or is partially decomposed, etc. But, on the other
hand, it is then freed from those very things, for the process of fermenta-
tion casts them off, and utterly rejects them, and the wine (or must, which
before was turbid and charged with its inherent impure substances) comes
forth purified and infilled with a new life. It represents the process of
regeneration in which man rejects the defilements and impurities of his
natural and unregenerated state and is reborn-born from above-from the
spiritual heat and light of the Heavenly sun, and becomes spiritual.' But
to all this Dr. Ellis and his adherents object, because they allege that this
change is effected by the introduction of leaven, a vile and impure sub-
stance, which makes all that it comes into contact with impure also; hence,
the juice of the grape, inherently pure, becomes polluted, impure and vile
by admixture and fermentation therewith. But such a statement contra-
dicts itself, for though it is true that leaven corrresponds to and denotes
falsehood-falsehood from evil-it is not neccessary to introduce leaven
into the must to produce fermentation, for the leaven is already there; it
is inborn in the grape, and only awaits the opportunity to manifest itself
by coming into contact with the influence of the sun. It is as inherent in
the blood of the grape as the tendency to disease is in human blood, or to
an evil life in the human spirit."
The writer is free to confess that he read the above pas-
sage in this reserved article of the "New Church Life”
with astonishment, for it has been so thoroughly demon-
LEAVEN IS NEVER INBORN IN THE GRAPE. 537
strated that leaven is never "inborn in the grape,” that he
supposed it was known to every one who cared enough
about the matter to inquire into it. He is not so much
surprised that the venerable writer of the article should make
this error the basis of his argument, or even that one of the
editors of this periodical should be ignorant of the experi-
ments of Pasteur, Tyndall and others, which have proved so
conclusively that leaven always comes from without the
grape. But the "New Church Life,” as he understands, if not
published under the auspices of "The Academy,” is sup-
posed to be in some manner connected with that organiza-
tion; and there are several editors connected with it.
Now,
it is surprising that there should not be a single member of
"The Academy," or one responsible for, or caring for, the
good name of this periodical, who knew that leaven is
never inborn in the grape, but that it is introduced from
without-from the atmosphere, from the surface of the
grape and its stem, from presses, etc.-into the juice of the
grape when the latter is crushed and pressed. If there had
been a single man in any way connected with the periodical,
or "The Academy," possessing a sufficient knowledge of
the laws of fermentation to know that the above represent-
ations were erroneous, it does not seem possible that he
would have allowed such a fundamental error to go un-
noticed for months in succeeding numbers of the "New
Church Life."
GRAHAM FLOUR-WHITE FLOUR.
In his work on the wine question the writer called the
attention of the reader to the importance of using for food
unbolted flour instead of white or superfine flour. A
writer in the "New Church Life" noticed this and repre-
sented that by a new process, now being used, all the nu-
tritious contents of the kernel of wheat is made into white
flour. That this is not correct is evident, for if it were
true the flour would not be white, unless it were made so
538
A REPLY TO “THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
by chemical treatment, which would not be at all satisfac-
tory. There is very little color in the hull, although some,
and there is a process in use of removing the hull mechani-
cally before grinding the grain, and yet the flour is dark.
The dark portion of the kernel is mostly upon its surface
in close contact with the hull; it is tough and hard and not
easily pulverized. It contains in excess over what the
white portion contains, the gluten and the phosphates
which are so essential to nourish the muscles, bones and
brain. The central or white portion of the kernel is com-
posed largely of starch and is readily pulverized and makes
white flour. Experiments have shown that such flour alone
will not sustain animal life, and we see the sad results which
flow from its use all around us, in the crooked spines and
legs, half-developed jaws, crowded and decaying teeth,
flabby muscles and irritable brains, which result largely
from the use of such flour. Were it not that our children
use other food they would actually starve to death. The
Lord when He created wheat evidently knew better what
man requires to duly nourish his body than do our
millers.
The writer will not say but that the new process of
preparing flour is an improvement, and that it does not
give us better flour than the old; but he will say that any
flour which is white does not contain in due proportion the
most nourishing portion of the grain, and that consequently
it should be discarded from general use.
It certainly seems a pity that the editors of "The New
Church Life" should insert such an article in their periodi-
cal, for we can hardly imagine the amount of deformity
and suffering which may result from such teachings. It is
safe to say that there are not many editors of secular papers
who would have inserted such an article in their periodi-
cals, and surely New Church editors should not be behind
such in general intelligence and watchfulness for the public
good.
NOT DESIROUS OF DISCUSSING THE WINE QUESTION. 539
66
THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE" AND THE WINE QUES-
TION."
After our publication of the tract on "Pure Wine, Fer-
mented Wine and Other Alcoholic Drinks, in the Light of
the New Dispensation," two or more articles were inserted
in the columns of the above periodical assailing the princi-
ples of total abstinence, by justifying the use of fermented
wine and giving to it a good signification. The writer
wrote to the editor inquiring if he would insert a reply if we
were to write one, and in response was told that he would
not. Thus intrenched in their editorial sanctum, there
seemed no way of reaching our assailants excepting from
counter-intrenchments; accordingly in writing our work on
the wine question, after presenting their ideas to our read-
ers, mostly clothed in their own language, we criticized
their views and endeavored to meet the assailants of the
good cause which we advocate, in such a manner as to show
as clearly as possible, that their views were not in accord-
ance with the doctrines of the New Church. In response,
while reaffirming the views which had appeared in the mag-
azine, and making a few remarks, the editor declined to en-
ter into a full review of our work, lest it should lead to a
further discussion of the question. From that time until
the Jan. No., 1883, there was no further advocacy for the
use of fermented wine, and while we knew very well, from
the short notice of our work, that our brethren of the mag-
azine were not convinced that it is wrong to use an intoxi-
cating wine for sacramental purposes, yet we did really be-
gin to hope that they had decided not to advocate the use
of intoxicating wine further. But the fondest hopes of man
are often doomed to disappointment, as were ours in this
instance, for the following notice, which we know pained
many of the readers of that periodical, as it certainly did
the writer, appeared in the January number of the maga-
zine :
540 REPLY TO THE "NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE.”
"The Wine Question.' Reprinted from 'Words for the
New Church.'
"A pretty pamphlet 'published for the Academy of the
New Church, Philadelphia,' reproduces the review of Dr.
Ellis's work on the Wine Question in the New Church. It
is the most thorough reply yet made to Dr. Ellis, and as a
plea for the use of true wine in the Communion, we wholly
agree with it. There is a slight asperity about its treat-
ment of its opponent, which seems to us unnecessary. On
this side of the debate, if not on the other, we would ask for
temperance."
While there is not a direct representation that the ad-
vocates of total abstinence have used even a "slight as-
perity" in the discussion of this important question, yet,
there is, we fancy, in the closing sentence, a slight insinu-
ation that they have done so. Now, while we have ever
striven to write without manifesting a spirit of asperity, yet
we do not believe that it is generally either prudent or wise
to attempt to meet intrenched assailants in an open field
with "small arms," for, hid behind their editorial ramparts,
they are safe and we are exposed, while they refuse us an
opportunity to meet them on an open field.
How can any New Churchman represent or claim that a
leavened or fermented wine is a "true wine," when Sweden-
borg declares that: "The cup of the wine of anger denotes
the false which gives birth to evil. The reason why the
false which gives birth to evil is signified is, because as
wine intoxicates and makes insane so does the false " (A.
C. 5120).
<<
Again he says: "As to what respects the insanity which is
signified by inebriation and by drunkenness in the Word, it
is not from falses, but from truths falsified" (A. E. 1035).
Spiritual truths must be perverted and destroyed, or else
they have no inebriating power. But a perverted and de-
stroyed truth is a truth no longer; a falsified truth is a
truth made false; and what is made false ceases to be true.
"THE MORNING LIGHT" AND COMMUNION WINE. 541
Hence it is plain from this passage that spiritual truth never
intoxicates; for that which intoxicates ceases to be truth,
and no longer deserves the name."-H. S. Sutton, in
"Morning Light."
That which is true of spiritual truths is also equally true
of the natural wine, which corresponds to such truths; it
can never intoxicate until it has been perverted and de-
stroyed by leaven, which signifies "evil and the false which
should not be mixed with things good and true." If it is
not right to imbibe “the false which gives birth to evil”
temperately, how can it be right to use temperately the wine
which intoxicates physically as the false does spiritually?
No correspondence or comparison can be clearer or more
distinct than the above.
We do not think any question can be more important to
the New Church than the one we are considering. And
while there are conscientious differences of opinion among
its members upon great practical questions such as this:
for the sake of making the truth more clear and preserving
the unity of the Church both sides, when presented in a
kindly spirit, should have a hearing in the columns of our
periodicals. The truth has nothing to fear from a fair dis-
cussion; it is error that dreads the light.
"THE MORNING LIGHT" (English), AND "THE WINE
QUESTION."
There has been quite a lengthy discussion of this question,
especially as pertaining to communion wine, in the columns
of this periodical. Both sides of the question have been
ably represented, the side of total abstinence by Mr. H. S.
Sutton and others. It is only because two articles bearing
upon the subject were admitted to which Mr. Sutton was
not allowed to reply, that it becomes necessary to notice
them in this work.
A correspondent in the "Morning Light," of December
23d, 1882, after the discussion of the wine question had been
542
A REPLY TO "THE MORNING LIGHT."
closed, under the guise of communion bread, introduced
some views in the interest of fermented wine which require
notice, as those who are comparatively unacquainted with
the subject may be led into serious error by the assumptions
therein contained. He says:
"It may be observed that the Last Supper of our Lord with His dis-
ciples, which was the first and pattern of the ordinance as a rite, was when
He ate the Passover with His disciples. At the Passover leaven and any-
thing leavened was strictly prohibited. Unleavened bread was therefore
broken by our Lord when He said, 'Take, eat.' Now the difference bc-
tween fermented bread and wine is that in the former the ferment remains
in its very substance, while in the latter it has been rejected and thrown
down so that none remains. This is indicated in the invitation to the
Holy Supper in that text which speaks of 'wine on the lees well refined.'
Now it is a fact which I do not remember to have seen noticed by your
correspondents, that the condition thus described is only possible in a fer-
mented wine."
The difference between fermented bread and wine is not
fairly stated above. The truth is directly opposite in essen-
tial points to what is there claimed. In the bread the
leaven is destroyed by heat, and the vile products of fer-
mentation-alcohol, vinegar, carbonic acid gas, fusel oil,
etc.—are driven off, so that the bread is purified by heat, and
there is no objection, or comparatively none, to its use as
food; whereas in fermented wine all these products of fer-
mentation, with the exception of the carbonic acid gas, are
retained in the wine, and consequently it will cause drunk-
enness, which fermented bread will never do. Fermented
wine is therefore pre-eminently a leavened fluid or substance.
Wine on the lees well refined can never be a fermented
wine; because fermentation is not a process of refining, but
a process of decomposition and destruction. The "fact"
which the above writer does not remember to have seen
noticed is not a fact. The ancients refined their wines by
filtering; by straining and settling in bottles sunk in wells
and streams of cool water; and also by boiling and skimming
and straining; and these were all processes of refining.
:
INCORRECT STATEMENTS AS TO FERMENTATION. 543
When wines thus refined are allowed to stand, there is
always a more or less free deposit of lees, which are simply
the heavier portions of the juice which settle. In such lees
there is nothing but what has been organized in the grape
by the Lord for the sustenance of man; therefore such lees
have a good signification; whereas lees which result from
fermentation never have a good signification. The writer
preserved during the past season, by various processes,
which he has already described, unfermented wines, and
these wines all contain more or less lees; in some of them
the lees are very abundant. It seems unfortunate that
any one should write thus authoritatively and positively
upon such an important question without a knowledge of
existing facts in the case.
Again the above writer says:
*
*
*
*
*
"The impurer portions of the grape-juice from which the yeast plant
is generated, together with tartar and other matters, are deposited during
the quiet that follows fermentation, and the wine, purified, bright, and
permanent, is fit for racking and for use,
If,
therefore, there be any ground to avoid what has been called the evil
ferment, it can only be done by taking fermented wine and unfermented
bread."
((
We have above several incorrect statements. First: the
yeast plant is not generated from impure portions of grape
juice, but the germs come from the atmosphere, and are
developed in the nutritious substances of the juice, which
correspond to good, and these substances the ferment or
yeast plant" appropriates to its own use; destroying not
only the albumen, which is such an important nutritious sub-
stance, but also the sugar which corresponds to spiritual de-
lights. Second: take the purest and clearest unfermented
wine and allow ferment, or its germs, to enter it and com-
mence its work of destruction, and it soon becomes turbid
and warm, from the ferment and decomposing substances.
The "tartar and other matters" then cast down were before
this good and useful constituents of a useful organized sub-
544
A REPLY TO "THE MORNING LIGHT.”
stance. How absurd to suppose that the wine, full of the
excrementitious substances from the leaven, such as alcohol,
various acids, glycerine, fusel oil, etc., and which is so poison-
ous as to cause drunkenness, is suitable to use as a beverage
and as communion wine! Third: the claim that by using
fermented wine we avoid the "evil ferment." This is like
claiming that by eating and drinking the excretions from a
rat we avoid eating that unclean animal; we think any sensi-
ble man would rather eat a rat than the filthy, poisonous se-
cretions and excretions from his body; so the least objec-
tionable thing of the two, if we are anxious to use either,
would be the leaven or ferment itself, rather than the filthy
poisonous fluid it has left behind. Ferment is frequently
drunk in the juice of apples and grapes which have just
commenced fermenting, and although it may sometimes in-
fest the stomach it never infests the head until it has gen-
erated a certain amount of alcohol, and then it is not the
ferment which does the mischief, but the alcohol. Fourth :
in fermented wine which has not been fortified by alcohol,
if there is any food for the ferment left, fermentation never
ceases entirely until all the sugar has been destroyed, and
this often takes years, so that it will be seen that by drink-
ing fermented wine the ferment is not avoided.
After the preceding pages were written, and, as the
writer supposed, the discussion of this question was closed,
another article appeared on the wrong side of this question
in the "The Morning Light" of December 30th, 1882. As
there are no points in it which have not been fully answered
in the preceding pages of this work, we will only notice
two or three passages.
The writer of the article says:
'But there is still one most important point to which I must invite the
reader's best attention; it is this-that not a single passage can be ad-
duced from the Writings (I mean in the original) in which Swedenborg,
while referring to the wine of the Holy Supper, ever uses any other word
than vinum as the correspondent of Divine truth spiritual. [Why should
he use any other word than vinum when he knew, as has been shown in
MUST AS A COMMUNION WINE.
545
the preceding pages, that vinum covered all kinds of wine, unfermented
and fermented?-E.] Mr. Sutton and his teetotal friends will in vain
search the chapter in the 'True Christian Religion' which treats of the
Holy Supper for a single exception. And why does Swedenborg invari-
ably use vinum when he is speaking of the wine of the Holy Supper and
not mustum, much less the teetotal mustum infermentatum? Is it be-
cause the equivalent of vinum in all languages is a word which means a
thoroughly fermented wine? Just so."
If the correspondent of "The Morning Light" had read
the author's work on "The Wine Question" as carefully as
he has read "The Academy's Review," it is scarcely possible
that he could have made the serious mistake he has made
above; for on page 215 he would have found a quotation
from the A. C. 5113, in which Swedenborg speaks of must,
not only in connection with the Holy Supper, but in direct
connection with our Lord's remarks immediately after He
had instituted the Holy Supper; and there Swedenborg not.
only speaks of must but he speaks of must first, showing
clearly that it was the unfermented juice of the grape which
he had in mind, by both must and wine, for his language is
non mustum nec vinum-not must or wine.-The reader will
also find this quoted more fully on page 134 of this work.
In the chapter on communion wine in this work, the
reader will find no less than six quotations from a single
number of the A. E., in which Swedenborg speaks of must
in direct connection with the Holy Supper, and gives it the
full signification of wine in a majority of the passages which
he quotes from the Word.
"
The writer continues:
'Now, Mr. Editor, I think I have completed the task that fell to my
lot. I have endeavored to show from the Writings that none but a true,
i. e. a fermented wine, can be legitimately used at the Holy Supper. Mr.
Sutton, of course, maintains that he has succeeded in establishing the
contrary. It is for our readers to decide between us. [The writer fan-
cies that in the preceding pages he has produced evidence enough to
satisfy every unbiased intelligent reader that in the light of the Word and
the Word Opened, fermented wine is never a true wine. E.] But as
the Wine Question" has now assumed a serious phase in the New
"
546
A REPLY TO "THE MORNING LIGHT."
Church, I would strongly advise all to obtain a pamphlet on the "Wine
Question," extracted from "Words for the New Church," No. 10. I com-
mend it to the thoughtful perusal of all. Dr. Ellis' work is there sub-
jected to an exhaustive and withering criticism. And now, sir, I have
to tender you my thanks for giving me so much of your valuable space.
I trust the discussion may induce some persons to look below the surface
of an advocacy founded on mere ad captandum arguments. [This is ex-
actly what the writer trusts. We have had enough of such an advocacy
and arguments. E.] Yours faithfully,
December 16, 1882."
'(With this letter we close the discussion on the nature of the wine to
be administered in the communion.—Ed.)”
The writer has been as anxious as the above correspondent
appears to be, and as "The Academy" undoubtedly is, that
the views of "The Academy" should be fairly placed be-
fore the reader; for this purpose he has already been and
proposes yet to be at a large expense in placing the views
of the advocates for the use of fermented wine in their own
language fairly before the New Church. It has been his in-
tention not to leave a single argument, assumption or point
unanswered and unmet, after first fully and fairly presenting
it in the very language of his opponents. If his opponents
will deal as justly by his arguments it is all he will ask.
We ask the advocates of intoxicating wine to meet this
question fairly if they can; not as hitherto by assumptions
and arguments based thereon; but by the clear testimony
of the Word of the Lord and the Writings of the church;
and we will further say that in the light of this new day,
even though they are "authorized teachers," they will not
be allowed in its consideration to ignore unquestioned the
science of correspondences and the clear teachings and
discoveries of modern science. The truth, the whole truth
upon this most important subject, is what justice, mercy
and humanity demand. In conclusion, the writer will say,
without the slightest hesitation and without the shadow of
a doubt, that the truth upon this subject as it is revealed to
us in the Word of the Lord, and the Word opened by the
COMMUNICATION FROM MR. W. J. PARSONS.
547
Lord through the science of correspondences, demands that
leavened wine be banished from the communion tables of
our churches, and from our homes, as a substance vile,
filthy and poisonous; and it will be banished; for the New
Jerusalem Church is to survive, and not to perish from
evils of life and false doctrines, as have preceding churches.
We know that among the external evils which have been
instrumental in causing the consummation of the churches of
the past, the drinking of fermented wine and other intoxi-
cating drinks, corresponding to a falsified and perverted
faith, and having their origin from hell, has been foremost.
In the use of these poisonous substances the evils of self-
love, and the unhallowed love of sensual gratification, have
been ultimated; and the downfall of churches and nations
has resulted, as Swedenborg feared in his day the downfall
of the Swedish people would result from a like cause.
&+30
Since the preceding pages were in type the following com-
munication has been received from Mr. W. J. Parsons, son
of the late Prof. Theophilus Parsons, in regard to this wine
controversy:
COMMUNICATION FROM W. J. PARSONS, MARCH 13TH,
1883.
"The truth seems to be that the views of those who ad-
vocate fermented wine as a beverage are based upon a
strange and profound ignorance of the scientific discoveries
of the last twenty years.
"The common opinion accepts, as always, the seeming for
the real, and believes that grape-juice ferments, and that
548
COMMUNICATION FROM MR. W. I. PARSONS.
its fermentation is an orderly step in its life, of the Lord's
Providence and not of His Permission. First the water,
then the sap, then the juice, and finally the perfect fer-
mented wine.
"If this opinion was correct that the Lord so creates the
juice that in presence of pure air it would change of itself
into alcoholic wine, there might be ground to think that
such wine was a good and innocent drink if used with
care, especially if its use was attended with no danger.
"But the opinion is absolutely incorrect. Juice does not
ferment at all, it is fermented; and this difference is simply
a prodigous one.
"The air around us abounds with yeast, or leaven germs,
and these, introduced into the juice, and being there de-
veloped during the process of fermentation, eat up the
sugar and produce alcohol. Grape-juice kept from the air,
or exposed only to perfectly pure air, never ferments nor is
it fermented.
"The statement here given is accepted by the great scien-
tific men of this country and Europe as an unquestioned
fact. The great French chemist, Pasteur, by most ingeni-
ous experiments, drew the juice from grapes so that the air
did not touch it in the process. This juice would not fer-
ment as long as no air came to it, and was fermented as
soon as the ordinary air came to it at the proper tempera-
ture. But when Pasteur purified the air by heating it
or by passing it through thick layers of cotton wool, then
the leaven germs were either destroyed or held back by the
cotton, and the pure air would not ferment the juice at all.
How, then, can there be alcohol in heaven, where the air
must be pure, for no leaven from hell can be there? And
how could the Lord have turned the water into fermented
wine?
66
"Fermentation has been called a process of separation.
This is not true, for while there is separation, yet this is en-
tirely overshadowed by the profound chemical decomposi、
1
LETTER FROM DR. GEO. F. FOOTÉ.
549
tion which destroys the sugar, and the chemical reorgani-
zation which produces the alcohol.
"The correspondence is wonderful. A. C., Nos. 5145–
5149, show, with wonderful clearness, that truth does not
change into the false, but is changed into it by the influ-
ence of Hell, that is, by spiritual leaven. Swedenborg, as
a scientific man, could not have known these scientific
facts, but in A. E., No. 543, he perhaps foreshadows them.
"W. J. PARSONS."
The following letter, with the consent of its writer, is
inserted, showing the views of a well-known New Church
physician who has made a specialty of treating the insane
and drunkards, and who, in connection with experiments
on the preservation of unfermented wine, noticed in a pre-
vious letter inserted in the preceding pages, has had occa-
sion to carefully examine the subject of fermentation. It
will unquestionably attract the serious attention of the
reader as well as interest him.
LETTER FROM GEO. F. FOOTE, M. D.
STAMFORD, CONN., March 12, 1883.
Dr. John Ellis.-Dear Sir: I will offer for your con-
sideration the following, viz.:
"The cells of alcoholic ferment are of the animal kingdom,
as much so as a horse, or an elephant, though infinitely
small. The animal kingdom feeds upon and derives its
nourishment from organic matter. The vegetable kingdom
feeds upon and derives its nourishment from inorganic mat-
ter.
The torula or alcoholic ferment cell feeds upon
organized matter, therefore it is an animal, though micro-
scopic in size, being about the one three-thousandths of an
inch in diameter. They are great eaters, living upon the
nitrogenous and saccharine matter of vegetable juices. And
550
LETTER FROM DR. GEO. F. FOOTE.
as they eat, digest and assimilate, they must, as other ani-
mals, excrete a corresponding amount of matter, and this
passes away from these minute animals as carbonic acid gas,
alcohol, various acids, fusel oil, etc. And now in language
so plain "that he that runs may read :" The man or woman
that drinks fermented liquids, be it beer, wine, cider or
whiskey, simply puts into his stomach the excretory dis-
charges of an animal. Strong language, but nevertheless.
true.
"And with this I have a little incident to relate. Recent-
ly, while riding upon the cars, I met an old acquaintance,
to whom I explained some of the principles of our New
Church doctrines. After listening awhile, he replied, 'That
is very pretty in theory, but in practice it is found wanting.
Your New Church people are behind the age. In the town
where I live we have a small society. The members
of that society are most of them wine drinkers. Their
preacher is a wine drinker, and some of the society take
drinks stronger than wine. That society does not grow,
and for one I can't see any excellence in a religion that
lends an influence by precept and example to drunkenness.'
"Dr., I was dumb. I knew some of the parties to whom
he alluded, and it occurred to me that perhaps upon this
question we are behind the age.
"God speed you in your good work, Doctor. Send out
that book as soon as you can.
As a church we need it,
and it will do good. Yours, etc.
GEO. F. FOOTE."
THE TRUE WINE FOR THE NEW CHURCH.
55i
HAVING three or four spare pages, to complete a sheet,
the author will place before the reader a few paragraphs
from an article, the first part of which appears in the
March number of the "New Church Independent," signed
J. J. S.
"THE TRUE WİNE FOR THE NEW CHURCH-THE FRUIT
OF THE VINE.”
"THIS subject, of so vital and general importance, has
received in the late years new and increasing light from
ancient history, chemistry, medical testimony and modern
statistics, and from the science of correspondences, as re-
vealed through E. Swedenborg. Dr. John Ellis, of New
York, has written of late a very useful book on 'The Wine
Question in the Light of the New Dispensation,' in which
the subject is thoroughly discussed, and for which he de-
serves the thanks of the New Church in particular, to
which book also we refer the readers of this article, and
wish only to draw their attention to some of the chief
points of interest in this question.
"If we consider, that according to competent statements,
more than half of the crimes committed in countries, where
intoxicating drinks are in use,—more than half of the cases
of insanity and idiocy, the greatest share of organic dis-
eases and premature death,— are attributable to the effects
of alcoholic drinks, and that the money-value spent steadily
for such beverages, exceeds the average loss that may re-
sult to a country from any other natural calamity, failure
of crops, stagnation of commerce or industry, etc.; and
that this in each case, if saved instead of spent, might
afford more than sufficient relief; besides that individuals
and families in proportion are reduced to suffering and
misery, happiness is destroyed and spiritual progress is im-
peded ;—then, this question assumes a gigantic proportion,
and rises up before the New Church, to be solved, and the
552 THE TRUE WINE FOR THE NEW CHURCH.
truth to be established, however much it may be opposed
to and by prejudice, old custom, erroneous opinions and
selfish propensities. Truth is mighty and will prevail;
and, in this age of scientific research, the testimony of
science cannot be resisted.
It is proved beyond doubt, that the ancients had two
kinds of wine, the one, unfermented, which was valued
most, as of superior quality, which also the Bible commends
as useful and harmless; the other, fermented and intoxi-
cating, which also the Bible warns against. It was the
former, the unfermented wine, the preserved juice of the
grape, called the fruit of the vine, which the Lord Jesus
Christ used at the feast of the passover, when He instituted
the Sacrament of the Holy Supper.
"The question arises, how could the Church fall so deep
into error, as to adopt for Sacramental use the fermented
intoxicating wine, instead of the unperverted juice of the
grape, either fresh or preserved; and into such ignorance,
that church members did not even know any more thạt
such a true wine existed? Young church members among
Protestants, when first admitted to the communion table,
were thus initiated into the use of a beverage untrue to
its signification, and could, conscientiously and in honor of
the Mother-Church, adopt no better principle for life, than
to use such a beverage only temperately and with modera-
tion, and never to excess which could cause drunkenness,-
a difficult situation indeed, with one and the same spring
furnishing a healthy and an unhealthy drink, and one tree
bearing a good and an evil fruit. The question also pre-
sents itself, how could the use and abuse of injurious
beverages, containing more or less alcohol, take such a
hold on modern people called civilized, as to appear like a
necessity of life or a necessary evil too strong to be over-
come by efforts for reform ?
"But from the standpoint of the New Church, and by
the help of the science of correspondences, the answer can
THE TRUE WINE FOR THE NEW CHURCH. 553
be found. The subject also presents two different aspects;
one from the perverted, unregenerated state of human
nature, the other from the state of perfection and purity,
which religion teaches, ought to be reached."
Then follows the beginning of a consideration of this
subject in the light of correspondences. The remainder
of the article will appear in the April number of the
"Independent." The day is not far distant when a multi-
tude of earnest, intelligent men and women will be at<
tracted to the New Church by the clear light which is
thrown upon this subject by the science of correspon-
dences, the philosophy of the church, and the express
teachings of Swedenborg. It certainly is wonderful that
Swedenborg, writing at a period when, in Europe, fer-
mented wine was universally regarded as the only true wine
by the Christian church, should deliberately compare such
wine to falses from evil, and should compare the effects of
the vinous spirit called alcohol on man to the effects of the
doctrine of faith alone on the clergy. And it is also worthy
of special note that, while he never in a single passage
in his writings distinctly gives to fermented wine itself a
good signification, he repeatedly calls the juice of grapes
as it is pressed from the grapes, as it is trodden from the
grapes, and as it flows from the press, wine (vinum) thus
recognizing unfermented must as wine; and he gives to it
in numerous passages, as we have seen in the preceding
pages, the full signification of wine. If unfermented must
then, which never causes drunkenness, is wine, and has the
full signification of wine, it would seem to be perfectly clear
that fermenting must and fermented wine, which have been
so totally changed by leaven, and which will cause drunk-
enness, can never have a good signification, and, con-
sequently, can never be true wines. The good wine of the
Word and of the Writings is then unquestionably the un-
fermented juice of grapes, either recently pressed or pre-
served by boiling, or by some of the other methods described
554 THE TRUE WINE FOR THE NEW CHURCH..
by ancient writers. Such wines only are the fruit of the
vine, whereas the essential ingredient in fermented wines
is the product of leaven, but not even its fruit, as we have
seen in the preceding pages.
"Wine is called the blood of grapes, since each signifies
holy truth proceeding from the Lord" (A. C. 5117). Does
fermented wine proceed from the Lord? Never, as we
have seen.
"By the produce of the wine-press was signified all the
truth and good of the Church, the same as by wine” (A. E.
799).
We read in T. C. R. 699: “Who has heretofore known
in what their peculiar sanctity consists, or whence it is
derived?" "The sanctity of the sacrament of which we
are now speaking without an opening of the spiritual sense,
or what is the same thing, without a revelation of the corre-
spondence of natural things with spiritual, can no more be
inwardly known and acknowledged than a treasure can be
known when it lies hid in the field" (T. C. R. 701).
INTOXICANTS, PROHIBITION,
AND OUR
NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS
IN 1884-5.
BY
JOHN ELLIS, M. D.,
""
ALTHOR OF "THE AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE, "MARRIAGE AND
ITS VIOLATIONS, "THE WINE QUESTION IN THE LIGHT OF THE
A REPLY TO THE ACADEMY'S
DETERIORATION OF THE PURITAN
NEW DISPENSATION,
REVIEW,
ઃઃ
"A
""
STOCK, "ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY, AND
"SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION."
Jeremiah xxxi. 12: "Here by wheat, new wine (mustum) and oil are signified
goods and truths of every kind.”—(A. E. 376.)
Field and ground denote the Church; corn, its good; and must, or new wine
(mustum-SWEDENBORG), its truth.-(A. C. 3941.)
555
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
1885.
CONTENTS.
PREFACE.
The Causes of the Delay in the Publication of this Work-Grape
Cure in Switzerland-Condensed Wine manufactured in Hun-
gary-Grape Honey or Dibs-Boiled Wine in Cairo, Egypt, and
Damascus, Asia-Unfermented Wine used as a Communion Wine
by the Coptic Church in Egypt-The Laboring Turk-Moham-
medanism and its Mission,
559
CHAPTER I.
New Church Periodicals-Letter to "The Morning Light”—“ New
Church Life"-Boston and London New Church Magazines,
"The Independent,” "The Dawn" and "The Messenger," 569
""
CHAPTER II.
THE NEW CHURCH LIFE AND AN INTOXICANT AS A COMMUNION
WINE.
Is all Intoxicant Commanded to be Used at the Most Holy
Supper? The Correspondence of Fermented Wine-Corres-
pondence of Leaven and Leavened Substances-- Two Kinds of
Wine-Correspondence of Must and of Unfermented Grape Juice
and Wine-Unfermented Grape Juice called Wine, and is always
suitable as a Communion Wine-Testimony of Swedenborg-
Passover Wine, .
573
CHAPTER III.
"NEW CHURCH LIFE" ON "PUNCH" AND PROHIBITION.
Punch a Prohibited Drink even in the Spiritual London-Freedom
Easily Destroyed by the Use of Intoxicants--Prohibition Pro-
tects the Young, and Assists the Slaves of Appetite to Regain
their Freedom if they Desire to be Free,
CHAPTER IV.
"NEW CHURCH LIFE'S" "PROHIBITION CRAZE."
592
Significant Statistics-Strange Representations and Mistaken Views, 601
557
558
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
"NEW CHURCH LIFE" AND THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ALCOHOL.
Strange Statement-Is a Good Signification ever given by Sweden-
borg to Fermented Wine? Never-A few Facts worthy of the
Attention of Every One who Desires to know the Truth,
CHAPTER VI.
NEW CHURCH MESSENGER" AND THE WINE QUESTION.
Letter to the Editor of "The Messenger"-Editor's Reply-Second
Reply of the Editor and Reply to the same, with Comments,
:
:
CHAPTER VII.
LEAVEN—LEAVENED AND UNLEAVENED WINE.
Communication to "The Messenger" in Reply to a Sermon Treating
on these Subjects, which was Refused Admittance into its Columns
by the Editor-Evil Uses, an Article from "The Dawn"-Is it
Necessary for Men to Appropriate Evil Uses?—A Strange and
Pernicious Doctrine-Diseases and their Treatment,.
CHAPTER VIII.
ALCOHOL AN EVIL USE.
Communication from William J. Parsons-Alcohol Never the Product
of the Vine-The Juice of the Grape does not Ferment, but is
Fermented-Alcohol from Hell-Alcohol is a Poison-Absolute
Alcohol cannot be used as a Beverage-Letter from Mrs. T. W.
Seabrook, .
606
615
624
642
=
CHAPTER IX.
:
Man Regenerated by Internal not External Restraints-Modern
Reforms, Strange Assaults-Testimony of Emanuel Swedenborg
-Various Christian Organizations-English New Church Con-
ference Prohibition, Why Necessary-New Scheme of Salvation
-Man Not Saved by Doctrines Alone,
FINAL APPEAL,
549
662
EXTRACTS FROM CANON FARRAR'S ADDRESS,
664
LETTER FROM A NEW CHURCH MINISTER-Terrible Results from
the use of Fermented Wine at the Holy Supper,
665
PREFACE
AND
ITEMS GATHERED IN FOREIGN LANDS.
""
THE writer of the following pages, in his work on the
"Wine Question in the Light of the New Dispensation,
published in 1882, in his reply to the criticisms of his previ-
ous tract on "Pure Wine, Fermented Wine and Other
Alcoholic Drinks," by "The Academy" of the New Church,
published in its serial "Words for the New Church,” gave
the following notice to the gentlemen of "The Academy":
"We give you due notice that while the present writer lives,
and the Lord gives him the ability to write and print, you
cannot have it all your own way while you publicly, in print,
advocate the use of intoxicating drinks; and that while 'Words
for the New Church' may reach one reader, the reply containing
or including the gist of your arguments, will be likely to reach
more than one.".
Following the publication of the above work, there appeared
in "Words for the New Church," a review of the same, calling
in question the truth of the views, statements and facts therein
contained, so boldly and in such a manner that the writer
felt that it was his duty to carefully review the whole subject
more critically and fully, and to bring additional proof to
sustain the truth of his statements. Reading carefully all the
works which he could find bearing upon the subject, written
by many distinguished scholars, and with the most valuable
assistance of, and suggestions from, a large number of his
559
560 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
New Church brethren, both clergymen and laymen, he wrote
and prepared "A Reply to The Academy's' Review," con-
taining 270 pages, in which he considered the wine question
carefully in the light of the Hebrew, Greek and English
Scriptures, ancient history, the writings of the ancients, the
early customs of the First Christian Church, the Writings of
the New Church in the Latin and English languages, and the
teachings of modern science. The two works named above,
containing an amount of information on the wine question
to be found in no two other works in the world, were sent,
as the writer intends to send this, to every New Church fam-
ily in the world whose name he was able to obtain, and
whom he had been able to reach through advertising and
the hearty co-operation of others, especially in England-
nearly eight thousand copies, in all, have thus been dis-
tributed. In looking over the New Church field, and judg-
ing as far as he is able as to the results, he can but feel that
this has been, so far as the organized New Church is con- .
cerned, beyond question the most important work of his life.
He believes that every New Churchman who is neither
strongly confirmed in favor of "Old Church wine," nor in
the love of drinking it, will be entirely satisfied by reading
carefully the above volumes, that fermented wine and other
intoxicating drinks should never be used by healthy men and
women as beverages; and, above all, that fermented wine
should never be used as a communion wine by New Church-
men.
The writing and printing of this pamphlet have been delayed
longer than they otherwise would have been, owing to the
absence of the writer with his wife, for one year, during which
time they visited all the countries of Europe excepting Russia
and Portugal, and visited Egypt and went up the Nile as far as
Thebes, then to Port Said, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Jericho, the Dead
Sea and the Jordan, and Bethlehem, Beyrout, Baalbec, Damas-
cus and Constantinople. He wrote a series of articles which
were published in the London Dawn," descriptive of their
PREFACE.
561
journey through the portions of continental Europe, Africa
and Asia, which were visited.
It was his intention to have written letters for the "New Jeru-
salem Messenger,” and at the time when he sent to the "Mes-
senger" the reply to the sermon on Leaven, etc., which will be
found in the following pages, he sent a short sketch of an
excursion through Ireland, which appeared in the "Messenger";
but when he found that the editor of the "Messenger" was
not willing to correct, or to allow others to correct such
erroneous statements in regard to wine as were contained in
that sermon, he did not feel that it would be right for him to
send the "Messenger" to a hundred or two friends whom he
was especially desirous should see his letters, consequently he
wrote no more letters to the " Messenger;" but as the editor
of the London "Dawn,'
Dawn,” a New Church and temperance
paper, expressed a desire to receive communications descrip-
tive of their travels, he sent his letters to that paper, and
ordered it sent for one year to over two hundred friends.
In Switzerland we inquired in regard to the "grape cure,"
of which the reader has doubtless heard. We were told that
large numbers of people from various parts of the world
visited that country for the sake of being cured of various dis-
eases by the use of grapes. We found that patients ate the
grapes, commencing with one pound a day, and gradually
increasing the quantity until they ate three or four pounds.
Some, instead of eating the grapes, with a small hand-press
squeezed the juice from them into a cup or glass, and drank
the juice; and we learned that patients were often materially
benefitted and even cured by the treatment. Grapes do
not cure diseases as poisonous remedies cure, but by supply-
ing the orderly wants of the body for such as are suffering
from the use of fermented and intoxicating drinks and other
improper articles of diet, which have not duly supplied them
with all the nourishment needed by the different structures of
the body. It is safe to say that the juice of no other fruit or
vegetable so strikingly resembles blood in its composition as
562 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
the unfermented juice of grapes; and it is equally safe to say
that the juice of no other fruit used for human food less
resembles blood in its chemical composition than does well
fermented grape juice or wine: all of which is very suggestive.
We learned while at Vevay, in Switzerland, from parties.
interested, that there was a company which was evaporating,
by a patented process, the fresh grape juice, or new wine,
from six parts to one, in Hungary, and shipping it in large
quantities to London; and as we were intending to visit that
country, the owners of the patent made arrangements for the
superintendent of the company to meet us at Buda-pesth, and to
bring us samples of the concentrated wine. The gentleman
brought us three quart bottles full of it. We found it as thick
as honey, slightly acid, and, when diluted with water, a
delightful and nourishing drink which we enjoyed much. We
also ate it on our bread and meat and bread and butter, and
found it an excellent article for this purpose. It was so thick
that it would scarcely run from the bottle. This carefully
concentrated grape juice possessed the flavor of the grapes,
and, in the judgment of the writer, would make an excellent
substitute for the fresh grapes for the cure of diseases in cases
where they are likely to prove beneficial; and it would have
the advantage with those not able to travel to distant lands,
that it could be used at home, and its use extended over a
longer period of time; and, if taken in much smaller quantities
during the twenty-four hours, it would be much more likely
to prove permanently beneficial. It does not readily ferment,
it is easily preserved and transported, can be readily canned,
and should be much cheaper than the same amount of
nourishment in the form of unreduced grape juice or wine;
and it would seem that wine or grape juice thus preserved
should become a valuable article of commerce and a source
of health, joy and delight to the nations of the earth, instead of,
as in the case of fermented wine, a source of drunkenness,
disease, insanity, poverty, crime and death, The grapes of
Switzerland, and especially of Hungary, are not as acid as
PREFACE.
563
those grown further north, nor as sweet as those grown further
south, and would seem to be admirably adapted either for the
purpose named above, or for the "grape cure."
At Cairo, Egypt, the writer visited the American missionaries
who have been laboring for many years in Egypt. They
informed him that their converts were almost entirely from the
remnants of the Christian Church in Egypt, or the Copts, who,
in spite of opposition and persecution, have retained their
Christian faith to this day. One of the missionaries, on being
asked what kind of wine the Coptic Church and the societies
connected with his mission used as a sacramental wine,
replied that they use a wine made by soaking raisins in water
for twelve or more hours, and then pressing them; and that
the officers of his societies always thus prepared and had the
wine ready for use at the proper time. One of the mission-
aries said that, "when the Copts were told that Western
Christians use 'shop wine,' as they call fermented wine, for a
communion wine, they were horrified at the idea," and well
they might be.
Knowing that, in the days of the Prophets, the juice of
grapes, concentrated by boiling, was brought down to Egypt
under the name of honey; we inquired of our dragoman or
guide, who was a Syrian, if we could get unfermented grape
juice or wine in Cairo. He said that he knew of a dealer
who kept grape honey, or dibs, which was the juice boiled
down to a thick syrup, and that it was brought from Syria.
He went out and obtained a sample, and we found it as thick
as honey and partially candied. At Damascus, in Asia, we
saw exposed for sale by the sides of the streets, and in the
bazaars, large dishes of boiled grape juice, or wine, which
they call dibs, and grape honey, and which was so thick, that
when it was cut and removed from one side of the dish, the
rest retained its position and would not flow. Our dragoman
said that the people were very fond of this grape food, and
that they use it upon their bread, and dissolve it in water
and use it as a drink, and that they also use it in preparing
564 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
certain kinds of food or delicacies, of which they are fond.
We obtained a sample, and found it very sweet and semi-
granulated to a greater or less extent. We obtained at Bey-
rout some grapes which we found were very sweet, indeed.
There is no question but that this boiled grape juice or wine
is precisely the same kind of wine as that described by ancient
writers, to which attention was called in our former works on
the wine question; for Aristotle, born 384 years B. C.,
assures us that the wine of Arcadia was so thick that it was
necessary to scrape it from the skin bottles in which it
was contained, and to dissolve the scrapings in water before
drinking it. 'Some of the celebrated Opimian wine men-
tioned by Pliny had, in his day, two centuries after its pro-
duction, the consistence of honey"-(Wines of the Bible).
"Athenæus states that the Taniotic wine has such a degree
of richness or fatness, that when mixed with water, it seemed
gradually to be diluted much in the same way as Attic honey
well mixed."--(Bible Commentary). Now, we know very well
that no such wines as the above can be made either by fer-
menting or by boiling the fermented juice of grapes, for
fermentation decomposes, separates or casts down and out
the substances which make the wine thick when boiled.
"According to Homer, Pramnian and Meronian wines
require twenty parts of water to one of wine. Hippocrates
considered twenty parts of water to one of the Thracian wine
to be the proper beverage.”—(Bible Commentary). Now, what
drinker of fermented wine would be satisfied with adding
twenty parts of water to one part of the wine which he drinks?
And yet we diluted some of the concentrated wines named
above, which we obtained in Hungary, Egypt and Damascus,
in twenty parts of water to one of wine, and they made a very
pleasant drink—the one which we obtained in Hungary was
quite tart, while that obtained in Cairo and Damascus was
sweet; so that, according to the quality and character of the
grapes, such is the quality, flavor and taste of the concen-
trated wine.
PREFACE.
565
In the following pages the writer intends, in his reply to the
advocates for the use of intoxicating drinks, to confine himself
principally to the testimony of the Sacred Scriptures, the Writ-
ings of the Church, and especially the science of correspond-
ences. That there are two kinds of wine, one fermented and
the other unfermented, which have in all ages been and are
to-day called wine by the ablest writers, and in dictionaries
and in the Sacred Scriptures, and in the Writings of the Church,
has been fully established; and we cannot see how it can be
called in question by any New Churchman who is even toler-
ably well informed upon the subject, and who is willing to see
the truth. Unfermented wines are preserved at this day pre-
cisely as they were more than eighteen hundred years ago by
processes which were described by writers then living; and
such wines are advertised in our periodicals, and even in New.
Church periodicals, and thousands of churches in this country
and Great Britain are using them, and quite a number of New
Church societies in both countries are using them as com-
munion wines; and yet we have a New Church periodical,
as the reader will hereafter see, the conductors of which do
not hesitate to speak contemptuously of "Dr. Sampson's
two-wine theory," as though it were but a theory and not a
fact that there are two kinds of wine. How strange!
The New Church reader who is not fully satisfied beyond
the possibility of a doubt, that unfermented wine is the good
wine of the Word and of the writings, and the only wine suit-
able for use as a beverage and as a communion wine, if he has
any desire to know the truth upon this whole question, will do
well not only to read the following pages, but also the writer's
two previous works-the one on "The Wine Question in the .
Light of the New Dispensation," and the other, "A Reply to
'The Academy's' Review ;" and that he may have no excuse for
not reading them, if he desires to do so, the author will send
both works, postage paid, without money and without price,
to any believer in the doctrines of the New Church, in any part of
the world, who has not already received them, and cannot
566 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
readily obtain the loan of them to read from those who have
them, provided such New Church person will send his or her
name and address to Dr. John Ellis, 157 Chambers street,
New York City, N. Y. The reader will see from the above
offer that these works have not been written and printed for
the purpose of making money; but it has been done for the
purpose of placing the truth upon this most important question
fairly before the members of the Church and their children, for
the sake of benefitting them. Under such circumstances, and
in view of the great importance of the question discussed to
the Church and the world, the writer feels that it may not be
improper for him to say that he has examined this question of
wine and of alcoholic drinks immeasurably more thoroughly,
critically and carefully, in all of its various aspects, and under
better circumstances and with greater facilities for reaching
correct conclusions, than has been done by any other man in
the New Church, or, perhaps, he can say, even in the world;
for the following reasons: First, he has been a total abstainer
from intoxicating drinks for more than half a century, and
never has acquired an appetite for them; consequently, in his
researches, investigations and experiments, he has never been
influenced by appetite, nor was he ever strongly confirmed in
favor of such drinks by "Old Church" doctrines and examples
which existed in full force when he was a boy. Second, as a
medical man and as a New Churchman, his attention was
early called to this question, and he has made it a special
study in all of its scientific and medical aspects for many years,
and he has read the writings of Swedenborg diligently and
carefully with this question ever before him. Third, he has
not only read carefully the works of a large number of the
ablest scholars of the age who have most carefully investigated
the question, but he has had the assistance of, and suggestions
from, New Church clergymen, physicians and laymen, both
in this country and Europe, to the extent no other man has
ever had. Every New Churchman will readily recognize the
advantages which he has had over all writers who have no
PREFACE.
567
knowledge of correspondences, true doctrines and the spiritual
sense of the Word.
While in Egypt one of the American missionaries said to the
writer: "There is not a single infidel or skeptic among the
natives in all Egypt; they all believe in a God and a future
life." The people of Egypt and Western Asia are mostly
Mohammedans; and, however ignorant and fanatical they
may be, they are generally religious, faithful and conscientious
according to their ideas of right. An English gentleman who
has resided in Constantinople for twenty years, and employs a
large number of men, in speaking of the laboring population,
exclaimed: "The laboring Turk has a great future before
him. If I want a good, reliable watchman to watch my mill, or
a boatman to row me down the Golden Horn to Pera, where I
reside, I employ a Turk, and prefer him to a Christian.” And
among the reasons which he gave for preferring Turks for such
offices was that they are always sober. As it is against their
religious principles to ever drink any kind of intoxicating
drinks, distilled or fermented, they are consequently free
from "the enormous sin of drunkenness." Only in a very few
instances in the cities where they have been contaminated and
led astray by the bad example of professed Christians, mostly
foreigners, do they ever use intoxicating drinks. Here,
then, we have nearly or quite one-fifth of the inhabitants living
on this globe, in the providence of the Lord, protected from
drunkenness by total abstinence from all liquids and sub-
stances which can intoxicate. Is not this great fact worthy of
our consideration? The experience of men and women of
cvery race for thousands of years, and of every church which
has ever existed on earth, shows, beyond the possibility of a
doubt, that the only way that drunkenness can be prevented, is
by total abstinence from intoxicants. And we are finding and
shall find that the members of the New Church and their
families are no exception to the general rule. If we teach our
children and our members that it is right to use fermented
wine, beer, and distilled liquors, and set them an example of
568 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
using such poisons, as in the past so in the future, drunkards
will step down and out from our pulpits, and they will disappear
from our societies; and a portion of the children of our societies
are sure to become drunkards, and no father or mother who
has children can say that it will not be his or hers; and wives
will have drunken husbands, and children drunken fathers,
with all the attendant sorrows, mortification, wretchedness and
poverty; for God's laws cannot be violated with impunity, even
though they be natural laws which are only ultimates of
spiritual laws. Surrounded as our children are at this day by
false teaching and evil examples, churches and parents by the
clearest instruction and best example may not always be able
to guard the young from being led into drinking habits and
consequent drunkenness; but the faithful church and parent
will have the consolation of knowing that they have done their
duty, which will save them from the most unpleasant self-
reproaches.
It seems to the writer that, next to the establishment of the
worship of one God, instead of the idolatry of the times, the
most important use which Mohammedanism has performed in
the world, and one of the chief reasons why in the providence
of the Lord the believers in the Koran have been permitted to
overrun such a large portion of the earth, making converts of
the people, is because they carry with them the principles of
total abstinence from intoxicating drinks, and teach and lead
men to shun their use as a sin.
Before the New Church as an external organization can ever
command the respect of intelligent men and women, and
exert the power and influence over men that it should, it
must teach its young to shun the drinking of intoxicating
drinks as a sin against God; and that it is no more right for us
to attempt to drink them temperately, than it is to deliber-
ately imbibe temperately falses and evils to which such drinks
correspond; and fermented wine must be put away from our
communion tables.
INTOXICANTS AND OUR NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS
IN 1884-5.
CHAPTER I.
WHILE no serious attempt has been made to answer, or even to
review, the "Reply to 'The Academy's' Review" of "The Wine
Question in the Light of the New Dispensation," published in
1883, yet the advocates for the use of intoxicating drinks, and
for leavened wine as a communion wine in the New Church,
have not been idle, especially those belonging to "The
Academy" and in sympathy therewith on this question.
Within the past year there has been great activity in the attempts
to justify and thus encourage the use of intoxicants, not
by an appeal to the Word and Writings, or even to science, but by
groundless assumptions, assertions which are contradicted
by well-known facts, and positive statements which are unsus-
tained by legitimate arguments. These efforts have been made
in a sermon, in essays, and in short squibs in our periodicals,
and remind one of the guerrilla warfare which sometimes
follows an open contest; but before the truth can be fully
established and peace restored, these enemies of total
abstinence and prohibition must be followed up and met
wherever they show a hand.
Among our New Church periodicals The New Church
Life," being, as we understand, either under the control, or at
least under the influence of "The Academy," as we would
expect, stands foremost in its opposition to the truth; and openly
and boldly advocates the use of leavened wine as a com-
569
570 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
??
munion wine, and strives to justify the use of fermented wine and
"punch" as beverages, and assails New Church prohibitionists
without stint or reason. The New Jerusalem Messenger,
being the organ of the General Convention, contrary to what
we would expect, has published a sermon and two essays,
evidently intended to justify the use of intoxicating drinks, and
has refused to admit replies. The "Morning Light" of London
has admitted, "incidentally," to its columns 'erroneous views
upon the wine question.
The writer addressed to the publisher of the "Morning
Light" the following letter :
Publisher of the "Morning Light.'
""
157 Chambers Street,
New York, May 20th, 1884.
Dear Sir:-I have noticed that in three late numbers of the "Morn-
ing Light" an attempt has been made by some of your correspondents to
make it appear that leavened wine has a better signification than leavened
bread, and that fermented or leavened wine has a good signification any
way. As nothing can be further from the truth and calculated to do
more harm to the Church and our fellow-men, especially the young, than
such views, I am exceedingly sorry to see them advanced in your paper
without their falsity being shown, and I am quite sure that if they are
allowed to stand unnoticed, and it should thus appear to your readers
that your paper is an advocate of fermented wine, it will do your paper
great harm, which I should regret.
I have written a communication for the "Morning Light," which I
hope you will insert, setting forth opposite views, but making no allusion
to the above articles or their writers. By its insertion you will much
oblige me.
Very respectfully yours,
JOHN ELLIS.
The publisher of the "Morning Light" declined to insert
the reply. But as it was in substance afterwards printed in the
"Dawn," and extensively circulated in England, where the
“Morning Light" mostly circulates, it will not be necessary
to reprint the reply in this book, especially as the ground is
very fully covered in the following replies to the "New Church
Life" and the "Messenger" articles.
"
The New Church Independent" has given a fair hearing
to both sides of this question.
NEW CHURCH MAGAZINES AND "THE DAWN.” 571
The Boston 'New Church Magazine" and the London
"New Church Magazine," so far as the writer has observed,
have been silent upon this great practical question of life,
absolutely ignoring the fact that dissipation threatens the
perpetuity of our civil government, and even the existence of
'our race, and is the cause of untold wretchedness, poverty and
crime in domestic life.
“The Dawn,” published in London, England, is the only
New Church periodical which openly advocates the cause of
temperance. It devotes a portion of its columns to this ques-
tion, and imparts to its readers much valuable information.
It has also published articles written by the advocates for the
use of fermented wine, to which a reply has always been
admitted. "The Dawn" is worthy of the patronage of all
New Church parents who desire to see their sons and daugh-
ters grow up into temperate and orderly citizens, and become
worthy and exemplary members of the New Church. A
religious periodical enters a home, and is entitled to and
receives more respectful attention than a secular paper, and
the young are more likely to heed the instruction therein
contained than what they find in a secular paper.
When so
many of the religious periodicals of the various religious
organizations, and even secular papers, are crying out against
the use of intoxicating drinks, tobacco and opium, and warn-
ing the young against their use; and when we see the fearful
results which follow from the use of these poisons all around
us, even in the New Church, how can our New Church
periodicals keep silence? And, above all, how can they admit
articles which justify and encourage the use of intoxicating
drinks, which contain assumptions that are groundless,
and statements that are not true, as some of them have done?
Their editors know that there is a difference of opinion on
these questions among New Churchmen, and they recognize
the fact that the advocates for total abstinence, and for the
use of unfermented wine as a communion wine, are increasing
rapidly; and the editor of "The Messenger," at least, ought
572 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
A
to be able to see that they are as much entitled to a hearing
in the columns of that paper, as are "The Academy" writers;
but he admits the assumptions of the latter and persistently
excludes the replies of the former. Is this course either just
or expedient? Time will tell whether it is expedient or not.
What are the advocates for the use of intoxicants afraid of,
that they dare not admit the views of those who differ from
them? Old evils and false doctrines can only be removed
by being exposed, and dragged into the light of this new day;
and new errors can only be stayed in their progress by a fair
discussion. The temperance reform has now reached a posi-
tion in the New Church where it cannot be ignored by our
periodicals, and the latter flourish; and, above all, our periodi-
cals cannot stand upon the wrong side of the great practical
questions of life by which the world is being so moved at
this day by the in-flowing of new truth and life from the Lord,
and be supported much longer by a majority of the members
of the New Church. False doctrines are bad, but falses
which spring from and uphold evils of life are immeasurably
worse; in other words, it is better to be a good Methodist,
or Congregationalist, than a dissipated New Churchman; but
it is much better yet to be a true New Churchman, which can
only result from living the life of the Church, which requires
the shunning of evils as sins against God, instead of harboring
and upholding and justifying them.
Our New Church organizations and periodicals should stand
foremost—yes, at the very front-in all the great and so much
needed reforms of this new age. Our Church walls should
protect its members, and especially the young, as far as possi-
ble, from such a fearful evil as the drinking of intoxicating
drinks. False doctrines are bad, evils of life are far worse.
CHAPTER II.
""
THE NEW CHURCH LIFE AND AN
INTOXICANT FOR
SACRAMENTAL WINE.
THE editors of the "New Church Life" say:
"If Dr. Samson's two-wine theory were confined to the Old Church it
would concern us but little. Unfortunately, though, it has gained a foot-
hold in the New Church-and worse still, it appears to be spreading. For
this our New Church periodicals and ministers are largely responsible.
With scarcely an exception, they know that the use of must for wine at the
Holy Supper is akin to, if not actual desecration.”
The two-wine theory is no theory of Dr. Sampson's or of
anyone else; but it is a simple fact well known from before
the days of Solomon, who alludes to two kinds of wine,
down to the present hour, that unfermented must, or juice of
the grape, is also called wine, as well as the fermented juice
of the grape. That the reader may have a chance to judge
whether "the use of must for wine at the Holy Supper is akin
to, if not actual desecration" or not, we will bring the testi-
mony of the Word and of the Writings, first as to fermented
wine, in instances where there is no question but that it is to
fermented wine to which allusion is made, and then we will
do the same as to must, or the unfermented juice of the grape;
and we believe that the unprejudiced reader will be able to see
clearly that must, or new wine, is always suitable for use in
the Holy Supper, while the use of fermented wine is always
"actual desecration." After introducing another quotation
from the "New Church Life," and briefly noticing it, we will
bring line upon line and precept upon precept from the Word
and the Writings, and the reader will be able to see why the
truth is spreading so rapidly among both the clergy and laity
of the New Church. "Truth is mighty and will prevail."
573
574 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
Again exclaims the editor of the "New Church Life :"
"He" (a New Churchman)." cannot, as a rational man, term intoxicants a
curse and profess belief in the Divine revelation, which commands the use
of an intoxicant in the most Holy Sacrament."
A strange assertion, indeed. If the idea, so baldly and boldly
promulgated above in a religious journal, that Divine revela-
tion commands the use of an intoxicant in the most Holy
Sacrament, does not shock every "rational" and earnest New
Churchman, we do not know what would do so. There is
not a single sentence in the Word of the Lord, nor a single
passage in the Writings of the Church, nor a fact in science,
which will justify the above statement. The Word, the
Writings and science proclaim a totally different doctrine.
Let us look at this subject for a few moments, simply in
the light of the Sacred Scriptures and the writings of Sweden-
borg.
We know that fermented wine and other drinks or sub-
stances which contain alcohol, are intoxicants; and that
unfermented wine never causes intoxication. There is no
question but that fermented or intoxicating wine is the
natural correspondent of the wine, which we are told in
Deut. xxxii. 33, "is the poison of dragons, and the cruel
venom of asps;"-the wine of which we are told in Jeremiah
li. 7, "the nations have drunken, therefore the nations are
mad," or the wine which we are told in Prov. xx. 1, that it
"is a mocker, and that it biteth like a serpent and stingeth
like an adder."
""
The wine which causes drunkenness Swedenborg com-
pares, as to its inherent life or ability to affect man when
he drinks it, to falses from evil, in the following clear and
distinct language, without any reference to its abuse, or
excessive use. It is of the quality of the wine itself, of
which he speaks. "Falses not from evil may be compared
to waters not pure, which being drunk do not induce drunk-
enness; but falses from evil may be compared to wine
[Mark the language, gentle reader.-E.] and strong drink
CORRESPONDENCE OF FERMENTED WINE. 575
that induce drunkenness; wherefore also that insanity, in the
Word, is said to be effected by wine, which is called the
wine of whoredom, and the wine of Babel in Jeremiah li. 7:
'A cup of gold is Babel in the hand of Jehovah, inebriating
the universal earth, the nations have drank of her wine, there-
fore the nations are insane. (A. E. 1035.)
It would have been impossible for Swedenborg, as an
intelligent man, to have used the language above if he had
not been aware of the fact that there is wine which will not
cause drunkenness; and the same is true of strong drinks.
Look at the following clear and distinct statement as to
the correspondence of fermented wine: "To be made
drunken is to be led into errors by false reasonings and by
wrong interpretations of the Word; wine denotes the false
grounded in evil." (A. C. 8904.)
Again Swedenborg says: "The reason why the false which
gives birth to evil is signified, is because, as wine intoxicates
and makes insane, so does the false; spiritual intoxication
being nothing but insanity induced by reasonings concerning
what is to be believed, when nothing is believed which is not
comprehended; hence comes falses, and from falses evil"
(A. C. 5120). Again we are told that "To be intoxicated from
the cup, is to be insane from falses" (A. C. 5120, 9960).
An intoxicating or fermented wine is always the product of
leaven. Not a single drop of it is ever found in the healthy,
sound fruit of the vine. Swedenborg says that leaven signifies
"the falsity of evil" (D. P. 284). And again he says it
signifies "The evil and the false whereby things celestial and
spiritual are rendered impure and profane" (A. C. 2342).
"What
'The
And in regard to things leavened we are told that,
is leavened denotes what is falsified" (A. C. 8051).
thing falsified which is signified by what is leavened, and the
false which is signified by leaven, differ in this, that the thing
falsified is truth applied to confirm evil, and the false is every-
thing contrary that is contrary to the truth" (A. C. 8062).
Leaven is so frequently commanded not to be eaten, because
576 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
in all things it is necessary to guard against the false, for the
false destroys good (A. C. 7909). Leavened bread after
being baked is, to a great extent, purified by heat, the life of
the leaven cells being destroyed, and the poisonous and un-
clean products of leaven driven off while baking; and, as
unbaked leavened dough is rarely if ever eaten, it is manifest
that the commands against eating that which was leavened
were principally directed against leavened wine and other fer-
mented fluids, and food mixed with such fluids. The
orthodox Jews to-day and their race have always understood
that the prohibition included fermented wine and all fer-
mented drinks. Leavened substances cause natural drunken-
ness, as what is falsified causes spiritual drunkenness.
Unleavened wine and other unleavened natural substances
never cause natural drunkenness; and even the New Church
Academy admits, in "Words for the New Church," that
unperverted spiritual truths never cause spiritual drunkenness.
Can any New Churchman for a moment question but that
the causes of natural drunkenness correspond to the causes
of spiritual drunkenness?
Now, can any intelligent New Churchman believe that a
wine thus produced, and which clearly corresponds to the
worst kind of falses-to falses from evil-as can be seen above,
is a suitable wine to be used at the most Holy Sacrament? If
any one does so believe, let him read the following from the
last great work written by Swedenborg.
In speaking of the effects of the doctrine of "Justification
by faith alone" on the clergy, Swedenborg says: "And since
they are intoxicated in all their thoughts by that doctrine, just
as if they had drunk of the vinous spirit called alcohol, there-
fore, in such a state of inebriation they cannot discern this most
essential tenet of the Church, viz. that Jehovah God descended,
and assumed the humanity" (T. C. R. 98).
We are told by Swedenborg that "the wine which Noah
drank, and with which he was made drunken, denotes the
false principle with which that Church in the beginning was
SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL FERMENTATION.
577
imbued." And again he tells us that: "The wine with which
Noah was made drunken signifies what is false." (Arcana
Cœlestia, 9960.)
That fermented wine always has a bad signification is beyond
question, for it always contains the vinous spirit called alco-
hol, and vinegar; neither of which has a good correspondence.
"The reason why," says Swedenborg, "no leaven and
honey were to be in the meat offering was because leaven in
the spiritual sense denotes the false derived from evil, and
honey denotes external delight thus commixed with the de-
light of love of the world, by which also celestial good and
truths ferment, and are thereby dissipated." (A. C. 10137.)
Thus we are told that celestial goods and truths are dis-
sipated by fermentation, precisely as we know that the
good and nourishing parts of the juice of the grape,
which correspond to goods and truths, and which nourish
the natural body as the latter do the spiritual body,
are dissipated by natural fermentation. In neither case are
the good and useful things annihilated; but spiritually the
good and true are perverted into the evil and false; and
naturally the corresponding substances in the juice of the
grape are changed into alcohol and other poisonous substances,
which correspond to evils and falses. There is the most won-
derful correspondence not only between all natural and spiritual
things, but also between all natural and spiritual processes,
changes and products; the natural answering to the spiritual
in every particular.
It is only by ignoring the science of correspondences, the
express teachings of the Word, the Writings of the Church and
of science, that the advocates for the use of fermented wine as
a communion wine and as a beverage, are able to make even a
show toward sustaining their views.
An intelligent lay New Church brother writes: "As far as
the mere name WINE goes, I think it has been shown that the
name wine is applied to both fermented and unfermented.
The only question is to determine which kind of wine is the
578 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
In it
I do
proper correspondent. One little point comes to my mind
just now which I do not recollect that you have used.
is an argument by inference. You can find the verse.
not recollect it exactly, but it is where the Lord says, 'No
one having drank old wine straightway desireth new, for he
says the old is better.' That is, those confirmed in old or false
doctrines will not listen to the new doctrines. The inference
or supposition may now be drawn from these words that in the
Last Supper our Lord would not use old wine, but new wine,
corresponding to the new doctrine. Why may not, then, the
new wine—or must-an unfermented wine, have been the wine
used?"
It is beyond question to every one who has examined both
sides of this wine question carefully and without bias, that the
only wine suitable for use as a communion wine and as a
beverage is unfermented wine, new or old. The reader should
remember what "The Academy" strives to ignore, that the word
wine when used in the Sacred Scriptures and in the Writings
of the Church, may signify either the unfermented or fermented
wine, as shown above and hereafter; and that the word must
(Latin, mustum), or new wine, generally means the unfermented
juice of the grape, when named in the Word and in the
Writings. Only in two or three instances in the Word have we
reason to suppose that it refers to the fermenting juice of the
grape. Wine is a generic name. The fresh unfermented
juice of the grape is called wine, both in the Word and in
the Writings, as in the following instances:
"And I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's
cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand" (Gen. xl. 11).
"This (the last statement) signifies the appropriation by the
interior natural, as appears (1) from the signification of to give
the cup, thus wine (vinum) to drink, as denoting to appro-
priate" (A. C. 5119-20). Here Swedenborg calls the juice of
the grape, just squeezed from the grapes, vinum. Again: "As
grapes represent charity, so does wine (vinum) the faith thence
derived, because it is obtained from grapes." (A. C. 1071).-
THE GOOD CORRESPONDENCE OF MUST.
579
Not from the destructive action of leaven after the juice has
left the grapes.
"Wine (vinum) signifies truths of doctrine from the Word,
grapes signify the good from whence truths are derived."
(A. E. 374). This is clear and direct.
"Wine (vinum) in the wine-press shall they not tread"
(A. R. 316).
Not
"And the truths of good are understood by the vintage and
by the wine (vinum) in the wine-presses" (A. E. 376).
in the fermenting vats.
Wine in the Cluster.
Thus saith Jehovah, as the new
wine is found in the cluster; and He saith, Spoil it not,
because a blessing is in it' (Isaiah lxv. 8). The new wine in
the cluster denotes truth from good in the natural principle'
(A. C. 5117). Is this fermented wine? Swedenborg
informs us that " new wine signifies the truth of the Word”
(A. E. 618). New wine signifies spiritual good" (A. E. 323).
"New wine (Luke xv. 29) is the divine truth of the New
Testament, consequently of the New Church, and old wine is
the divine truth of the Old Testament, consequently of the
Old Church" (A. R. 316). This is pretty clear, and shows
what kind of wine the New Churchman should use.
"Must signifies the same as wine, viz., truth derived from the
good of charity and love" (A. E. 695). And again, "By
the produce of the wine-press was signified all the truth of the
good of the Church, the same as by wine" (A. E. 799).
"For by the blood out of the wine-press is meant the juice
(mustum) and wine (vinum) from the clusters that were trodden,
and the juice of the grape (mustum) and wine (vinum) have a
similar signification" (A. R. 653). That two fluids so
totally different in their chemical composition and in their
effects on man as unfermented and fermented wine cannot
have a similar signification is self-evident.
Joel i. 10: "That field and ground denote the Church,
corn its good, and the new wine (mustum) its truth"
(A. C. 3941).
580 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
Isaiah xxiv. 7:"Fields of new wine" (merum) (A. C. 5113).
Jeremiah xxxi. 12: "For wheat and for wine" (tirosh-
mustum) (A. R. 315). Hebrew, tirosh; Latin, mustum
English, wine.
It will be seen from the following extracts from number 376
of the A. E. that Swedenborg gives to must in no less than five
cases or illustrations the full signification of wine :
;
"So in Joel: And it shall come to pass in that day, that
the mountains shall drop down new wine (mustum) and the hills
shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with
waters.' * * * By the mountains dropping down new
wine (mustum) is understood every genuine truth derived from
the good of love to the Lord" (III. 18). Does man receive
any higher truth than every genuine truth derived from the
good of love to the Lord?
*
"So in Amos: 'Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that
the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of
grapes him that soweth the seed; and the mountains shall drop
sweet wine (mustum) and all the hills shall melt' (ix. 13).
**By the mountains dropping sweet wine (mustum)
and the hills melting, is signified as above, namely, that from
the good of love to the Lord, and from the good of
neighbourly love or charity, there should be truth in abun-
dance, sweet wine (mustum) denoting truth." The original is,
“mustum ibi seu vinum est verum"-"must there or wine is
truth."
A New Church clergyman writes: "This is a very strong
passage, because it is a passage which refers to the New
Church. (See Brief Exposition, etc., 100.) The whole chapter
of Jer. xxxi. relates to the New Church. (Summary Exposition
of the Psalms and Prophets.) The same is true of Isaiah xxv.,
6-8; Hosea ii., 21-23. (A. C. 3580.)"
Wherefore by the corn, wine (mustum) and oil, which they
should gather, are signified every good and truth of the exter-
nal and internal man," Can any kind of wine signify more
than this?
MUST CALLED WINE.
581
"So in Jeremiah: "Therefore they shall come and sing
in' the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness
of Jehovah, for wheat, and for wine (mustum), and for oil,
and for the young of the flock and of the herd' (xxxi. 12).
Here by wheat, new wine (mustum) and oil, are signified
goods and truths of every kind.".
The reader will please notice that in the above instances
Swedenborg's Latin, mustum, which means must in English,
has been rendered into English, by our English translators of
his works, three times by "new wine," twice by "sweet wine,"
and twice by wine," thus distinctly recognizing that must is
wine, and that there are two kinds of wine.
* *
Again in Isaiah: "The treaders shall tread out no wine
(vinum) in their presses' (xvi. 10). *
It was cus-
tomary to sing in the vineyards and in the wine-presses when
the grapes were trodden into wine (vinum) on account of the
representation of the delights derived from truths, which were
signified by wine (vinum)."
Here we have the juice of the
grape as it is trodden from the grape called wine (vinum).
We have in the above quotations, written with direct refer-
ence to the Holy Supper, the full signification of wine repeat-
edly given to must; and to unleavened must, too, beyond
the possibility of a doubt; for it is must as dropping from
the mountains, must as it was gathered in, must as it was
trodden from the grapes, must in the wine-press, as the reader
will notice. Here, then, for every New Churchman, we have
the unfermented juice of the grape with the full signification
of wine for use in the Holy Supper.
If there is a single passage in Swedenborg's writings treat-
ing of the spiritual sense of the Sacred Scriptures, which clearly
teaches that even leavening must or leavened wine ever has
a good signification, the writer has yet to see it; and we call
on the advocates for the use of fermented wine to produce a
single instance.
A New Church clergyman having called the writer's atten-
tion to two passages in the Writings, one in the T. C. R., and
582 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
the other in the A. C., bearing on the subject of sacramental
wine, he was requested to send a copy of the same, which he
aid as follows:
"The passage to which I referred is T. C. R. 708. ´A feast
of wines on the lees, or of sweet wine,' is in Latin, convivium
fecum seu vini suavis.' Fecum' is from a word which means
grounds, sediment, lees, dregs. 'Suavis' is from a word
mening sweet, pleasant, agreeable.
In Tafel's Latin edition
of the T. C. R., the words 'vini suavis' are put in small caps.
The following words are added—-' this refers to the sacrament
of the Holy Supper to be instituted by the Lord.' The words
‹eu vini suavis' are used in explanation of 'convivium
fecum,' which certainly would not have been necessary if there
were but one kind of wine.
1
6
"The other passage is A. C. 2341, where E. S. seems to
substitute of sweet wines' for 'wines on the lees.' The A.V.
reads And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make
unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the
lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well
refined.' Swedenborg makes it read—' Jehovah Zebaoth shall
make unto all people in this mountain a feast of fat things, a
feast of sweet wines, of fat things full of marrow, of wines well
refined.' In the explanation he seems to teach that not only
in the Holy Supper, but in all the feasts in the Jewish Church,
' wines on the lees' or sweet wines are used."
In old fermented wine, which is so especially praised by
lovers of wine, chemists tell us that the sweet or sugar, which
corresponds to spiritual delights, is generally entirely destroyed;
and it is always destroyed to the extent fermentation has pro-
gressed, and this sweet product of the vine is perverted into an
intoxicating fluid by leaven. Only think, dear reader, or
using a wine thus perverted and polluted, as a communion
wine ! The day is not far distant when New Churchmen will
turn from the idea of using a fermented wine at the Holy
Supper, with horror, as do the isolated remnants of the First
THE PASSOVER WINË.
583
Christian Church in Egypt to-day; as the writer was told they
do, by missionaries at Cairo, Egypt.
Does any New Churchman imagine for a moment that we
are commanded by the Lord to use an intoxicating wine at
the Most Holy Supper? If so, let him read the following
from Swedenborg's A. C.:
“Inasmuch as drunkenness was a type of insanity in regard to truths of
faith, therefore it was also made a representative, and this prohibition
was given to Aaron: Do not drink wine, nor drink that maketh drunken,
thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the Tabernacle of the
Congregation, lest ye die;—that ye may put a difference between holy
and unholy, and between unclean and clean.'—Levit. x. 8–9. (A. C. 1072.)
Even the New Church "Academy," in "Words for the New
Church," admits that the Lord probably took the Passover
wine when He administered the Last Supper.
The editor of the London "Methodist Times" lately wit-
nessed the celebration of the Jewish Passover in that city,
and at the close of the services said to the rabbi: “May I
ask with what kind of wine you have celebrated the Passover
this evening ?" The answer promptly given was:
"With a non-intoxicating wine. Jews never use fermented wine in
their synagogue services, and must not use it on the Passover, either
for synagogue or home purposes. Fermented liquor of any kind comes
under the category of 'leaven,' which is proscribed in so many well-
known places in the Old Testament. The wine which is used by Jews
during the week of Passover is supplied to the community by those
licensed by the chief rabbi's board, and by those only. Each bottle is
sealed in the presence of a representative of the ecclesiastical authorities.
The bottle standıng yonder on the side-board from which the wine used
to-night was taken was thus sealed. I may also mention that poor Jews
who cannot afford to buy this wine make an unfermented wine of their
own, which is nothing else but an infusion of Valencia or Muscatel raisins.
I have recently read the passage in Matthew in which the Paschal
Supper is described. There can be no doubt whatever that the wine
used upon that occasion was unfermented. Jesus, as an observant Jew,
would not only not have drunk fermented wine on the Passover, but would
not have celebrated the Passover in any house from which everything
584 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
fermented had not been removed. I may mention that the wine I use in
the service at the synagogue is an infusion of raisins. You will allow
me, perhaps, to express my surprise that Christians, who profess to be
followers of Jesus of Nazareth, can take what He could not possibly have
taken as a Jew—intoxicating wine-at so sacred a service as the sacra-
ment of the Lord's Supper."
And now, brethren and sisters of the New Church, please
remember that our Lord Jesus Christ, in the administration
of the Last Supper, as recorded in two of the Gospels, as if
especially to guard His disciples against the use of fermented
wine, avoided using the word wine, which was known to
include fermented wine as well as unfermented wine, and
called the contents of the cup the "fruit of the vine.'
was not accidental, but it was Providential.
This
But when the men of the First Christian Church began to
hearken to false reasonings, and to lust after spiritual dominion
and the gratification of their sensual appetites without regard
to use, and began to exercise dominion over others and to
drink intoxicating wine, they naturally strove to frame doc-
trines which would justify them in gratifying their evil desires,
and to base them upon the Word of the Lord; but these evils
and false doctrines must not be dragged along into the New
Church; they cannot be, for so far as they exist the Church of
the New Jerusalem is not.
Since writing the above, the following has appeared in the
October number of "The New Church Life :"
"A correspondent sends us a list of twelve quotations from the
Writings in which mustum and also 'blood of grapes' are said to signify
spiritual good,' 'truths,' 'instruction in goods and truths of Doctrine,'
'Divine truth,' etc., and asks, 'Will New Church Life kindly reconcile
these passages with its objections to the use of grape juice at the Holy
Supper?'
predicated of the juice
[Can any sensible man
"The term 'blood of the grapes' is generally
while in the grapes, and also of fermented wine.
believe that the blood of grapes is predicated of the juice while in the
grapes, and also of fermented wine, two fluids so totally unlike? How un-
reasonable! - E.] Mustum does not mean grape juice merely, but it gener-
ally means wine wholly or partly fermented, [We have shown by a large
CURIOUS DENIALS.—“NEW CHURCH LÍFE.”
585
number of quotations from Swedenborg's writings in the preceding pages
and in our former works, that the above representations are not correct;
for it is very rarely the case that Swedenborg by mustum meant even
fermenting must, and it is safe to say he never meant fermented wine.-E.]
wherefore Swedenborg, when wishing to describe unfermented grape-
juice, had to use the somewhat cumbersome phrase, the must of unfer-
mented wine [mustum vini infermentati]' (T. C. R. 404); but far from
speaking highly of this unclarified and impure liquor, he says of it: 'It
tastes sweet but infests the stomach.' [Here he unquestionably referred to
fermenting must, which is full of all kinds of heterogeneous substances,
for the must itself is infested by ferment.-E.] But, whatever may be the
definition any one may assign to mustum-whether that of unfermented
grape-juice or that of wine newly fermented-its good signification as
taught in the passages quoted by our correspondent does not affect the
question of its use at the Holy Supper, as he seems to imagine. Nowhere
in the Doctrines on the Most Holy Sacrament are we taught to use INUS-
tum,' or the 'blood of grapes,' or 'grape-juice,' but always ‘vinum'
wine." - (New Church Life.)
How far the "New Church Life" is from the truth in its
representations above in regard to the Holy Supper, the reader
can judge if he will turn to No. 376, "Apocalypse Explained,”
and read the same, and remember that where, in the English
translation, either
either sweet wine or new wine occurs,
Swedenborg wrote must (mustum), which has been translated
into English by either sweet wine or new wine, instead
of must. It hardly seems possible that no one con-
nected with the "New Church Life" is sufficiently familiar
with Swedenborg's Latin works to be able to correct such
representations as the above in its columns. Swedenborg
commences by saying:
"That wine signifies spiritual good, or the good of charity
and the good of faith, which, in its essence, is truth, is evi-
dent from the following passages in the Word." Then, after
making a large number of quotations from the Word and
giving the spiritual sense of the same, Swedenborg goes on
to say:
"From these considerations it may now be evident
what is involved in the bread and wine used in the Holy Supper,
namely, that bread involves the good of love to the Lord de-
586 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
'But I
rived from the Lord, and wine, the good of faith which in its
essence is truth. Inasmuch as wine signifies the good of faith,
which, in its essence, is truth, therefore the Lord, when He
instituted the sacrament of the Supper said: But I say unto
you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine,
until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's
kingdom' (Matt. xxvi. 29). And in Luke: For I say unto
you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the king-
dom of God shall come (xxii. 18).”
In no other number in his writings does Swedenborg speak
so fully and at such length as to the correspondence of the wine.
suitable for the Holy Supper as in the above number, and if
there were any truth in the conclusions, which the "New
Church Life" evidently intends the reader shall draw from its
dogmatic statement, Swedenborg should always have chosen
the passages from the Word where wine is spoken of, in
illustration of the correspondence of wine. Now, what are
the facts? In two out of the first three quotations he refers
to mustum, and wine is not mentioned at all, and there are
six passages in the same number where Swedenborg thus dis-
tinctly classes mustum with wine and as wine, giving it the
full signification of wine; five of these passages have been
quoted in the preceding pages in our reply to the New
Church Life's" claim that an intoxicant is commanded to be
used in the Holy Supper.
It does seem so strange that the editors and proprietors of
the "New Church Life" should write and print such state-
ments or representations as some of those which we have
been noticing, which are so contrary to the truth, when the
truth is so plain and available. We ask our New Church
brethren to turn to No. 376 A. E., and to read the number
carefully through, and then to judge whether or not Sweden-
borg could have had in mind fermented wine as suitable for
use in the Holy Supper.
The Lord, when He instituted the Holy Supper, did not call
the contents of the cup, wine, but the fruit of the vine; and
UNFERMENTED WINE AND "NEW CHURCH LIFE.' 587
To drink
That this
until
Swedenborg, in speaking of our Lord's remarks after He had
instituted the Holy Supper, says: "Good from truth and truth
from good, whereby the intellectual principle is made new, or
the man is made spiritual, is signified by the fruit of the vine;
the appropriation thereof is signified by drinking.
denotes to appropriate, and is predicated of truth.
is not done fully but in the other life, is signified by,
that day when I shall drink it new with you in My Father's
kingdom.' That the fruit of the vine does not mean must or
wine [non mustum nec vinum], but somewhat heavenly of the
Lord's kingdom, is very manifest." (A. C. 5113.) It is per-
fectly clear from the above that Swedenborg did not under-
stand that the material wine which the Lord and His
disciples had been using when He instituted the Holy Supper,
was fermented wine. It is certain that He had in mind unfer-
mented wine by his using the terms must or wine.
Read also the following, where Swedenborg says: "By
clusters and grapes, which were put into the wine-press, is sig-
nified spiritual good; and by wine (vinum), which is thence
produced, is signified truth from that of good." (A. E. 920.)
This is all straight, and shows clearly that Swedenborg
understood that the unfermented juice of the grape is wine.
There is not a word in Swedenborg's writings which shows.
that, when speaking of wine as suitable in connection with the
Holy Supper, he ever in a single instance has reference to fer-
mented wine; but, contrary to what is represented above by the
"New Church Life," we have made numerous quotations from
his writings in the preceding pages, and in our former works,
where he has spoken of must (mustum) in direct connection
with the Holy Supper.
The whole argument of the "New Church Life,” it will be
seen from the above quotation, is based upon the assumption
that there is no wine but fermented wine, and that when the word
wine is used either in the Word or in the Writings of the Church,
fermented wine is always meant. Although we have shown
over and over and over again in our former works on the wine
588 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
question, as we have also in the preceding pages, that this
assumption has not the slightest foundation in truth, yet here
it comes up again in the columns of the "New Church
Life."
Well, the "New Church Life" has made some progress, we
are happy to notice, for it half-way admits that unfermented
must may have a good signification after all. So it seems to
be giving up one of the crutches upon which it has been
resting its lame argument, and we trust it will soon give up
the other also—that there is only one kind of wine—and take
a firm stand upon the truth revealed in the Word and the
Writings on this question.
The blood
In their review of the writer's work on "The Wine Ques-
tion in the Light of the New Dispensation," "The Academy"
taught that the blood of the grape always meant fermented
wine; but here we have the "New Church Life" stretching
over backward from fermented wine to the juice of the grape
in the grape, and claiming that it includes both. Well, this is
some progress, even though it be very ridiculous.
of the grape is unquestionably the sweet juice of the grape
which flows when the skins of grapes are first ruptured before
more pressure is applied than that which results from their own
weight. The reason why the blood of the grape was not
required to be used in the Holy Supper was not because
it had not a sufficiently high correspondence, as the "New
Church Life" leads its readers to infer, but because this sweetest
portion of the unfermented juice of the grape had too high a
correspondence, as will be seen from the following from the
A. C., No. 5118: "The blood of the grape signifies spiritual
celestial good, which is the name given to the Divine in heaven
proceeding from the Lord; wine is called the blood of grapes,
since each signifies holy truth proceeding from the Lord;
wine however is predicated of the spiritual, and blood of the
celestial; and this being the case, wine was enjoined in the
Holy Supper."
Does the intelligent reader suppose for a moment, as the
COMMUNION WINE,-BOTH IF DESIRED.
589
"New Church Life" seems to teach, that the blood of the grape,
the moment it flows from the grape, loses its good signification,
never to regain it until after it has been polluted by leaven and
converted into leavened wine, or, if you please, leavened blood
of the grape? Please remember, that during fermentation, its
sugar or sweet is destroyed to the extent fermentation pro-
gresses; in old wine it is generally all destroyed, and an
intoxicating fluid takes its place. How strange that any New
Churchman can think and write thus! What resemblance has
well-fermented wine either to blood, or to the blood of the grape
as it exists in the grape? Scarcely any in its chemical com-
position or in its ability to affect man when he drinks it. When
freely used, the one causes disease, drunkenness, insanity and
death; the other, the blood of the grape, gives health, strength
and life.
WHAT KIND OF WINE SHOULD NEW CHURCH SOCIETIES USE AS
COMMUNION WINE AT PRESENT?
While believing, and able to see clearly, that there is no
wine which is suitable for communion wine excepting unfer-
mented wine, new or old, for no other wine bears any resem-
blance to blood in its essential constituents, still we do feel
that every member of the Church should be left in freedom to
choose for himself as to the kind of wine of which he would
partake. We are told that men should be led in freedom
according to reason. Descending, as most of us have, from
ancestors who believed, to a greater or less extent, the false
doctrines and traditions and were following the customs which
existed in the perverted state of the First Christian Church, it
is not strange that some of our members should cling to the
"Old Church wine," even when many churches around us,
owing to the dawning light of the New Jerusalem in which
they are now living, are putting away "Old Church," or
fermented wine, and are substituting New Church or
unfermented wine in its place. In the periodicals and pulpits
of many of the surrounding denominations this wine ques-
590 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
tion has been fully discussed; and many of the ablest scholars
of the age have devoted years to the careful investiga-
tion of this question in the light of the Hebrew and Greek
Scriptures, ancient history and the writings of the ancients; and
in the flood of light thus produced, and from a clear percep-
tion of its effects on man, the members of their churches are
able to see clearly that the "Old Church," or fermented wine,
is not the good wine of the Word.. Whereas, in the organized
New Church, too many, disregarding the New Church light
which is shining around them, gradually making all things
new, and without removing their "Old Church" glasses, have
been reading the Writings and faithfully striving to promulgate
a knowledge of them to the world, almost oblivious of the
most fearful evil of drinking intoxicating wine and other intoxi-
cants which, more than everything else, stands in the way of
the reception of the doctrines.
Until within a few years past, scarcely any New Church
scholars excepting Emanuel Swedenborg, whose writings are
aglow with the truth, and Prof. Geo. Bush, had ever paid any
special attention to this question; and to-day our pulpits are
comparatively silent; and as to our periodicals, the reader can
see elsewhere in this pamphlet where and how they stand.
While doing what we can to place the truth before our breth-
ren and to call their attention to it, let us have patience and
wait, always respecting their freedom in the spirit of charity,
and so acting as not to destroy unity.
We are happy to say that we think the English New Church
Conference, at which the writer was present in 1884, and
some of the New Church societies in England and in this
country, have solved this practical question which is upon us,
in the only legitimate way; for, recognizing the fact that there
is an honest difference of opinion among their members, these
organizations have provided both unfermented and fermented
wine, allowing their members to choose in freedom between
the two; and this, under the circumstances, is doing as should
be done; for charity dictates this course, and thus it is in the
SOLOMON AND INTOXICANTS.
591
interests of unity and peace.
We know that the time is not
far distant when all New Churchmen will see, eye to eye, on this
question, but it is not yet. Let us wait patiently—our Master
waits. We must respect the honest convictions of our breth-
ren and not judge them, even as we would have them respect
our own; but it is clearly the duty of all who see the truth
upon this great practical question of life, to do all they can to
make the truth known to their brethren.
Solomon was regarded as a wise man, and he wrote a great
many years ago; but he taught total abstinence from intoxi-
cating drinks in no uncertain language, for he says:
"It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink
wine, nor for princes strong drink; lest they drink, and forget
the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted"
(Proverbs xxxi. 4–7).
"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever
is deceived thereby is not wise" (Proverbs xx. 1).
"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 the last it biteth like a serpent and
stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange
women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea,
thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or
as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken
me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me,
and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet
again" (Proverbs xxiii, 29-35). Alas! alas, how true!
Think you, gentle reader, that Solomon, if he were living
here to-day, would consent to use intoxicating wine as a
communion wine?
CHAPTER III.
66
THE NEW CHURCH LIFE ON "PUNCH
""
AND PROHIBITION.
THE editor of the "New Church Life" says :
"Elsewhere appears a communication from England on the subject
of Prohibition. Our correspondent takes it for granted that the fruits of
Prohibition are 'good,' and also claims that it is admitted' that 'whisky,
beer and brandy' are the 'curse of the world.' We deny the first, and do
not admit' the last.
"B. D. asks for references to the writings. Here is one from ' Spiritual
Diary' (P. vii., App. p. 88). After enumerating the drinks to be had in
the spiritual London, among which are 'wines, strong drinks and beers,'
Swedenborg says: 'I inquired also concerning the liquor named punch,
and they said that they have this liquor also, but that it is given only to
those who are sincere, and at the same time diligent.'
“Here is a direct issue for prohibitionists to meet. In the Spiritual
World the sincere and diligent are given liquor as a reward; he would
forcibly take it from all in this world."-New Church Life.
That wines, strong drinks and beers, or that to which these
drinks correspond, exist in the spiritual London we will not
question, for these drinks exist in the natural London; but
we will remind the editors of the "New Church Life" that
wines and strong drink, as we have abundantly shown in
the preceding pages and in our works on the wine question,
may be unfermented, good and nourishing, or they may be
fermented, alcoholic and poisonous. As to punch, that it is
a specific alcoholic drink, we will admit; but what comfort
can the advocates for the use of intoxicating drinks derive
from what Swedenborg says above as to the use which is
made of it in the spiritual London? Let us see.
It is perfectly clear, from the above statement of Sweden-
borg, as suggested by a respected New Church clergyman,
that punch is a prohibited drink in the spiritual London, and
592
PUNCH AND "THE NEW CHURCH LIFE.”
593
that no one is allowed to drink it excepting those to whom it
is given, and that is exactly what the prohibitionists contend
for here. The physician may give it as a remedy; but
it should be sold to no one to be used as a beverage, but only
to those to whom physicians may prescribe or give it.
It is doubtless, as was suggested in our 'Reply to The
Academy's' Review," only given to those who are sincere
in their efforts to put away their unhallowed love for intoxi-
cating drinks, to relieve their sufferings temporarily, as the
physician here sometimes gives it to hard drinkers, to pre-
vent or palliate delirium tremens, that the patient may have
a chance to reform. In the spiritual world, if a spirit is not
sincerely and diligently striving to put away his evils, he can
only be restrained by suffering the legitimate consequences of
his evil doing, consequently there is no motive for striving
to palliate his sufferings by giving him punch. To angels
and good spirits who are actuated by higher motives than the
hope of being rewarded by a drink of punch, punch is not
given they are sincere and diligent, because they delight
to thus be and do.
Our brethren of "The New Church Life" should remem-
ber, we repeat, that punch is only given, and not taken as
an ordinary drink; and that it is only given to a certain class of
spirits who are evidently not the highest or most advanced
class of spirits in the spiritual London; and that to all others,
it is either not desirable or it is prohibited. Now, we ask our
brethren if the issue raised by the "New Church Life,
with so much assurance, has not been fairly met; and if
prohibition is not fully and triumphantly sustained by the
above quotation from "The Spiritual Diary."
""
If our brethren of the "New Church Life" would know
what kind of wine is allowed and used in Heaven by the
angels, which knowledge, we fancy, would be quite as desir-
able and, perhaps, more useful than the knowledge of the
punch which is given in the spiritual London as a medicine
to spirits preparing for heaven, or undergoing vastation, let
594
NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
In the centre of
them turn not to "The Spiritual Diary," but to "The True
Christian Religion," the last great work of Swedenborg, which
he published; and in his own Latin, or as translated in he
Rotch edition, they can read as follows: "And the prince, with-
out stopping the procession, said to them, 'come with me to
eat bread,' and they followed him into the dining-hall, where
they saw a table magnificently prepared.
it was a high pyramid of gold, having on its forms in triple
order a hundred dishes containing sweet bread (panes saccha-
rini), new wine solidified (musta vinorum concreta), with other
delicacies (lautitiis-luxuries) made of bread and wine to-
gether (ex pane et vino confectis). And through the middle of
the pyramid there welled up, as it were, a fountain streaming
with wine like nectar (fons saliens cum vino nectareo, with nec-
tarious or sweet wine), the flow of which parted at the top of
the pyramid and filled the cups" (T. C. R. 742.)
There was no punch upon the above table, and no product
of leaven or any fermented wine.
Leaven is not of heavenly growth; consequently there can
exist no leavened wine or punch in heaven, for these are the
products of leaven-unclean!
During a recent visit to Damascus, in Asia, the writer saw
for sale in the bazaars new wine solidified, and various
delicacies made from this solidified wine, and he was forcibly
reminded of the above passage in the T. C. R.
Again, the editors of the "New Church Life" say:
“A man cannot consistently be a prohibitionist and a New Church-
man at the same time, any more than he can believe that black is black
and also white.
"He cannot, as a rational man, believe that man can only be reformed
and regenerated in a state of freedom, and then proceed to reform him
by taking his freedom from him.”
Twenty-five years ago, in the estimation of some people, a
man could not consistently be a New Churchman and an
advocate of the abolition of African slavery; but now it
would be difficult to find a New Churchman who will attempt
ERRONEOUS IDEAS AS TO FREEDOM.
595
to justify slavery. And yet African slavery was tender and
merciful when compared with the slavery which results from
the sale and use of intoxicating drinks as beverages at this
day. Look at the drunkards entering their most fearfully
wretched homes, where wives live and children grow up;
look at the crimes committed, the sickness, insanity and
premature deaths which result from the sale and use of
intoxicating drinks; and say, if you can, that society has no
right to protect itself, its members, and its women and chil-
dren from such evils.
The editor of the "New Church Life," and some other
New Churchmen, seem to have very crude and very erroneous
ideas of freedom; especially when they are trying to justify the
sale and use of intoxicating drinks. The Lord protects the
freedom of man to think and will that which is true and good,
and while man thus thinks and wills, he is always in freedom.
The Lord says: "If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly
my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free" (John viii. 32). But if, forsaking the Lord's
words, we begin to think of that which is false and evil and
will to do it, and then ultimate our intentions in act, we then
begin to lose our freedom; for the Lord says :
that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin.
'Every one
And then we
are told: "If therefore the Son shall make you free ye shall
be free indeed" (John viii. 34, 36). How true it is, that if we
would know or see the truth, we must honestly strive to abide
in or to do that which the truth teaches; otherwise having eyes
we shall see not. All this is not only true in regard to man
spiritually, but it is also true in regard to his physical life in
this world, for the physical corresponds to the spiritual. So
far as life in this world is concerned, the only really
free men are those who live in accordance with the laws of
life; for such laws alone lead to health, happiness and conse-
quent freedom. In living a true life we violate no laws, and
consequently require no suffering or punishment to restrain us;
but we can act in freedom. Take, for instance, the matter
596 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS INTOXICANTS, ETC.
of eating and drinking; the Lord has most bountifully supplied
us with a great variety of wholesome articles of food and drink
for the development and preservation of the body and mind.
Such articles never cause an unnatural appetite which cannot
be satisfied by other articles which equally well supply the
actual wants of the body; and while they may be used to
excess and thus do harm, they never cause specific diseases
characteristic of the substance taken; for they have their origin
through heaven from the Lord. The Lord has given to man
a natural appetite for such articles. Again we are surrounded
by a totally different class of substances, called poisons, for
which man has no natural appetite, although he may inherit
an inclination to use them, when an appetite is very readily
developed by their use. If habitually used, they develop an
unnatural appetite which no other article will ever satisfy, and
they cause specific diseases peculiar to the article taken; and
if freely used, as we use healthy and orderly articles of food,
they will cause disease and death. Take, for instance, alcohol
as it is contained in fermented fluids and distilled liquors,
tobacco and opium. The appetite for one of these poisonous
substances is never satisfied by the use of either of the others,
or by the use of any other substance in nature, and each one
causes a disease or diseases peculiar to itself. To use such
substances is a violation of the laws of life, for we know that
they are capable of harming and killing; and Swedenborg
assures that all such substances have their origin from Hell.
While, to say the least, it is very difficult, if it is not im-
possible, for others to destroy our freedom, it is very easy for
us to destroy our own freedom; and when we commence the
use of the above substances, we are entering on a road which we
know has led vast multitudes of our race to the most fearful
state of slavery, and made them "bondservants "indeed.
While we cannot destroy man's freedom to think and will,
unless we can lead him into evil habits like the use of the
above poisons, society can justly, by laws and watchfulness,
lessen his opportunities to ultimate his evil thoughts and
ERRONEOUS IDEAS AS TO FREEDOM.
597
inclinations; and we are told that we must do this, or the
human race on earth would perish; and this is all that the
prohibitionists propose to do. While man is free to think and
will, we know that he is not always free to do what he pleases,
and we well know that he ought not to be thus free. When
a man wills to kill another or steal from him, he is often met
by weapons superior to his own, or by superior skill and
strength, or by officers of the law, and by bolts and locks;
and thus he has no freedom to ultimate his evil intentions.
According to our laws, it is unlawful for a man either to take
his own life or to cripple himself, and if he attempts thus to
act, the officers of the law step in and prevent him, if possi-
ble, from thus harming himself. Do they do right or wrong
to thus interfere? Yet this is more than prohibitionists
have done, or are attempting to do; for, when they see
large numbers in society who are drinking, making their
families and friends most wretched and poor, impairing
their own freedom and reason even to insanity, and slowly
killing themselves; the prohibitionists simply desire to prevent
men from manufacturing and selling such poisons to be used
for such purposes.
What nonsense to talk about taking
away man's freedom, by preventing by law the manufacture
and sale of intoxicating drinks! The man who feels that
he cannot do without intoxicating drinks is already a slave,
and he can only become free by hearkening to the truth and
shunning his cups as a sin against God.
The editor of the "New Church Life" declares that a man
“cannot, as a rational man, believe that the Divine Truth is the only
means of salvation, and then propose to save men by acts of Parliament.”
No prohibitionist proposes to save men by acts of Parlia-
ment." What is the use of such talk?
Again says the editor:
"He cannot, as a rational man, believe that all evil comes from hell,
and then assert that it comes from a natural fluid."
This is not a fair representation of the views of those who
598 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
believe in total abstinence from intoxicating drinks. We do
not believe that all evil comes from a natural fluid. The
evil lies in the lusting after and drinking of a poisonous
fluid, the appetite for which is never given by the Lord, but
has to be cultivated. There are many other evils besides
the drinking of intoxicating drinks; but these drinks derive
their origin from hell, and when man drinks them they
pervert not only his physical organization and appetite, but
also his intellectual faculties and passions, to an extent which
is not equalled by the action of any other poisonous substance
on earth, even causing insanity in a vast multitude of cases,
as is clear from the reports of our insane institutions.
Again, the editor of the "New Church Life" says:
"The teaching on this very matter of food and drink is, that abuse
does not take away use, as the falsification of truth does not take away
truth, except only in those who are guilty of it.' (D. L. W. 331.) [It is
certainly true that the abuse of a good and useful article of food does not
take away use, or prevent it from being useful when properly used, but
what has all this to do with the use of a poisonous article like fermented
wine?-E.] The Truth has been, and is daily, falsified by people who
read it. Were the Truth prohibited to be read, then people could not
falsify it. Therefore it might be concluded that its reading should be
prohibited. That this would be a wrong course to pursue is evident
without further proof. What is true of spiritual things-of causes, is
necessarily true of natural things of effects. Wine corresponds to
Truth, and it is no more right to enact laws prohibiting the sale of wines
and other fermented and distilled liquors, than it is to make laws prohib-
'iting the reading of Truth."
But where a substance is a poison capable of causing dis-
ease, drunkenness, insanity and death, like fermented wine,
it would seem to be self-evident that to use it at all is an abuse.
Such a wine has not a good correspondence, consequently
Swedenborg compares it to falses from evil, and not to truth.
Whereas Swedenborg tells us that the pure unfermented juice.
of grapes or must as it exists in the clusters, or new wine
as it is pressed from grapes, as it is trodden from the grapes
and as it flows from the press, and as dropping from the
IS DRUNKENNESS A CRIME?
399
mountain, signifies truth, as has been abundantly shown in
the preceding pages. This unfermented juice of grapes has
a good signification, because it nourishes the natural body as
goodness and truth do the spirit of man; and fermented
wine has not a good signification, because its nourishing and
delightful substances have been destroyed or perverted by
leaven, which, we are told, signifies the evil and the false
which should not be mixed with things good and true, and
a perverted and poisonous wine is the product. While it
certainly would not be right to make laws prohibiting the
reading of the truth, we do make laws to prevent the printing
and selling of obscene falses which originate from evil. Does
the editor of the "New Church Life" say of these laws, that
"they take away use"?
The New Church Life" continues:
"Drunkenness is a crime. Liquor is not the cause of drunkenness, but
the means. The cause lies in the evil appertaining to the drunkard
[Which leads him to drink from the drunkard's cup.-E.]. That evil can
be overcome by the Divine Truth only when received and lived by man
in a state of freedom. Prohibition is a form of slavery, and is a worse
evil than that it seeks to cure."
Liquor, by which is meant alcohol in some form, is the only
substance on earth that will cause drunkenness; but it is harm-
less if men do not drink it. But when men begin to reason
about drinking it, and, notwithstanding they see drunkards
around them on every hand, begin to say in the pride of their
own hearts: "We can drink it without becoming drunkards,”
and begin to drink it, they soon become so infatuated that
they are not willing to believe that drinking injures them; as
they cannot comprehend that the drunkard's cup which
gratifies the unnatural appetite, and relieves the unpleasant
sensations which it has caused, and makes them feel good
every time they partake of it, can do them any harm. If
the drinker is to be reformed, he must so far assert his freedom
as to be able to listen to the truth, as to the poisonous and
injurious character of the liquids which he drinks; and then
600 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
he must hearken to the Divine Truth which will very soon teach
him better than to continue a course of life which is almost
certain to impair his health and faculties of body and mind;
and to endanger his reason, life in this world, the happiness of
his family and all around him, and also his eternal happiness;
and he must repent and shun the drinking of intoxicating
drinks as a sin against God.
Prohibition, a form of slavery, indeed! No attempt, mind you,
is directly made to prohibit drinking. The prohibitionist would
simply say to the lovers of money: You must not manufacture
intoxicating drinks to be sold as beverages; you must not sell
such drinks to men, women or children; you must not estab-
lish saloons and bar-rooms, and thus entice and lead the mem-
bers of our families and our neighbors into habits which will
lead to evils and sorrows untold. Has society no right to do
what it can to protect itself by preventing evil-doing, for fear
of interfering with the freedom of evil-doers? What nonsense!
Should society tolerate bad houses, houses of procuresses, and
places for receiving stolen goods, and dens of thieves?
member the evil-doer is not free, but a "bondservant"
already.
Re-
If there is any crime in drunkenness it is manifestly in drink-
ing a poisonous fluid, knowing that it will cause drunkenness.
When drunk, a man is either unconscious or insane, and con-
sequently is not responsible for his acts; but for the drinking
while it was moderate, and he had the ability to stop drink-
ing and did not, he was responsible. Then was the time for
punishment if ever. Now when his appetite has got the mas-
tery of him, we must restrain him even as we do other insane
men. It certainly would seem to be a great stretch of justice
to punish a poor insane drunkard who is not responsible for
his present acts, and let the moderate drinker who yet has
power to refrain from drinking from the drunkard's cup, go
free.
CHAPTER IV.
""
*
"NEW CHURCH LIFE
AND "PROHIBITION CRAZE.
୨୨
In the following quotations from the "New Church Life,"
there is a strange admixture of assumptions, and of truth
with that which is not true, and confounding of good and evil,
which bodes no good to the young, or even to the old, who
may peruse the columns of that periodical. The writer well
remembers standing, when a young man, on his native New
England hills, conversing with a young neighbor as to the
propriety of totally abstaining from the use of intoxicating
drinks. He has never forgotten the earnestness of manner
and the strong assurance with which that young man declared:
“The man is a fool who cannot restrain his appetite! If you
ever hear of my getting drunk, tell me of it and I will quit
drinking." Alas! alas, for that poor man! Ere many years
elapsed he was a drunkard; he spent the fine farm left him
by his father, his wife died broken-hearted, and his children
were scattered among his friends and strangers.
"The 'prohibition' craze," says the editor of the "New Church Life,”
"and the increasing cry of 'total abstinence,' as well as all other social
movements, are under the direction of the Divine Providence, and are
either provided to promote good, or permitted to prevent greater evil.
While these prohibition and total abstinence movements, in themselves,
are neither good nor in true harmony with the Divine laws, there must,
nevertheless, be some reason, found in the present corrupt and debased
condition of the Christian world, why they are permitted, and why it is
well that a certain class of persons should be restrained by external
motives from the use of spirituous liquors, and should drink water only.”
For men individually and collectively to move in the direc-
tion of totally abstaining from the drunkard's cup, is neither
good nor in true harmony with the divine laws, in the estima-
tion of the editor of the "New Church Life." Who has
бо
602 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
authorized the above editor to thus assume that those who
abstain from "spirituous liquors" do so simply from external
motives? And again we will inquire, if it is not better that
men should do right from external motives, than it is for them
to do evil? Total abstainers, and especially New Church total
abstainers, are able to see clearly in the light of the Word
and of the Writings of the New Church, and of science, that
intoxicating drinks are the product of that unclean substance
called leaven, and that they have their origin from hell; and
that when taken into the stomach they tend to excite and per-
vert man's passions in the direction of hell; and that their
use is evil, and that continually; for all experience, extending
over thousands of years, shows that their use very seriously
endangers man's freedom, reason, health and even life; and
that no possible good results from their use by men in health.
That there is no necessity for their use is manifest by the experi-
ence of more than one-half of the people of the United States
(including women), and the people of Mohammedan countries
generally, who do not use them. Now, cannot our brethren
of the "New Church Life," in view of all this, comprehend
that it is barely possible that those who shun the use of intox-
icating drinks, totally, do so because they honestly believe that
for them to use such drinks is a violation of the divine com-
mandments and consequently a sin against God; they having
no right to thus needlessly encounter such risks ? Abundant
experience shows that those who have the most assurance
that they can drink moderately, are often the first to become
drunkards, as in the case of the young man named above.
If the "prohibition and total abstinence movements" are a
"craze," they are a "craze" descending from the Lord through
the New Heavens; enlightening the minds and moving the hearts
of good, earnest Christian men and women, from love of the
Lord and the neighbor, to do what they can to rescue their
fellowmen from the life which leads so many to drunkenness
and to preserve the young from unnecessary temptation; while
they instruct and enlighten them as to the "pernicious"
SIGNIFICANT STATISTICS.
603
character of intoxicating drinks, and the danger which results
from their use. Is self-murder no crime, or evil if you please?
Is it a
"craze" to strive to teach and lead the young, by
precept and example, to shun the use of intoxicating wine,
beer, whiskey, etc., when we know from carefully collected.
statistics that the use of these poisons will shorten the average
duration of their lives nearly or quite one-third of the period
which they would live if they were to totally abstain from them?
-to say nothing of the drunkenness, insanity and misery which
follow their use. A "craze," indeed, to strive to suppress the
grog-shops upon our street corners, for the sake of preserving the
young and our neighbors from being tempted to their death!
Please read the following, gentle reader, and judge whether
the "craze" lies with the prohibitionists and teachers of total
abstinence, or with the editors of the "New Church Life":
SIGNIFICANT STATISTICS.
Mr. Nelson, the most distinguished of English actuaries, after long and
careful investigations and comparisons, ascertained by actual experience
the following astounding facts:
Between the ages of fifteen and twenty, where ten total abstainers die,
eighteen moderate drinkers die.
Between the ages of twenty and thirty, where ten total abstainers die,
thirty-one moderate drinkers die.
Between the ages of thirty and forty, where ten total abstainers die,
forty moderate drinkers die.
Or, expressing the fact in another form, he says:
A total abstainer twenty years old has the chance of living forty-four
years longer, or until sixty-four years old.
A moderate drinker has the chance of living fifteen and one-half years
longer, or until thirty-five and one-half years old.
A total abstainer thirty years old has the chance of living thirty-six and
one-half years longer, or until sixty-six and one-half years old.
A moderate drinker thirty years old has the chance of living thirteen
and one-half years longer, or until forty-three and three-fourths years old.
A total abstainer forty years old has the chance of living twenty-eight
and one-fourth years longer, or until sixty-eight and one-half years old.
A moderate drinker forty years old has the chance of living eleven and
two-thirds years longer, or until fifty-one and one-half years old.—New
York Witness.
604 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
After making quotations from Swedenborg's writings, show-
ing that men and spirits are restrained by external and selfish
motives from sinking into lower states of life; the editor of the
New Church Life" continues:
"From the above it is evident that in this age, when the Christian Church
has come to its end, and internal and spiritual truths no longer form the
conscience, and hold the lives of the people in order, there is a class who,
if not restrained by external bonds, fear of the loss of reputation, and the
like, would become the vilest of the vile. And that some of these, because
not under the guidance and control of internal and spiritual principles, by
which they would be preserved from excess and abuse, cannot safely use
such drinks as correspond to things spiritual, but must, if they would be
saved from becoming so vile, abstain from their use, and drink water only.
But because there is a class who are of such mental and physical quality
that they cannot use spirituous drinks without abusing them, and becom-
ing so debased, it does not follow that those in different and better condi-
tions cannot. * **
"In other words, an intemperate man may determine for himself to
abstain from all spirituous liquors, but he does wrong when he attempts
to control others, and to force them to abstain from drinking, even though
they are temperate in their use of food and drink.”
We ask the intelligent reader if such language, when applied
to total abstainers, is either charitable or true? The total
abstainers and advocates of prohibition are not drinking men.
They are safe enough, but they are laboring to rescue the
drinkers who are not conscious of their danger, and to prevent
the young from becoming drinkers. Who is to judge whether
a man is under the restraint of "external bonds,” or
"under
the guidance and control of internal and spiritual principles,"
when he abstains from the use of intoxicating drinks? Men
and women do not become the "vilest of the vile" by eating
good, wholesome food, and by drinking good health-giving
drinks which "correspond to things spiritual;" but by drinking
poisonous drinks, the product of leaven, which correspond to
falses from evil, such as fermented wine, whiskey and punch.
No living man can use such drinks with any reasonable assur-
ance that he will not become a drunkard; or at least be
seriously injured by them, as all experience shows. We
}
MISTAKING EVIL USES FOR GOOD USES.
605
are
know very well that the "doctrines of the New Church
no protection against drunkenness if they are not so far heeded
as to prevent men from drinking intoxicating drinks; as many
a New Church wife, father, daughter, son and brother have
learned to their sorrow.
Why misrepresent the views or misjudge the motives of
prohibitionists? It surely is well known that they have never
attempted to control others, or to force them to abstain from
drinking. They have simply endeavored to prevent the
manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks. You may drink
what you please, only you must not manufacture and sell « to
others; that is all.
The great trouble with the "New Church Life," as the
reader will see from the above quotation, is that it seems to have
mistaken hell and its delights, for Heaven and its delights.
Intoxicating drinks are among the poisonous substances which
Swedenborg, in the D. L. W., tells us have their origin
from hell. They are the product of leaven or ferment which
Swedenborg tells us has an evil correspondence, and we know
by every day's observation that their effects on man when he
drinks them are evil. Is it right for man to imbibe and appro-
priate, moderately, falses and evils, or should he totally abstain ?
We have asked this question before, and should be very happy
to see an answer by our brethren of the "Academy."
CHAPTER V.
CORRESPONDENCE OF ALCOHOL
AND OF LEAVENED SUBSTANCES.
FACTS WORTHY OF ATTENTION.
66
Does alcohol correspond to wisdom purified?
We were surprised to see the following statement in the
New Church Life," viz.:
"In Conjugial Love (No. 145), Swedenborg states that alcohol corre-
sponds to wisdom purified.”
On turning to the above number, the reader will find no
such statement, nor is there any such statement to be found
in the writings of Swedenborg. How could there be when he
assures us in his memorial to the Swedish Diet, that whiskey,
which is but diluted alcohol, is so pernicious a drink, that it
would be more desirable for his country's welfare and moral-
ity that its use should be done away with entirely, than any
income which could be derived from its manufacture and sale;
and when, as we have shown elsewhere, in "The True Chris-
tian Religion" (No. 98), he compares "the vinous spirit called.
alcohol" in its ability to affect man when he drinks it, to the
effect of the doctrine of salvation by faith alone on the clergy;
the one intoxicating naturally as the other does spiritually?
This certainly looks like a genuine correspondence, but we
will let it rest as a comparison, as we intend to make no state-
ments which are not strictly true beyond reasonable doubt or
controversy.
In the above number in Conjugial Love, the reader will
find that wisdom purified is compared as to its purity with the
purity of alcohol most highly rectified by various chemical and
mechanical processes there named; and that not the slightest
allusion is there made to the inherent life of the purified alcohol,
606
CORRESPONDENCE OF LEAVENED BREAD.
607
or its appropriateness as a beverage; in fact, this purified alco-
hol cannot be used as a beverage. How hard pressed must our
New Church advocates for the use of intoxicating drinks be for
legitimate arguments and correspondences to sustain their
cause, when, on the one hand, they feel compelled to manu-
facture correspondences from the comparisons of Swedenborg,
which simply refer to various processes and the purity or
clearness of the resulting liquids; and, on the other hand,
totally ignore all comparisons which refer to the inherent
quality of the intoxicating fluid and its ability to affect man
when he drinks it; and so teach an entirely different doctrine
from that which they draw from their comparisons.
In his work on 'The Wine Question in the Light of the
New Dispensation, "and in his "Reply to 'The Academy's' Re-
view," the writer has carefully considered the above and other
comparisons of Swedenborg bearing on the wine question, and
showed that the interpretation given to these comparisons by
the advocates for the use of intoxicating drinks, is a forced and
unnatural interpretation; and that it is contradicted by a large
number of direct correspondences, and by numerous compari-
sons and by well-known scientific facts.
The July number (1885) of “The New Church Life" con-
tains the following from a correspondent:
"I notice a statement from a prominent total abstinence advocate—
'I know of no instance where a good signification is ever given to any
leavened substance, excepting to leavened bread after it has been purified
by heat.' Then his copy of the writings must be queerly translated.
I find in mine plenty of them. (E. g: A. C. 7906; D. P. 25 and 284;
T. C. R. 820, 834; A. C. 1517.) Only I find, also, that, with most other
correspondences, they have an opposite evil significance (see A. C. 6377),
which, however, does not take away the good. (See D. L. W. 331.)
However, contrary to his reading, I find that leavened bread is usually
used in an unfavorable sense, as in Arcana (n. 7887-8), where it repre-
sents 'truth not purified from the false,' and n. 9295, where it signifies
' good not yet fully purified.'"
"Truth not purified from the false" and "good not yet
fully purified" are not altogether bad, like falses and falses
608 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
from evil. The total abstinence advocate, referred to above,
certainly did not intend to convey the idea that the corres-
pondence of leavened bread is ever absolutely good, like that
of unleavened bread; but that it, having in a great measure
been purified by heat while baking, is relatively pure when
compared with fermented or leavened wine, which has never
been thus purified, but contains all the soluble effete sub-
stances which have been excreted or secreted by the living
leaven cells, the chief of which is alcohol, which renders it an
unclean, poisonous and intoxicating fluid.
Now, if the reader will turn to the above named numbers in
the A. C., D. P., and D. L. W., he will find simply compari-
sons which refer to the apparent combat which takes place
during fermentation, to the separations which take place, and
to the clearness of the resulting liquid; and that no reference
is made to the inherent quality of the fermented wine, or to its
ability to affect man, or to its suitableness for use as a bever-
age. It is certain that fermented wine never has a good
correspondence in itself, for the results which follow or are
produced by fermentation are directly the opposite of those
which follow spiritual regeneration or purification; for in the
latter process the good and the true overcome the evil and the
false; whereas in the fermentation of wine, the leaven, which
corresponds to the evil and false, overcomes and either per-
verts, destroys, or casts down or out, everything in the pure
juice of the grape, which nourishes and delights the natural
body as good and truth do the spirit of man, to the extent
that fermentation progresses. This simple fact, gentlemen of
"The Academy," settles the correspondence of fermented wine;
and you may as well give it up first as last.
If the reader will turn to the passages in "The True Christian
Religion" named above, he can judge whether reference is had
to fermented wine or not. The writer will quote them.
Speaking of the changes which take place among Papists, when
in the spiritual world they are instructed and begin to see the
truth, Swedenborg says they are "like sailors who after a
UNFERMENTED AND FERMENTED WINE.
609
tedious voyage come to the desired haven; and then they are
invited by the members of the society to feasts, and delicious
wine is given them to drink out of crystalline cups" (T. C. R.,
820). Again, in speaking of the heat in the Christian heavens,
when the delight of their love is perceived as an odor, Sweden-
borg says it "is like the fragrance of gardens, vineyards
and shrubberies; * * * and in other places like the scent
arising from wine-presses and wine-cellars" (T. C. R., 834).
In reply to the above, we would simply remind the writer in
the "New Church Life" that the fiery, polluted wine, which
he evidently regards as a delicious wine, would never be so
regarded by a child or man of unperverted taste. Place the
unfermented wine and fermented wine to the lips of children
or men for the first time, and there is not the slightest doubt
which would be chosen every time-and it would not be the
vile product of leaven.
The odor of a vineyard when the grapes are ripe is delight-
ful, and the same is true of a wine-cellar filled with new wine;
but if filled with fermenting wine, and not ventilated, the
atmosphere is suffocating from the presence of carbonic acid
gas.
The writer has called repeatedly upon the advocates
for the use of fermented wine, to produce a single in-
stance in which Swedenborg, in giving the spiritual sense of
passages of the Sacred Scriptures in which wine is named,
has ever given to wine a good signification, when it is
clear that reference is had to fermented wine, and yet such a
passage has never been produced; and it never can be, for the
simple reason that in giving the spiritual sense of the Script-
ures, Swedenborg never contradicts either himself or any
well known, fully established scientific facts. The gentlemen
of the "New Church Life" may persist in remaining blind to
this fact; but if they do thus close their eyes to the light
which so many other New Churchmen behold and walk by,
their message will fall on deaf ears, and their guidance will
be refused as leading to "the ditch."
610 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
A FEW FACTS WORTHY OF ATTENTION BY ALL WHO DESIRE TO
KNOW THE TRUTH UPON THIS IMPORTANT QUESTION:
a
First-As the writer has abundantly shown in this and his
former works, the word wine, and the corresponding word in
the Hebrew, Greek and Latin languages, is a generic name,
and includes all kinds of wine, new and old, unfermented and
fermented; and that it is thus used in the Sacred Scriptures
and in the Writings of the New Church, and in the English
translations of both. The tirosh of the Hebrew Scriptures and
the mustum in Swedenborg's Latin, which generally denote
unfermented grape juice, but may include fermenting must
also, are not unfrequently translated by the English word wine,
in our present English Bible and in the English translations of
Swedenborg's works; and to show that such a translation,
especially so far as the Hebrew Scriptures are concerned, is
no new or careless rendering, we will state that the Hebrew
word tirosh, about three centuries before the Christian era, was
translated by distinguished Hebrew scholars into Greek in the
Septuagint or Greek Old Testament, by the Greek word oinos,
or wine, and not by glukos, or the Greek word for unfer-
mented juice of the grape. Here, then, we have one fact which
is beyond being called in question; which is, that we have to-day,
and have had for thousands of years, two kinds of wine—the
unfermented and fermented juice of the grape, although very
different, yet both called wine in the different languages with
which we have to do in the discussion of this question.
Second-That the fermented juice of grapes is called wine
and has been so called in all ages, and with but few excep-
tions, among most nations, is beyond question; but we have no
evidence that such a wine is either the good wine of the Word
or of the writings. Between unfermented and fermented
wine there is a great gulf fixed as broad and deep as that be-
tween heaven and hell, and every way similar; for the former
derives its life and life-giving qualities from the Lord through
heaven, and the latter derives its life and body and soul-
FACTS WORTHY OF ATTENTION.
611
destroying qualities from hell, according to the plain teaching
of Swedenborg in his D. L. W.. to which reference has
heretofore been made. In unfermented wine we have the
nutritious substances, most wonderfully adapted for supplying
the wants of the human body, and the whole bearing a strict
resemblance to blood, all organized by the Lord in the fruit of
the vine. In fermented wine we have these nutritious sub-
stances destroyed and decomposed by an unclean living
substance called leaven, which pours out its excretions into
the wine, rendering it unclean, and a fluid which will harm
and kill men when they drink it freely as they may drink un-
fermented wine or other good and useful fluids.
Third-There are in the Sacred Scriptures and in the
Writings of the Church a large number of passages in which
reference is had to the juice of grapes, either under the name
of wine, must, sweet wine, or new wine, or old wine. Please
bear in mind that wine or old wine may be either unfermented
or fermented; and that must or new wine may be unferment-
ing or fermenting, but very rarely the latter as reference is
made to it in the Sacred Scriptures. Now, in a large number
of instances in which the juice of grapes is referred to, under
any of the above names, in the Bible and in the Writings,
the kind of wine to which reference is made is perfectly
clear from the text and context, whether it is unfermented, or
fermented, or fermenting. If it is spoken of as being either
squeezed from grapes, trodden from grapes, pressed from
grapes or flowing from the press, or, again, as it exists in
grapes, or as dropping from the mountains, we know that it
is unfermented wine or juice of the grape that is meant.
On the other hand, when the juice of grapes, under any of
the above names, is spoken of as causing drunkenness and
insanity, or is likened to the poison of dragons and the cruel
venom of asps, or when we are told that it biteth like a ser-
pent and stingeth like an adder, surely no one can have the
slightest question but that reference is had to either the
fermented or fermenting juice of the grapes.
It is not to
612 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
the abuse that reference is had in the above instances, but
to the inherent quality of the wine-to its ability to injuri-
ously affect man when he drinks it. The writer recog-
nizes distinctly the fact that a good thing, like unfer-
mented wine, may be used to excess or abused, when its
abuse will not have a good signification; and also he will not
deny but that a substance having a vile origin, like alcohol,
when applied to a good purpose as in the arts, or by its
poisonous qualities preserving substances from decomposi-
tion, and even for preserving remedies, or when used for
burning to generate heat, its use may have a good corres-
pondence, the correspondence being with the use or func-
tion. Gold has a good correspondence; but gold, if
ground up finely or dissolved in acids, and used as we use
other food, would cause disease and death; and if so used,
its use would have no good correspondence. We should
strive never to confound good and evil, or truth and false-
hood.
Now, Swedenborg, in giving the spiritual sense of the Sacred
Scriptures, has quoted and given the spiritual signification
of most, if not all, of the passages which speak of the juice of
grapes or wine in any form; and on a careful examina-
tion we find not a single instance in all of his writings
where he has ever given to fermented wine or grape juice a
good signification, where it is clear from the text or context
that reference is had to fermented wine. On the other hand
we find not a single instance in his writings where he has ever
given to the unfermenting or unfermented juice of good, sweet,
cultivated grapes, or unfermented wine, a bad signification,
when it is clear from the text or context that reference is had
to unfermented wine. Now, there is also a large number of
passages in the Sacred Scriptures where wine is spoken of
favorably, and where Swedenborg has given a good significa-
tion to the wine, where there is nothing in the text or context,
with the exception of a good signification, by which we can
determine whether the wine in question was unfermented or fer-
FACTS WORTHY OF ATTENTION.
613
mented. Now we ask with what show of truth or justice the advo-
cates for the use of fermented wine, can claim such passages to
justify the use of fermented wine as a beverage and as a sacra-
mental wine, when there is not a passage where the character
of the wine is beyond question which will justify their claim?
On the other hand we appeal to the common sense as well as
to the highest intelligence of every man and woman in the New
Church to say if they cannot all be claimed legitimately and
fairly as referring to unfermented wine; which we have found
when we are certain that it is unfermented, always has a good
signification? If any New Churchman has the slightest ques-
tion, let him look again at the origin of the two kinds of wine,
and their effects on man when he drinks them. Unfermented
wine is the unperverted natural product of the vine, which
nourishes, warms and thus makes glad the heart of man when
he partakes of it freely. Fermented wine is the product of
leaven in its destructive action upon the pure juice of the
grape, and full of its excretions; and when man drinks it
freely it is capable of causing almost innumerable diseases,
drunkenness, insanity and death. We ask the intelligent
reader again, if it is possible that two fluids so different in
their origin, in their chemical composition, and in their
effects on man when he partakes freely of them as he does of
other healthy fluids, can both have a good signification? If,
as has been abundantly shown, the signification of unfermented
wine is good, does it not necessarily follow that the signifi-
cation of fermented wine is bad? We know, if we will reflect a
moment, that it is bad; for as the leaven, or the corrupt tree
which produces it, perverts and corrupts the juice of the pure
fruit of the vine, so leavened or fermented wine perverts the
appetite, the body, the understanding and heart of those who
drink of it as freely as they may of healthy fluids.
We see
evidence of this all around us among wine drinkers, in every
nation where fermented wine is drunk; in every church, and
among all classes, even among clergymen; and the victims
have not been in the past, and will not be in the future, all
614 NEW CHURCH PERÍODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
confined to the "Old Church." It is a sad reflection that we
have teachers and writers belonging to the New Church,
who will not only drink intoxicating drinks, which is bad
enough, but who strive with all their might to justify their use,
and thus lead others, even the young, to follow their example
in drinking; and who do not hesitate to justify and require the
use of an intoxicant at the most Holy Supper. May the Lord
enlighten and forgive them!
A New Church clergyman writes in regard to New Church
organizations: "The New Church has hitherto busied itself
chiefly with questions pertaining to ecclesiastical matters-
what form of church government, of worship, of prayer, of
sermon and of sacrament? In this she has done well; but
she has too much neglected a vast field of issues open to her
and to her only. Not only in the questions of abstinence and
temperance and tobacco, but in all reforms it rests with the
New Church ultimately to speak the decisive word. We see
on every hand the birth of new devices and of new contriv-
ances. They are the footprints of the New Age. And yet
the New Church, she in whose hands the entire fate of the
New Age and the shaping of its entire course lies, rarely says
a word on these subjects. From the question of teaching
Hebrew, Greek and Latin, in our colleges, up to the Revision
of the Sacred Scriptures, and to the issues between labor and
capital, between unions and monopoly, the New Church is
severely silent. And yet she alone can speak the final and
decisive word. What reason has the Old Church for total
abstinence? None save a strict moral code, while the revc-
lations to the New Church alone can place the question upon
its Divine and therefore its true basis. So in all matters, the
Old Church has nothing to offer on any mooted point of
the day.
No issue falls within its scope, because it covers the
field of ecclesiasticism and that chiefly. But the New Church
is rightly the Church of actual practical life. She should
cover all issues from the smallest business transactions to
the intercourse of nations."
CHAPTER VI.
THE NEW CHURCH Messenger" anD THE WINE QUESTION.
On the 9th of July, 1885, the following letter was addressed
to the editor of the "Messenger."
Editor "NEW CHURCH MESSENGER.
Dear Brother :-You will remember, that about a year ago,
you published a sermon in the "Messenger," written by a
prominent member of the "New Church Academy,” which
justified and thereby encouraged the use of fermented wine.
You will also remember that I wrote and sent you a reply to
that sermon, for the “ Messenger;" but the reply was not
printed. I understand that two New Church clergymen also
wrote replies to the same sermon-one, I know, sent his reply
to you (or at least he told me that he sent it), and I presume
the other did the same (but he may not have done so); but
so far as I know, neither of the replies ever appeared in the
columns of the "Messenger."
Some months ago (March 18th), you will also remember
an article on "Evil Uses" was copied in the "Messenger" from
the "Morning Light," written by a prominent member of "The
Academy" in England. That article contains statements so
contrary to well known facts, and to what we know to be
the truth, and is so calculated to do harm to the New Church,
that I can but feel that a reply to it should be inserted in
the "Messenger." I wrote a short reply to it which was
inserted in "The Dawn," Dec. 25th, 1884. The essay on
"Evil Uses" was to all appearance written for the purpose
of justifying and thus encouraging the use of intoxicating
drinks; and the same arguments are used as were used by
a New Church clergyman more than thirty years ago, in dis-
615
616 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
cussing the wine question, to justify the use of such drinks,
but he could not sustain his views. Surely, you must know
that a large poisonous dose of alcohol, or nux vomica, would
poison the healthiest man, woman, child or animal ever born
into the world. It is difficult to imagine any falses which
are better calculated to do harm, than those contained in the
above article.
Again, in the "Messenger" for June 3d, 1885, there is an
article headed, Man Regenerated by Internal, not External
Restraints," written, if not by a member of the “Academy,”
at least, by a man in full sympathy with that organization, in
regard to the use of intoxicating drinks.
It is a very strange article, indeed, being a strong onslaught on
the reforms of the present age; and especially upon the efforts
being made to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicat-
ing drinks. The representations contained in the above article
are not always fair, and of course the conclusions reached are
neither charitable nor just; and in my estimation there should
be a reply inserted in the "Messenger.
Now, Mr. Editor, I ask you if you will insert a reply to
each of the above articles, one in different numbers of the
Messenger," if I prepare them? I will endeavor to see that
there is nothing personal, uncharitable or unkind in my replies;
and if aught of the kind in your estimation should be found in
them, I will be but too ready to modify the language when you
call my attention to it; for I have but one aim, and that is, to
benefit the Church.
"Mes-
If you were the proprietor as well as editor of the
senger," I would never think of asking you to insert a reply to
the above articles after you had once refused, or neglected,
perhaps, I should say, to insert the reply to the above-named
sermon.
But the "Messenger" belongs to the General Con-
vention of which I am a member; and I think it is safe to say
that at least one-half of the members of the New Church in the
United States never use as beverages intoxicating drinks, and
do not believe in their use; and not a few do not, without more
LETTER TO THE "MESSENGER'S" EDYTOR:
617
or less hesitancy, use an intoxicating wine as a sacramental
wine, and some will not use it at all. Under such circum-
stances I can but feel that the views of those who do not
believe in the use of intoxicating drinks, are justly entitled to
some respect at your hands. You have freely admitted articles
expressing the views of the "Academy," which contain assump-
tions in favor of the use of intoxicants which are groundless,
and statements which are not true; which have much pained
some of your subscribers. Why should you not admit a
reply? This is an important question pertaining to life. Why
should not both sides of it be fully and fairly discussed in your
columns? Why reprint the same ideas from the Rev.
of the "Academy" in a sermon if not in the very same ser-
mon, after the statements were replied to and shown to be
erroneous in my work on the wine question, in 1882 ?
When I sent my reply to the last sermon, I called your atten-
tion, if my memory serves me correctly, to the fact that by very
simple experiments you could satisfy yourself that the repre-
sentations contained in that sermon were not true. A good
and true cause does not require to be sustained by groundless
assumptions and untrue statements.
I dislike
A reply to the above sermon and also to the two articles
will unquestionably be printed, D. P. permitting; and it seems
to me much better that they should be inserted in the "Mes-
senger" than published elsewhere-better for the "Messenger,
its editor and its subscribers, and for the Church.
exceedingly to appear in print in opposition to the "Messen-
ger," and also to be obliged to print anything which may
present the appearance of a personal controversy with you.
But the Church must be protected by the truth from evils
which are so fearfully destructive. False doctrines are bad,
but evils of life are far worse. I hope you will reconsider the
question, and admit the replies to the above sermon and
articles. If you should conclude to comply with my request,
please insert the article which I sent you while in Europe, in
reply to the sermon, and I will, within a few weeks, send
618 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
replies to the above-named articles.
If you desire any
any modi-
fication of the article which was sent to you, please return it
with suggestions before printing it.
Truly yours, in the interest of peace and good-will,
Editor Messenger.
JOHN ELLIS.
To the above we received the following reply from the
editor of the "Messenger," which we print with the leave of
the writer, that the reader may have a fair chance to judge
whether or not the course of the "Messenger" has been
liberal and fair.
My dear Doctor Ellis:
SOUTH HARPSWELL, Me., July 18, 1885.
Your favor of the 9th inst. was duly received.
You state that a sermon appeared in the "Messenger," about a year
ago, which "justified and therefore encouraged the use of fermented
wine"; you also state that two articles have appeared since that time,
containing "statements contrary to well-known facts,” and you ask
whether an article prepared by you in reply will be published.
I have not knowingly published in the "Messenger" any article
advocating the use of wine. I have not thought it wise to continue the
discussion of that question. I have, therefore, taken pains to hunt up
the articles in question, and examine them; but I am unable to see that
there is any allusion to the subject. The nearest approach to the advo-
cacy of wine-drinking, I find in
's sermon, which treats of the
"leaven hid in three measures of meal." Incidentally
de.
scribes the process of wine fermentation as a purifying action, giving in this
description the commonly received idea about the subject, and almost in
the words of Swedenborg. I know that you hold to a different view;
but I do not see either that the commonly received idea encourages the
use of wine as a beverage, or that wherever such view is brought out in
the Messenger," it should immediately be challenged as favoring
intemperance. There are a thousand considerations bearing on the use
of wine that determine whether it is wise to make a beverage of it or
not, other than the peculiar theory one may hold as to the nature of
fermentation, and of the alcohol thence produced. I see, therefore, no
occasion to admit a reply to
's sermon.
I will admit a reply to the articles on "Evil Uses," if it can be
shown that they are contrary to the truth; but I do not feel called upon
to publish your inferences as to a writer's favoring the use of stimulants,
CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE “MESSENGER'S” EDITOR.619
because he does not see the truth of your conception of the nature of
alcohol.
I have received no reply to
's sermon from any clergyman.
Since you have alluded to the "Messenger" as belonging to the
Convention, I shall submit your letter and this reply to the Board of
Publication. I remain, very sincerely,
On October 10th the writer received the following from the
editor of the "Messenger:"
My dear Doctor :
The Ex. Committee of the Board of Publication has decided to
admit an article from you presenting your view of the wine question.
The article is simply to present the subject on its merits, and is not to
reply specifically to those which have already appeared on the other side.
The object of this restriction is to cut off the claim for a reply from the
other side.
I remain, very sincerely,
We would naturally suppose that the discussion might cease
when a reply had been made to the articles already printed in
the "Messenger," if at any point. The writer's views on the
wine question are already well known in a general way.
Reply to the above offer:
NEW YORK, Oct. 12th, 1885.
Dear Sir :-I have received your letter. The articles to
which I desire to reply are specific articles which require
specific replies, and in my estimation justice cannot be done
without these replies distinctly alluding to the articles, other-
wise at this late date the article would be without point or
force and comparatively useless. Take, for instance, 's
sermon. I have there to reply to precisely the same falses,
clothed in the same language, as I have replied to in one of
my works already published. As often as such specific views
are printed in the "Messenger," there should be a specific
reply. If the Board admits the one they should, it seems to
me, be ready to admit the other. Then, in the short space of
one article it would be impossible to do justice to the reply to
620 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
your three articles, especially when it is to be a general reply,
and not to name the articles or even ideas to which the reply
is to be made. For the above reasons I should not be
willing to undertake writing such a paper. Thanking you
for your letter and the Board of Publications for their offer,
I am, very respectfully yours,
JOHN ELLIS.
The editor of the "Messenger" certainly cannot expect
that the advocates for temperance in the New Church will be
satisfied with the publication of the sermon and articles in the
Messenger,' to which his attention has been called, so long
as he refuses to admit a reply. It is not to any theory of
fermentation, as the editor of the "Messenger" in his reply.
above intimates, that we object; but to assumptions which are
groundless, and statements that are not correct. It is assumed
in the sermon that the juice of the grape or unfermented or
new wine contains impurities, which can be removed by
fermentation; which is contradicted by the Word, the Writings,
and by science. In our former reply to the same sermon in
the "Messenger," in "The Wine Question in the Light of the
New Dispensation," we inquired :
"Can either the reverend gentleman, or the editor of the
Messenger,' tell us what the impurities and foreign sub-
stances are, which can only be separated by fermentation in
the pure juice of the grape, called must or new wine, as it
flows from the press, which Swedenborg tells us has the same
signification as wine? Is the gluten, which nourishes the
body of man as good does his soul, one of them? This is
to a great extent destroyed and cast out by fermentation.
the sugar, which is so delightful and which corresponds
to spiritual delights, one of them? This is destroyed and
perverted into alcohol, a most deadly poison. Is the phosphorus
which is so necessary for the brain, one of them? This either
disappears or is polluted during fermentation. Do the vegetable
acids and alkaline salts, so carefully organized by the Lord in
Is
STRANGE ASSUMPTIONS IN THE "MESSENGER."
621
the grape to nourish man's tendons and bones, belong to the
impurities and foreign substances which can only be removed
by fermentation? These substances are perverted, changed,
or cast down as lees by fermentation; and such lees have not
n good correspondence, as we shall see."
While there has never been the slightest attempt to reply to
.ne abɔve inquiries, yet the editor of the "Messenger" inserts
this assumption and the same sermon for the second time,
and sees no reason why this erroneous representation in the
interest of intoxicating wine, should be called in question in
the columns of the "
Messenger."
Does the editor of the "Messenger" really suppose that it
is fair, and that it is satisfactory to the more than one-half of
the New Church people in our country (including the women),
who are abstainers, for the advocates of temperance to be
compelled the second time to go outside of the columns of
the "Messenger" to expose and reply to the very same falses,
published for the second time in the same sermon in the
columns of the "Messenger"?
Again, it is assumed that unfermented wine is not suitable
as a beverage until after fermentation, in the face of the fact
that men in all ages have drank it freely, and that men and
women go to Switzerland at this day and, with a little hand-
press, press the juice directly into a glass or cup and drink
it freely, and find it a healthy, life-giving fluid. And this
assumption is made, dogmatically, notwithstanding that the
writings give to such unfermented juice or must the very
highest signification that is ever given to any form of wine, as
will be seen in the preceding pages. In the above-named ser-
mon it is also stated as a fact, that in the grape juice there “are
many crude particles of foreign substances which cannot be
strained out, separated or removed in any other way than by
fermentation;" which is not true.
The above groundless assumptions and e.roneous statements,
if accepted as true by those not well informed upon the subject,
as is likely to happen, would lead them to the natural inference
622 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
that there is no wine or form of grape juice suitable as a bev-
erage, and for communion purposes, excepting fermented wine.
To allow such a sermon, and the articles hereafter to be
noticed, to go unquestioned to the readers of the "Messenger,"
and refuse to admit a reply, is to commit the "Messenger" to
the advocacy of intoxicating drinks, and against the great tem-
perance reform of this day; and to make it the medium for
promulgating the views of the "Academy" on this question.
This is the second time that such assumptions and statements
have been made, in precisely the same language, in the same
sermon by the same clergyman in the columns of the " Mes-
senger,” after an interval of about three years. So it seems
that somebody is persistent in crowding such ideas into the
columns of this organ of the general body of the Church, and
the editor is especially anxious that no reply thereto shall
appear. To the first publication of the above assumptions.
and assertions the writer replied in his work on the "Wine
Question in the Light of the New Dispensation."
While the writer regrets to see the " Messenger" committed
to the wrong side of the wine question, he does not object to
the publication of anything which the advocates for the use of
intoxicating drinks are able to write, provided an opportunity
is given to reply; for the more fully this question is discussed,
the more clearly will the truth appear.
The editor of the "Messenger," in a lengthy editorial pub-
lished on March 25th, 1885, says:
"It has been our policy to avoid all controversy, to make our paper as
far as possible one that will represent the positions of the whole Church,
and that may be in fact the voice of the New Church to the world."
How its editor avoids controversy will be seen in the follow-
ing pages; and the reader will see that he does it upon the
most important practical question pertaining to life now before
the Church, by absolutely excluding the views of those who
differ from him and "The Academy." When he excludes
from his columns the views of a good many New Church
clergymen, and say, at least, one half of the laity, upon a sub-
DISSATISFIED WITH THE "MESSENGER'S" COURSE.623
ject like the one under consideration, and admits opposing
views, how can he talk about representing the positions of the
whole Church?
Is it possible to imagine a more objectionable method of
justifying and encouraging the use of intoxicating wine, than
to do it by dogmatically assuming, asserting, and representing
that unfermented wine or grape juice is full of impurities, and
consequently is not fit for use; and that it can only be purified
by fermentation, after which it becomes fit for use? Is this the
kind of instruction which loving parents desire to have spread
before their children in sermons in a New Church paper, without
the privilege being granted to correct such erroneous represen-
tations? We know that some parents have been very much
dissatisfied with it, for one subscriber wrote to us while we
were in Europe: "On the publication of
's sermon I
ordered the Messenger' discontinued, for I was not willing
that my boys should read a New Church paper which would
publish such a sermon."
CHAPTER VII.
LEAVEN, LEAVENED AND UNLEAVENED WINE.
EVIL USES.
THE following, a copy of which was sent to the "Mes-
senger, is our reply to the above-mentioned sermon :
"}
Editor "NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER."
Dear Sir: In a sermon printed in a recent number of the
"Messenger," we read in regard to the juice of the grape, or
unfermented wine, as follows:
"Before fermentation the grape juice in the wine vat is
turbid, and appears full of impurities. But by fermentation
the impurities are removed, the lighter ones are thrown off
from the surface, and the grosser sink to the bottom, leaving
the wine clear and pure for use. The necessity for this arises
from the fact that in the grape juice are many crude particles
of foreign substance that cannot be strained out, separated
or removed in any other way than by fermentation. * * *
The impurities that give rise to fermentation are in the juice,
and the hidden, unseen leaven is in the meal; and only by
fermentation can the juice be purified, while the bread must
be purified by the fire of the oven as well."
Is it true, as represented above, that flour, meal, and the
juice of the grape are impure?
'Flour or meal signifies celestial truth, and wheat celestial
good." (A. R, 778.) "Fine flour and also meal, denote
truth which is from good." (A. C. 9995.) Are celestial
truth and good impure, and is truth which is from good
impure ?
In the above are found several other incorrect representa-
tions and statements which, in the estimation of the present
524
NO IMPURITIES IN UNFERMENTED WINE.
625
writer, should not be allowed to pass unnoticed in your
columns.
First, in regard to the impurities represented as existing
in the fresh grape juice. If the grapes are properly
gathered, and insects and decaying grapes separated with care,
as is done when we eat them, the juice of grapes as pressed
from the grapes contains no impurities; contains nothing
injurious to man when he drinks it, more than the grapes when
he eats them. Both alike are the fruit of the vine, organized
by the Lord for the sustenance of the natural bodies of men,
and both have a good signification; and this is especially true
of the recently expressed juice or must, for in the Writings we
are told that “it (must, Latin mustum) corresponds to every
genuine truth derived from the good of love to the Lord," and
every good and truth of the external and internal man.
66
All
the truth of the Church finds its correspondence in this must
or new wine. (See A. E. 376, and numerous other passages in
the writings.)
The freshly pressed juice of the grape is not "turbid" from
any impurities, but from the presence of albuminous and
other most nutritious portions of the clusters, which nourish
the material body as good does the spiritual body. If we
keep the fresh grape juice or wine cool, as we do our meat to
preserve it; or do as the ancients did, put it into bottles and
seal them carefully and sink the bottles in wells or springs of
cool water; or bury them in cool, wet earth, fermentation will
not ensue; and, contrary to the representation in the above.
sermon, the "apparent impurities" will settle to the bottom
of the bottle, and leave the wine perfectly clear and beautiful.
Nor is there much difficulty in removing the "apparent
impurities," which, as I understand, are represented in the
above sermon as real impurities, by the means of strainers and
filters. Again, by heating the fresh juice to a boiling point
much of the albuminous matter will be in a measure coagu-
lated; and being expanded by the steam, it will rise to the
surface of the fluid, and can be readily removed by the skimmer
626 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
or strainer; and if any remains we have only to bottle and seal
or can it while boiling hot, as we do fruits and jellies; and all
turbidness will disappear in a few days. When wine is pre-
served without fermentation the lees are light and flocculent,
and are really the most nourishing portion of the wine, conse-
quently they have a good signification; and they are very
different from the heavy dregs or lees which fall to the bottom
in fermenting wine, which have not a good signification. The
writer has repeatedly, within the last three years, preserved
wines by the above methods; and he has now samples put up
two years ago next fall, which are unfermented and beautiful.
Again, the leaven is not hidden either in the meal as it is
ground from the grain, or in the wine as it is pressed from
the grape; but the germs of leaven float in the atmosphere
and fall upon grapes as they do upon all fruits and grains,
and as they did upon the unleavened bread in the days
of the prophets, without defiling or rendering the latter
impure or unclean. So the germs of the putrefactive ferment
fall upon our meat and our fish and upon other food which
we eat, yet both kinds of germs are harmless, so long as they
are not developed into living organisms; but let the germs of
leaven which are washed from the grapes when they are
crushed and pressed, or which fall from the atmosphere into
the juice after it has been pressed from the grapes, be devel-
oped into leaven cells, and a wonderful transformation ensues,
not less surprising than that which results in our meat and fish
under similar circumstances. You may take the most beau-
tiful and clear unfermented wine, and if it contains any germs
of ferment, as is usually the case if it has not been heated to
near the boiling temperature (180°); or if you expose it to the
atmosphere and allow leaven germs to enter it, if the tempera-
ture is suitable, in from twelve to forty-eight hours the wine
generally begins to grow turbid and slightly warm, and full of
impurities and heterogeneous substances, and it can only become
clear again when the process of active fermentation has in a
measure ceased. The leaven cells appropriate such portions of
LEAVEN CANNOT LIVE ON IMPURITIES.
627
the wine as are required for their own nourishment and reject
the other; and by the vital action of the leaven the substances
which it requires for its nourishment are radically changed,
and alcohol appears as one of the products; and the sugar or
sweet portion of the wine, which corresponds to spiritual
delights, disappears, until in old wines it has generally been
all destroyed. Fermented wine, then, it will be seen, is pre-
eminently a leavened substance; for it has all of the essential
products of leaven in it, and it is never purified by heat until
they are driven off, as they are in the baking of leavened
. bread.
1
Even if there were any impurities either in the meal or flour
as it is ground from the wheat, or in the newly pressed grape
juice, the leaven germs could no more develop and the leaven
live upon such impurities than could man be developed and
live upon such impurities. Leaven, like man, requires for its
nourishment the gluten and the starch or the albumen and the
sugar, and other nutritious substances; remove either of the
wo last, the albumen or the sugar, from the grape juice, and
add all the impurities you please which contain neither gluten,
starch, albumen, sugar, nor their equivalents, and the leaven
will starve as would man if he were to attempt to live on a well
fermented wine. Leaven, in seeking organized food, does not
seek impurities, but it leaves behind its own impurities, as
do animals; and these in fermented fluids cause disease,
drunkenness, insanity and death.
Unleavened wine, however freely used, never causes drunk-
enness and insanity; fermented or leavened wine causes both
drunkenness and insanity every day all around us. Can there
be any question which is the good wine of the Word and the
Writings which "is clear and pure for use"?
Edinburgh, Scotland, July 18th, 1884.
EVIL USES-ALCOHOL.
JOHN ELLIS.
In regard to the article on evil uses, printed in the
"Messenger," March 18th, 1885, we will reprint our reply
628 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
contained, the
article on evil
It is manifest
to the same, published in "The Dawn," December 25th,
1884; and, from the extracts therein
reader can judge for himself whether the
uses was calculated to do harm or not.
that if the statements therein were true, there never could
have been any diseases in the world, for it is contrary to the
doctrines to suppose that the Lord ever created any germs of
disease in man when he was originally created. Every man
who is lusting after unlawful indulgences and sensual gratifi-
cations, is already apt enough to imagine that he is so immac-
ulate and free from a liability to be contaminated, that he can
gratify his appetites and passions without danger; and the
result is drunkenness, and the diseases which result from
licentiousness all around us on every hand. We need no such
teaching in the New Church as is contained in that article on
evil uses: first, because it is not true, for poisons will poison
the healthiest child or animal ever born; and second,
because it is nonsensical and fearfully pernicious-a cry of
peace and safety where there is no peace and the greatest pos-
sible danger.
To the Editor of "THE DAWN:"
Dear Sir: In an article on "Evil Uses," in a recent number
of a New Church periodical, we read as follows:
"The law so far as the body of man is concerned, is this: that the
body through the soul is receptive of an influx out of heaven and also out
of hell. The influx out of heaven brings health to the body, and the influx
out of hell causes illness and disease."
After speaking more at length of the influx from heaven and
from hell, the writer continues:
“In a like manner the disease-bearing influence out of hell rushes into
human bodies, and wherever it meets with bodily states corresponding to
these evils it affects them, and creates disease. But where this influence
out of hell does not meet with the germs of disease, there the body
remains unaffected thereby.
"This influence out of hell may enter into man either from within or
from without. The influence from within, as already stated, comes through
EVIL USES, GERMS OF DISEASES.
629
From
the immediate influence of evil spirits, who are evil uses in form.
without, however, the disease-generating influence reaches the human body
either through malaria or miasma, or through infection, or also through
the direct action of animal and vegetable poisons. Yet, as observed before,
unless the germ of disease exists beforehand in the human body, it will not
be affected by the disease-bringing influences from without."
In the first place, it is, to say the least, by no means certain
that "when this influence out of hell does not meet with the
germs of disease, then the body remains unaffected thereby."
Can the most healthy man in the world voluntarily allow evil
spirits to flow into his mind, and excite his perverted passions.
without restraint, and not endanger his bodily health? Do
strong and overpowering mental emotions never cause the dis-
ease and death of previously healthy men and women? Phy-
sicians, I think, would give but one answer to these questions.
In the second place we are told that "unless the germ of
disease exists beforehand in the human body, it will not be
affected by the disease-bringing influences from without."
Among the latter, as will be seen, he enumerates malaria,
infection, animal and vegetable poisons.
Now, if it is true, as is represented above, that spiritual influx
from hell never causes disease in healthy men and women
who are free from the germs of disease, and that external
poisons and "disease-bringing influences from without"
never cause disease, I for one would like to know how there
ever came to be any diseases, or germs of diseases, troubling
the bodies of men and women at all. While it is unquestion-
ably true that, as a rule, the freer a man is from disease, or
the germs of disease, the better able he is to resist the action
of poisons and other disease-bearing influences, yet this is by
no means universally true; for it sometimes happens that an
individual suffering from disease can take a quantity of a
given poison, without being injured seriously, which a well
man could not take with impunity. Again, if a man has, by
the long continued habitual use of a poison, caused disease of
the body, we know that he can often take a quantity of that
630 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
same poison in a given time which would kill more than
one healthy man if taken within the same period of time.
It is well known that a strong poisonous dose of opium,
tobacco or alcohol will poison men, and any animals however
healthy they may be, or however free from the germs of dis-
ease they may be.
Animal and vegetable poisons which do hurt and kill
men, Swedenborg tells us in the D. L. W., have their
life from hell; and we can no more safely eat and drink them,
and thus appropriate them for either exciting or sustain-
ing our material bodies, than we can eat and drink spiritually,
and thus appropriate, the evils and falses, from which they
derive their life, for sustaining our spiritual organizations.
Total abstinence in both instances is the only law of temper-
ance. We can but see how difficult it must be for a man who
is regularly exciting his perverted passions by the use of nat-
ural poisons, to overcome such perversions. The only true
and safe course is to shun evils as sins against God; and to
commence this work at once on the natural plane.
That poisons, even intoxicating drinks and opium, although
never useful during health, are often useful as remedies for the
cure of diseases, I do not question; but the above-named
poisons, when used in large doses, as a rule are but palliatives;
and for this reason, excepting in transient cases where patients
may recover under their temporary use, it is always better and
safer to select some other remedy if possible. In chronic
cases, or even in sub-acute cases of disease, there is great
danger of their use becoming habitual, as the patient gener-
ally, while he continues to use them, will never see the time
when he does not actually feel that he requires the remedy;
and after continuing them for a long time, it is very rare that
one can quit their use without a strong effort of the will, and
encountering often severe suffering; and we know many fail
in the effort, and always remain slaves to the habit.
Vienna, Austria.
JOHN ELLIS.
ORIGIN AND CORRESPONDENCE OF DISEASES. 631
A New Church clergyman writes as follows:
My dear Doctor :-I am grateful to you for your efforts. I
wish to call your attention to one passage in the Writings,
which disposes of the notion that the influx from hell or of
poisons from without, do or do not affect the bodies of men
according as they are, or are not free from germs of disease. In
A. C. 7524, speaking of the boils breaking forth with blains
upon man and beast, Swedenborg says that such things
'would be in every evil man unless he, so long as he is in the
world, was in a state of receiving the good and truth of faith;
it is for the sake of that state, that the Lord prevents such
things bursting forth from evils.' From this it appears that
men are not protected from disease because they are pure in
body, any more than they are defended from evils because
they are free from evil tendencies; but that both are due to the
Divine mercy of the Lord in order that men may be kept in a
salvable state. I think this is a very important doctrine, and if
we could all remember, it would beget a slight degree of
humility in our hearts."
Swedenborg says "That diseases also have correspondence
with the spiritual world, not indeed with Heaven which is
the Grand Man, but with those who are in the opposite, thus
with those who are in the hells. By the spiritual world in the
universal sense we mean both Heaven and hell; for a man,
when he dies, passes out of the natural world into the spiritual
world. The reason why diseases have correspondence with
those who are in the hells is, because diseases correspond
with the lusts and passions of the mind; these therefore are
the origins of diseases; for the common origins of diseases
are intemperances, luxuries of various kinds, pleasures merely
corporeal, also envyings, hatreds, revenges, lasciviousness and
the like, which destroy a man's interiors; and when these
are destroyed, the exteriors suffer, and draw him into disease,
and thereby into death: that man is subject to death by rea-
son of evils, or on account of sin, is well known in the
Church, thus also he is subject to diseases, for these are of
632 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
death. From these considerations it may be manifest, that
diseases also have correspondence with the spiritual world,
but with unclean things there, for diseases in themselves are
unclean, since, as was said above, they originate in things
unclean." (A. C. 5712.)
If a man uses poisonous substances, not knowing them to
be injurious, and that thereby he endangers his health, reason
and life, it is "the sin of ignorance;" but even then the
poisonous effects will follow, and the suffering and disease.
which result, together with the depraved appetite for the
poison which is developed if its use is continued, will seriously
interfere with his regeneration; yet the evil is light when
compared with the lusting after and craving for such poisons
and the unnatural excitement which they cause, and striving to
justify their use, and then deliberately using them, knowing
that their use endangers health, reason, freedom and life.
When a man does the latter he "destroys his interiors," or his
ability to see that the poison injures him, and that its use is an
evil ;
and he destroys his freedom to resist the inclination to
use the poison, and so becomes a slave to his appetite, and
thus he is "drawn into disease, and thereby into death."
Besides those noticed above, there are many passages in
the article on evil uses, the truth of which, to say the least,
is very questionable; and even if they contain a trace of
truth, there is no doubt but that, owing to the crude manner
in which the ideas are presented, they are calculated to do
great harm to the Church, especially to its young, if allowed
to pass unnoticed. Look at the following, gentle reader, and
see if you think they should be allowed to pass unquestioned
before your children in a New Church paper, and in the form
of a tract.
"Evil uses are instrumental in procuring for man a state of equilibrium
ever since the fall; that is, ever since the time when evils and falsities
were introduced into man's spiritual constitution. Indeed, ever since the
lower, natural degrees in man, down to his very body, have been perverted
by evil and falsity, evil uses actually require to be introduced into his
MOST FEARFULLY FALSE DOCTRINES.
633
Hence the craving
system, in order to keep these lower degrees alive.
of the body of the fallen man for the flesh of animals, and even of unclean
animals, like the hog, which is the form of an evil, and not of a good
and heavenly use.
"Evil spirits are thus allowed, under divine providence, to apply their
evil uses to man for the sake of keeping his body and his spirit in a state
of equilibrium. And for this purpose, also, as we have seen, evil spirits
are permitted by the Lord to flow into a man's evils and falsities at his
entrance into his age of maturity. And yet they are never allowed to
flow into man with such a rush of evil as to disturb his spiritual
equilibrium, and as to interfere with his freedom and rationality."
Now, the above are no new ideas in the New Church, for
they have been long used in private conversation by certain
members of the Church, to excuse, and thereby indirectly to
encourage, the use of intoxicating drinks, tobacco and other
injurious substances; but how much truth is there in the above
representations?
It does seem to the writer that every intelligent, dili-
gent student of the writings of Swedenborg, who, by the
means of a good life, is in freedom to see the truth, if he uses
the reason with which God has endowed him, cannot but see
that the above representations in regard to the equilibrium in
which the Lord desires to preserve men, and in regard to evil
uses, are not only false in themselves, but most fearfully false and
pernicious in their tendencies. By such representations in the
past, the most fearful evils which are so destructive to our race,
both spiritually and physically, have been regarded by some pro-
fessed New Churchmen as allowable and even justifiable, not
simply among evil men, but also among New Churchmen;
and thus such fearful evils of life have been encouraged as
the drinking of intoxicating drinks, the using of tobacco and
opium, injurious habits of dress among women, etc.
Even
licentious practices have, under certain circumstances, bẹen
regarded as justifiable among Christian men by some professed
Christians.
In regard to freedom, the Lord is in the most perfect free-
dom, and the source from whence angels and men derive their
634 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
freedom. The angels are in freedom, and the regenerated
man is "free indeed ;" and, if you will allow the expression,
goodness and truth are free. Neither the Lord, His angels,
regenerated men, nor goodness and truth desire to destroy
men's freedom or the equilibrium in which they are placed;
and the Lord, His angels and regenerated men would be
equally free if there were no evil spirits, evil men, or evil
uses originated and appropriated by evil spirits and men in
the spiritual and natural worlds. The Lord's judgments, the
coming of the Lord into the world, and all the punishments
and sufferings permitted, and remedial measures provided,
were not necessary to prevent the angels, and goodness and
truth, if you please, from interfering with the freedom of man
and the equilibrium in which man is placed, but directly the
reverse; they were all required, and necessary to prevent and
remedy the encroachments of evil spirits and evils and falses,
which alone endanger, impair and destroy man's freedom and
the equilibrium in which he is placed, and render remedial
measures necessary to restore man to spiritual and natural
health, and consequent freedom; and if this cannot be done,
to restrain men from sinking to lower depths of evil.
The necessity of introducing evil uses into man's system, for
the purpose of keeping his body and spirit in a state of equili-
brium, is strongly insisted on in the above essay. It says:
“Indeed, ever since the lower natural degrees in man, down
to his very body, have been perverted by evil and falsity, evil
uses actually require to be introduced into his system in order
to keep these lower degrees alive. Hence the craving of the
body of the fallen man for the flesh of animals, and even of
unclean animals, like the hog, etc.
As we have shown, this assertion of the necessary employ-
ment of evil uses (as articles of ordinary food or drink) is
contrary to the Writings, so we can prove that it has no founda-
tion in experience. There is a class of degraded humanity,
among which more than any other "the lower natural degrees,
down to the very body, have been perverted by evil and falsity
1
1
NO DANGER IN SHUNNING EVILS.
""
635
and evil uses,” and among which there is "a craving” for the
evil use of intoxicating drinks-we mean the inmates of our
prisons and houses of correction. Of these, a very large propor-
tion are committed directly as drunkards; and of the remain-
ing prisoners, a large majority are confined in consequence of
crime which has resulted in whole or part from the influence
of intoxicating drinks. As soon as these persons are arrested—
without any regard to the "perverted natural degrees, down
to his very body," or to the clamors of its "craving," without
any preparation whatever their supply of liquor and tobacco
is cut off; and as long as they remain in jail, whether for ten
days, or thirty days, or thirty years, they are not able to
“introduce into their system
"the evil use actually required
to keep these lower degrees, "down to the very body," alive.
What is the result? They go in, physical wrecks, from the
vices of drinking, smoking, etc.; and after living for a time on
the total abstinence plan, their hands become steady, their
eyes clear, and their muscles strong. They become healthy
in body, clear in their minds, and very often with no less
improvement in their spirits than in their bodies. Instances
are not unfrequent where the poor, shaking drunkard, desir-
ing to free his "lower natural degrees, down to his very body,"
from the slavery to drink, has asked to be sent up for ten days,
or thirty days, or for a longer time, in order that he might be
removed from the temptation of saloons that meet him at every
corner; and by an enforced abstinence, gain strength that
might perchance enable him to recover the state of freedom in
which the Lord wills him to be.
It will be seen that the Lord does not desire to perpetuate
either the perversions of man's spiritual life, or the correspond-
ing diseases of his physical life; therefore he provides truth
and good, and gives to man the ability to see the truth and to
love the good, if he is willing and obedient; and, by his thus
seeing and loving, a good, substantial, healthy spiritual organ-
ization is developed and preserved. And so the Lord has
provided for the development and preservation of the material
636 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
body, good, substantial drink and food; and he gives to man
an instinctive desire to appropriate such nourishment, if he
is willing and obedient; and, by thus drinking and eating, a
good, substantial, healthy physical body is developed and
preserved. The natural drink and food which builds up and
sustains the material body, corresponds to the truth and good
which builds up and sustains the spiritual body; and finally,
the natural body, which has thus been built up, corresponds
to the spiritual body. All of this the Lord wills, and has
provided for most bountifully.
But the Lord has given to man freedom, that he might be
man; but man, by abusing his freedom, has sought out many
inventions, and has come to love that which is false and evil,
and to act accordingly; and this has caused, if you please,
disease of his spiritual organization, and interfered with its
orderly development; and thus he attracts to himself spirits
of a similar quality from the spiritual world, which the Lord
permits so long as he continues to live such a life. But the
Lord desires that he shall totally forsake the false and evil,
and live a true and good life, in which alone there is genuine
freedom and health. There is no necessity for man to pursue
such a perverted life, but while he does so he necessarily
attracts to himself evil spirits; but when he repents and shuns
the falses and evils, there is no danger of his lacking, for
the Lord provides that angelic spirits shall supply most abund-
antly the place of the evil spirits who have been put away
by resisting the false and shunning evils.
So in regard to the natural body; men have forsaken good,
wholesome articles of food which the Lord has provided for
them, and for which He has given them a natural appetite,
and have sought out poisonous substances which have their
life from hell, and which correspond to spiritual perversions;
and by persistently using them they have developed an un-
natural appetite for them, and have come to love them, and
the unnatural excitement which they cause; and their taste
and relish for good, wholesome nourishment is impaired, and a
WHY SHUN EVILS AND FALSES?
637
There is no
perverted or diseased state of the body results.
necessity for men to continue the use of such poisons, but the
first duty is to totally stop their use; and then the natural
instinctive demand for natural food will return, and good,
wholesome articles of drink and food will supply the demands
of the body, immeasurably better than such poisonous articles
possibly can, and health will generally result; but if diseased
action produced by such poisons, remains, then it is proper
to give remedies for its cure; but to continue the habitual use
of the poison or poisons which have caused the disease, is a
most fearful mistake, and tends to the total destruction of
health and life.
As spiritual and natural diseases and consequent suffering
result from the violation of spiritual and natural laws of health
and life, if a cure is to be effected, the very first thing to be
done is to stop totally the violations which have caused the
disease, and to do this as soon as possible. Without honestly
and faithfully doing this, a cure is impossible; otherwise, at
most, spiritual and natural disease can only be palliated, and
even this cannot always be accomplished. We have seen above
that evil spirits, and evils and falses, and evil uses alone interfere
with the state of equilibrium in men, or destroy their freedom
and cause spiritual and natural diseases; which diseases can
only be cured radically by shunning the causes which have
produced them, instead of men introducing them into their
systems in order "to keep these lower degrees alive," as the
above essay represents is actually required.
The truth is that men should always, to the very best of
their knowledge and ability, strive to totally shun the appro-
priating of evils and falses, and the corresponding natural evil
uses which correspond to evils and falses, to the sustenance of
their spiritual and natural organizations, as sins against God;
and seek or appropriate the good and truth which the Lord
has provided for the development of their spiritual organiza-
tions, and seek and appropriate good, healthy, nourishing food
and drink for building up and sustaining their natural bodies,
638 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
0
and thus strive to keep the laws of health and life. Men
should never excuse themselves for violating the spiritual and
natural laws of their being, because the Lord in this new age
permits that evil spirits may tempt men during the process of
regeneration, and that physicians may use natural evil uses
for the restraining and curing natural diseases; for, when evil
uses are used, excepting strictly as remedies with the full
determination to stop their use at the earliest practicable
moment, the patient becomes a bond servant to the evil.
The methods for restraining and curing natural diseases cor-
respond strictly and beautifully to those for restraining and
curing spiritual diseases.
Prisons, punishments and sickness may restrain and keep
men from evil acts, but they rarely are instrumental in chang-
ing the inclination and will; but still sometimes the remains
stored up during childhood by the Lord are allowed to
become active, and the man resolves to shun the evil acts
which before he loved, and with the help of the Lord that
resolve may lead to a new life of obedience to the Divine
commandments. In a similar manner, natural diseases may
be restrained by evil uses, as when constipation is overcome by
cathartic remedies, diarrhoea is restrained by astringents, great
heat of the body is overcome by the application of cold, or
extreme cold subdued by hot applications. While the above
treatment is only palliative and does not cure, yet it often, or,
at least where the disease is not deep-seated, sometimes occurs
that if the remedy is not continued, the natural or living forces
rally and health is restored.
The second method of restraining spiritual evils in evil men
is to excite one evil passion to restrain another evil inclination:
thus the love of reward or money, or of power or fame without
regard to use, often restrains men from evil acts, but the stim-
ulation of such affections does not change the hearts of men ;
still it prevents them from doing evil acts, and thus they may
have a chance to reflect, and may be brought under better
influences, and receive the truth; and in some instances refor-
CURE OF SPIRITUAL DISEASES.
639
mation may follow. In a similar manner natural diseases are
restrained in one organ by causing a disease in another organ or
part; as, for instance, when blisters are applied to the skin for the
purpose of restraining disease of an internal organ, or a
cathartic is given to lessen or relieve disease of the head.
While such treatment is only palliative, by calling the atten-
tion, as it were, of the vital forces to another part or organ, the
original diseased action may be overcome by the vital forces,
and health restored.
Last, in this new age or dispensation, we have the cure of
spiritual diseases by the means of temptations by evil spirits,
the Lord being the physician. It is here when the man is
sincerely striving to put away his evils, that the Lord never
allows a man to be tempted beyond what he can bear, and not
when he is voluntarily indulging in the gratification of his per-
verted passions and appetites against the Divine Command-
ments. If during regeneration evil spirits prompt a man to
yield and do an evil act, they aggravate his spiritual disease;
yet this very act may make his evil more manifest, and if he
reacts against it and resolves never to do the like again, it may
benefit him; though he fall, he falls to rise again. But if the
regenerating man willingly and diligently strives to put away
his evils, it is not necessary that he should be subjected to such
violent temptations as to lead him to commit evil acts; and
this is especially the case with young men and women who,
owing to having been carefully reared, have not indulged in
evil acts.
It is sufficient that the inclination to do an evil act
comes into thought; when if it is resisted and the thought is
put away, the cure is more perfect and radical than when it is
ultimated in act. This shows the vast importance of striving
to train up children in the way they should go, instead of
encouraging them to "sow their wild oats.'
It will be seen
that only spirits of a character similar to the evils to be over-
come, can be permitted by the Lord to tempt the regenerating
man.
Now, in strict harmony with this spiritual method of cure,
640 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
we have in this new age developed a method of curing
natural diseases corresponding to the spiritual method referred
to above, in every respect. Remedies are given which act
upon the organ diseased in the direction of the disease, and
which in a healthy person will cause similar symptoms.
to those existing already in the diseased man; as for
instance, cathartic remedies are given for diarrhoea, astrin-
gents for constipation, remedies which will cause nausea and
vomiting are given for nausea and vomiting, remedies which
will cause pain in the head similar to the existing pain in the
head, for headache, etc. It is evident that if such remedies are
given in large doses they will aggravate the disease; therefore
the skillful physician avoids giving such doses; and by
experience it has been found that the most minute dose, even
the thousandth or millionth or often a much less part of a grain
or drop of the remedy, will be much more effectual than a
larger dose. It is generally enough that the dose of the remedy
should be sufficient to excite the diseased action sufficiently
for the living forces to recognize the impression, to produce a
reaction; for it is not the remedy which cures natural diseases,
any more than it is the evil spirits that tempt man during
regeneration, which cure him of his spiritual evils; but it is
the living force which flows into the body from the Lord, to
which the remedy has made the diseased action manifest.
Now it must be evident that poisonous remedies or evil uses
should only be taken for the shortest necessary period and in
the smallest adequate doses. For instance, if alcohol or opium
is given in large doses for delirium tremens, to continue to
give the remedy after the acute symptoms have been removed,
is to render the man's last state worse than the first.
The hog is an unclean animal, but his flesh is not poisonous,
although it is liable to become contaminated by trichinæ and
the germs of the tape worm, when it becomes practically
poisonous if eaten raw. All experience shows that good
and evil men in usual health can live without hog's flesh, if
they have other healthy food, quite as well as, and even better
POISONS, EVIL AND GOOD MEN.
641
than, they can with it. The Jews live well enough without it;
and who will say that, if there were the slightest truth in the
representations contained in the above essay on evil uses, that
they do not actually need swine's flesh quite as much as
Christians? While the writer does not often use it himself,
yet, in cases of cholera infantum and marasmus, he has seen
great benefit result from giving patients moderate quantities of
salt fat pork fried until it was cooked through, and continuing
it until the symptoms were relieved; it seemed to act as a
remedy and to supply a temporary want, but the patients did
not require to continue it after their disease was relieved. It
is worse than folly to talk about the flesh of the hog and
other, especially poisonous, evil uses being actually required
by men and women as articles of food and drink during
ordinary health.
If an evil man, one full of hatred, covetousness, or love of
rule, lives according to the physical laws of health, he will be
healthy and strong; and if a good man violates those laws-
ignorantly, of course, if he is really a truly good man-he
will be neither as healthy nor as strong as he otherwise would
be. We repeat, poisons will poison when brought in contact
with or taken into the human body, so as to act upon
they derive their life from hell, and correspond to the falses
and evils, the indulgence in or appropriation of which tends
to destroy heavenly life in the soul of man.
it;
for
CHAPTER VIII.
ALCOHOL AN EVIL USE.
WILLIAM J. PARSONS, Esq., has sent us the following :
"These few remarks are intended to show that certain state-
ments of Swedenborg, taken in connection with certain facts
taught by modern science, prove that alcohol is not a good
thing from Heaven, but is a bad thing from Hell.
"Swedenborg states that nothing is, except from the Lord;
that He alone produces all things; that Hell creates or origin-
ates nothing; that evil and false are good and truth from the
Lord perverted or spoiled by the sphere or influence of Hell.
A very clear statement of this doctrine is found in the Arcana,
in the explication of the Baker's Dream. (See A. C. 5144 and
the following numbers.)
"He teaches that spiritual drunkenness is always produced by
falses from evil that is, by truths from good which have been
perverted or spoiled by the influence of Hell.
"He never says that spiritual drunkenness is produced by
the Lord's truths not perverted into falses. He never intimates
that too much indulgence in truth will make a man drunk.
Only the perverted truth, the false, does that.
"He always speaks of leaven as being from Hell.
"He speaks of both spiritual and natural drunkenness as
great evils.
"Science to-day has learned that alcohol is not a growth of
the vine; that it is never found in the grape juice as long as
the skin is whole; that the grape juice has in itself no ferment
principle and cannot and does not of itself ferment; and that
fermentation is not at all a process of separation of one part
of the juice from another part.
Science teaches that the ferment germs or leaven float in
642
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL DRUNKENNESS.
643
the air and lodge on the grape skins; that when the skins are
broken and the juice exposed, these germs get into the juice.
from the skins and the air, and attack it actively, the juice being
passive; that most profound chemical changes take place.
"The sugar is destroyed, not separated, by a chemical
decomposition, and a new thing, alcohol, results.
"There is a separation by gravity in grape juice, whether it
is kept from being fermented or is fermented. In either case
the lees settle because they are heavier than the rest.
"But no more absolute scientific falsehood can be told, than
that the fermenting of grape juice is a process of separation.
It is a process of destructive chemical disorganization and
chemical formation, accompanied by certain separation.
'Grape juice drawn from the grapes so that no germs from
the skins get into it, and approached only by perfectly purified
air, does not ferment, or, rather, is not fermented, and stays
sweet as it ripened on the vine.
"The juice will not ferment in the air found on the tops of
very high mountains.
'Could it ferment in the pure air of Heaven? Surely leaven
from Hell could not reach it there.
"The whole matter would have a very different aspect if
alcohol were a vegetable product of the vine, as the juice is, or
if the juice were so created that it would change of itself and
produce alcohol.
"Natural causes correspond to spiritual causes, and natural
effects to spiritual effects.
'Natural drunkenness must correspond to spiritual drunk-
enness, and the cause of the natural must correspond to the
cause of the spiritual. This means that the natural cause
must be of the same natural quality as the spiritual quality of
the spiritual cause.
"The cause of spiritual drunkenness is the truth from
good perverted by infernal spiritual leaven into the false from.
evil.
"Must not then alcohol, the cause of natural drunkenness,
644 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC
be natural truth perverted (or fermented) by natural infernal
leaven into natural false from evil?
"Does not science, as shown above, describe this corres-
pondence perfectly?
"The pure juice created from the Lord, let loose into the
atmosphere of the world, is attacked by the leaven (always
from Hell) floating therein; its sweetness is destroyed and
replaced by the alcohol which produces drunkenness, like as
does the false from evil produced by infernal leaven from truth
from good.
"The parable of our Lord likening the kingdom of Heaven
to the woman putting leaven into bread, has been used as an
argument in favor of alcohol.
“But is not this a great mistake ?
"Leaven starts fermentation in the dough, and this raises
the dough, separates the particles one from another, and so
makes light, good bread. At the right time, as soon as this
lightening process is complete, the baker applies heat by
putting the dough into the oven. This heat stops the fer-
menting, kills the leaven and drives off the alcohol. If the
heat is not so applied and the leavening process goes on, the
dough spoils, and becomes a foul poisonous mass.
"Is not the woman the Church? is not her putting in the
leaven the permitting, by the Lord, of Hell affecting a man so
as to stir up his evils that they may be put away; and is not
the heat of the oven the applying of warmth of love so as to
overcome the influence of Hell?
"All this seems utterly different from fermenting grape
juice, which process is not checked, but conquers and destroys
the juice, producing an entirely new substance.
"The almost universal argument used in favor of alcohol is,
that no matter how it is produced, when used in moderation,
it does not apparently hurt. All admit that, taken in excess,
it is terribly injurious; but in MODERATION it does no harm, it
is said.
"I will not consider here at all the question whether alcohol
ALCOHOL A POISON IN ITSELF.
645
does not do harm in moderation; but will only call attention
to one undoubted scientific fact that seems to be fatal to the
'moderation' argument.
"I allude to the scientific character of absolute alcohol when
drank, as regards its effects on the body.
"Let us recollect that, according to Swedenborg, material
substances have characters of their own that are not changeable.
"He teaches that innocent animals, beautiful, harmless
insects, healthy vegetables, are from Heaven; that vicious
beasts, poisonous snakes, poisonous herbs and minerals, are
from Hell.
"One would not find in Heaven a murderer, a viper, or
arsenic; nor would one find in Hell a chaste man, a lamb, an
oil olive, or a delicious grape.
'Things are produced from above or below, and have char-
acters accordingly.
"Also let us recollect that, in judging of the character of a
thing, we must regard the thing as it is in itself and by itself,
and not as it seems to be when blended with another sub-
stance that modifies and obscures its deformity.
"To illustrate: Weak solutions of arsenic are sometimes
taken by foolish women to improve their looks; and they say,
'As we take arsenic it does not hurt us.' Would any sane
man deny that such women are taking poison?
"Arsenic is a poison always in itself and by itself—that is its
character; although it may be taken into the system so diluted
as apparently to do little or no harm, or as a medicine with
useful results.
"Now let us follow alcohol from its production into its secret
place, where we can view it in its nakedness.
'It is formed by leaven, from the air eating up the sugar in
the grape-juice and excreting alcohol. The result is fer-
mented wine.
"This is not alcohol; it is a mixture of, say, one part alcohol
and nine parts water, and the water prevents people seeing
what the alcohol really is.
646 NEW CHURCH PERÍODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
"The distiller, by repeated or fractional distillation, draws
away the alcohol from the water till he gets what is known in
commerce as 95 per cent. alcohol. It is a mixture of, say, I
part of water with 19 parts of alcohol.
"The chemist's skill can draw away this 1 part of water and
then he has what is called absolute alcohol.
"It is alcohol and nothing else, and what is it?
"I think I am safe in saying, that throughout the scientific
world, without a single exception, all the scientific authorities,
all the medical authorities, and all the works on poisons, state
positively that absolute alcohol is a true and deadly poison.
"It is greedy for water, in which it hides itself, so that it can
deceive us as to its true quality; but by itself and in itself, if
drank without any mixture of water, it acts on the system as a
poison, and is a poison.
"It is a fact that when a person takes a glass of fermented
wine, he takes a certain amount of deadly poison just as truly
as does a woman when foolishly taking a solution of arsenic
to increase her charms.
"In view of Swedenborg's saying that poisons which hurt and
kill are from Hell, can alcohol itself but be from Hell? and can
a poisonous drug by mere dilution in water become a healthy
drink for a healthy man?
"Absolute alcohol is produced with great difficulty, and very
few people ever see it or know of it.
"If it were common as pure arsenic is common, its true
character would be well known; but, with the cunning of Hell,
it hides itself in water, an innocent fluid, so that it deceives us
and makes us think what a harmless thing it is if we only are
moderate in the use of it.
"As well might we say that a rattlesnake is not a vile beast
from Hell, because if we are prudent, moderate in our inter-
course with it, we shall not be hurt.
"Let us not forget that no sane man ever would or could
drink absolute alcohol, any more than he would put his hand
in a rattlesnake's mouth.
ALCOHOL A PRODUCT OF LEAVEN.
647
"One question to those members of the Church who hold
alcohol to be a good thing from Heaven, and the base of a
healthy drink for healthy men.
"I ask the question in all sincerity, and hope for an answer.
"In view of the settled facts that diluted alcohol, if not taken
with great caution and restraint, hurts and kills, and that
alcohol alone by itself is one of the deadly poisons; I ask,
what is the Heavenly good or truth that alcohol does corres-
pond to, and which is deadly in its spiritual effects of itself
and by itself?"
Alcohol is the chief ingredient in fermented wine, and the
one for which men drink it; and yet the juice of the grape is
by no means the only source from which alcohol is produced
by the destructive action of ferment or leaven. It is also
manufactured from corn, barley and other grains, and from
potatoes, and from the juices of the sugar cane, apples,
berries and other vegetables, and also from the sap of vari-
ous trees; and yet from whatever source it is derived, it is
the same poisonous and pernicious fluid; and capable of
causing disease, drunkenness, insanity and death, when used
as we may use healthy drinks. It is in no sense the product
of the vine, more than it is of other vines, vegetables and trees;
whereas unfermented must or unfermented wine is strictly the
product of the vine, and its essential constituents have been
organized by the Lord in the fruit of the vine, and they are
characteristic of the fruit of the vine.
The following letter from a New Church lady, an earnest
advocate of temperance, will doubtless interest the reader :
J. ELLIS, M. D.
KEYPORT, N. J., Aug. 30th, '83.
Dear Sir: I send you an extract from an article in "The
Churchman," by T. W. Coit, "Churches of Spain and Portu-
gal." In No. 3, Aug. 11th, 1883, he says: "Braga was
unquestionably the birthplace of Christianity in Portugal, and
648 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
for a long time was Portugal's church-centre. And in one
respect Braga never lost its independence and its home-born
superiority. It had a liturgy of its own, and that liturgy has
never been surrendered to the managing of the See of Rome.
* * * * But the Bragan liturgy yet survives, as we are
assured, among the relics of older and purer times. It is still
used in the celebration of the Eucharist, and here is one of
its features as given by a watchful and accurate observer. He
saw a priest solemnize mass on the Feast of the Transfigura-
tion. * * *** After placing the wine in the chalice, he
took several clusters of grapes (not water) and the wafer, *
and proceeded to give the laity the consecrated grapes and the
wafer."
*
The writer's point is, that Rome was not followed by giving
water to the laity, but if it is a custom which survives since St.
James (the Less) as he contends, it goes far to show that the
disciples of Christ did not use fermented wine in the celebra-
tion of the Last Supper. He says St. James established the
Church at Galicia, and died and was buried in Compostella.
How far this is correct, of course, we do not know; but, if
the Church at Braga has preserved her independence of Rome,
·and if she gives grapes in the cluster for wine at communion,
it is at least a strong argument against the use of fermented
wine.
Yours,
T. W. SEABROOK.
CHAPTER IX.
MAN REGENERATED BY INTERNAL NOT EXTERNAL RESTRAINTS.
In an article printed in the "Messenger," June 3d, 1885,
written by a New Church minister, and entitled, “Man Regen-
erated by Internal not External Restraints," the writer says :
The old monastic falsity of saving men by keeping them away from
the world, and the new prohibitory one of keeping its evils away from
them by their external suppression, must both alike fail ever to save a
single man, because they put his salvation upon a ground upon which it
never can be put—of salvation from external doing of evils, rather than
from internal thinking and allowing, thus willing them.
With the true thought that they are sins, and not allowable, all their
pressure possible from without cannot harm or endanger his salvation.
"The Lord operates all good with him, and effects that he does not will
them, and finally, is averse to them." And where the Lord can oper-
ate, not all earth or hell has any power at all.
And this is the reason that in the light of the doctrines we must reject
the specious pretensions of ancient monasticism, and modern so-called
reform, as alike a delusion and a failure. Their specious goodness is the
thinnest kind of French polish veneering, that will peel off at the first
dampening from the waters of falsity, and be ruined at the slightest rough
handling of evils.
And the chance of their salvation is only made worse, nay, made well-
nigh impossible, by the delusion that they are saved, when they are only
French polished.
We ask the intelligent New Church reader if the above
endeavor to throw contempt upon, and to discredit and dis-
countenance the efforts which are being made by Christian
men and women to enlighten men and thus prevent evil-
doing, and for the reform of evil-doers, and for restraint of
evils at this day, are not unjust and uncharitable ? What has
modern reform to do with "ancient monasticism," that they
should be classed together thus flippantly? Is the above
649
650 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
writer able and authorized to judge the hearts of men, and to
declare that their goodness is but specious? and that when
they shun stealing, licentiousness, and the drinking of intoxi-
cating drinks, in obedience to the Divine commandments-as
unquestionably multitudes do at this day-that they are only
"French polished"?
Has "modern so-called reform" proved a failure? Does
slavery still exist in our land? But as the above article in the
"New Jerusalem Messenger" is evidently aimed especially
against temperance people and their measures, it is not neces-
sary to diverge. Has the temperance reform proved a failure?
It is perfectly safe to say that among one-half of the native-
born citizens of the United States, there is not a single natural
drunkard—not one; and while they hold firmly to their
"modern reform " principles there never can be a drunkard
among them, for they never drink from the drunkard's cups.
Nor are they ruined by even the hardest "rough handling of
evils," for we know that they withstand manfully all the temp-
tations by which they are surrounded in their native country;
and the writer has often, at tables in foreign lands, where the
use of intoxicating drinks was universal, or nearly so, been
able to point to men and women and say, "They are Ameri-
cans, or, it is barely possible, they are English, for they have
no intoxicating cups before them." These people have been
taught, and principally by religious teachers, and by reading
their Bibles and other good books-the present writer was so
taught long before he had any knowledge of the writings of
Swedenborg—that to use intoxicating drinks is to endanger
one's own health, freedom, reason and life, and the happiness
of others, and his own eternal salvation; all of which is a
violation of the Divine commands, to love the Lord with all
our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves.
Governor Begole, of Michigan, in a late address, asserted
that he had found, from an accurate study of statistics, that
91 per cent. of the crime and pauperism of the State came
direct from the use of intoxicating drinks.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 65 1
Can any sane, rational man for a moment believe that it is
right, and in accordance with the will of the Lord, for men to
use drinks which are entirely unnecessary, as is demonstrated
by the experience of more than one-half of the community,
the use of which is attended with such results as are named
above? to say nothing of the diseases, drunkenness, insanity
and premature deaths which they are known to cause? Intox-
icating drinks are harmless so long as we let them alone.
The evil is in lusting after and drinking them; for when drank
we know that they, being the worst kind of poisons, tend to
destroy man's reason and freedom; and that men, without
being what is generally called drunk, commit crimes which
they would never think of doing if they were not under the
influence of such drinks. A few days ago a young man met
in the streets a poor, inoffensive Chinaman who was returning
from Sabbath-school, and shot him dead; and when arraigned
before the civil authorities for his deed, declared that he knew
nothing about it; he had been to a saloon and drank several
glasses of beer; that was all he knew about it.
As a result of the religious instructions which they have
received, and the consequences which follow the drinking of
intoxicants with which they have become acquainted, we have
thousands in the various churches around us, and without
them, and also in the New Church, who are restrained by
conscience from the use of intoxicating drinks. Why should
a New Church clergyman speak of them as above, and in what
follows in the next quotation from the "Messenger;" and why
should a New Church periodical print such an article? What
a shame!
"It would be well for man," says Swedenborg, "to prepare
his food chiefly with reference to use; for by so doing he would
have for his object a sound mind in a sound body; whereas, when
the taste is the chief thing attended to, the body thence becomes
diseased at heart, inwardly languishes, and consequently also
the mind, inasmuch as its state depends on the state of the
recipient bodily parts, as seeing depends on the state of the eye;
652 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
hence the madness of supposing that all the delight of life,
and what is commonly called the summum bonum, consists in
luxury and pleasurable indulgences; hence also come dullness
and stupidity in things which require thought and judg-
ment, whilst the mind is disposed only for the exertions of
cunning respecting bodily and worldly things: hereby man
acquires a similitude to a brute animal, and therefore such per-
sons are not improperly compared with brutes." (A. C. 8378.)
Thus speaks Emanuel Swedenborg, and he tells us, further,
in the words already quoted, that whiskey is so pernicious a
fluid that its use threatened the downfall of the Swedish people
in his day, and that it would be better if its use were done away
with altogether. In strict harmony with the words of Sweden-
borg, the "Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church"
speaks to the members of that Church and its young men and
women as follows:
"Temperance, in its broader meaning, is distinctively a
Christian virtue, scripturally enjoined. It implies a subordin-
ation of all the emotions, passions, and appetites to the control
of reason and conscience. Dietetically, it means a wise use of
useful articles of food and drink, with entire abstinence from such
as are known to be hurtful. Both science and human experience
unite with the Holy Scriptures in condemning all alcoholic
beverages as being neither useful nor safe. The business of
manufacturing and vending such liquors is also against the
principles of morality, political economy, and public welfare.
We therefore regard voluntary abstinence from all intoxicants
as the true ground of personal temperance, and complete legal
prohibition of the traffic in alcoholic drinks as the duty of civil
government." (T36, edition of 1880.)
The Presbyterian General Assembly, which met at Cincin-
nati in June, 1885, passed among others the following Resolu-
tion :
"That under God the removal of intemperance must
depend upon the forming of a wholesome public sentiment,
the power of conscience, enlightened by the Word of God,
ENGLISH NEW CHURCH CONFERENCE.
653
and the strong arm of the civil law wisely enacted and faith-
fully enforced."
The English New Church General Conference, at its last
meeting in August, 1885, speaks as follows: "Moved by the
Rev. W. A. Presland, seconded by the Rev. J. Deans: That
this Conference heartily congratulates the New Church Tem-
perance Society on the continued success which has attended
its labors, and on the growth of temperance principles through-
out the nation; and it earnestly recommends the Church at
large to encourage in every possible way the general objects
which the society has in view, especially measures for the
closing of public houses on Sundays.
"Carried unanimously."—The Dawn.
"
In the estimation of the editor of the "Messenger" and his
correspondent, what a deluded set of men and women our
English New Church brethren must be, to approve and join
hands in a great modern reform movement, and thus engage
in the "French polishing " business, which the "Messenger
correspondent so heartily despises. And only think of it, dear
reader, the English New Church Conference, in total disregard
of the views of the editor of the "Messenger" and of his corres-
pondent, actually proposes that the Church at large shall do
all it can to prevent the sale of intoxicants on Sundays.
Please read the following extract from the above article in
the "Messenger," and weep or laugh as the spirit moves you:
"A favorite modern delusion is the attempt to reform what the doctrines
so truly characterize as the 'enormous sin of drunkenness' (S. D. 2422),
by attempting to make it impossible for men to commit the physical
representative of the evil which they 'continually commit in spirit.'
Their case is thereby rendered only the more incurable, from the thought
thereby induced that they are saved from an evil, when they have only
been prevented from casting its shadow before the world. When men are
cured of spiritual drunkenness, from 'believing nothing but what they can
sensually understand' (A. C. 1072), and thence 'becoming insane in
spiritual things' (b.) 'in consequence of imbibing falsities' (9960), then
the corresponding physical insanity which the insane spirit yearns for with
an insane craving, will lose its feeding fires and go out. A man who is
654 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
made spiritually sane by the teaching that drunkenness of spirit as well as
of body is to be shunned as a sin against God, is in no danger from the
evil, as he is in no danger of cherishing the spiritual, and thence the natural,
craving for the insanity, nor for doing that which induces it. Truth and
soberness in doctrine and life will alone make a man ‘abhor such a life;'
which destroys 'his intellectual faculty, whereby he is a man; which
hastens his death, damages his body, and wastes in extravagance what
might be of use to many.' (S. D. 2422.)”
Is it a delusion which leads men and women to strive to
enact laws to restrain as far as practicable the most fearful evils
of this age, and to lessen men's opportunity to gratify a per-
verted appetite, the gratification of which is the chief cause of
insanity, drunkenness, crime and poverty, and which materially
shortens the average duration of human life? We know it is
not, and even the above writer admits as much in the following
lines:
"Of course evils must be restrained and the evil punished, or society
would perish. This is doctrine. (T. C. R. 498.) But it is not the
' reform' doctrine that would keep men in cotton in a satın-lined box to
save them from the touch of evil."
It is precisely the doctrine held by the advocates for regu-
lating and, if practicable, prohibiting the manufacture and
sale of intoxicating drinks; and it is precisely the doctrine
held by Emanuel Swedenborg when on the fly-leaf of one
of his theological MSS., he wrote: "The immoderate use of
spirituous liquors will be the downfall of the Swedish peo-
ple." In his memorial to the Swedish Diet, of November
17th, 1760, three years after the Last Judgment, Swedenborg
says: "If the distilling of whisky—provided the public can
be prevailed upon to accede to the measure-were farmed
out in all judicial districts, and also in towns, to the highest
bidder, a considerable revenue might be obtained for the
country, and the consumption of grain might also be re-
duced; that is, if the consumption of whisky cannot be done.
away with altogether, which would be more desirable for the
country's welfare and morality than all the income which
could be realized from so pernicious a drink." ("Documents
IMPORTANCE OF INSTRUCTING CHILDREN.
655
concerning Swedenborg," by Rev. R. L. Tafel, vol. 1., p. 493.)
This has clearly and unmistakably the total abstinence and
prohibition ring about it.
We know of no "reform doctrine that would keep men
in cotton in a satin-lined box to save them from the touch of
evil." Is it manly to fight a man of straw of one's own
creation ?
But there are a great many children born into this world,
and there are some parents who believe that it is their duty to
strive to "train up their children in the way that they should
go," and they believe that “evil communications are liable to
corrupt good manners"; consequently, they strive to keep
their children out of bad company, and from being led into
temptation, and for this purpose they believe that the gam-
bling-houses, bad houses and saloons on our street corners
and elsewhere, should be done away with by law, and that
schools, Sabbath-schools and churches should take their
places. Such parents honestly believe that, if they can keep
their children out of temptation and from ultimating their
hereditary inclinations to evil in external acts until they come
to years of discretion, and are able to perceive, when taught,
that certain acts and the harboring of the thoughts which lead
to them, are contrary to the Divine commandments, and con-
sequently a sin against God, that it will be good for their
children. Is this belief a delusion? Is it one of the "reform
doctrines" of which the above writer speaks so contemptuously?
Many of the New Church societies of Great Britain are
especially active in this great modern reform movement.
They have organized temperance societies and "Bands of
Hope" where the young are led by precept and example to
shun the use of intoxicating drinks, and to engage actively in
working for the restoration and preservation of others. Their
General Temperance Society meets annually during the sitting
of the New Church Conference, and above, the reader can see
and read the resolution which was unanimously passed in
1885.
656 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
Many a child which is allowed to be in bad company and
to visit cigar shops, saloons, gambling houses, etc., without
restraint, becomes a slave to bad habits before he or she is
fifteen years of age; and in cities and villages where children
need as much as in the country, active outdoor exercise, it is
one of the most difficult things in the world for parents, how-
ever careful, whose employments prevent them from being
with their children constantly, to keep them out of temptations,
and from being led into temptation and bad habits by men
and women who profit by their unlawful indulgences. Fre-
quently, when the writer has spoken to boys from ten to fifteen
years of age, who were smoking, and called their attention to
the consequences which would almost surely follow, they have
replied, "I have been smoking for years, and have the habit,
and I cannot give it up ;" and they did not give it up. Many a
young man, before he is of age, acquires a love for intoxicating
drinks which it is very difficult, if not impossible, for him to
control, and this chiefly through the temptations of saloons.
Has a community no right to protect its young against such
evils? Is there no advantage in a young man's shunning a
life which endangers and may destroy his intellectual faculty,
whereby he is a man; which hastens his death, damages his
body, and wastes in extravagance what might be of use to
many"? (S. D. 2422.)
We know nothing of the "favorite modern delusion" of
which the "Messenger" writer speaks at the commencement
of the last quotation, and we think it exists in the imagina-
tion of that writer alone. Every sensible man understands
that when we prevent a man from stealing our goods by the
means of locks and bolts, and by officers and prisons if need
be, we do not reform the thief; nor do we reform the drunkard
by prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks;
in both instances we simply prevent, as far as we can, their
doing evil acts, and thus protect ourselves and the community.
The thief and the man guilty of the enormous sin of drunk-
enness," can think of stealing and drinking with delight, and
66
NEW SCHEME OF SALVATION.
657
can will to steal and drink; and while they may be benefited
by external restraints, no one is so foolish as to suppose that
they are reformed and regenerated thereby; and even if
others unacquainted with their previous history are deceived,
they are not.
The thief and drunkard are to be reformed in a very differ-
ent way from that of which we have been speaking, and in a
very different way from that described by the above writer in
the Messenger."
"
The scheme of salvation presented by the above “Messen-
ger” writer, is not in accordance with the doctrines of the New
Church, but is directly the opposite. A man imbibes falsities.
in regard to the use of intoxicating drinks, and knowing by
observation that their use is attended with danger to his health,
reason and life, and to the happiness of his friends; if, then,
he commences drinking such drinks, he is liable soon
to become so infatuated as to believe that he can do so
with impunity, notwithstanding the fact that multitudes.
around him are suffering untold agonies of body and mind,
and not a few are dying from delirium tremens, drunkenness,
and other diseases which are caused by such drinks. "To be
intoxicated by the cup is to be insane from falses" (A. C. 5120,
9960), not from truths. If the drinker persists in the use of such
drinks, and follows the full bent of his appetite which demands
a steady increase of the quantity used, as multitudes do, he is
quite sure to become a "bondservant" to his perverted appe-
tite, and to become insane from the falses which he has imbibed
in regard to the use of intoxicants; and thus he becomes a
spiritual as well as a natural drunkard, "believing nothing but
what he can sensually understand." (A. C. 1072.) Sensually
every glass which the drunkard or hard drinker takes, delights
and gratifies his appetite; it relieves the craving, the aches,
pains, and despondency which previous drinking has caused,
and makes him feel good. How can he believe to the con-
trary from what he can thus "sensually understand"?
Now, we ask the intelligent New Church reader if it is possible
658 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
for a man to be cured of spiritual drunkenness before he has
taken the first step toward the putting away of natural drunken-
ness, as represented by the above writer in the "New Church
Messenger"? Can a man cease to love evil and apply him-
self to good, while he continues to think and do evil? Must
not the work of reform commence by abstaining from evils?
Swedenborg says: "Man is able of himself to abstain from
evils, but he cannot of himself receive good; the reason why
man of himself abstains from evils is, because the Lord
continually flows in into the will of man with that endeavor,
and thereby puts in him freedom to desist from evils, also to
apply himself to good; the Lord likewise gives him the
faculty of understanding truth, but the reason why he does
not understand is, because he is not willing to understand,
and this on account of evil which is of the life; for the false
defends evil, and truth damns it." (A. C. 8307.)
Now, it is perfectly clear from the above that, notwith-
standing the fearful results which follow, and always have
followed, the drinking of intoxicating drinks, no man while
he continues to drink them; can see clearly either their deadly
nature as drinks, or the evil of drinking them, for he is not
willing to see. Physically, such fluids satisfy the actual
demands of his perverted physical appetite and organization,
and, as intimated above, make the drinker feel good and
cheer him every time he drinks them; and yet the truth alone
can make a man free from falses and evils; still the drunkard
cannot teach himself the truth, but he must be taught, and
hearken to and abide in the truth; and fortunate is he if he does
this, for we know full well that comparatively few drunkards
are ever reformed. The drunkard, and all lovers of intoxi-
cating drinks, are in a low, natural state; and they must first
be shown that the use of intoxicants is unnecessary, and next
that they are injurious to health and reason, and are liable to
destroy life, and are a
are a cause of domestic unhappiness,
poverty and crime, and a violation of the Divine command-
ments, and thus a sin against God; and, consequently, these
DOCTRINES ALONE WILL NOT SAVE.
659
evils will affect their eternal destiny. And having been shown all
this, it is proper that an appeal should be made to them for
their own sakes, and for the sake of others, to give up this
evil life. Even if they could be made to see the truth ever
so plainly, they would not be benefited by it until they
repented with full purpose of amendment, and then made
an effort to stop drinking; this is the very first step which
they can take, and it is one which they must take first,
if they are to reform; and then, by abiding in the truth,
they will begin to think less of their cups, and gradually
they will cease to desire them; and as they are able to see the
truth more clearly and act from higher motives, they will
come to hold them in aversion.
It is high time that some of the clergy and laity of the
organized New Church, who seem to have forgotten, should
remember that doctrines alone however beautiful and true,
and that truth alone will not rescue men and women from the
fearful evils of life which are so destructive to our race, in
the midst of which we dwell; but that the call to repentance,
to the shunning these evils as sins against God, must be heard
and heeded before men and women can be elevated into the
clear light of the New Jerusalem. If we would clearly see
the truth we must do what the truth requires, or stop doing
the evil which the truth condemns. This is the first step.
Can not the " 'Messenger" writer and editor see this? Does
the editor of the "Messenger" really feel that he should be
allowed freely to publish such assaults upon the advocates of
reform, and to turn the orderly process of reform taught to
us by Divine revelation bottom-side up, without such views
being "challenged" in the columns of the "Messenger"?
and that it is impertinent for any one to desire to call their
truth in question?
A few words in response to the remarks of the editor of the
"Messenger" in his letter declining to publish in the columns.
of the "Messenger" replies to the articles which we have been
considering above; especially his statement trying to justify the
660 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
incorrect statements in the sermon as to fermentation, etc.
Swedenborg says:
"Dough before being leavened signifies truth from good"
(A. C. 7966), for dough is from wheat or other grain which sig-
nifies good. "Grapes in a good sense mean goodness.". "The
predominance of good is also represented in the flavor and
sweetness which are perceived in ripe grapes." (A. C. 2240,
5117.) "In presses, wine is expressed from clusters of grapes
and oil from olives, and from the wine and oil which are
expressed, is perceived the quality of the grapes and olives"
(A. R. 651). "Wherefore by corn, wine (mustum, Sweden-
borg) and oil which they should gather, are signified every
good and truth of the external and internal man.” (A. E. 376.)
So it will be seen that there is not the slightest question but
that good, sound, healthy wheat, and the dough and
unleavened bread from such wheat, and that good, cultivated,
sweet grapes, and the must and unfermented or unleavened
wine from such grapes, have a good correspondence-always
good. But let leaven or ferment commence its destructive
and disorganizing work upon the above pure products of the
vegetable kingdom, and they are pure no longer, for “leaven
in the Word signifies the falsity of evil" (D. P. 284), and
"leaven signifies evil and the false, whereby things celestial and
spiritual are rendered impure and profane." (A. C. 2342.)
How fearfully does leaven pervert and contaminate the fruit of
the vine when it is allowed to act upon it! From being a
healthy, nourishing, life-giving fluid, it becomes the drunkard's
cup, capable of causing natural drunkenness like as the falses
from evils to which it corresponds cause, as we have seen,
spiritual drunkenness. How wonderful the similarity and corres-
pondence !—a total perversion in both cases, and why? Simply
because "all evil is contagious, and infects as a fermenting
body infects dough; it thus at length infects all." (A. C.
6666.) "Those who are in evils think falses, and finally
persuade themselves that falses are truths and evils are goods.”
(A. C. 7437.)
"NO LEAVENED THING SHALL YE EAT."
661
The following from the "Arcana Celestia " is worthy of the
careful and prayerful consideration of every New Churchman:
"No leavened thing shall ye eat.'-That hereby is signified
that every caution is to be used lest the false shall be appro-
priated, appears from the signification of a leavened thing, as
denoting the false, see above, No. 7906; and from the signifi-
cation of eating, as denoting to appropriate to themselves,
see also above, No. 7907. The frequent prohibition against
eating what is leavened, as at verses 15, 17, 18, 19 (Exodus xii.),
involves, that the utmost caution is to be used against the
false; the reason why this caution against the false is to be
used, is, that man may be in good; the false does not accord
with good, but destroys good, for the false is of evil and truth
is of good; if the false be appropriated, that is, firmly believed,
there is no reception of the good of innocence, consequently no
liberation from damnation. It is one thing for men to appro-
priate the false to themselves, and it is another thing to adjoin;
they who adjoin, if they be in good, reject the false when the
truth appears to them; but they who appropriate the false to
themselves, retain it, and resist the truth itself when it appears:
this now is the ground of the frequent prohibition against
eating what is leavened” (A. C. 7909).
If there is a leavened thing on earth, it is unquestion-
ably leavened wine; for it affects man naturally, precisely
as falses from evil do spiritually-it makes him drunk.
What more need be said? Yet more should be said
to protect the young and inexperienced by reminding
them of the great danger of using such wine. That
which is true spiritually is true naturally; the thoughtless,
ignorant use of fermented wine occasionally, does not prevent
a man from seeing the truth as to wine when it is presented ;
and then, if he stops drinking it, well; but if he then persists
in using it, he, sooner or later, is quite sure to begin to love
it and take delight in the unnatural excitement and perver-
sions which it causes; and fortunate is the man if he does not
strive to justify by the means of falses his gratification of his
662 NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
perverted appetite, for he may yet see the truth and put away
the evil; but if he has appropriated the false until he firmly
believes it to be true and good to use intoxicating drinks,
there is little or no chance for his liberation; for "truth is
altogether corrupted by the false derived from evil" (A. C. 7449),
and it is well for us to remember that "the false may be con-
firmed more easily than the truth, because it favors the lusts,
and is in accordance with the fallacies of the senses (A. C. 6500).
FINAL APPEAL TO OUR BRETHREN AND SISTERS OF THE
NEW CHURCH.
WITH the exception of a few very rare instances of either
accidental or intentional poisoning from intoxicating drinks,
all of the diseases of the brain, lungs, heart, stomach and
kidneys, all of the insanity and consequent crime, drunken-
ness and premature deaths, which we witness around us at
this day, or which have ever occurred in the world, from the
drinking of intoxicating drinks, have started from the one
fountain, namely, the moderate drinking of intoxicating drinks;
generally of fermented wine, beer and other fermented drinks:
and they are but the legitimate results which have always flowed,
and which, we know, always will flow, so long as moderate
drinking of intoxicants is continued; and it is perfectly safe
to say that no moderate drinker has escaped entirely un-
harmed. The greatest obstacles to the descent of the New
Jerusalem are the moderate drinking of intoxicating drinks, and
the use of fermented wine at the Holy Supper; a fluid that
is unclean in its origin, and which fills man physically and
mentally with all manner of uncleanness when he drinks
freely of it.
We appeal to you, brethren and sisters of the New Church,
FINAL APPEAL.
663
as Christians and believers in a new dispensation of Divine
Truth, to put away and to utterly discountenance this un-
necessary habit of moderate drinking of intoxicating drinks,
which is sure to harm and most fearfully endanger both our
physical and spiritual organizations; and we also appeal to
you to cease the use of intoxicating wine as a communion
wine. We make these appeals to you in behalf of your rela-
tives, your children, your neighbors, and of all whom you
love, to strive to put away these evils from the Church and the
world, as well as from your own lives.
Canon Farrar, at the reception at Chickering Hall on the
evening of Oct. 29, stated that "Mr. Gladstone had once, in
his hearing, moved that imperturbable assembly, the British
House of Commons, as he had never before seen it moved,
by quoting the words of Sir T. F. Barton, and saying that
the evils wrought by alcoholic drinks, were more deadly than
those which had been brought about by war, famine and
pestilence combined. It was a terrible admission; but it was
true. Pity had made him, Canon Farrar, an abstainer, and
he appealed to his audience to have pity on the sufferers and
join the movement. He appealed also to their patriotism; for
the use of alcohol was an American as well as a British curse.
To-day, in this free country, our cities are being ruled by
the saloons; their keepers and the manufacturers of intoxicat-
ing drinks are combining and striving to control our legis-
latures and even our country. The children of New
Church people, as well as others, are tempted by our saloons,
and guided by the example of those older than themselves,
are constantly beginning the life which leads to the "enormous
sin of drunkenness," by drinking fermented wine and beer;
and smoking and chewing tobacco--a most deadly poison-
the use of which is a most fearful and growing evil, and paves
the way in a multitude of instances for the drinking of intoxi-
cating drinks; and yet, while other church organizations are
aroused and earnestly engaged in combating these evils, our
New Church organizations in this country, are as silent as
664 NEW CHURCH PERÍODÍCALS, INTOXICANTS, ETC.
the grave; and as to our New Church periodicals, alas! we
have seen in the preceding pages how and where three out of
four of them stand.
We appeal to you once more, brethren and sisters of the
New Church, to awake from this most fearful slumber, and
to follow the example of the New Church people in England,
by organizing temperance societies, and especially "Bands of
Hope" among the young, and thus engaging the rising gen-
eration early in a most useful work for each other, the Church
and the world. No more needed, useful or noble work lies
before us to-day than this.
Extracts from Canon Farrar's address at a reception given him by the
National Temperance Society, and the Church Temperance Society, in
Chickering Hall, New York, on Thursday evening, Oct. 29, 1885.
"Ladies and Gentlemen:-The day seems to me to have gone, and is
utterly past, when the opponents of our temperance reformation can con-
tinue to treat us either with the conspiracy of silence or with the enginery
of contempt. [Applause.]
[Applause.] As to silence, we do not intend to give it to
them."
"About ten years ago or more I became a total abstainer, because I
was easily convinced that the use of alcohol was not a necessity, and a
great deal turns upon that. I saw, for instance, that whole nations had
not only lived without it, but had flourished without it. I saw the remark-
able fact that there were some twenty thousand persons in England, and
that though many of them had made themselves mere funnels for drink;
though they had been accustomed to drink from their childhood;
though most of them had been brought to prison, either directly or indi-
rectly, through drink, yet the very day that they entered the gates of a
prison all drink was entirely taken from them, and yet there was not a
single instance on record in which any one of them had suffered in con-
sequence. On the contrary, men who have entered prisons sickly and
blighted, have been made compulsorily sober by act of Parliament, after a
few months left prison hale and strong and hearty; and women who had
been put in prison perfectly horrible and hideous in their loathsomeness
and degradation, after a short period of deprivation from the source of
their ruin, left prison with the bloom of health and almost of beauty."
"Already allusion has been made to your great philanthropist and
politically wise Benjamin Franklin. I dare say you know how he used
EXTRACTS FROM CANON FARRAR'S ADDRESS.
665
the words; 'Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel, flour
in the tub, money in the purse, contentment in the house, and clothes on
the bairns.' [Applause.] Shall I go back three hundred and fifty years
and quote once more what Shakespeare said? O thou invisible spirit of
wine, if we have no other name by which to call thee, let us call thee
Devil!''
"Alas! of every curse I have ever heard of, this is a curse in which
the entail might be cut off in a single generation. And yet the race of
man, bewildered by epigrams, baffled by sophistries, blinded by conceit,
seduced by pleasure, and rendered callous by greed, goes on enjoying and
even rewarding the production of this fatal cause of evil among themselves,
until one is forced to cry, 'Let the heavens burst and drown with deluge
of rain the feeble vassals of lust and wine.' Must we not feel pity for the
ravages which are caused by this deadliest of all human curses? Do we
not feel pity for the men whom we have probably seen and known, who
because of drink are living in its pollution and going to deaths of blas-
phemy, and are giving back to the God who made them nothing but the
dust of their mortal bodies and the shipwreck of their immortal souls? Have
we no pity for the thousands who are pouring poison into the ranks of
youth until its root becomes as bitterness and its blasphemy comes up as
fruit? Have we no pity for the families, the husbands, and wives on
whose hearthstones are burning, because of drink, the very fires of hell ?”
"Have we no pity for mothers whose hearts are wrung with anguish
at the fate of their offspring ?"
"Here is a vice perfectly preventable stalking among us, which produces
evils more deadly because more continuous than war, famine, and pesti-
lence combined; and yet we are so cold, so neutral, selfish, immoral, and
quiescent as to make no serious or united effort to grapple with that intol-
erable curse." [Applause.] "If in times of war, blessed are the peace-
makers; if in days of famine it is a noble thing to feed the hungry; and
if in time of plague it is divine to heal the sick, then surely we must be at
the last gasp of national honor; we must be in the final paralysis of
national selfishness if we can tolerate the fact that this vice, producing
evils so deadly and so preventable, is to stalk among us."
A letter from a New Church minister.
<<
'
My dear Doctor:-The new edition of Skepticism and Divine
Revelation' having now on the title page also 'Address to the Clergy
has been received. The Address to the Clergy' is masterly and ought
to have been in the former editions. Page 14, the reference to Prof. Bush,
the extract from the Galaxy; and page 18, the testimonials of Bishop Hurd,
Henry James; and page 17, the extracts from the Cyclopedia, by P. Godwin,
666 NEW CHURCH PERÍODICALS, ÎNTOXICANTS, ETC.
and from the Nonconformist, and those on page 19, will help greatly to
draw the attention to your book and the writings of Swedenborg; and
they will be read with greater confidence and make deeper impressions on
account of the willingness inspired by the laudations of such great men.
Besides, the easy flow of language and the sincere spirit which emanates
from it when read, attract to the book and make the mind anxious to
know its contents. Of all the books you have written I have regarded
this as the most useful, and my own experience has confirmed me in this.
In this dear book I left people a treasure which many have prized more
than all the goods of this world, and of its blessed effects and heavenly
uses I have received so many confirmations, of which you know nothing,
that I may well say, my work would not have been half what it was and
is, without this book. For this reason I have wished you had paid out less
for the books on the 'Wine Question,' and sometimes I felt jealous about it
and wished this dear work more circulated; but its real value to the
missionary comes after it has been preceded by lectures.
'
"However, I have been mistaken about the books on the Wine Ques-
tion,' and this I have been better able to see during part of last summer
and this fall. I have distributed a goodly number among the leading
temperance men and speakers in and in the counties. What do you
think they do with them? They make their lectures out of them and read
extracts from them to the large assemblies, and the effect has been great in
many instances. Men who were moderate drinkers, ministers who used fer-
mented wine in the Sacrament and drank it at home, have been converted
through your books and become the means of saving. immortal souls from
the fearful condition rum induces here, and from hell hereafter.
"I can never forget the experience already related to you before, when
Mr. -, my wife's brother-in-law, a gentleman of classical education,
had become a sober man through my efforts and received the heavenly
doctrines. He read Swedenborg and was a happy man. Then came the
Lord's Supper, and we had fermented California wine. I handed him the
cup, he drank, and after church he fled to some place where wine could
be had, came home late in the evening drunk, and continued drinking for
three months, until he died one evening after being brought home beastly
drunk. Unfermented wine is no seducer, and had Mr.
been given
such in the Sacrament, he might be living a sober man to-day. Your
books on the 'Wine Question' deserve, therefore, all that you have done
and expended under the Lord's guidance for their publication and circu-
lation; and God only knows how much good they will yet have to do.”
APPENDIX.
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH COMMITTEE OF A NEW CHURCH SOCIETY
IN REGARD TO THE USE OF UNFERMENTED WINE AS A COMMUN-
ION WINE-IN 1883.
DEAR BROTHER :
As you are the oldest member of the Church Committee I take the
liberty of addressing you, and of asking you if you will be so kind as to
call the attention of the Committee to the consideration of the question of
using unfermented wine at the most Holy Supper. It is a question to
which, as you are aware, I have devoted a great deal of time in its inves-
tigation; and as a result I have become satisfied that it is not right for me
to use fermented wine on such occasions.
Ist. Because the Lord in the administration of "The Last Supper"
most carefully avoided the use of the word, which has in all ages been
known to include fermented wine as well as unfermented wine, and instead
of calling the contents of the cup wine He specially designates it "The
Fruit of the Vine." This fact, to say the least, is very significant.
2d. Leaven and all things leavened were regarded as unclean in the
Jewish Church, and the orthodox Jews even at this day, as a rule, do not
use fermented wine at the Passover, but use unfermented wine; and I can-
not regard it as possible that if ever fermented wine was regarded by them
as suitable that they would be found carefully using unfermented wine,
when the fermented wine is in such general use as at present, and as it
has been for many centuries. Now it is generally admitted by commen-
tators I find, and even by our brethren of the New Church Academy, that
it was probably the Passover wine which the Lord took when He adminis-
tered the Holy Supper. This it seems to me is very conclusive proof
that He used unfermented grape juice or wine.
3d. We have conclusive evidence that unfermented grape juice has in
all past ages been included under the generic name of wine in Hebrew,
Greek, Latin and English, both in the Sacred Scriptures and in secular
writings, so that it is certain that even when the word wine is used it is no
evidence that it is fermented wine to which reference is made. This,
together with the fact that the Ancients were at such care and pains to
preserve unfermented grape juice or wine (the very processes as
described by Columella and other writers during the Apostolic days I my-
self and a large number of others have found entirely successful methods
at this day), are to my mind very conclusive facts; for if when the Lord
was on the earth there were actually in use two kinds of wine, one of
which was unleavened, a harmless, useful and nutritious drink, which is
667
668
APPENDIX.
!
strictly the product of the vine, the other a leavened fluid, which is never
produced by the vine, and contains little or no nourishment, and which
when freely used as we can safely use unfermented wine, will cause
drunkenness, insanity, disease and death, and I witness its effects or vic-
tims all around me, how can I for a moment conclude that our Lord pre-
sented such a fluid to the lips of His disciples?
If we turn to the writings of the New Church, we find that there is
given to leaven and things leavened a bad signification--especially when
the latter have not been purified by heat-uniformly bad. Swedenborg
in the T. C. R., No. 98, compares the effects of the doctrine of Faith
alone upon the clergy to the effects of "the vinous spirit called alcohol"
on man, the one causing spiritual intoxication as the other does natural
intoxication. Swedenborg gives us to understand that natural drunken-
ness corresponds to spiritual drunkenness, and if this is true it would
seem to be self-evident that the causes of natural drunkenness must cor-
respond to the causes of spiritual drunkenness.
Then again, if we turn to No. 376 A. E. we find that Swedenborg,
while treating especially of the Holy Supper, gives the full signification
of wine to must; and that it is to unfermenting must is beyond question,
for it is to must as it drops down from the mountains, must as it is
gathered in with corn, must as it is trodden out of the grapes, and must
as it exists in the press. In the same number of the A. E. we are told
that by mustum-English, must-"is understood every genuine truth
derived from the good of love to the Lord."
Can we, as New Churchmen, need anything more to satisfy us, that it
is always proper to use in this ordinance the unfermented juice of the
grape (or must), new or old ?
I know not of a single passage in the Bible where, when it is clear from
the context that reference is had to fermented wine, it is ever spoken of
favorably; nor do I know of a single passage in Swedenborg's writings
where a good signification is ever given to wine, when it is clear that a
reference is had to fermented wine.
My investigations have satisfied me that the good wine of the Word and
of the Writings is always unfermented wine; consequently, how can I par-
take of fermented wine, which in its effects on man (Levit. x. 849), we are
told is unholy and unclean.
If you will be so kind as to present this letter to the Church Committee
you will much oblige me. With kindest regards,
I am truly yours
P. S. Within my knowledge several of the New Church Societies of
our country are using unfermented wine for Communion purposes, and
the Maine and Michigan Associations have done the same.
APPENDIX.
669
Extracts from a review published in the South Australian Register, of
"The Foundations of Death, by Axel Gustafson."
"As there are many springs and fountains of life," he says in his pref-
ace, "so there are, doubtless, many foundations of death-deaths national,
individual, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, as well as physical—but
among them alcohol, if the true story of it is told by those who bear wit-
ness in this work, is pre-eminently a destroyer in every department of life,
and therefore is truly the foundation of death.”
Chapter I., then, contains an historical account of drinking among
the ancients. Here are to be found references to the evil results of drink-
ing amongst the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Jews, Egyp-
tians, Greeks, and Romans. The Talmudic legend about Noah and the
planting of the vine is old and well known enough, but it bears repetition
and carries its moral :
"Bowed under his toil, dripping with perspiration, stood the patriarch
Noah, laboring to break the hard clods. All at once Satan appeared to
him and said, 'What new undertaking have you in hand, what new
fruit do you expect to extract from these clods?'
"I plant the grape,' answered the patriarch.
"The grape! Proud plant! Most precious fruit! Joy and delight to
men! Your labor is great; will you allow me to assist you? Let us
share the labor of producing the vine.'
"The patriarch, in a fit of exhaustion, consented. Satan hastened and
got a lamb, slaughtered it, and poured its blood over the clods of earth.
'Thence,' said Satan, shall it come that those who taste of the grape
shall be soft-spirited and gentle as this lamb.'
"But Noah sighed. Satan continued his work; he caught a lion, slew
it, and poured the blood upon the soil prepared for the plant.
'Thence
shall it come,' said he, 'that those who taste the juice of the grape shall
be courageous as the lion.' Noah shuddered.
"Satan, continuing his work, seized and slew a pig, and drenched the
soil with its blood. 'Thence shall it come,' said he, that those who drink
of the juice of the grape in excess shall be filthy, degraded, and bestial
as swine.'
"This story reminds us of the modern fable, also somewhere in Mr.
Gustafson's book, of the sober pig and the drunken man. They were
lying on either side of a ditch, and both had rings-one on his finger, and
the other in his nose. Somebody passed by and said aloud-One is
known by his company.' Instantly the pig got up and left.
The lesson to be learned from the history of ancient nations with
regard to drinking is that from the time of their giving themselves over to
the practice their downfall began. All kinds of pains and penalties werę
670
APPENDIX.
ordered for drunkards, from the pouring of melted lead down their
throats to heavy fines. The custom of kissing is said to have owed its
origin to the desire of Roman husbands to ascertain whether their female
relations had been drinking, an offence which was punished in Romulus's
time by death, and subsequently by deprivation of the benefit of dowry.
Notwithstanding the severe enactments which the wisest of the ancient
legislators passed, the practice grew and, growing, uprooted the power of
the States."
Letter to The Dawn in regard to the germs of leaven etc. :
TEMPERANCE.
To the Editor of the Dawn:
In a reply
SIR-The Dawn for November 13th has just reached me.
to my article, in a previous number of The Dawn, one of your correspond-
ents makes some curious statements, and among them one where he says
that "Dr. Ellis opens, first, with the very peculiar assumption that he and
the advocates of total abstinence were either unaware of the existence of
natural leaven on the grape and its stems, or, being aware, could not
appreciate its importance; that therefore it was of no importance.'
""
Dr. Ellis was certainly unaware that natural leaven exists upon the
grape and its stems, for, as he understands, it is never found there; but
its germs are, but the latter are no more leaven than an egg is a chicken,
or an acorn an oak. All experience shows that these germs are harmless,
that they never cause drunkenness when eaten on grapes, or drunk in
unfermenting must. Even if it could be shown that they are leaven cells,
they would be entirely harmless so long as they are inactive, for drunken-
ness is not caused by leaven cells, but by the alcohol which is excreted by
them and cast out by them into the wine, making the latter a leavened,
consequently an unclean, fluid. That Dr. Ellis fully appreciates the
importance of their existence on the grapes and their stems is manifest in
all his writings upon this subject, for he has described several methods by
which the juice of the grape can either be preserved without their develop-
ment, or the germs destroyed before they are developed into active life.
If these germs of leaven, which inevitably get mixed with the wine, are
allowed to remain a sufficient length of time, and the temperature is
suitable, they develop into leaven, and fermentation, which destroys the
most important ingredients contained in the wine, is the result. So the
germs of the putrefactive ferment inevitably get upon the flesh of an
animal when the skin is removed, and, at a suitable temperature, are soon
developed, and putrefaction ensues, but is that a reason why we should
eat putrid meat? and yet it is certainly just as good a reason as the exist-
ence of leaven germs on grapes is that we should use fermented wine.
APPENDIX.
671
By his lengthy recapitulation of his former argument, your correspond-
ent still conveys an erroneous idea to your readers, by omitting one fact,
and thereby representing that vinous fermentation will not ensue in grape
juice which has been boiled, unless the leaven cells have been brushed from
the grapes or their stems into it. This is not correct, for at the proper
season of the year, when there are floating leaven germs in the atmos-
phere, at a proper temperature for the vinous fermentation, it will ensue
from germs deposited from the atmosphere, if the boiled wine is exposed
to the air, and no measures are taken to prevent it. If the temperature is
too warm for the vinous fermentation, then it may undergo the putre-
factive change.
It is generally admitted, if my memory serves me right, by all scientific
writers, observers, and experimenters, that the leaven germs upon the
surface of grapes come from the atmosphere; this, I believe, is unques-
tionably the correct view, otherwise why should they be found more
abundantly on the stems than on the grapes?
I will remind your correspondent that in the wine preserved by boiling
we have simply the destroyed germs of leaven, or inactive leaven cells, if
he prefers to call them so; whereas in leavened bread we have destroyed
leaven itself, and the non-volatile products of leaven, which are similar to
the lees which fall to the bottom in fermented wine; and it is these which
prevent leavened bread from being perfectly purified by heat while baking
But, granting, for the sake of the argument, all that your correspondent
claims as to the germs of leaven, and that they are actually developed
upon the surface of grapes, and, for the purpose of further illustrating his
argument, granting that the germs of the putrefactive ferment are actually
developed upon the surface of animals, is that any evidence that they are
a good and orderly creation by the Lord through heaven? Every intelli-
gent New Church reader will be compelled to answer, "No," for Swe-
denborg, in the D. L. and W., tells us that all substances which do harm
and kill men have their origin from hell; and Swedenborg gives to leaven
a bad signification, which is certainly indicative of its origin, to say
nothing of the effects of leavened wine on men when they drink it. As to
the latter I will let Swedenborg speak, and he does so in no uncertain
language, for he says, "The cup of the wine of anger denotes the false
which gives birth to evil. The reason why the false which gives birth to
evil is signified, is because as wine intoxicates, and makes insane, so does
the false." (A. C. 5120.) As to the comparisons from the A. C. and D.
P., quoted by your correspondent, I have very fully considered them in
my works on the Wine Question, which are accessible to all of your readers
and it is not necessary to occupy your space by their consideration here.
Your correspondent is mistaken when he represents that boiling was the
672
APPENDIX.
only way of preserving unfermented wine at the time the Lord was on the
earth; for in my works on the Wine Question I have shown by the testi-
mony of ancient writers, that they actually used several methods, and
these various methods are used to-day, and I have used two of them,
without boiling, successfully myself. That fermented wine is a poison,
compared in the Sacred Scriptures to the poison of dragons and the cruel
venom of asps, and by the wise man to the biting of a serpent and
stinging of an adder, is beyond question; and it has been recognized in
all ages by intelligent men, and especially by intelligent medical men, as a
poison. Against its use as a remedy, as we use other poisons, such as
arsenic, nux vomica, and the like, I have never contended more than to say
that the really skillful physician will rarely have occasion to prescribe any
intoxicating drink, especially fermented wine, for he can find, in my esti-
mation, generally much safer and better remedies.
That such drinks are unnecessary during health is abundantly shown
by the experiences of more than one-half of the people of the United
States, who never use them, and of almost the entire Mohammedan world,
who shun them because so advised by their prophet. That men will live
longer, on an average, who never use them, than those who do, is abun-
dantly demonstrated by careful statistics gathered by some of the London
Insurance Companies. The entire history of mankind, wherever such
drinks have been used, has demonstrated that of those who drink intox-
icating drinks at all, a large number will die drunkards, and of those who
do not die drunkards large numbers will die from other diseases induced
by their use. Knowing these facts, as we advocates of Total Abstinence
do, I would inquire of your correspondent, if it is not possible that he
judges us a little uncharitably, when he intimates that we are actuated by
the love of dominion when we earnestly advocate the principles of Total
Abstinence? May we not possibly be actuated by the love of the neigh-
bour?
I believe that the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks, except-
ing strictly for medical and mechanical purposes, and their public sale in
bar-rooms and groceries, on almost every street corner, is not beneficial
to my fellow-men; and while recognizing, as I do, that men can only be
radically reformed from evils and bad habits by being led in freedom,
according to reason, to shun them as sins against God, yet I advocate pro-
hibiting evils, and opportunities for improper indulgences, as far as prac-
ticable, for the safety of all, and especially to prevent the young being led
into temptation, well knowing that if the latter can be preserved from
forming bad habits until they reach maturity, they will be able to see
much more readily that such habits are bad, for they will not be blinded
by their appetites, and it will not be difficult for them to shun thêm,
APPENDIX.
673
I myself knowing, as I think I well do, that if there is a poisonous sub-
stance on earth, if there is a leavened substance on earth, if there is an un-
clean substance on earth which manifests its impurity and uncleanness by
demoralizing and depraving men, both physically and mentally when they
drink it, more than any other known substance which does not contain
alcohol, it is fermented wine; and knowing that there is not a single drop
of such wine ever found in the sound, healthy fruit of the vine, yet I
should be even more sorry to have a New Church brother, in the Society
to which I belong, compelled to either partake of must or unfermented
wine, while he honestly believes that fermented wine is the only true wine,
or to abstain from partaking of the most Holy Ordinance of the Lord's
Supper, than I should feel myself to be compelled either to abstain from
this ordinance or to use fermented wine, when to do the latter would be
to me a most fearful profanation of a Holy Ordinance of which I could
not be guilty. I must respect the honest convictions of my brother.
Your correspondent intimates that Tea and Coffee are injurious sub-
stances, and I will say that Tobacco is a far worse substance than either,
when used by man, but neither of the above substances compares with
fermented wine and other intoxicating drinks in its injurious effects, as
men use them.
I will remind your correspondent that one by one must the evils which
afflict a man, or humanity, be driven out or overcome, and that while a
man strives to shun one evil as a sin against God, the Lord keeps him in
the effort to shun all evils; and I think that he will find, if he will look
around him, that the advocates of total abstinence are a little in advance
of their neighbors in seeing other evils, and perhaps in their endeavors to
put them away.
The mail on Christmas Day (which was yesterday) brought us 21
letters, most welcome Christmas presents, from friends far away, for
which we are truly thankful.
Cairo, Egypt, Dec. 26, 1884.
JOHN ELLIS.
I have, in a former communication, alluded to the fact that many
patients visit Switzerland and other grape producing sections, for the
sake of being cured by eating grapes, but I omitted to state that some,
instead of eating the grapes, following the example of the ancients, squeeze
or press the wine out of the grapes into a cup or glass, and drink it fresh,
and they think that this "unleavened must" does better than the eating
of the grapes. Commencing by either eating or taking the juice from one
or two pounds daily, they increase the quantity to four or more pounds
daily, and it does not make them sick, it often cures them.
In the light of such facts, without for a moment supposing that he had
reference to fermented wine, it is not difficult to understand why St. Paul
recommended to Timothy "to take a little wine for his stomach's sake
and his often infirmities." It is perhaps safe to say that the juice of no
674
APPENDIX.
other fruit or vegetable bears a greater resemblance to blood in its com-
position than does unfermented must or wine, and it is equally safe to say
that the juice of no fruit less resembles blood than does fermented wine.
Berlin, Germany, Nov. 1st, 1884.
DRINKING IN GERMANY.
JOHN ELLIS.
It is often asserted that beer-drinking diminishes the drinking of spirits.
This has often been disproved, and the following from the London Globe
shows how the matter stands in Germany:
"The question of excessive drinking in Germany, and its result on the
health, morals and prosperity of the people, has just been made the sub-
ject of an elaborate investigation by Dr. Baer, head-physician at the
Plötensee Prison, who has published a pamphlet with the title: 'Drunken-
ness and the Combat against it in Germany.' A full account is given of
the contents of Dr. Baer's work in a report addressed to the English
Foreign Office by Mr. Consul-General Oppenheimer. The writer takes a
very serious view indeed of the mischief which he conceives is being
wrought among his countrymen by their devotion to spirit-drinking, and
his opinions are the more worthy of attention from the fact that he is not
in favor of total abstinence, either on moral grounds or as necessarily con-
ducive to health.
"It is difficult, for reasons which Dr. Baer points out, to arrive at the
exact quantity of spirit produced and consumed in Germany, but he has
no doubt that the actual quantity is much greater than that which he has
taken as the basis of his calculations. According to these every adult
male German was in the habit of drinking, ten years ago, an average of
one litre of pure alcohol a week, or four glasses daily; and four years
later the consumption had increased by nearly 25 per cent. The facilities
for drinking have certainly been augmented; for, while there were in
Prussia in 1869 fewer than 120,000 licensed houses, the number had risen
in 1880 to 165,640. The population had increased in the intervening
eleven years by 13 per cent., while the public-houses had increased by
38 per cent.
It can hardly be said, therefore, that the creation of the
empire has tended toward temperance, whatever other good results it may
have had. The 165,000 licensed houses do not, however, include all the
places at which intoxicants may be procured. If all the wine and beer
shops are taken into account, it will appear that the people of Prussia had,
five years ago, just 200,000 places where they could buy alcoholic drinks.
"There is a specialty about German spirit-drinking, if Dr. Baer is right,
which demands the serious consideration of all who wish well to the
Fatherland. It is bad enough that the consumption of ardent spirits
should reach the high average of four glasses a day for the adult male
population, but the drinking is said to be more concentrated than in other
countries, so that among the regular devotees of the bottle the consump-
tion is really much greater than is thus indicated. According to Dr. Baer,
the use of spirits has almost gone out of fashion among the upper and
well-to-do classes; and if this is the case, it must have extended enor-
mously among the working-people. At the same time the consumption
per head of the population of beer, which is in Germany not, perhaps,
quite as specifically the poor man's beverage as it is in England, has very
much more than doubled in the last quarter of a century."-New York
Witness.
DETERIORATION
OF THE
PURITAN STOCK
And Its Causes.
BY
JOHN ELLIS, M. D.,
""
MARRIAGE AND ITS
UTHOR OF 'THE AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE,
VIOLATIONS," "SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION," "AN ADDRESS TO
THE CLERGY," THE WINE QUESTION IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW
DISPENSATION," AND "A REPLY TO THE ACADEMY'S REVIEW."
"" CC
The COMMANDMENTS are laws of spiritual life, and to keep them is to live
a heavenly life; and all violation of them tends to destroy heavenly life in the
soul. We cannot deliberately intend and do an evil act to another, or even to
our own bodies, without doing to our own souls at least an equal injury. The
Lord came into the world to save man from sin, and from the penalty only so far
as he saves him from sin. The penalty inheres to the sin-the transgression
is the cause; suffering the effect, or result.
675
New York:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,
1884.
Three Important Works by Swedenborg Offered
Free to the Clergy of America.
REV. AND DEAR SIR:
PHILADELPHIA, July, 1885.
The undersigned would respectfully call your attention to the fact that
three of Emanuel Swedenborg's most important works are offered, free of
cost, except for postage, to the Clergy of America, and Theological Students
who are studying for the ministry.
Two of these books, "THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION," and "THE APO-
CALYPSE REVEALED," are offered by Mr. L. C. IUNGERICH, of Philadelphia,
and the third, "HEAVEN AND ITS WONDERS, AND HELL," by "THE AMERICAN
NEW CHURCH TRACT AND PUBLICATION SOCIETY," also of this city. Arrange-
ments have been made for the distribution of these volumes through the
large and well-known publishing house of J. B. Lippincott & Co., 715 and
717 Market Street, Philadelphia, to whom all orders for the books
must be sent, accompanied by the postage, as follows, viz.:
Postage on "The True Christian Religion"
20 cents.
66
66
""The Apocalypse Revealed"
66
9
18
'
"Heaven and its Wonders, and Hell” 13
It is because the donors of these books believe that there will be found
in them a clear solution of all the difficult points of doctrine that disturb,
perplex, and separate Christians from each other, keeping so many honest
and sincere people out of the churches, and strengthening infidel senti-
ments, that they are so desirous of placing them in the hands of clergy-
men, whose office it is to teach spiritual truths and lead souls heavenward.
If you have never given the writings of Swedenborg a careful examina-
tion, we would most earnestly and respectfully ask you to avail yourself
of the opportunity now offered for doing so. You will find his statements
of doctrine clear, comprehensive, and rational, and always based on the
Word of God. There are no appeals to passion or prejudice in any part of
his works, but everywhere he addresses himself to man's reason, without
the assent of which no truth can be received into the mind.
It is now about twelve years since the offer of Swedenborg's works was
first made to the clergy of America, and thus far about twenty-five thou-
sand copies of "The True Christian Religion," twenty-three thousand copies
of "Heaven and Hell," and eighteen thousand copies of "The Apocalypse
Revealed" have been asked for, and sent.
During the twelve years in which the distribution of these works has
been going on a large number of letters have been received from clergy-
men of all denominations who have received and read them, and many
have expressed in the strongest terms their great indebtedness for the
spiritual light and comfort received through the perusal of these wonder-
ful writings.
Again respectfully asking your attention to a matter of such great con-
cern to human souls,
676
We are, yours most respectfully,
JULIEN SHOEMAKER,
WM. MOGEORGE, JR.,
Committee of
{
Distribution,
Deterioration of the Puritan Stock:
STARTLING STATISTICS.
WHILE visiting his native town in the county of Franklin,
Mass., last season, the writer was present at a dinner given by
the citizens in behalf of the Sanderson Academy, an institu-
tion which he attended for a period during his youthful days,
and to which, while attending, he walked daily from his
father's house. Hon. Geo. W. Curtis, who has a fine sum-
mer residence in Ashfield, presided at the dinner, and
among the speakers was Henry Winn, Esq., a lawyer from
Greenfield, the county town. In his speech Mr. Winn
alluded to certain official statistics in regard to the native
population of the State of Massachusetts, which, although
somewhat in accordance with the results of the writer's own
observations in Michigan and in New York, nevertheless
surprised and filled him with fearful forebodings as to the
future of the native American population of European
descent. After the dinner was over the writer requested Mr.
Winn to furnish him the statistics to which he had referred,
which he promised to do. In due time the following com-
munication was received from him, with the statistics which
follow:
GREENFIELD, September 3d, 1883.
DR. JOHN ELLIS, 157 Chambers street, New York:
My Dear Sir,-I enclose the figures you desired for six years, being
for one more year than you heard me give at the dinner. We have, fortu
nately, in Massachusetts a very thorough system of collating statistics, and
they are very instructive.
677
Very truly yours,
HENRY WINN.
678 STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
-
'MASSACHUSETTS.
Year.
1876...
1877.
•
1878..
1879.
1880.
1881
• • ·
(C
BIRTHS.
Both
Both
Parents Parents Am. Father,
American. Foreign. For. Mother.
For. Father.
Am. Mother. Unknown.
16,790 18,590
2,448
3,485
836
•
16,897 18,071
2,502
3,572
808
•
16,970
17,105
2,637
3,680
846
•
16,768
16,298
2,733
3,665
831
18, 130
17,651
3, 141
4,044
1,251
18,218
18, 169
3,267
4, 119
I,447
103,773 105,884
16,728
22,565
6,019
Calling the native stock the American,' and one-half of
the three last tables, the number born of natives in the six
years is.....
The native born population in the year 1880 was..
Foreign born population in 1880.
1876……….
1877.
1878.
1879
1880..
1881.
· •
•
126,429
1,339,595
443,491
"DEATHS.
Native or
Am. Born.
Foreign Born.
.26,374
6,399
.24,873
6,057
.24,829
6,115
.24,656
6,536
• ·
•
27,571
7,404
.27,922
8,205
156,225
40,716 "
It will be seen from the above tables that there were born
to the native Americans, 126,429, and that the deaths of
native Americans during the six years named numbered
156,225. The deaths exceeded the births by 29,796.
Whereas, to the inhabitants of foreign birth there were born
during the same years, if we add, as has been done to the
native-born, one-half of the last three tables, 128,540, and
there died of the foreign born, 40,716; the births exceeding
the deaths by 87,824.
But as children born in this country of foreign parentage
are regarded as natives, all the deaths which occurred
among such children should be taken from the Ameri-
can table and added to the foreign table, and this it will
be seen will materially lessen the number of deaths in-
cluded in the American table, and perhaps reduce the num-
FOREIGN BORN AND THEIR DESCENDANTS TO RULE. 679
ber of deaths below the number of births. So that we do
not derive from the tables of deaths the same clear and
positive information that we do from the tables of births.
In the consideration of this question, if we would reach
correct conclusions, we must not forget that many of the
young men and women of the state leave and move west
and elsewhere, and also that most of the foreigners who
take their places are young; but all this will not account
for the wonderful difference in the number of births among
the Native and Foreign populations. Again, we should re-
member that the grandchildren of the Foreign born are
classed as natives.
The fact, nevertheless, stands before us, that the foreign
born inhabitants of Massachusetts, numbering less than one-
fourth of the population of the state, give birth to more than
one-half of the children born in the state. It is perfectly
clear, therefore, that without a radical change in the re-
ligious ideas, education, habits and customs of the natives,
the present native population and their descendants will
not rule that state a single generation-say thirty-five years
-hence.
Only think of it, dear reader, Massachusetts, con-
taining a population which, as a whole, is perhaps the most
enlightened and the best educated of any equal number
in any section of our country, if not in the world, is rap-
idly deteriorating in its native population, with a certain
prospect of that "glorious old state" being ruled by the
foreign born and their descendants within a single genera-
tion, even if there should not another immigrant arrive or
another native leave the state. The above tables of births
show why such a result is almost inevitable-two or three
times as many children are born of the same number of
foreign born residents as of natives. Why is this?
THE NATURAL CAUSES OF THIS DETERIORATION OF THE
NATIVES.
It results first: from an inability to bear, care for and
rear children, which is largely the fault, either physically or
mentally, of the native women. Second: a disinclination
to submit to a denial of the ease, freedom from care and
680 SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL CAUSES OF DETERIORATION.
social amusements which motherhood and fatherhood de-
mand. Then the habits of the young of both sexes prevent
early marriages among natives, and to a great extent render
them unfruitful when they do occur.
We well know that goodness and truth do not destroy
races and peoples, for their ultimates in external life are
in harmony with the laws of physical life and health. Self-
love and love of the world, or evils and falses, when ulti-
mated in external life, are what destroy the health and lives
of men, women and children; because the ultimates of evils
and falses are opposed to natural health and life, as such
evils and falses are to spiritual health and life. The natu-
ral ultimate, be it good or evil, is the basis for spiritual life,
and corresponds to such life; for this reason all genuine.
reformation must commence in our external life. We must
cease to speak and do evil; the backbiter must cease to
speak evil of his neighbor; the drunkard must cease to
apply the drunkard's cup to his lips; the tobacco user must
cease the use of this poisonous weed; the deformed woman
must cease to wear her stays and tight dresses; for the
Lord gives us the ability to shun evils if we will strive to
do so.
Men are not saved by faith alone, or by doctrines,
however true, so long as they simply exist in the memory;
nor are they destroyed by falses, or a knowledge of evils, so
long as they are not ultimated in life. The physical bodies
of men are not destroyed even by spiritual evils, if such
evils are not ultimated in acts which violate the laws of
physical health and life; but, unfortunately for our native
American population, there is flowing over our land an
overwhelming flood of falses and evils, ultimated in the acts
of external life, which threaten the speedy destruction of
the native American population and make it manifest that
this country is to be peopled mainly, and at no distant day,
by the inflowing immigrants and those who were foreign born
less than half a century ago and their descendants.
Now the writer asks his brethren and sisters of the Lord's
Church, in all earnestness, if the consideration of these falses
and evils, which are destroying and threatening the abso-
lute destruction of the most intelligent native American
population of our country, is not vastly more important
THE CHURCH AND ITS PERIODÍCALS AND EVILS OF LIFE. 681
than nine-tenths of the articles which appear in our church
periodicals, however good those articles may be. To over-
come falses and evils which have come down to us from
the dark ages of the Christian Church, and which result in
perversion of appetites and passions, and are entrenched
in long continued habits and customs, will require line
upon line and precept upon precept, and the living ex-
ample of every conscientious man and woman. If we are
to protect the young in our organizations from these fear-
ful evils, our church periodicals should enter our homes
filled with words of instruction and warning as to such evils,
thus guarding and protecting not only the little ones, but
also every one.
To treat in the pulpit of some of the evils which we are
considering, and to do full justice to them there, is a
very delicate matter; but our church periodicals should
be conducted by competent and discreet men, and no
inconsiderable space in such periodicals should be devoted
to the consideration of these evils. A religious periodical
enters the house of a religious family with more authority,
and is more respected, than a secular paper; and the most
useful knowledge concerning these evils, which few parents
are well qualified to impart, can be quietly conveyed to
children; and thus parents will be led to feel that their
religious paper is indispensable and of countless benefit to
their children, as well as to themselves; and that a religious
paper which does not convey such most useful information,
is not worthy of patronage. Should such a paper be pat
ronized by religious parents, when by its silence it practi-
cally cries peace, peace, where there is no peace?
On receiving the above statistics from Mr. Winn, the
writer sent him a copy of his work on the "Avoidable Causes
of Disease." The observations which led to the writing of
the above work were not made in Massachusetts, but in the
State of Michigan, before the year 1860; and the general
result of observations since made in New York has satisfied
him that the citizens of Massachusetts are not more given to
these evils than those of other sections of the country, ex-
cepting in recently settled sections, where the necessity for
active work exists and fashions do not rule.
682
WOMEN'S MOVEMENT, AND ITS EFFECTS.
In response to the book which was sent him came the
following reply:
DR. JOHN ELLIS.
GREENFIELD, Sept. 8, 1883.
My Dear Dr.,-I have to acknowledge the receipt of your excellent book
concerning the "Avoidable Causes of Disease," for which please accept my
thanks. I wish there were one in every family.
I should think you would take an interest especially in the great question
of the deterioration of the Puritan stock and its cause. I think it is due
largely to the changed condition of woman in her relations with man-a
change partially wrought by the woman movement, which has made a great
deal of headway in Massachusetts. The change has transpired since 1850,
the time when that movement began.
The effect seems to be to render woman dissatisfied with domestic life-
to tempt her into a fatuous struggle to compete with man in masculine
pursuits, overtasking her powers of endurance and debilitating her nervous
system.
Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, has made some careful investigations into
the facts. Notice his article in the Pop. Science Monthly-August (I think).
The fact at least is, that while in 1850 it was the exception where an
American mother could not nurse her children, it is now in Massachusetts
a question whether one-half of them can do so. This is one mark of the
change.
Very truly yours,
H. WINN.
The writer inserted the above letter because everything
bearing upon this question is of vast moment; but he is com-
pelled to say that, so far as his own observation has ex-
tended, the most intelligent advocates of "women's rights,"
as a rule, have been the most earnest in their efforts for the
reform of the evil habits in dress which are destroying the
vitality and health of our female population.
And yet the writer is obliged to admit that women, pre-
senting the greatest deformity from tight dressing, are not
unfrequently seen upon the platform, especially upon the
stage, as actresses or singers, whose example is most fearfully
injurious, especially to the young. While a woman with a
small or deformed waist, who has inherited a strong organ-
ization, may, by the aid of active exercise and by a strong
and almost constant effort of the will, preserve some degree
of squareness of shoulders and erectness of figure, yet the
tendency is to the barrel-shaped shoulders and sudden
stoop of the neck and of the upper part of the shoulders,
and the caving in beneath the collar bones, which we so
IMPROPRIETY OF JUSTIFYING EVILS.
683
generally witness, to a greater or less extent, in the women
who are walking our streets.
Among the men none but the vain and foolish, or the
flatterer who has some selfish object in view, will tell a
lady that he likes to see a small waist. The intelligent,
conscientious man, as he looks at a deformed or small
waist, looks beyond the present time and sees a home often
made miserable by the nervousness and sickness of a wife,
and the sufferings of poor, puny, imperfectly developed and
half-starved and dying children, which results so frequently
follow tight dressing. A sensible man looks with pain and
unspeakable sadness upon a small waist. The man who
will tell a woman that he is pleased with her deformed
waist, will do to stand by the side of the woman who will,
from similar motives, tell a man that she is delighted with
the smoke from a good cigar and with the smell of good
tobacco. The intelligent, sensible woman looks beyond
the present, and to rooms, parlors, cars, carriages and side-
walks, whose atmosphere is polluted by the nauseous smoke
from a poisonous weed, which is offensive to all excepting
to those who are either addicted to its use or accustomed
to the smoke. As she also beholds, in her gaze, stairs, plat-
forms, floors, rugs, hearths and spittoons beslavered with
the juice of the vile weed, how can a woman, who is wor-
thy to be the wife of a good man, tell any man that she is
delighted with the smoke and smell of tobacco, and thus
encourage him to spend his strength, health and money in
indulging in a habit which stands next to that of using
intoxicating drinks?
In the estimation of the writer, the disappearance of the
spinning wheel and loom, and the substitution of little or
no other form of active, useful labor in their place; and
the too prevalent custom of allowing girls to grow
up in fashionable idleness, often not even requiring
them to assist in house-work, but allowing servants
to do active work, or, where there are no servants, mothers
often making slaves of themselves by doing that which
it is SO necessary that the daughters should do, in
order that they may become well developed and healthy,
are much more potent in preventing the development and
684 WORK INDISPENSABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH
in impairing the health of our girls than the causes to
which the above correspondent refers.
The workers shall inherit the land and dwell therein for-
ever, for work develops the human body and mind and
gives substance and strength, and to a great extent counter-
acts the effects of many bad habits, and protects the young
from many vicious influences. If a father desires to part
speedily with the hard earnings of his life let him lend them to
a son who has never earned or saved a dollar to start him-
self in business, and that father will be very sure to find him-
self soon penniless, and his son ruined almost, if not quite,
beyond redemption. Or, having brought up a daughter in
idleness, let him endow her, newly married, with a fine
house and with servants to do her active work, and for-
tunate will he be if he has to wait long to see health,
peace and happiness depart from her household, and all
prospects destroyed of perpetuating his race through her
to more than one or two feeble generations at most.
If we love our children let us not be anxious to have
them commence where we leave off. We had to creep be-
fore we could walk, and if we attempt to reverse this
orderly course with our children their creeping time will be
very sure to come sooner or later. Young men and women
who have not acquired habits of industry and economy are
neither qualified to handle money with safety, nor to see a
prospect of inheriting it without great danger of destroying
all ideas of a life of active usefulness in the world. As a
rule, the nearer our children commence life where we
began, the better it will be for them. Let us never forget
that without active work at some useful employment there
can be little substantial development of body or mind.
Active play until the child is eight or ten years old, and
after that active work and play a reasonable share of the
time, up to adult age, are indispensable for the development
of body and mind. With students active play, gymnastic
exercises and systematic lifting may take the place
of work for a time; but before all young people,
of both sexes, should ever be held up a life of active
work at some useful employment.
Then the more general introduction of carpets, leading,
TIGHT DRESSING AND THE RESULTS.
685
by the aid of blinds and curtains, to the exclusion of sun-
light from the rooms where our women, girls and children
necessarily spend so much of their time, is a most fruitful
cause of imperfect development and loss of health. Again,
the use of superfine flour bread, instead of rye and Indian
bread, in the making of which the coarse flour of rye was
generally used, has been an unfortunate change for both
sexes; and also allowing children and young people to
drink tea and coffee instead of water and milk has been a
cruel change.
But beyond all question, in the estimation of the writer,
tight dressing, which is more universal, of a more pernici-
ous character, and carried to a greater extreme at present
than ever before, has done more to deform and prevent
the development of the American population than any
other cause. It takes hold of the child before it is born,
Interferes with its development, often brings it to an un-
timely birth, and in a vast multitude of cases it deprives
it of the natural nourishment to which it is entitled, and
which the Lord intended for its preservation after it is
born, which is, as we all know, one of the most fruitful
causes of the great mortality among infants.
Retraction of the nipples from compression and conse-
quent adhesions, indurations in the breasts which result in
abscesses when the breasts come to take on their natural
function, palpitation and irregular action of the heart,
shortness of breath, spinal irritation, uterine displace-
ments and ulcerations which make the lives of so many
women miserable, are among the many troubles which fre-
quently result from tight dressing. The woman does not
generally realize that she dresses too tightly, for, having in
a great measure destroyed the sustaining muscular power
of her natural stays-the muscles-she feels all gone without
her tight dress, and relieved when she is in it. We have
but to compare the female forms we see around us, with
the models of feminine beauty which have come down to
us in stone or on canvas, or with the best developed and
most symmetrical forms which we occasionally see, especi-
ally among immigrants, at this day, to realize how great the
deformity so almost universally prevalent among the native
686
THE BAD HABITS OF THE LADIES.
female population of our country. The fearful nature of
this evil and the hold it has upon our ladies, can only be
known to the conscientious and observing physician, who
cares so much for the welfare of his patients that he is will-
ing to risk losing their patronage rather than neglect his
duty. When the writer has told ladies that tight dressing was
the cause of their sufferings and diseases, and that at best
until they gave up tight dressing their suffering could only
be palliated, but that they could not be cured, more than
one has replied: "I will never give up tight dressing if I
die ;" and hundreds who have not thus replied by word of
mouth, have done so by continuing the evil custom.
Tight dressing is the chief cause which is so rapidly de-
stroying the native American woman's ability to nurse her
children. My daughter does not dress too tightly," ex-
claims the mother; "it is her natural form, you see.”
Natural form, indeed! If so, it is inherited from the per-
verted form of the mother-the deformity of the parent
visited upon the daughter.
It is manifest to every careful observer that our native
women, as a rule, are not proportionately as well developed,
strong and healthy when compared with the men, as are
those of other nationalities. It is therefore certain that
they are violating the laws of physical development and
health to a far greater extent than the men. And the mis-
fortune to our native race is, that such violations affect the
unborn of both sexes, the infant and the little boys and
girls, and the older girls, as well as the adult women.
Whereas the fearful evils to which men are addicted, the
drinking of intoxicating drinks, the use of tobacco, and li-
centiousness, fearful and destructive as such habits certainly.
are, still their effects are to a greater extent confined to adult
life; and consequently do not, to the same extent, impair the
vitality of our race, or threaten its physical destruction.
This is evident, for the habits of the men in Europe are
nearly or quite as bad as they are in this country. The
ladies are striving nobly and well to help the men in enact-
ing laws to prevent the manufacture and sale of intoxicating
drinks; cannot the gentlemen reciprocate their kindness by
striving to pass laws to prevent the publication and sale of
LETTER FROM A CLERGYMAN ON EXISTING EVILS. 687
the fashion plates which contain such miserable caricatures
of the female form, and which enter our homes but to per-
vert and destroy our young girls? We can hardly realize
the injury these publications are doing. Who will say
that, so far as the perpetuity of our race is concerned, their
sale is not far more destructive than the sale of intoxicating
drinks?
A respected clergyman to whom the writer loaned the
manuscript of the preceding pages, on returning it, wrote:
We both know that whiskey drinking, beer guzzling, and tobacco smok-
ing and chewing are actual causes of deterioration of communities, and of
the death of individuals; but I do not think these causes are effective fac-
tors, in the deterioration of the Puritan stock, as compared with that robust-
ness of the Foreign element in New England, shown by their greater in-
crease. My reason is this.
The immigrant from Germany, Ireland, and Sweden, our chief sources
of supply, drinks on an average more whiskey and beer, and consumes at
least as much tobacco as does the descendant of the Puritans; so while
these pernicious habits may be rightly set down as a cause of general de-
terioration, yet the greater proportion of this special degeneracy will be
found in the Foreign born and in their children.
When you speak of the rearing girls to an avoidance of housework or
any other exercise, of their habits of tight dressing, and of the abuses and
crimes by which the procreation and birth of children are hindered, I
think you have unearthed the main roots of the evil.
Girls are now brought up as the old stock were not. Like the lilies,
they "toil not, neither do they spin; yet Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of them." As you say, they distort their figure and as
far as they can, they unfit it for child-bearing, unconsciously perhaps.
Marriage finds them unused to care or labor or responsibility. They are
not willing to assume the cares or troubles of maternity, they will not will-
ingly endure the retirement from society and pleasure that child-bearing
compels, and if they are so unfortunate as to "get in the family way,'
every method is tried, and too often successfully, to produce a miscarriage,
ruinous to health, and, as you know, not unfrequently causing a habit of
miscarriage all through life. You, as a physician, cannot help but know
how great a misfortune pregnancy is considered by many women, who are
so perverted in their ideas as to consider it something to be ashamed of,
and that it is positively vulgar to have any sign of child bearing, and who
do not hesitate to lace tightly, knowing that it endangers the life of the
child which they would be only glad to lose.
If this line of thought and conduct were confined to the lowest class of
society, it would not be so much to wonder at; but it is general, and I think
more prevalent among those who by their social position are best able to
sustain the added cost that children entail.
I think the remedy can only be found in a profound conviction of the
688 UNWILLINGNESS AND INABILITY TO BEAR CHILDREN.
paramount obligations of the family relation, a clear knowledge of the laws
of health bearing upon this point, a correct moral sense, an appreciation
of the honor and blessing of maternity, and a clear sense of the truth that
human life is sacred at all periods; so that a woman who effects or pro-
cures the death of an unborn child, is as truly a murderess as one who
strangles the child after it is born.
I think the evils I have mentioned exist to a great degree among the de-
scendants of the Puritan stock, and do not exist in any appreciable degree
among the foreign born population; and to this I attribute the difference
shown by the statistics you have. I do think wholesome truths set forth
in plain language, are needed on this matter.
For a husband and wife not to desire children, is to make
one of the most fearful mistakes that they can make. It is
to suffocate one of the noblest affections implanted in the
soul by their Creator. Children are to parents objects
of mutual love outside of themselves, and in a thousand
ways strengthen the affection which exists toward each
other. To strive to prevent conception, excepting in rare.
cases where from previous births it is manifest that the
wife's life will be seriously endangered either by too fre-
quent conceptions or by another attempt to have a child, is
worse than a mistake-it is to violate the command to mul-
tiply and replenish the earth. To destroy the germ after
conception by deliberately bringing it to an untimely birth,
is a most fearful crime. This crime kills the child and
always seriously endangers the life of the mother.
So far as the inability of our native women to bear, care
for and nurse children is concerned, the fault is beyond all
question chiefly the result of their bad habits and bad bring-
ing up; but to always attribute to them the chief blame
for the crimes against unborn children, would often be to do
them the greatest injustice. The man who, having seduced
a woman, will desert her and his own offspring, and leave
her either to suffer the pain and shame, and to assume the
care and responsibility of rearing his child, or to seek its
destruction, is a monster unworthy the name of man; and
he has caused a deformity of his own soul which can never
be repaired in this world or the next; for he can never be
what he might have been if he had not done to the poor
woman such a cruel and unjust act. The measure which he
meted to her, shall surely be measured to him again. "But,
ઃઃ
THE CHURCH AND PREVAILING EVILS.
689
too frequently say the women as they spurn their erring
sister and take this monster by the hand, "she need not
have fallen;" yet in four cases out of five he was the
tempter. What stupid unfairness and injustice to their own
sex is manifested by such a course!
The writer knows but too well that wives not unfre-
quently seek the destruction of their unborn children un-
known to their husbands, and sometimes even against
their wishes; but frequently, if not by their husband's
special cöoperation, wives are, in desperation, almost driven
to such a course by the cruel and unjust treatment of their
husbands, who are annoyed and dissatisfied at the prospect
of an increase in the family. Scarcely anything on the
part of a husband can be more trying and cruelly unjust to
a wife; and that he is the chief criminal in such cases would
seem to be manifest, if we except, perhaps, the physician
who, for money or popularity, has done the criminal act.
A German clergyman said recently to the writer: "The
German men are afraid to marry American girls, because
the latter are not willing to bear children, whereas the
Germans love children and desire to have them."
Has the Lord's Church on the earth nothing to do with
such fearful evils as those which we are considering in
this pamphlet ? — evils which are so destructive as to
threaten the perpetuity of our race, and, which cause most
of the imperfect development, deformity, disease, crime
and insanity which exist all around us?
Emanuel Swedenborg has taught us one most useful
lesson in the declaration that " Religion has relation to life
and the life of religion is to do good." That a sound mind
in a sound body is desirable for the highest religious devel-
opment, is beyond question. At best drunkards, and
men who are reveling in the use of intoxicating drinks, are
sorry materials from which to develop good, law-abiding,
neighbor-loving Christians; and we all know that among
those who drink occasionally and moderately, vast multi-
tudes, whether within or without the Church, will sooner
or later become steady drinkers and drunkards.
And what can be said of men who are ready to risk
health and life by using either tobacco or opium, two
690
CANDIDATES FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.
among the most poisonous and injurious substances ever
used by man, affecting both mind and body, and who do
not hesitate to set before the young and inexperienced an
example by using them publicly? Willing slaves them-
selves to their appetites, they are ready to lead others by
their example into habits which they either cannot or will
not control in themselves. How much of the love of the
neighbor is manifested in such conduct as this?
If men
professing to be Christians must drink intoxicating drinks,
or smoke or use tobacco or opium, would it not be well
for them either to betake themselves to the dens and
caverns of the earth or to the housetops, and there
gratify their appetites in secret, where their example will
be less harmful to others, especially to the young and
inexperienced?
We are told in the writings for the New Jerusalem that
all true life on earth-yes, the very life of heaven-is a
life of active usefulness and labor for the welfare of others,
from love to the Lord and the neighbor. What kind of
material for good Christian wives and mothers have we
among girls brought up in fashionable idleness, unac-
customed to even active housework or any other form of
useful labor; and who live most of the time in shaded
rooms, and, therefore, have very little chance for physical
development? and who, before their physical bodies are
fully developed, are subjected to stays, corsets, lacings and
tight dresses, until the most horrible deformity results and
the very existence of our race is threatened? Unaccustomed
to labor, to sunlight; imperfectly developed, with the most
fearfully deformed waists, with laboring heart and lungs,
and with the abdominal organs crowded down upon the re-
productive organs, causing the most troublesome and
serious displacements and diseases, what chance have such
girls to become competent wives or mothers? and is it
strange that child-bearing and rearing becomcs, to women
thus brought up, a fearful burden, which so many of them
are ready to shirk, often, as we well know, by the most un-
lawful means?
A medical friend to whose consideration the statistics
contained in this pamphlet were submitted, writes;
LETTER FROM A PHYSICIAN.
691
"I think there are two sources of the degeneracy or falling off in num-
ber of births among the native American or Puritan stock, as compared
with the foreign in the New England States. One is the smaller number
of marriages among them: the other is the smaller number of births to
those who do marry. The reasons for the former are, that the extrava-
gancies of social life are so great, that few men dare to marry girls in their
own sphere or position in society; and that the demands of inexorable fash-
ion have so largely controlled the development and training of our girls,
that it is rare to see one of them with a natural waist. So universal is this
custom of the gradual compression of the waist from childhood up, that, in
spite of our better judgment, our ideas of the grace and beauty of the
female form are molded and colored by it till it is difficult for us to separate
our idea of a natural waist from the quaint dress of an immigrant. In
these days of health boards and vital statistics, no man who is worth win-
ning is ignorant of the laws of Physiology, Pathology, and Hygiene. He
knows that this practice of tight dressing, though almost universally denied,
has been carried to the extent of fatally lowering the vitality of our
mothers, sisters and daughters for two or more generations, always in an
increasing ratio of danger to health and life. That the walls of the body
are distorted and every organ they contain is compressed or displaced.
The spine is often curved laterally and rounded at the shoulders. The
short or floating ribs are brought together anteriorly and sometimes made
to overlap each other. The long ribs being more permanently attached to
the spine than to the sternum, are sometimes broken from the latter and
forced over it till the deformity is shocking.
As the chest cannot expand
laterally in the effort to fill the lungs, the shoulders are thrown upwards
and forwards giving them an angular appearance. The lungs are so com-
pressed that they cannot be filled, which prevents the proper aëration of
the blood, vitiates all the organs, and forces upon the heart an increased
rapidity of motion, though so crowded that it acts at all with difficulty.
The portal circulation is impeded by compression, causing indurations and
sometimes abscesses in the liver. Indigestion, constipation, and dyspepsia
result from the compression of the stomach and bowels, and all the organs
of the abdomen are so crowded down upon the generative organs, that they
are displaced and all their normal functions are impeded or destroyed. So
common is this latter result, that we see many women of twenty-five who
have some "female weakness ;" and girls are frequently found who have
not reached the age of twenty-one without the attendance and prescriptions
of the family physician, with the consequent danger of lowering, if not destroy-
ing, the modesty and delicacy which are the charm of maidenhood. Bad
as these self imposed diseases and deformities are in the wife, they are very
much worse for the mother. The desire to retain the small waist is car-
ried so far as often to destroy foetal life; and if the full time is reached, the
labor is rendered unnecessarily painful, difficult and dangerous. If the
patient survives, she is in such an exhausted condition that, through the mis-
taken kindness of the physician or nurse, the child is not allowed to take the
breast immediately as it should, but it is fed till it loses the instinct to
nurse; and when it is finally given the compressed and indurated breast, the
nipple is found so retracted that it is impossible to get hold of it; and after
692
SMALL NUMBER OF BIRTHS AMONG NATIVES.
repeated fruitless efforts the mother gives up in despair her attempts to
nurse her child, often dooming herself to broken breasts and the baby to
the fatal bottle, and if it survives that, to a puny childhood and a premature
and enfeebled maturity.
The customs of society have given to the sex which is governed by reason
and judgment, instead of to that which is ruled by intuition and emotions,
the privilege of asking in marriage. And this is where the proverbial cool,
calculating judgment of the Yankee has been displayed. If he could find
the broad shoulders, the full chests, the roomy pelvis and the strong limbs,
with the health, industrious and economical habits and cheerfulness which
belonged to the first descendants of the pilgrims, he would marry without
any hesitation; but as it is, can we wonder that it requires more courage
than is possessed by the descendants of Ethan Allen and "Old Put," to
enter matrimony against such odds; or that the exodus of our marriageable
men to the farms, cattle ranches and mines of the West, has become almost
a stampede. The girls and their mothers may flatter themselves that their
oft repeated denials that they suffer from the fearful evils of tight dressing
are believed by the men, but they are mistaken; and I am satisfied that to
this cause and to the extravagant habits created by fashionable dressing,
we may look for the great disparity of numbers between the sexes in New
England.
The other source of the degeneracy of the native stock—the small num-
ber of births-I approach with great hesitancy, because I believe it to be
the result of the greatest crime known to civilized life, and the only one
which is committed with almost perfect impunity. It is foeticide. This
crime has advanced with ever-increasing rapidity, until it is fearfully preva-
lent, and has invaded every rank in the land; high and low, rich and poor,
cultivated and ignorant, Christians and unbelievers, married and single, all
furnish victims to this fiendish destroyer. Perhaps Jews and Catholics are
less guilty; but it will be found that only the foreigners of these denomina-
tions are exempt, and that the native born or long resident are as guilty as
the members of all other religious denominations. Once it was thought a
more serious crime to kill the foetus after the change in position called quick-
ening; but with the growing knowledge of spiritual things, that all life in
this world is from the Lord through the spiritual world, and that a distinct
soul or spirit begins with, in fact produces, fœtal life, this feeling has
changed, and the slaughter now goes on without so much reference to
foetal age as to the convenience of the should be mother. With equal
indifference it is hurried on or postponed at the call of business interests,
or of social life. The causes for this wholesale destruction of human
beings, are the fashionable habits which have made child-bearing so
difficult and dangerous; and the fact that it has become so common,
and so little effort is made to punish it, that it is difficult for a mother to be-
lieve that she is actually committing a premeditated murder, a worse crime
than to kill the child after its birth; because she at the same time puts her
own life in danger. But what I regard as by far the most active inciting
cause, is the facility with which the means can be found for committing the
crime. I speak of this part of the subject with extreme delicacy, but I can-
not help regarding unprincipled physicians as the principal cause of this
UNPRINCIPLED PHYSICIANS AND THEIR ACTS. 693
trouble, and therefore largely the guilty parties. We all know members of
this noble profession, who are governed by the highest principles; who
hold even their own lives subject to their profession; who not only would
not commit this crime, but would not permit one of their patients to do it
if they could avoid it; who, though placed in the most difficult position pos-
sible for a feeling man to occupy, that is, to be entreated to save from
disgrace a poor betrayed confiding girl, would still kindly but firmly
refuse, though refusal might possibly mean death by suicide. But, on the
other hand, we know that there are members of this same profession who,
forgetting honor, justice, charity to the neighbor, the duties they owe to
society, and particularly to the weak and erring, are ready at all times to
commit this horrible crime. This should never be the case in a noble pro-
fession like that of medicine. The physician is of the greatest importance
to the suffering. To him they go for advice and comfort in all of their
troubles and diseases of mind and body. They confide to him all of their
secret thoughts and wishes. He occupies a position where he can assist or
harm them more than any other. And yet how often, instead of using
this exalted position to ennoble and strengthen his patients in all of their
good desires and aspirations, he is ready, for the sake of popularity, or even
of money, to pander to depraved appetites and passions. Knowing that
the desire for the stimulating effect of alcohol and for the sedative effect of
opium or tobacco is so common as to be almost universal, he recommends
them with all the force of his professional experience, though he knows that
they are poisons; that they only palliate and rarely cure; and that the use
of them will be kept up long after the excuse for their use is past, and, in
a vast number of cases, till a habit is formed which will end only in a
drunkard's death. And I believe a large share of all the misery, disease,
crime and death caused by drunkenness, is chargeable to the recommenda-
tion or prescription of a physician as the initiatory step. And so with this
fearfully destructive crime of foeticide; in a large proportion of cases it is
with the concurrence, if not by the direct act, of some physician. There
are laws against such a crime; but, except for the occasional death of the
mother, such a thing as punishing a physician for fœticide is hardly ever
heard of. They know that this crime is committed with comparative im-
punity, and the native stock therefore suffers from this cause.
But there is another class of evils influencing materially
this comparative decrease of the native population, a con-
sideration of which cannot be justly omitted in seeking
the causes of that decrease; and which has its excuse, if not
its origin, in the faulty habits induced by the training of
our girls.
When a young man of native stock has attained adult
age, and is possessed of all the instincts and desires which
find their proper exercise in the married state, he finds him-
self shut out from marriage because he feels that he can-
not support a wife in the style, habits and idleness that
694
LICENTIOUSNESS AND ITS EXCUSES.
accord with her faulty training. Yet his salary or wages is
very likely much larger than the income upon which her
father married his wife. These instincts and desires, when
denied their proper use, are too apt to find expression not
only in vicious habits which impair personal vitality, but
also in licentiousness, in which he is quite sure, sooner or
later, to contract that most fearful disease which not un-
frequently curses his own life to its very close, and is trans-
mitted to his children; often manifesting itself upon them.
at their very birth, or else, without much doubt, laying the
foundation for some of the worst of the many chronic
diseases which afflict the human family.
If the young
marry at a suitable age, as the Lord intended they should,
and husband and wife join in working and saying, they
are much more likely to be kept out of temptation and
to obtain a competency than they are if they remain single;
and they are more likely to marry from correct motives and
not for money and position, love of which is the cause of
so much unhappiness and misery and so many divorces. If
young men who go West were always to take with them
good, healthy, industrious and economical wives, the farms,
ranches and mining camps would contain fewer smokers,
drunkards and gamblers, and fewer human wrecks would
wander back to destroy the peace and happiness of families
and of parents in their declining years.
When the writer was a boy-say sixty years ago-mar-
riages were more common among young people, in propor-
tion to their number, than at present; the number of chil-
dren in families ranged from three to nine, and occasionally
from ten to twelve or more. Now the number of children
in families—where there are any-ranges from one to four
or five, rarely to six or eight or more. The reader has but
to inquire as to the number of children in the families of
his ancestors, and to look around him to see the change.
We have room in this country for hundreds of thousands of
comparatively ignorant foreigners, and we are holding out.
inducements for them to come to our shores. Would it not
be as well to cultivate the parental instinct among the
descendants of the Puritans? Our fathers and mothers
were no ignoble people, and does not humanity and
THE EVILS OF THIS PERIOD.
695
patriotism require that their descendants should shun
those false doctrines and evils which are destroying our
native race?
The evils which we have been considering, so far as
they pertain to the female sex, are largely the direct
result of perverted love of approbation or vanity—a form of
self-love which is not less destructive to both the natural
life of the body and heavenly life in the soul, than that
which results in the perversion of the sensual appetites to
the use of poisonous substances.
Dr. Holcombe, a distinguished American physician and
writer, says:
"Look at our own country, the freest and most favored, and which ought
to be the wisest and the happiest on the globe, if the civilization of modern
Christianity were productive of happiness and wisdom. What do we see?
"The spiritual desolation of the age in all its most painful forms.
"The differences, contentions, disintegrations, decadence, and helpless-
ness of Christianity, associated with the most enormous pretensions and
self-delusions.
"The alarming increase of intemperance, opium-eating, debauchery,
the social evil, insanity, suicide, embezzlement, and all other crimes; in-
sanity alone increasing proportionately faster than population in every
civilized country.
"The waning power of duty; the apotheosis of pleasure; the reign of
buffoonery.
"The astonishing fact, that Christians can consent to be rich, and to
grow richer, amid all the want and suffering that surround them.
"That they squander in ostentatious displays and selfish appetites more
money than would relieve all the necessities of the world.
"The official statement of the annual expenditures of the people of the
United States for religious purposes is one dollar and ten cents per head;
for educational purposes, two dollars and two cents per head; and for alco-
holic liquors, seventeen dollars per head! The nation consumes seven hun-
dred millions of dollars' worth of intoxicating drinks every year! Can any
one imagine the moral and physical evils, present and prospective, which are
involved in that terrible fact? Are we tending, in the midst of our fifty
thousand churches, to become a nation of drunkards, paupers, criminals,
and lunatics?
"The crime against the unborn child, which destroys the parental in-
stinct, encourages sensuality, and suppresses population, is as common
to-day in the most enlightened Christian communities, as it ever was in
pagan Rome. Of this detestable deed,' says Dr. Storer, of Boston, who
has collected an enormous amount of evidence on this subject, the state-
ments made, though simple and true, appear so astounding as to shock
belief, and so degrading as to tend to lessen all faith in natural affection and
general morality.'"-End of the World.
696 TIGHT DRESSING NOW AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Since sending the preceding pages to Mr. Winn, the
writer has received another letter from him, from which
he extracts as follows: Speaking of the statistics of Massa-
chusetts, he says, in regard to the birth rate:
"We have births to 860,000 natives in 1853, 17,603; births to 1,291,978
natives in 6 years ending 1881, 17,295 per annum. In short, a native popula-
tion 50 per cent. greater, produced nearly 2 per cent. less children.
Your comment that many young men and women leave and move
West' is relatively erroneous. Almost the same number of native young
men and women move into this state as move out. Thus in 1880 the
number of persons in the United States born in Massachusetts was only
16,701 more than the number of natives living in the state. In 1850 the
same excess was 64,752. It is true, then, that despite the fact that six
times as many, in proportion to the population, of the young men and
women had emigrated from Massachusetts in 1853, yet the birth rate was
50 per cent. greater than in 1880.
"Your medical friend is no doubt correct about the evils of tight dress-
ing. But I think his remarks would better suit the prolific period of 1850.
The mothers of the past fifteen years have, if my information is correct, and
it is derived from medical men, dressed far more sensibly than the women
of 1850, who not only were more addicted to lacing, but wore very thin
shoes, even in the winter months—a custom now unknown. The ridicule
of the wasp waist, and the warnings which filled the press and medical
works thirty years ago and more, shed general light upon the subject. And
a more correct idea of the beauty of the female form has been disseminated
by the numerous art exhibitions and the multitude of cheap copies of classic
pictures. Your own recollection must confirm to you the fact that tight
dressing is no modern innovation, as it must have been to have caused this
change, for back in the fifties you wrote in your 'Avoidable Causes of Dis-
ease,' as follows: 'First and foremost among the causes of ill health,
deformity and suffering among the American ladies stands the habit of
tight dressing,' etc."
While the wasp waist has, in a measure, disappeared, we
have at present, unfortunately, the steadily vanishing chest
and abdomen. Tight dressing is now carried up on the
chest, aver the breasts, and down upon the abdomen, as
never before. It is often carried as close down to the
hips as possible, with a triangular portion of the corset
extending over the abdomen in front; and thus the
abdominal viscera are crowded down upon the repro-
ductive organs, as never before. It is this general com-
pression which is so rapidly preventing the development.
of our women and impairing their vitality, and which is
immeasurably worse than the tight dressing of fifty years
ago. Then we must not forget that the transgressions
OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN.
697
of our mothers and grandmothers are visited upon not
only the women, but also upon the men of our generation,
often giving rise to delicate, slender and frail, instead of
substantial, organizations. Mr. Winn continues:
C
"Your clerical friend rightly says girls are now brought up as the old
stock were not. They are trained to totally different ideas of the relations
and duties of the sexes, and especially to look upon domestic labor as a
servitude particularly to be shunned. The wealthier classes marry, but
generally upon the implied condition that the woman shall be forever ex-
empted from domestic work. This condition deters many men-deterio-
rates many women. The poorer classes not able to employ servants, yet
educate their daughters to dread the service and bonds' of the marital
condition. The young man inspired by the same folly, and especially by
a cognizance of the feminine idea in the premises, prudently avoids
marriage, waiting his fortune. To escape the odium of servitude attach-
ing to work in a home, the American girl seeks the office, the factory,
the market-place. She forgets that she is part of a complex unit only
living her highest life in the family, and seeks a wretched competition with
the other half in which the more hardy animal endures while she faints by
the way-side. Nature did not prepare her for the unremitting work of
man. No fair man will for a moment complain of the competition from a
selfish standpoint. It is the God-given right of every wage laborer to
utilize his powers to their most productive effect, subject only to the limi-
tations necessary for the common good. To those women who are really
compelled to work in competition with men, the largest liberty consistent
with the general interest should be accorded. But public opinion does
not owe approval to those persons, male or female, who seek unnatural
courses of life, to enable them to shirk their duties to the race. Most of
the masculine employments require more than feminine endurance. Business
with its balance sheet will not pay woman except the exact pay which her
productive powers warrant, and, saving a few prizes, she can only secure
equal compensation-nay, enough for her necessities, by overtaxing her
vitality. Let it be understood that I speak comparatively. There are to-day
a great body of native mothers with all the vigor of the olden time. But
relatively to the native community of women of forty years ago there is
much impairment.
"The American child girl has too little work, exercise and discipline. When
she reaches school a severe mental training is imposed upon a physique
not trained to endure it; marriage to fortune is followed by the ener-
vation of physical idleness; life with self support occupied in work requiring
unremitting application which eventuates in nervous disorder and weak-
ness. The woman is impaired for child-bearing. Thus the number of
mothers living in this state in 1875 being compared, by the state
statistician, with the number of births in 1874, he finds in that year one
birth to each 9 native mothers, and one to each 434 foreign. Thus
the dread of marriage, except under the impossible conditions which
the new woman theories impose, reduces the marriage rate, and the
J
698
MOTIVES WHICH LEAD TO MARRIAGË.
impairment of physique reduces the capacity of those who do marry to
bear children.
"Combine this lack of fecundity with the diminished number of marriages,
and you will need nothing more to account for the moribund condition
of the puritan stock. Of course I may be in error upon a question
requiring a study far more careful than I have been able to give. And
something may be allowed for the effeminacy arising from increased wealth.
But I cannot hesitate in my opinion that the evil is chiefly caused by the
vicious teachings of modern 'reform' concerning the relations and duties
of the sexes, producing an effect of which the current legislation on the
woman question-the woman suffrage agitation and the struggle for
individuation -are only symptoms. It lies in the folly which tends to disin-
tegrate the complex unit forming the basis of the family, and establish for
its parts competitive and independent careers. Providence does not
tolerate this sin, but marches the 'reforming' communities in steady
procession to the grave.”
If a man marries a woman from the love of money or
position or even of sensual gratification, instead of from a
genuine affection, he is apt, after a time, to seek the society
of other women. So, if a woman marries a man for money,
position or from any other selfish motive, without love, even
if she does not presently seek other society and find her
chief pleasure therein, she will be apt to withhold from her
husband those manifestations of affection, which he feels
are his due; and, as he feels the coldness on her part,
mutual coldness is likely to result. If husbands and wives
truly love each other, they will find their chief delight, not
in individual selfish gratification, but in giving pleasure to
their married partners and in the reasonable gratification
of their desires; and if, in doing so, sometimes they are
subject to personal inconvenience, the thought that they
are giving pleasure to their partners will fill their own
hearts with delight. But above all, realizing that the
noblest life of heaven and earth is a life of active useful-
ness to others, and that heaven is peopled by the human
race, true Christian parents will experience the highest
delight in having as many children as they can care for
and properly rear; fully realizing that it is better for our
country and for the human race that this new country
should be peopled by the children of intelligent, loving,
Christian parents than by the children of the irreligious or
of ignorant foreigners, or, again, of those confirmed in the
false doctrines of the dark ages of the past. Christian
TWO KINDS OF WINE.
699
wives like the woman of old, when their jewels are
demanded, should be able to present their sons and
daughters and exclaim with joy: "These are my jewels!"
As it is no more desirable to perpetuate the bad habits,
deformities and diseases which come with the immigrants
from foreign lands than it is to perpetuate those which origi-
nate here, the writer, even while specially treating of the
causes which are deteriorating the native stock, has felt called
upon to notice those evils which are impairing our race
generally; for, being already more impaired than foreigners,
we are less able to withstand their injurious habits and
customs than foreigners.
Has the Christian Church, its ministry and its periodicals,
little or nothing to do with such evils of life? Can the
Church prosper while such evils are ignored? Can it pros-
per while in a large majority of our churches even the
drunkard's cup is used in the most holy ordinance of the
Church, instead of the fruit of the vine; and thus an ex-
ample is set to all, and intoxicating wine is represented,
even to the young, as a substance of a good signification,
and consequently every way suitable as a beverage? And
this, notwithstanding the Lord, in the administration of the
Last Supper, was careful not even to use at all the term for
wine, which was known to include fermented wine, but in-
stead, He called the contents of the cup "the fruit of the
vine," which is strictly true of unfermented grape-juice,
new or old; whereas fermented wine is never produced by
the vine, but is the product of leaven, and its essential
ingredient-alcohol, a poison-an effete product at that.
TWO KINDS OF WINE.
That there are two kinds of wine or grape-juice, one fer-
mented and the other unfermented, the one a harmless
and nourishing drink, containing the essential ingredients
organized by the Lord in the grape for the sustenance of
man, the other an intoxicating drink,-is known to every
one of ordinary intelligence who has, without prejudice,
examined this question carefully. These two kinds of
wine are characteristically distinct, not only in their
chemical composition but also in their effects upon man.
Unfermented wine contains albumen and other vegetable
700
THE SIGNIFICATION OF WINE.
2
substances which nourish the body of man as good and
truth do his spirit, also sugar, which corresponds to spir-
itual delights. It never intoxicates. In fermented wine
all the nourishing and useful substances found in the un-
fermented wine are either destroyed, changed, perverted,
or polluted by the products of leaven, to the extent fer-
mentation has progressed; and in old fermented wine the
sugar is generally all destroyed. We have, in the place of
the substances organized by the Lord in the grape, as a
result of the leaven overcoming, destroying and perverting
the good substances named above, alcohol, vinegar, and
other acids and fusel-oil-substances which are never found
in the grape, but which are strictly the products of leaven.
And the leavened wine is an intoxicating wine, which is
never true of an unleavened wine.
The writer has shown in his works on the "Wine Ques-
tion," by an abundance of testimony drawn from the Word
of the Lord, ancient and modern writers, and from the
writings of the Church, that the juice of grapes as it is
squeezed from grapes, as it is trodden from grapes and as
it flows from the press, has been called wine in all ages, in
the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English languages. And
further, he has shown that wine has been preserved from
fermentation by various processes carefully described by
ancient writers, who wrote during the days of the prophets
and the apostles; and furthermore, it is well known to in-
telligent people that unfermented wine is to-day preserved
somewhat extensively by vine-growers, by some of the
various processes so carefully described by the ancients,
and that such wine is used by thousands of religious so-
cieties as a communion wine, and prescribed by many
physicians, and used by not a few people as a beverage.
The writer has on hand at present samples of wine put up
a year ago last fall, by two of the processes described by
the ancients, which show no signs of fermentation.
Can we for a moment suppose that there is no difference
between the "wine that maketh glad the heart of man"-
the wine which Melchizedek, priest of the most high God,
brought forth with bread-the wine which we are told
"cheereth God and man," and the wine which is likened
GOOD AND BAD WINE.
701
to "the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps".
the wine of which we are told the "nations have drunken
and are mad,”—the wine which we are told in ancient prov-
erbs "is a mocker" upon which we are warned not even to
look with a longing eye, for "at the last it biteth like a
serpent and stingeth like an adder?"
Emanuel Swedenborg, 'servant of the Lord Jesus
Christ," through whom the Lord revealed to the world the
long-lost science of correspondences in accordance with
which the Sacred Scriptures were written, and by which
they are shown to be the Word of God, differing from all
human productions, as much as do the works of God from
the works of man, being full of spirit and life, in his
Apocalypse explained, No. 376, says:
66 6
“That wine (vinum) signifies spiritual good, or the good of charity and
of faith, which, in its essence, is truth, is evident from the following passages
in the Word." Then follow among others these passages:
Ho, every
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine (vinum) and milk without money
and without price' (Isa. lv. 1). That the wine (vinum) and milk here men-
tioned, which were to be bought without money and without price, do not
signify milk and wine (vinum), but things purely spiritual to which they
correspond, must be obvious to every one; wherefore by wine (vinum) is
signified spiritual good, which in its essence is truth, as was said above, and
by milk the good of that truth.”
<
** *
"So in Joel And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains
shall drop new wine (mustum), and the hills shall flow with milk, and all
the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters.'
By the mountains
dropping down new wine (mustum) is understood every genuine truth
derived from the good of love to the Lord " (III. 18).
**
"And again: 'It shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto
my commandments which I command you this day, to love Jehovah your God,
to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you
the rain of your land in due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou
mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine (Hebrew, tirosh-Latin, mustum—
English, must), and thine oil' (Deut. xi. 13, 14, *
* The things
which were said and commanded by Jehovah correspond to things spiritual,
consequently the blessings of the earth here mentioned correspond to the
blessings of heaven. * * * Wherefore by the corn, wine (mustum)
and oil, which they should gather, are signified every good and truth of
the external and internal man.
That intoxicating wine can have no such good significa-
tion, would seem to be self-evident, consequently Sweden.
borg says in regard to such winę;
i
702
GOOD SIGNIFICATION OF UNFERMENTED WINE.
“To drink, spiritually, denotes to be instructed in truths, and in the opposite
sense in falses, thus to imbue them; hence it is manifest what is meant by
a cup from which drink is received: to be drunken denotes to become thence
insane. * * * In this passage is described the man of the Ancient
Church, who is Noah; the wine which he drank, and with which he was
made drunken, denotes the false principle with which that Church in the
beginning was imbued.
Moreover, the wine with which Noah.
was made drunken, signifies what is false."-Arcana Cœlestia, 9960.
* *
We are told that celestial goods and truths are dis-
sipated by fermentation (see Arcana Cœlestia, No. 10137),
precisely as we know that the good and nourishing parts of
the juice of the grape, which correspond to goods and
truths, and which nourish the natural body as the latter do
the spiritual body, are dissipated by natural fermentation.
In neither case are the good and useful things annihilated;
but spiritually the good and true are perverted into the
evil and false; and naturally the corresponding substances
in the juice of the grape are changed into alcohol and other
poisonous substances, which correspond to evils and falses.
There is the most wonderful correspondence not only be-
tween all natural and spiritual things, but also between all
natural and spiritual processes, changes and products; the
natural answering to the spiritual in every particular.
There is no question but that the blood and juice of
grapes, flowing or pressed from the fruit, have a good sig-
nificance indeed, the very highest. Chemistry shows that
nificance—indeed,
they contain, in perhaps greater perfection, those substances
which are required to warm and nourish the human body,
and hold a closer analogy to human blood, than does the
juice of any other fruit. There is no other liquid organized
by the Lord in the vegetable kingdom, that bears the name
or likeness or constituents of blood in an equal degree.
In the writings of Swedenborg it is shown that it corres-
ponds to "every genuine truth derived from the good of
love to the Lord," and "every good and truth of the ex-
ternal and internal man." "All the truth of the Church"
(see A. C., 10137) finds its correspondence in this "new
wine," the fresh juice of the grape, or the same preserved
from fermentation.
When the Lord instituted His most Holy Supper, it was
EFFECTS OF BEER DRINKING.
703
the juice or "fruit of the vine" that He chose to symbolize
His blood, and to be drunk henceforth in that holy or-
dinance. Does it not seem like a profanation of a holy or-
dinance, for the Church to substitute, for the pure juice of
the grape, a wine polluted by leaven, which will cause
drunkenness?
"IS BEER HEALTHFUL?
"The belief that beer is a healthful drink is constantly urged upon us by
manufacturers and lovers of this beverage, and physicians aid the spread
of this delusion in many ways. It is not often that an unprejudiced person
makes a careful study of the subject to see whether beer is really wholesome
and life-giving or not, and so it is a pleasure to temperance advocates to
hear from a man who has done so. That man is Colonel Green, President
of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company. He says: 'In one
of our largest cities, containing a great population of beer drinkers, I had
occasion to note the deaths among a large group of persons whose habits in
their own eyes and in those of their friends and physicians were temperate;
but they were habitual users of beer. When the observation began they
were, upon the average, something under middle age, and they were, of
course, selected lives. For two or three years there was nothing very
remarkable to be noted among this group. Presently death. began to strike
it; and until it had dwindled to a fraction of its original proportions, the
mortality in it was astounding in extent, and still more remarkable in the
manifest identity of cause and mode. There was no mistaking it; the
history was almost invariable; robust, apparent health, full muscles, a fair
outside, increasing weight, florid faces; then a touch of cold, or a sniff of
malaria, and instantly some acute disease with, almost invariably, typhoid
symptoms, was in violent action, and ten days or less ended it. It was as
if the system had been kept fair, outside, while, within, it was eaten to a
shell, and at the first touch of disease there was utter collapse; every fibre
was poisoned and weak. And this, in its main features, varying, of course,
in degree, has been my observation in beer-drinking everywhere. It is
peculiarly deceptive at first; it is thoroughly destructive at the last.' This
testimony is very strong, and we take pleasure in giving it to our readers;
and we call special attention to the fact that a fair, ruddy outside is not
always an indication of health, and also to the fact that, so far, the figures
of the life insurance companies go to show that the teetotallers are likely to
live longer than even the moderate drinker.”—Mining and Scientific Press.
As in the regeneration of the individual man, so with com-
munities of men, one by one must the evils which afflict
humanity be seen, resisted, and put away. Human slavery
was seen to be an evil, and it has been resisted and over-
thrown, but only after a fearful struggle. The drinking of
intoxicating drinks is beginning to be generally seen to be
704
ALCOHOL WHEREVER FOUND A POISON.
an evil; and that it often reduces men to a slavery worse
than African slavery is beyond question. The great battle
with intemperance and the saloon is upon us, and is yet to
be fought to a successful issue. A war against tobacco
must follow. Then when the great mass of voters become
free from the domination of the saloon, votes will count in
this free country, and our monopolies will be restrained
within due limits, and the rights of the poor as well as of the
rich will be respected. If in this little work a large space
is devoted to the subject of intemperance, it is because that
is a fearful evil, and is now prominently before the
country.
To talk about temperately using poisonous substances
like fermented and distilled liquors, opium or tobacco,
-substances which have no legitimate use in the healthy
human body, and only enter it to pervert, disease and des-
troy it is to misuse language. We might as well talk of
temperate stealing, lying, or bearing of false witness; for
not more surely do these latter violations pervert man's
spiritual organization than do the former his physical
organization. Even that old so called "heathen philoso-
pher," Aristotle, declared that temperance consisted in
the moderate use of things lawful and useful, and in total
abstinence from things injurious.
It is beyond question that alcohol wherever found, be it
in either fermented wine, beer or distilled liquors, in its
effects on man, has proved itself by far the most fearful
and deadly poison known to man. As a poison polluting
and diseasing both body and mind, it stands unparalleled.
Dr. Wm. B. Carpenter, author of "Principles of Human
Physiology," "Mental Physiology," etc., who stands at the
very head of the physiologists of the world, during a recent
visit to this country, in a lecture delivered in Boston Dec.
3, 1882, on “The Physiology of Alcoholics," says:
“No one who is familiar with the action of poisons upon the living animal
body, and has made the nature of that action a subject of special study,
has the smallest hesitation in saying that alcohol is a poison. There are
any number of well-attested results of its experimental administration to
animals, by which it is shown to have every character of a poison. Yet it
may be thought by many of you, that if it is a poison its action is very,
very slow when taken in small, continued, repeated doses. I admit that
THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL.
705
freely. It is a very, very slow poison in the great majority of instances;
but I do not regard its action as any less sure because it is slow. The very
large experience of our life insurance companies, of our benefit societies-I
think you have similar institutions in this country, a sort of mutual insur-
ance of working-men, for maintenance during sickness-the experience of
all these is entirely in this direction, that life is shortened, disease induced,
and the power of resisting disease very seriously impaired by habitual in-
dulgence in alcoholic liquors.
Now, it is the result of many observations that the introduction of alcohol
specially deranges the vaso-motor system; this derangement showing itself
alike in disturbance of the heart's action, and in relaxation of the capillary
vessels, which become filled with blood, especially in the nervous system
and in the skin. This causes one to feel that warmth and exhilaration
which is the first effect of the introduction of these disturbing agencies, and
which are appealed to as evidence that drink does us good. Well, what
are the facts? The fresh glow is simply the result of relaxation of the cap-
illary vessels of the skin, allowing a larger quantity of blood to come to
the surface, so as to give the feeling of superficial warmth. But if a larger
amount of blood comes to the surface, it robs the parts within; and the
feeling of genial warmth gives way to a general depression, especially when
we are exposed to severe cold. The temporary exhilaration of the nervous
system, too, is followed by a corresponding depression. Hence a person
feels 'sick and sorry' the next morning, after taking alcoholic stimulant.
"Now, it is certain that the addition of alco..ol in any appreciable quan-
tity, diminishes the solvent power of the gastric fluid, so as to interfere with
the process of digestion, instead of aiding it. The only possible way in
which the alcoholic fluid can improve digestion, is by a temporary increase
in the quantity of fluid secreted by the action which (as I shall presently
describe to you) alcohol has on the circulation. Any increase in a healthy
body is always, I believe, followed by a subsequent diminution; and so we
do not gain anything in the end. But that alcohol interferes with the pro-
cess of digestion, may be said to be a well-ascertained fact.
“That the taking of alcoholic stimulants is in any way useful as keeping
up the heat of the body, may now be considered as a myth altogether ex-
ploded.
“The increase in the secretion of gastric juice, of which I have spoken as
an effect of the introduction of alcoholic liquors into the stomach, is an
ABNORMAL action, dependent upon the relaxation of the capillaries of the
gastric glandulæ. Why should a healthy man desire to increase it? His
stomach secretes enough to digest the food he needs; why should he pro-
voke it to do what is not required for digestive action? We do this at the
expense of subsequent loss. We lose afterward all that we seem to gain.
"The mode in which the habitual moderate' use of alcoholics exerts
its injurious effects, I believe to be by obstructing the removal of the effete
matter of the tissues; so that they tend, in advancing life, to become the sub-
jects of 'fatty degeneration.' This is especially the case in the heart, liver,
kidneys and walls of the arteries; and the foundation is thus laid of a variety
of diseases that are well known to be those specially of advanced life.'
66 Now there can be no doubt that the habitual use of alcoholics tends so to
706
?
SEDUCTIVE ACTION OF ALCOHOL.
modify the nutrition of the nervous substance, as to shape it (so to speak)
into an accordance with itself; and this will be especially the case during
that earlier period of life in which the bodily constitution (and with it, in
great degree, the mental) is being fixed and rendered permanent. A habit
of dependence upon alcoholic stimulants thus grows up, which may rise into
an irrepressible craving.
66
Anyone of the young persons I now address may say, 'I am in no danger
of becoming the victim of such a propensity.' But I can assure you, as
one who has looked upon this matter both scientifically and practically for
something like half a century, that no one who has not had like experience
can have an idea of the enslaving power which this habit may acquire in
virtue of its physical effect upon the nutrition of the nervous system, no
less than on its specific power of weakening the will and exciting the pas-
sions. Every time the temptation is yielded to, is so much to the bad' in
both these ways; so that the recovery of healthful self-control becomes
more and more difficult. There is no rule in regard to alcoholic indulgence
that it is so safe to observe, as the old one, Obsta principiis-oppose the
beginnings; for there is no saying what the ending may be.
"And there is one more consideration which I would specially urge upon
you. The physical deterioration produced by alcoholic indulgence in the
nervous system is one which has a peculiar tendency to hereditary trans.
mission; insanity, idiocy, instability of mind, weakness of will, and espe
cially the craving for alcoholics, presenting themselves so much more fre-
quently in the offspring of the habitually intemperate than in those of
habitual water-drinkers, that there cannot be any reasonable doubt that the
sins of the fathers (or mothers) are here most fearfully visited on the children.'
Dr. Benjamin Richardson, of England, who has un-
questionably observed and experimented more carefully,
and for a longer period of time, on the action of alcoholic
drinks on the body and mind than any other man, speaking
of "The Moderation Fallacy," says:
"This thought leads me to add a word on what is called the practice
of moderation in the use of alcohol. I believe the Church of England Tem-
perance Association is divided by two lines, one of which marks off total
abstainers, the other moderate indulgers. I am one of those who have
once been bitten by the plea of moderate induigence. Mr. Worldly Wise
man, with his usual industry, tapped me on the shoulder, as he does every
man, and held a long and plausible palaver on this very subject. If I had not
been a physician he might have converted me. But side by side with his
wisdom, there came fortunately the knowledge which I could not, dare not,
ignore, that th mere moderate man is never safe, neither in the counsel he
gives to others, nor in the practice he follows for himself. Furthermore,
I observe as a physiological, or perhaps, psychological fact, that the attrac-
tion of alcohol for itself is cumulative. That so long as it is present in a
human body, even in small quantities, the longing for it, the sense of re
quirement for it, is present, and that as the amount of it insidiously
increases, so does the desire,
SPIRITUAL CAUSES OF PREVAILING EVILS.
707
"The mere question of the destructive effect of alcohol on the membranes
of the body alone would be a sufficient study for an address on the mis-
chiefs of it. I cannot define it better, indeed, than to say that it is an agent
as potent for evil as it is helpless for good. It begins by destroying, it ends
by destruction, and it implants organic changes which progress independ-
ently of its presence even in those who are not born."
Such is the testimony which the latest and most advanced
science gives as to the use of intoxicating drinks, and it
accords with that which has been given in all ages by care-
ful observers.
Clement, of Alexandria, who lived at the close of the
second century, says:
"I admire those who require no other beverage than water, avoiding
wine as they do fire. From its use arise excessive desires and licentious
conduct. The circulation is accelerated, and the body inflames the soul.”
-Divine Law as to Wines.
THE SPIRITUAL CAUSES OF THE PREVAILING EVILS
OF LIFE.
And why, my brethren of the Christian church, do we
behold such a flood of evils at this day among the most
enlightened and freest men and women on earth? Is it
not simply because the doctrines of men have made the
Word of God of none effect? Unfortunately for the Pro-
testant church, early in its history, instead of "If ye would
enter into life, keep the commandments," there was sub-
stituted the doctrine of justification by faith alone; which
led men, especially the young, to hope that by getting
religion and having faith, they could at any time escape
the legitimate penalties which are attached by the Lord
to evil doing. No young man, religiously brought up,
expects to go to hell out he intends to repent and be
converted before he dies; he often thinks he will "sow
his wild oats" first, instead of earnestly and faithfully
striving to keep the Divine commandments from his youth
up. Evil thinking and doing develop an infernal life within
him, which gradually gains strength until he is ruled by his
perverted appetites and passions; and day by day his ability
to regain his freedom grows less. This is true naturally
and it is true spiritually, for the natural corresponds to
the spiritual. Emanuel Swedenborg tells us that "Diseases
708
TRADITIONS OF MEN AND TRUE DOCTRINES.
correspond to the lusts and passions of the mind; these
therefore, are the origins of diseases; for the origins of
diseases in general are intemperances, luxuries of various
kinds, pleasures merely corporal, also envyings, hatreds,
revenges, lasciviousness, and the like; which destroy the in-
teriors of man, and when these are destroyed, the exteriors
suffer, and draw man into diseases, and thereby into
death."-Arcana Calestia, 5712.
When the priesthood of the Catholic church began to
teach men that the penalties which legitimately inhere to
the doing of evil can be escaped by confessing to the priest,
doing penance, and receiving absolution; and that the priest
has from the Lord the power to forgive sins and to grant
indulgences; then a hope of escaping the penalties of sin
by something short of keeping the Divine Law was held
out to the young of the Catholic laity, similar to that which
the doctrine of faith alone offered to the young of the
Protestant world; and the results have been similar.
know, however, that among religious teachers, there are
many to-day, in all of the various sects of Christians, who
have put away, or are gradually putting away, or materially
We
odifying these doctrines; and herein, to a great extent,
lies the hope of our country. But these doctrines are
deeply rooted in the minds of multitudes of the laity, and
it will require line upon line and precept upon precept of
divine truth to eradicate them.
The Lord came into the world to save men from sin; and
to save them from the penalty of sin, only as He saves
them from sin.
Emanuel Swedenborg, the seer for this new Age of light
which is dawning upon us, says:
"It is, however, to be noted that man of himself cannot approach the
Lord and be conjoined to Him; and because the Lord draws man to Him-
self (John vi. 44; chap. xii. 32), it appears as if man of himself approaches
and conjoins himself. This is effected when man desists from evil, for to
desist from evil is left to man's determination or freedom: in this case there
flows in good from the Lord, which is never wanting, for it is in the very
life itself which man has from the Lord; but with the life, good is received
only in proportion as evils are removed.”—Arcana Cœlestia, 9378.
How clear and how true this is!-not only spiritually, but
also naturally. When man shuns all poisonous substances,
TRANSGRESSIONS AND THEIR PENALTIES.
709
and uses only healthy food and drink, lives in the sunlight,
breathes fresh air, labors faithfully at some useful employ-
ment, and dresses comfortably without constricting any
part of the body, then life from the Lord will surely flow in
through the sunlight, the air, the food and drink, and give
substance, strength, and health to the body. The violation
of the laws of physical development, health, and life will
surely bring its legitimate penalty. The use of poisonous
substances as food and drink will cause unnatural excite-
ment and disease in some part of the body, and consequent
suffering; excluding the sunlight and fresh air, and the
want of exercise, will prevent development and cause de-
bility and predispose to disease. Tight dressing will cause
deformity, displacements of organs, and disease. These are
some of the penalties which follow the violation of the laws
of physical life and health; but the suffering which soon fol-
lows the violation of these laws-for instance, drunkenness
and temporary insanity, which follow the use of intoxicating
drinks-is of comparatively little consequence when com-
pared with the more permanent penalty -the unnatural
appetite which is created for further transgression, and the
necessity of increasing the transgression for the purpose.
of gratifying that perverted appetite and feeding the
diseased action which is developed; and then the fearful
suffering which follows when man, either from choice or
necessity, ceases to gratify his perverted appetite for intoxi-
cants, or for opium or tobacco; or when the woman removes
her stays, or the idle attempts to work.
But if a man is suffering from the violation of physical
laws, he must cease to transgress; without his doing this no
'physician can cure him; and it is well for every one to re-
member that the longer the transgression is continued and
the more serious it is, so much the more difficult it will be
to stop doing the evil; and even if we succeed and are re-
stored to health by obedience to the laws of health and life,
we can never expect to reach the same state of develop-
ment and strength and symmetry of form, which we should
have reached if we had never transgressed. Every wound
and burn leaves its scar, and its comparative weakness;
and all unnatural excitement is followed by depression and
710
VIOLATIONS OF NATURAL LAWS ARE SINS.
weakness; and artificial support impairs and weakens the
muscles; and the body which is not fully developed during
childhood and youth, can never reach the state of most per-
fect development, although it may gain much.
When physical transgressions are either too great or too
long persisted in, there comes a time when death therefrom
is inevitable and the sufferer dies; prayer cannot save his
life, the physician cannot rescue him, and the inflowing of
life from the Lord through nourishing food, air, light and
heat do not revive him. He dies from his transgressions.
The penalty for sin if man does not stop sinning, is death.
And more than this the penalty of transgression is death, to
whatever extent we carry our transgressions, for in youth
they prevent development and forever destroy the chance
for the highest development; and during both young and
adult age, they impair the vitality and cause deformity and
disease to the extent of the transgression, and the man can
never be what he might have been if he had lived an orderly
life; and even his children cannot be what they might have
been if he had lived a true life.
It does seem that at this day, in the light of this new Age,
every intelligent man and woman cannot but see and under-
stand that it is wrong to use poisonous fluids like fermented
wine, beer and distilled liquors, which are causing so much
crime, poverty, unhappiness, drunkenness and insanity; or
tobacco, which, even in small quantities, will cause such
deadly nausea, irregularity in the heart's action, disease
of the heart, stomach or brain; or opium, which will cause
stupor and death, or if taken in moderate doses for any
length of time, will, like a demon, hold man in a grasp
from which it is almost impossible for him to be rescued,
and never without great suffering; or, again, for a woman
by the use of stays, corsets or any other means, to strive to
contract her waist and thus destroy the symmetry of form
and gracefulness with which the Lord has endowed her.
Such transgressions, as are named above, are violations
of natural laws of life, and will surely bring with them the
penalties attached to them, even though we may transgress
ignorantly. And when, knowing such habits to be danger-
ous and injurious, we deliberately commence indulging in
MUST SHUN EVILS TO SEE TRUTH.
them to gratify our sensual appetites or vanity, or persist
in such habits after we see that they are wrong, they
become sins against God; for we have no more right to
destroy our own health and lives, than we have the health
and lives of others.
He
Man must be "born from above," or the flaming sword
of self-love, "with its insane cupidities and persuasions,"
will keep closed "the way of the Tree of Life."
must desist from evils before he can receive into his under-
standing and will the truth and good; and when he does.
this, they will flow in as do the light and heat of the
sun into natural objects when all obstructions are removed.
This is true naturally, and it is true spiritually. The Lord,
through the writings of Swedenborg, says:
"The internal sight, which is the understanding, sees nothing else in
plains or gardens of the things of its memory, but what are agreeable to
the loves in which the man is, and also what favor the principles which
he loves. Wherefore, they who are in the loves of self and of the world,
see nothing but such things as favor those loves, and call them truths; and
also by things fallacious and apparent, make them like truths; and next,
they see such things as are in agreement with received principles which the
man loves because from himself.”—A. C., 9394.
In speaking of the signification of John i. 9, 10, Sweden-
borg says:
"The subject treated of in this passage is concerning the Word, which
is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord. That every man in the
world who is of sound reason, is in the faculty of understanding Divine
Truth, and thence in the faculty of receiving so far as he desists from evils,
has been given me to know by abundant experience; for all, as many as
are in the other life, both the evil and the good, can understand what is true
and what is false, also what is good and what is evil; but the evil, although
they understand what is true and good, are still not willing to understand,
for the will and the evil therein is repugnant; wherefore, when they are
left to themselves they sink back even into the falses of their own evils,
and hold in aversion the truth and good which they understood. The case
is similar with persons of this description in the world, where they re-
pelled from themselves the truths which yet they were able to understand,
since it has evidently appeared that the Divine Truth proceeding from the
Lord is continually flowing-in into human minds, and adapts them to re-
ceive; and that it is so far received as evils are desisted from, which are of
the loves of self and the world.”—A. C., 9399.
The Lord speaks to man in parables, and “without a
parable," we read, "spake He not unto them." The Lord
intimates in many passages that the sacred Scriptures, or
712
A SPIRITUAL SENSE IN THE WORD.
His words, contain a spiritual sense, as in the following:
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth noth-
ing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life." "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth
life.
">
"The early Christian Fathers, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen,
understood that the sacred Scriptures have a spiritual sense; and Origen-
when the shrewd enemy of Christianity, Celsus, ridiculed the stories of the
rib, the serpent, etc., as childish fables-reproaches him for want of candor
in purposely keeping out of sight, what was so evident upon the face of the
narrative, that the whole is a pure allegory."-Noble's Plenary In-
spiration.
"The idea of a spiritual sense in every part of the Scripture was the
generally received doctrine of the Primitive Church-believed and taught
by Origen, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Jerome, Augustine, Pantænus, Tatian,
Theophilus, Pamphilius, Clemens and Cyril of Alexandria, and nearly all
the early Christian Fathers. And the same belief has been held by many
eminent theologians ever since. Dr. Mosheim, speaking of the illustrious
writers of the second century, says: "They all attributed a double sense to
the words of Scripture; the one obvious and literal, the other hidden and
mysterious, which lay concealed, as it were, under the veil of the outward
letter.' But the Fathers had no recognized rule for eliciting the spiritual
sense. Each one's own spiritual perception was his only guide. A hundred
different expositors, therefore, might give as many different expositions of
the same text."- Doctrines of the New Church, Rev. B. F. Barrett.
Every natural object is the form and embodiment of
some spiritual idea or principle; and therefore it is the
most perfect expression or type or picture of that idea.
In that beautiful parable or allegory to be found in the
Lord's Word, in the first chapter of Genesis, when men
ceased to be satisfied with the fruit of the Tree of Life or
to perceive and acknowledge that they were but recipients
of life, and that all truth, all goodness, and all ability to see
the truth and do the good was momentarily received from
the Lord—that in Him they lived, moved and had their
being; but allowed themselves to be seduced by the serpent,
or their low sensual and selfish appetites and desires, and
began to love themselves and their sensual and selfish grati-
fications more than the Lord and the neighbor, and prided
themselves on their own intelligence, then man began to par-
take of the "fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil;" and when in the process of time they began to per-
suade themselves that they could reach heaven and happi-
SECOND COMING OF THE LORD.
713.
ness by faith, or believing without obedience to the Divine
commands, then Cain (Faith alone) killed Abel (or Charity)
his brother; and Cain (or Faith alone) became a vagabond
upon the earth, and falses and evils prevailed until a flood
of evils and falses swept over the earth; and had it not
been for the small remnant who had not separated Faith
from Charity, and were in good of life, for whom the Lord
could provide truth for a new Church signified by Noah
and the Ark, in which Faith and Charity could be reunited,
the human race must have perished from the earth in con-
sequence of their evils and falses, as the Puritan stock is
perishing from a similar cause at present.
"The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted
up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord
on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea
than the mighty waves of the sea.” (Ps. xciii. 3, 4).
The Lord at such seasons reveals New Truths from
heaven, and Old Truths in a new light. These serve as
an Ark of safety for the humbly good.
After the flood He revealed to men, through prophets
and seers, the truths which were necessary to be lived for
their salvation; and finally in the fullness of time He de
scended and assumed a humanity born of a virgin, which
He glorified or made Divine by resisting and overcoming
the hereditary inclinations inherited from the human race
by the virgin. He promised to come a second time,
not in the clouds of earth, but "in the clouds of heaven," or
in the literal sense of the sacred Scriptures, which sense
modifies and adapts spiritual light and heat, or the Divine
truth and love, to man's spiritual vision and body, precisely
as the natural clouds modify and adapt natural light and
heat to man's natural vision and body-the one correspond-
ing to the other. The Lord did not forget His promise,
but more than a century ago, through Emanuel Sweden-
borg, He revealed a knowledge of the science of corre-
spondences in accordance with which the Sacred Scriptures
were written, disclosing thereby the heavenly doctrines of
the New Jerusalem, and the state of man after death, and
the effect which the thoughts, words and deeds of this
life have upon the future life. By the application of the
714
SIGNS OF THE SECOND COMING.
science of correspondences to the interpretation of the
Scriptures, the skeptic is readily met and disarmed, and
man has a rational foundation for his faith in the Lord and
His word. The Lord is indeed coming with power and
great glory.
"How many thousands around us do we see engulfed in horrid
streams of infidelity, falsehood, and corruption, in their thousand forms!
Let us point all to the Ark of Safety. The three grand principles of love,
faith, and obedience, accepted from the Lord Jesus, will rescue every one.
Let us then love Him with all the heart, dear reader. He is our Creator,
Redeemer, and Regenerator. He will never forsake you, but love, en-
lighten and bless you."-Rev. Dr. Bailey.
All in the Christian world are beginning to see more and
more clearly the dawning light of a New Dispensation from
God to man, shining from the East even unto the West,
on the scientific or natural plane; and the spiritual illumina-
tion is becoming more and more manifest, which is dis-
sipating old forms of error and introducing new views
and ideas. Yet comparatively few clearly behold the
rising Sun-or the Lord in his Divine Humanity,-and
have come to fully realize that God is one in essence and in
person, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is that one God
manifested to men. Notwithstanding, He declares, "Whoso
hath seen me hath seen the Father;" "All authority hath
been given unto me in heaven and on earth;" and again,
in the closing chapter of the Sacred Scriptures, "Behold,
I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every
man according as his work shall be. I am the Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
A goodly number begin to realize that it is not a man's
faith or belief which makes the man, or which will determine
his destiny hereafter; but his life-or the affections, ideas
and thoughts which he has harbored and made his own by
carrying them out into words and acts in his every-day life;
these build up the spirit of man as natural food and drink
do his natural body. The wonderful changes which we
are to-day witnessing on both the natural and spiritual
planes of life, are but a foretaste of more important changes
yet to come; for the prophecy which is at this day being
fulfilled is, "Behold, I make all things new."
JEHOVAH MANIFESTED IN JESUS CHRIST.
715
Again the Lord, through the revelations made in the
writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, has declared to the re-
ligious world that God is one-one in essence and in per-
son, in whom is a Divine Trinity called Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, correctly imaged in man by the will, under-
standing and activity thence; or more externally, by soul,
body, words and acts. The Lord is no more three persons
than man-who, we read, was created in the image of God
-is three persons.
"All things," says a great authority, "are of God, who
hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath
committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Him-
self, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor. v.
18, 19).
God is love-infinite love, and needs not to be reconciled
to man, for He yearns to save all men. "O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem
how oft would I have gathered thy chil-
dren together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, but ye would not!" (Matt. xxiii. 37.)
In the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy we read: “And
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." That this
one God is our Saviour, is abundantly taught in almost
innumerable passages in the Old Testament, as in the
following, in the forty-third chapter of Isaiah: "Thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He
that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not; for I have re-
deemed thee." "For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, thy Saviour." "Before me there was no
God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even
I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Saviour." In
the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah we read, "And all flesh
shall know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour and thy Re-
deemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." Also in the forty-fifth
chapter: "There is no God else beside me; a just God and
a Saviour, there is none beside me." In the forty-second
chapter of Isaiah He distinctly declares: "I am the
Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to
another."
-
716
THE DECLINE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, declares: "No manl
hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is
in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."
The Christian Church fell from the worship of the true
God, as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It fell when the love of spiritual dominion and of selfish
indulgence began to prevail over the love of serving others
and of denying selfish pleasures. The decline of the
Church made it necessary to have "a plan of salvation"
which did not require a life according to the command-
ments-“an easier way." This plan was totally incon-
sistent with the idea of one God in one Divine person.
Hence arose the doctrine that the Divine being consisted
of "Three Persons, each of whom was God."
This doctrine taught that the second of these persons
made satisfaction to the first, whereby those who would
accept this Divine sacrifice could be "saved in an instant
of time," without regard to the life which they had lived.
Hence we have almost daily the spectacle of men whose
hands are red with the blood of their fellows standing upon
the scaffold proclaiming—yes, even boasting—that they
have a free passport to heaven as soon as the executioner
has performed his duty. And at this day this passport is
apparently provided for them by the instruction of Christian
clergymen.
Man, to be benefitted by the truth, must receive it in free-
dom into a good and willing heart, and to do this, he must
shun evils and daily strive to live in accordance with the
truth.
A faith, or doctrines, however true, which are not ulti-
mated in the acts of our daily lives benefit no one.
"Know-
ledge is power," but it is a power to do evil as well as
good, as is manifest from the prostitution of correct phy-
siological knowledge to the destruction of the unborn, and
to the preventing the orderly and natural increase of the
population of our country.
When man, through his reasonings and traditions, has per.
verted or destroyed the true doctrines, and made the
Word of God of none effect, nothing but a revelation from
the Lord can restore them:
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO REVIVE AGAIN. 717
In the writings of Swedenborg the Lord has revealed to
men true doctrines and the internal sense of the Sacred
Scriptures.
As we look around us at the wonderful changes which
are taking place in every department of human knowledge,
and in the views and feelings of men, do we behold no signs
that we are living in a transitional age?—no intimations
that old things are passing away, and all things are being
made new?—no indications that we are living in the dawn-
ing light of a new dispensation from God to man? Ye
watchmen who stand upon the walls of Zion, what of the
hour? What are the signs of the times? Are all the im-
provements and changes which are taking place the result
of human wisdom and progress, or are they indications or
manifestations of a new dispensation of divine truth-per-
chance of the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of
heaven? What say ye? Is there no new light gently break-
ing in upon the minds of men, and with the most aston-
ishing rapidity-" as the lightning cometh out of the east
and shineth even unto the west?" and if there is, from
whence does it come?-from the Lord or from men? or
from spirits, as some suppose? Let us remember that the
Lord's coming was to be like a thief in the night, at an
unexpected hour.
It was apparently the opinion of Swedenborg that his
writings would be read by the clergy, who would teach
the doctrines therein contained to their congregations; and
thus the glorious truths for this new Era or crowning Church,
would be spread among the people; for, in speaking of the
descent of the New Church, or New Jerusalem, from God
out of Heaven, he says it can only take place "in propor-
tion as the falses of the former church are removed; for
what is new cannot gain admission where falses have
before been implanted, unless those falses are first rooted
out, and this must first take place among the clergy, and
by their means among the laity."
We are told by Swedenborg that the angels rejoiced
greatly that it had pleased the Lord to reveal a knowledge
of correspondences so deeply concealed during some thous-
ands of years; "and they said it was done in order that
718
THE THREE HEAVENS.
the Christian Church which is founded on the Word, and
is now at its end, may again revive and draw breath
through heaven from the Lord."-Conjugal Love, 532.
The hope of the world depends upon men's reception of
and obedience to the revealed laws of life.
Men must be taught the great truth that every affection,
be it good or evil, which they cherish; every thought which
they harbor, be it true or false; and every word which they
speak, and every act which they perform, stamps its im-
press on the soul for good or ill, and will tell on their
eternal destiny; and there is no avoiding it.
"In our
Father's House are many mansions," even if we reach
heaven. There is a vast difference between the worm
which crawls at our feet, and the noble animals-the horse
and ox-however good and useful the former may be, even
though we weave garments from the fibre which it produces.
The Lord, through Emanuel Swedenborg, has revealed
to the men of this age, the fact that there are three heavens
and three hells; and that each of the heavens is composed of
innumerable societies corresponding to the grand divisions.
and all the various organs and parts of the human body,
from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. We
are told that heaven is not a place into which a man can be
admitted as a matter of favor, but a state of life in the soul,
developed by the affections which a man in freedom has cul-
tivated, the thoughts which he has harbored, and the deeds
which he has done. The angels of the first heaven are all
actuated by the love of obeying the Divine commands.
The angels of the second heaven are all actuated by the
love of the neighbor and of truth in all they do; and they
love to obey God's commands, because the neighbor is
benefitted thereby. The angels of the third or highest
heaven are actuated by love to the Lord and love of good-
ness from Him, and experience the highest delight in doing
good to all.
This world is the world of probation. In the place
where the tree falleth, there shall it be. Whichever heaven
is opened in man while he lives here, to that heaven he
goes when he dies, and remains in it to eternity, steadily
progressing and perfecting. Every willing and obedient
TO WHOM THIS PAMPHLET WILL BE SENT.
719
man receives his penny; but there is a vast difference be-
tween the delight which the angel of the highest heaven
and the angel of the lowest heaven is capable of enjoy-
ing; yet each receives his full. All in heaven are gov-
erned by love and truth; all in hell are restrained by
selfish considerations, by fear—and punishments, if need
be. All punishments permitted in this world and the next
are remedial, and are intended to either elevate men and
spirits, or prevent them from sinking lower into evil or hell.
No evil spirit is allowed to sink lower in hell than the
plane of evil which he has opened up during his life here.
The Lord governs both heaven and hell, and gives to
every inhabitant thereof as much happiness as is consistent
with the life which he is willing to Tive. There are no
angels or devils who have not once been born on this or
some other earth.
It is the writer's intention to send this pamphlet to every
clergyman in the United States and Canada, whose name
he can obtain. First, in an "Address to the Clergy" of
twenty-four pages; second, in a work on "Skepticism and
Divine Revelation" of two hundred and sixty pages, the
writer has appealed to the Protestant clergy of the country.
in behalf of the revelations from the Lord contained in the
writings of Swedenborg, having sent over 50,000 copies of
each to clergymen; and now, for the third time, he appeals
to all Protestant clergymen (and also to the Catholic clergy,
now for the first time) to send for and obtain the writings
of Swedenborg, and to diligently read them. The hope of
our native American race depends upon the acknowledg-
ment of the Lord in His Divine Human; upon an intelli-
gent reverence for the Sacred Scriptures, and upon a life
in conformity with the Divine commandments.
The reader will find on the different pages of the cover
to this work, where and on what terms he can obtain Sweden-
borg's writings, and some introductory works which may
be especially helpful to him at the commencement of his
inquiry. And their extremely low price should convince him
that the people who offer these books at such prices, are
actuated by a truly missionary, and not at all by a mere mer-
cenary, spirit. Already nearly one-half of the officiating Pro-
720
RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES OF THE AGE.
testant clergymen in this country have obtained the "True
Christian Religion;" nearly as many have obtained "Heaven
and Hell," and about one-third have the "Apocalypse
Revealed." That these works are modifying the religious
views of the age more than all other influences, is beyond
question.
The advanced thought of to-day is progressing steadily
in one of two directions.
First: To a distinct recognition that the Lord in His
glorified or Divine Humanity, or God in Christ, is the only
Being whom men and angels should worship; that the
Sacred Scriptures are Divine, being special Revelations
from God to man, containing a deeper meaning than that
found in the bare cortex of the letter—yea, full of the spirit
and life of their Divine Author; and being written accord-
ing to the eternal law of correspondence between natural
and spiritual things-the same law according to which the
carth and all things thereon were created—they can never,
when correctly understood, conflict with natural science;
that regeneration is never instantaneous, but that it pro-
gresses from evening until morning during the six days of
labor, until the new man is developed or the "living soul"
created; that the first duty of man is to believe in the Lord
and stop doing evil, in obedience to the Divine commands;
that he must at first compel himself to do this; and if he
does this work faithfully he will come to love to do it:—that,
now is the time of the Lord's Second Coming in the clouds
of heaven-not of earth.
Second: To a denial of a personal God and all special
revelations from God, and to a denial that man can be
actuated by any higher motives than selfishness; and thence
to a descent into pure naturalism, and to the worship of
nature instead of nature's God.
Contending against the literal truth of the first chapters
of Genesis, and the apparent contradictions to be found in
the letter of the sacred Scriptures, is fighting a man of
straw. It does seem that at least some of the most intelli-
gent of our skeptics ought to be able to see that a tree of
life and a tree of knowledge of good and evil, and a tree of
lives, are not natural trees, and that a talking serpent is
SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION.
721
not a natural serpent, and that a garden eastward in Eden
is a mental and not a material garden; and also that, as
nature upon a superficial view is full of apparent contra-
dictions, a revelation from God, to be in harmony with His
works, must also contain, when superficially viewed, appa-
rent contradictions. As in nature we often have to look
above, within and deeper than the surface for the real truth,
so it must be and is with the Word of the Lord, or it is
manifest that it would not be His Word. It is the letter
that killeth, but the spirit that giveth life. Gentlemen, the
real contest is before you, if your aim is to overthrow the
Sacred Scriptures. The writer will simply intimate that as
they have our Creator for their author, you can no more
succeed than you can overthrow his works. When they
come to be seen and read in the light of the corre-
spondence existing between all natural and spiritual things,
they will be reverenced as they never yet have been. For a
correct interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis, read
the first volume of Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia;" and
read the last book of the Word as unfolded in his " Apo-
calypse Revealed," and perhaps your eyes will be opened
to see many things you have never dreamed of yet—at all
events you will see the necessity of changing your line
of attack.
It is perfectly clear that the skeptic has now to meet the
question of Divine Inspiration from a very different point
of view from any which he has heretofore anticipated; for
by the light of the correspondences revealed by the Lord
in the writings of Swedenborg, every willing and obedient
man and woman is able to see and know that the Sacred
Scriptures are Divine, and that they can never be over-
thrown. The Word which is from the Lord, can never
conflict with His works which have been created by His
Word; for the former corresponds to the latter. Therefore
fear not Christian brethren, but look to the Lord as He is
revealed in His Word, and strive to keep His sayings.
The Psalmist says: "Forever, O Jehovah, thy Word is
established in heaven" (cxix. 89); and in the fortieth
chapter of Isaiah we are told that this "Word of our God
shall stand forever." Jesus said, "Heaven and earth
722
THE LIFE GOVERNS THE DESTINY.
shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away " (Matt.
xxiv. 35). In Deuteronomy (viii. 3) we read that "man
doth not live by bread only, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live."
Again, from the Lord, through the writings of Sweden-
borg, the cry has gone forth into the wilderness state of
the church, saying, "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand." Will we who profess to be Christians hearken
to this cry, and put away these fearful evils of life which
we have here been considering-evils so fearful as to threaten
the destruction of our race—or will we persist in them?
We cannot ignore the existence of these evils; nor of
the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem; for the
light of this new day is too strong for that. It is useless to
attempt, as some have done, to cast out a flood of waters
(false representations), with the vain expectation of over-
whelming the Woman, or the Lord's New Church; for
although the Woman is yet in the wilderness, still she is
protected by the Lord, and her Child (the Doctrine of this
New Church) is in His special keeping until men are pre-
pared to receive it. And what is more, the earth or the
simple good in the world are beginning to perceive that
the misrepresentations and falses taught are not true, and
thus are swallowing up the flood of falses cast forth. It is
not, in this day of light and mental freedom, difficult for
those who are honestly trying to do right, and are not con-
firmed in false doctrines, to perceive that "Faith without
works is dead, being alone;" and that no priest has the
power to admit any one into or exclude him from Heaven,
and that “all religion has relation to life.”
Swedenborg says: "In the spiritual world to which every man goes after
death it is not the character of your faith into which inquiry is made, nor
of your doctrine, but of your life, whether it has been of this character or
that; for it is known that such as a man's life is, such is his faith-nay,
more, such is his doctrine; for life forms its doctrine and faith for itself."
(D. P. 101.) "For the good of life according to one's religion contains
within it the affection of knowing truths, which such persons also learn and
receive when they come into the other life."—(Arcana Cœlestia, 455.)
"Evils which belong to the will are what condemn a man and sink him
down to hell; and falsities only so far as they become conjoined with evils;
then one follows the other. This is proved by numerous instances of per-
sons who are in falsities, and yet are saved."—(Ibid. 845.)
JUDGMENT BY LIFE, NOT BY CREEDS.
723
"When love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor, that is, the
good of life, are regarded as the essentials, then, however many churches
there be, they make one. This also is the case in heaven, where there are
innumerable societies, all distinct from each other, but still constituting one
heaven, because all are principled in love to the Lord and charity toward
the neighbor."—(Swedenborg.)
Variety in unity is the truly divine order throughout the
created universe. Let the spirit of sectarianism depart
from the Lord's church on earth, and let brethren love one
another and be at peace.
The late Rev. John Clowes, Rector of St. John's Church,
Manchester, England, who for many years, without ever
being required to sever his connection with the Church of
England, openly and boldly taught the doctrines revealed
through Swedenborg, and translated many of his works
into English, says:
66
Nothing, therefore, can be plainer than that the New Jerusalem Dis-
pensation is to be universal, and to extend unto all people, nations and
languages on the face of the earth, to be a blessing unto such as are meet
to receive a blessing. Sects and sectarians, as such, can find no place in
this General Assembly of the ransomed of the Lord. All the little distinc-
tions of modes, forms and particular expressions of devotion and worship,
will be swallowed up and lost in the unlimited effusions of heavenly love,
charity and benevolence with which the hearts of every member of this
glorious New Church and Body of Jesus Christ will overflow one toward
another. Men will no longer judge one another as to the mere externals
of church communion, be they perfect or imperfect; for they will be taught
that whosoever acknowledges the incarnate Jehovah in heart and life, de-
parting from evil, and doing what is right and good according to the com-
mandments, he is a member of the New Jerusalem, a living stone in the
Lord's new Temple, and a part of that great family in heaven and earth
whose common Father and Head is Jesus Christ. Every one, therefore,
will call his neighbor Brother, in whom he observes this spirit of pure
charity; and he will ask no questions concerning the form of words which
compose his creed, but will be satisfied with observing in him the purity
and power of a heavenly life.”
،،
"The Gentiles," says Swedenborg, "cannot profane the holy things of
the church like Christians, because they are not acquainted with them.”
They are afraid of Christians on account of their lives." "Those who
have lived well, according to their religious principles, are instructed by
the angels, and easily receive the truths of faith, and acknowledge the
Lord," "for they have not formed for themselves any principles of falsity
opposed to the truths of faith, which would need to be first removed."
"Although Gentiles are not in genuine truths during their life in the
world, they receive them in the other life from a principle of love."
724
ALL LIFE AND ABILITY FROM THE LORD.
"The Church of the Lord exists with all in the universe who live in
good according to their religious principles, and acknowledge the Divine
Being; and they are accepted of the Lord and go to heaven."
Let no one for a moment suppose that the Lord, in the
Revelations made through Emanuel Swedenborg to the
men of this age, anywhere intimates that man can, either by
works of supererogation or by works of self-righteousness,
merit heaven, for nothing can be further from the truth. Man
is but a recipient form into which life can momentarily flow
from the Lord, and has no inherent life in himself. God
alone has life in himself. All that man has is given him
by the Lord, and even the ability to appropriate that which
is given, is from the Lord. This is true spiritually, and it is
true physically, for the physical corresponds to the spiritual.
Man cannot create a single ounce of the food or drink which
he uses, or an atom of the air which he breathes, or a
ray of the sunlight which is so essential. God has implanted
in him an irresistible desire for those life-giving materials
through which the Divine life can flow and build up the
body, and the latter starves to death without a constant
supply; and it is built up in an orderly and healthy form,
or imperfectly-developed or diseased form, according to the
character of the food, drink, air and light which he appro-
priates. Man has but to reject or put away poisonous food,
drink, bad air and imperfect light, to be able to see what is
good, and to experience an irresistible desire to partake
thereof; but while he is using poisons, it is very difficult for
him to realize that they are poisons.
It is precisely the same with man's spiritual organization.
He cannot create a single atom of good or a ray of truth;
he is simply a form receptive of life, or of goodness and
truth from the Lord.
All goods and truths which man receives flow into him
from the Lord through His Word, and through angels and
good spirits, momentarily. All evils and falsities which he
receives flow into him moment by moment from hell and
from evil spirits. Man appropriates the one class of prin-
ciples or the other, as he chooses, and thus forms for him-
self an organization according to the quality of the prin-
ciples adopted.
THE LAST JUDGMENT AND HUMAN FREEDOM. 725
If he shuns and ceases to do that which he sees to be evil,
it will enable him to see other evils; and as he puts them
away, an irresistible desire to do good and receive the
truth, flows in from the Lord; such influx constitutes the
life of heaven.
Man differs from animals by being endowed with reason
to guide him as to what is right or wrong, and with freedom
either to do, as of himself, what his conscience prompts
him to do, or to do wrong or evil. It was the abuse of his
faculties of reason and freedom, which introduced evil into
the world. Animals cannot sin or do evil, because they
have not these two faculties; and the Lord cannot deprive
man of his reason and freedom, and thus prevent his do-
ing evil if he chooses, without destroying his manhood and
reducing him to the level of the beasts which perish; this
He never does. But man, by the perversion of his God-
given faculties, and thus associating himself with hell in-
stead of heaven, may sink much lower than the brute.
Love of the Lord and the neighbor constitutes heaven; and
the supreme love of self, the world, and sensual gratifica-
tions constitute hell.
Swedenborg assures us that he witnessed in the Spiritual
World, in the year 1757, the Last Judgment; and he tells
us, as a result of his observations, that "Babylon the Great”
has fallen in that world-fallen to rise no more forever;
consequently that spiritual freedom has been restored to
man; and as a result, ecclesiastical dominion, rule and
authority can never be restored and exist as it did at the
time of the Last Judgment. Henceforth the command
is: "Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good."
Doctrines which will not stand the test when critically com-
pared with Divine Revelation, by conscientious thinking
men, must go they are going. What right has any church
or person to dictate to a man what he shall or shall not be-
lieve, so long as he believes in the Lord, His Word and
His Commandments, and is honestly striving to keep the
Lord's sayings?
“The understanding truly human," says Swedenborg, "when it is sep-
arate from what is material, sees truths as clearly as the eye sees objects.
It sees truths as it loves them; for as it loves them, it is enlightened. The
726
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG'S MISSION.
angels have wisdom in consequence of seeing truths; therefore, when it is
said to any angel that this or that is to be believed although it is not under
stood, the angel replies, Do you think that I am insane, or that you your-
self are a god whom I am bound to believe?"—(Apocalypse Explained, 1100.)
The commandments and the Lord's sayings are simple
and easily understood; for they are the laws of spiritual
health and life, and there is no mystery about them Our
churches may expel laymen and clergymen who believe
in them, and are striving to live and teach them to their
fellow men, instead of the doctrines and traditions of men;
and by retaining the doctrines of men in their creeds, they
may and will prevent honest and conscientious men from
joining their societies so long as they are required to sub-
scribe to creeds which do violence to their consciences; but
sooner or later our churches will find that such a course is
neither profitable nor right, for it compels conscientious,
intelligent men either to form new organizations, or to
unite with such existing organizations as make love to the
Lord and neighbor and a life of charity the essentials for
membership, and not the traditions and doctrines of men.
The right of private judgment in spiritual matters must and
will be respected in the church of the future-the New
Jerusalem, which is now descending from God out of heaven.
In regard to his mission Emanuel Swedenborg says:
"I have been called to a holy office by the Lord Himself.
I can
sacredly and solemnly declare that the Lord Himself has been seen of me,
and that He has sent me to do what I do, and for such purpose has
opened and enlightened the interior part of my soul, which is my spirit,
so that I can see what is in the spiritual world and those that are therein;
and this privilege has now been continued to me for twenty-two years.
But in the present state of infidelity, can the most solemn oath make such
a thing credible or to be believed? Yet such as have received true Chris-
tian light and understanding will be convinced of the truths contained in
my writings, which are particularly evident in the book of Revelations Re-
vealed.' Who, indeed, has hitherto known anything of importance of
the spiritual sense of the Word of God, of the spiritual world, or of heaven
and hell; the nature of the life of man, and the state of souls after the
decease of the body? Is it to be supposed that these, and other things
of like consequence, are to be eternally hidden from Christians?”
Again, in the "True Christian Religion," at a later date,
toward the close of his life in this world, he says:
I foresee that many who read the relations after the chapters, will be-
lieve that they are inventions of the imagination; but I assert in truth
WHY SWEDENBORG WAS CHOSEN.
727
that they are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard; not seen and
heard in any state of mind buried in sleep, but in a state of full wakeful-
ness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to send
me to teach those things which will be of His New Church, which is meant
by the New Jerusalem in the Revelations; for which end He has opened
the interiors of my mind or spirit, by which it has been given me to be in
the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world
with men, and this now for twenty-seven years.'
""
In a letter to the king of Sweden, with characteristic
simplicity and boldness, he said:
"When my writings are read with attention and cool reflection (in
which many things are to be met with hitherto unknown) it is easy
enough to conclude that I could not come to such knowledge but by a real
vision, and converse with those who are in the spiritual world. I am
ready to testify with the most solemn oath that can be offered in this mat-
ter, that I have said nothing but essential and real truth, without any ad-
mixture of deception. This knowledge is given to me by our Saviour, not
for any particular merit of mine, but for the great concern of all Christians'
salvation."
When asked why a philosopher was chosen to this office
he replied:
"To the end that the spiritual knowledge which is revealed at this day
might be reasonably learned and naturally understood; because spiritual
truths answer unto natural ones, inasmuch as these originate and flow from
them, and serve as a foundation for the former."
To the Swedish clergyman who visited him a short time
before his death, and who urged him to recant what he
had written, if it was not true, he replied with great zeal
and emphasis:
"As true as you see me before you, so true is everything that I have
written, and I could have said more had I been permitted. When you
come into eternity you will see all things as I have stated and described
them, and we shall have much to discourse about with each other."
Here, then, we have in this illustrious Seer the unpar-
alleled instance of a man, not in the enthusiasm of youth,
but at the mature age of fifty-six years, standing among
the first in the philosophical world, with reputation unsul
lied, high in office in his native country, with proffered
promotion, giving up all, and proclaiming to the world that
he was called by the Lord to the important office of reveal-
ing new truths of vast moment to his fellow-men-even the
truths of a new dispensation, or of the second coming of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
That the prevailing spirit of sectarianism must fade and
728 CHARITY ESSENTIAL IN CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS.
vanish as the light of this new age dawns upon the "men-
tal hill-tops" of the Christian Church, is manifest. We find
in Swedenborg, many statements like the following:
"Doctrines alone do not serve to distinguish Churches in the sight of
the Lord, but a life according to doctrines, all of which, if true, regard
charity as fundamental. For, what is the end and purpose of doctrines,
but to teach how a man should live? The several Churches in the Chris-
tian world are distinguished by their doctrines, and the members of these
Churches have therefore taken the names of Roman Catholics, Lutherans,
Calvinists, or Reformed and Evangelical Protestants, with many others.
This distinction of names arises solely from doctrines, and would never
have existed if the members of the Church had made love to the Lord and
charity toward the neighbor the principal points of faith. Doctrines would
then have been varieties of opinion concerning the mysteries of faith,
which true Christians would leave to every one to receive according to his
conscience, while the language of their hearts would be, he is a true Chris-
tian, who lives as a Christian, that is, as the Lord teaches. Then one
Church would be formed out of all these diverse ones, and all disagree-
ments arising from mere doctrines would vanish; yea, all the animosities
of one against the other would be speedily dissipated, and the Lord's
kingdom would be established on earth."-Arcana Calestia.
The day has surely dawned during the meridian splendors
of which all true Christians will see eye to eye; "for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea." "And it shall come to pass in that
day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
to recover the remnant of His people." This day is that
Scripture being fulfilled in our midst.
"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they
may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in
through the gates into the city." The call is to all men.
"And whosoever will, let him take of the Water of Life
freely." The Water of Life signifies divine truths from the
Lord through the Word. Through the divine mercy of
the Lord the Word (or the Sacred Scriptures) is now
opened. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come; and
let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst,
Come; and whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life
freely." The Lord is no respecter of persons.
ઃઃ
"The poor do not come into heaven on account of their poverty, but on
account of their life. The life of every one follows him, whether he be rich
or poor. There is no peculiar mercy for one more than for the other; he
is received who has lived well, and he is rejected who has lived ill.".
Heaven and Hell, No. 364.)
INDEX.
Ꭺ
Academy, The, of the New Church
and the Wine and Whiskey ques-
tion, 176–212. Their "insolent and
unfair" review of " Lay lecturing
and Rebaptism," 176, 181. Recom-
mend a judicious selection of
whiskey, 182, 367. Charge of mis-
representation refuted, 183. Charge
of distorting the teaching of the
New Church, answered, 188. Mis-
statement of the question at issue,
191. Modesty of, 225. Perilous
teaching of, 194–199. "Misleading
turns and twists" of, 417. Error
on Passover wine, 329 et seq., 421.
Mistakes concerning Swedenborg's
use of vinum, 418, 433. Gross errors
concerning the good signification
of must, 322–328, 436. Strange as-
sumption that blood of the grape
is fermented wine, 447. Responsi-
bility as teachers of youth, 198.
Their preconceived ideas the cause
of their mistakes on the Wine
Question, 207 363. Contrast between
the Word and "The Academy" on
exhilaration from wine, 194. Mar-
vellous assumptions that alcohol
has a good correspondence, and
that alcoholic beverages are not
poisonous, 351-378. Spirit of their
review on "The Wine Question,'
281-291. Unwarranted assumption
that all wine is fermented, 291-336.
Overbearing temper and language
of, 298, Their unfairness pointed
out, 305. Ignore the essential point
of the argument, 305. Needlessly
offensive language of, 309–311.
issue with their own teaching, 314-
317. Wonderful silence of, 316.
Their knowledge of dictionaries,
319, and ignorance of the Word and
Writings, 320. Arrogance of, 329-
331. Books which would enlighten
the, 333. Ignore everything that
conflicts with the one-wine theory,
336. Their "carelessness of truth"
and poverty of logic, 339. Their
misrepresentation of E. S.
whiskey, 355, 366. Their "Review"
does not review, 379 et seq.
Egyptian wine making, 381-387
Their mistakes concerning boiled
wines corrected, 391. Their as-
At
on
On
sumption that sweet or sugar has a
lower correspondence than spiritu-
ous liquors, 398-401. Garbling of,
411. Error on sugar, 412.
Adams' "
Roman Antiquities," 122.
Alcohol, a poison, 16, 75, 80, 81, 103,
185, 187, 220, 373, 408, 473, 517, 645,
704. Always the result of decom-
position, 18. Has no food value,
22, 41, 42, 88, 187, 200, 523. Should
not be self-prescribed as a medi-
cine, 42. Originates from hell, 47,
160, 642. Affects the body exactly
as falses do the soul, 47. Originates
from the destruction of sugar, 18,
34, 47, 75, 76. Develops an unnatural
appetite for itself, 16, 17, 75, 87, 143,
361. Seductive nature of, 76, 83,
143. Affords a plane for the influx
of spirits that are spiritually drunk,
85. Its action on the mind, 89, 90.
Is in the tissues of the body only as
an excretion, 185. May be useful
as a medicine, 187. Taste for A.
an acquired one, 202. Is unreliable
as a remedy, 369-373. Hereditary
influence of, 118, 373-376, 706. Com-
pared to faith alone in its effects,
351, 405, 525, 576, 600. Destroys
freedom and sanity, 524. Corre-
sponds to the falsification of the
Word from evil, 69. Correspond-
ence of, 606. Compared as to its
purity with wisdom purified, 606.
Corresponds with evils and falses
in its effects on body and mind, 47.
Alcoholic Poisoning, its effects on dif-
ferent organs, 18, 22, 42, 80, 87-90,
144, 199-202, 224, 370–377, 456, 704, 707.
Allen, Dr. Nathan, 373.
Alsop, Mr., 126.
Analysis of unfermented wine, 36; of
fermented wine, 37.
Anthon, Chas., LL. D., 129.
Aquinas, Thomas, 332.
Aristotle, 12, 36, 129, 182, 374, 389.
Athenæus, 332, 388.
B
Bacchus, squeezing grapes into a cup,
39, 241.
Baccius, Andreas, 117.
Bacon, Lord, 332.
Barnes, Rev. Albert, 229.
Basil, Bishop of Cappadocia, 429.
729
730
INDEX.
Beard, Dr, 331.
Beecher, Rev. Charles, 425.
Beer-drinking, effects of, 46, 52, 674,
703.
Beginners' Society, 90.
Bible, The, two kinds of wine in, 11,33,
40,92-98,99-107,113-115,166-169,210,610.
Tirosh has almost always a good
signification in, 166 et seq., 445. Ex-
amples of total abstinence in, 24.
Supports the view of alcohol as a
poison, 103. Yayin in, 344-350. Its
spiritual sense opened by the Writ-
ings, 271, 712, 720. New wine in, 113-
115.
Bible Commentary, 117, 118, 241, 293,
294, 296, 297, 321, 327, 328, 333, 344,
406, 442, 449, 467, 509.
Bible Truth agrees with natural truth,
721.
Bible Wines and Temperance, opinion
of Prof. Geo. Bush on, 14, 40, 235.
335. Letter from Benj. Kingsbury
on, 23-25. List of useful books on,
14.
Blood of Grapes signifies spiritual
celestial good, 99, 161 et seq., 448,
509. Needs no purification, 161, 172,
534.
Blood, pure wine has a composition
and signification similar to, 38, 189,
239, 450, 510.
Bodily exercise necessary to healthy
development, 683-685.
Bottles, signification of, 108. Why
new wine required new, 34, 104-108.
Bowring, Dr., 124.
of
Bread, correspondence of leavened,
607. Superior healthfulness
bread made of flour ground from
entire grain, 73. Baking drives fer-
ment out of, 39. Fermented bread
and fermented wine in the Lord's
Supper, 542.
Brown, Wm. G., 124.
Buckingham, Mr., 126.
Bush, Prof. Geo., 14, 40, 235, 335.
C
Cana, miracle at the wedding feast
at, 19, 24, 35, 36, 210, 226, 419, 466-475.
Carpenter, Dr. Wm. B., 144, 374, 704.
Cato, 128, 485.
Chambers, E., 333.
Chandler, Prof. Chas. F., 478.
Chaptel, Count, 120.
Child-bearing, aversion of American
women to, 687-693. Competition
with man unfits women for, 697.
Tight-lacing and indolent habits
prevent the development necessary
for, 683-687.
Clark, Dr. Adam, 134, 241, 279, 422.
Clement of Alexandria, 80, 406, 426, 707.
Columella, 12, 122, 128, 132, 386, 485.
Communion Wine, preparation and
preservation of, 219–246. How shall
we prepare our, 240-246. Unfer-
mented must has the highest signi-
ficance as, 501. A letter on the prò.
priety of unfermented wine as a,
667. "The Morning Light" con-
cerning, 507, 542. A plea for free-
dom of choice of, 589, 673.
Comparison of process of regener-
ation with fermentation, 43, 44, 170,
204-208, 305, 458. Of spiritual puri-
fication with purification of natural
spirits, 203 et seq. Of alcohol to
faith alone in its effects, 351, 405,
525, 576, 600. And in its purity to
wisdom purified, 606. Falses from
evil to intoxicating drinks, 95-97,
143, 336-338, 574. Falses not from
evil to waters not pure, 160. Distil-
lation and digestion, 355.
Cook, Rev. Joseph, 151, 223, 224, 242,
245, 529.
Cooper, Sir Astley, 81.
Correspondence of effects of natural
and spiritual perversions, 70 et seq.
Of alcohol with evils and falses, in
its effects on mind and body, 20, 47.
Of unfermented wine is always
good, 32, 51. Of leavened wine, 33.
Of natural and spiritual drunken-
ness, 69, 316, 409, 519, 540, 575, 643. Of
sweet and sugar, 398–401. Of food
and poisons, natural and spiritual,
15.
Cuyler, Rev. Theo. L., 112.
Cyrus, anecdotes of, 78.
D
Davis, Hon. Noah, 28-31.
Debsh, wine thickened by boiling,
116, 123, 127, 328, 392, 563.
Dioscorides, 332.
Diseases have a correspondence with
the spiritual world, 631, 708.
Dispensatory, U. S., 80, 456.
Distillation, art of, unknown till the
ninth century, 34. Compared to
digestion, 356 et seq.
Doctrines alone will not save, 659, 708,
716.
Doctrines, False, of the consummated
church, 716.
Domestic work considered degrading
by American women, 697.
Drinks which cause delirium and in-
sanity are from hell, 97.
Drinks, strong, two kinds in the
Word, 110.
Drunkard, natural, no one who
avoids alcohol can become a, 84.
Drunkenness, natural and spiritual
correspond, 69, 316, 409, 519, 540, 575,
643. Imbibing unperverted spiri-
tual truths never causes spiritual,
31 et seq., 192-194, 316. E. Sweden-
borg on, 48. Signifies truths falsi-
fied, 50. Danger of speaking lightly
of, 26. Terrible results to the inno-
cent of, 26-28. Dangerous teaching
of "The Morning Light" concern-
ing natural, 83. Of Noah, 343, 576,
702. All of it mentioned in the
ÍNDEX.
731
Bible was caused by fermented
drinks, 34, 137, 397. Prevails greatly
in wine-growing and beer-drinking
countries, 138-140, 395, 576, 674.
Duff, Dr., 125,
Duffield, Rev. Dr., 125, 229.
Dunn, Rev. James B., 11, 23.
E
Encyclopædia Britannica, 424.
Encyclopedia of Chemistry, 226, 427.
Evil Uses are such as hurt, and origi-
nate with hell, 10, 64, 65, 160.
Evil always overcomes and destroys
the good in fermentation, 140.
Evils and falses are only seen as we
endeavor to put them away, 21.
Putting away ovils the only first
step toward reform, 67, 709 ct seq.
Evils of Living, take away freedom
of judging, 208, 237, 308, 354, 595. De-
mand more attention from New
Church teachers, 74. And from
the periodicals. 681. The New
Church must put away, 256 et seq.
Wide-spread suffering and prema-
ture death caused by, 258 et seq.,
680, 695.
F
Falses, from evil may be compared to
such wines and strong drinks as
cause drunkenness, 95-97, 146, 336-
338, 574. Not from evil may be com-
pared to waters not pure, 160.
Falsities, evil results of teaching, 46.
Farrar, Canon, 663, 664.
Ferment, destroys everything in wine
having a good correspondence, 36,
37, 149, 702. Not a fruit or product
of the vine, 416.
Ferment, Germs of, arc always from
without the grape, 480, 536, 548, 642.
Are harmless, 670.
Fermentation, process of regeneration
compared to, 43, 44, 170, 204-208,
305, 458. Analogy between diges-
tion and, 535. Natural and spirit-
ual, 401-404. Cause and conditions
of, 119, 476. Climate of Palestine
not favorable for, 13, 119. Chemi-
cal changes caused in wine by, 36.
Grape skins and, 479. Laws of, and
methods of preventing, 119-135.
Always the beginning of decay,
159, 472. Letter from W. J. Parsons
on, 547.
First-fruits of the harvest, significa
tion of the, 446.
Flour or Meal, signification of, 404,
624. Action of leaven upon, 163-
165, 402, 624 et seq.
Flour, fine, separation of gluten and
phosphates of wheat from, com-
pared to separation of faith from
charity, 71-73.
Foticide, its enormity and preval-
ence, 688, 692 et seq. Responsibility
of physicians for, 693.
Food, natural and spiritual corres-
pond, 15. And poisons, how we shall
distinguish them? 16. To be pre-
pared for health of body rather
than taste, 63, 651. Deficiencies of
fine white flour as, 72, 73, 537.
Science of correspondences con- ·
cerning poisons and healthy, 15.
Foote, Dr. Geo. F., 494, 549.
Fowler, Rev. Dr. C. H., 120, 229, 245,
273, 389.
Freedom, to see evils we must be in,
307. The writer's personal, 308.
Fruit of the Vine, fermented wine is
in no sense the, 174.
G
Gleukos, or Must, 323, 324.
Grape-juice contains all things neces-
sary for nourishing the body, 38, 71,
148, 458, 509. Called wine while un-
fermented, 331-333. May be kept
Has no
years unfermented, 106.
impurities till polluted by ferment,
40, 147, 214 et seq., 620, 625. Action
of leaven on, 163-165, 626. Is called
wine in the Word and Writings, 578.
Preserved by immersion, 127. A
new but erroneous view of leaven
in, 213-217. As squeezed from
the grape and in the press is called
wine, 293 et seq.,296. Freshly pressed
is suitable for communion wine,
243.
Grape-cure, in Switzerland, 413, 561.
Grapes, two kinds of, 99. Conse-
crated and used in the Lord's Sup-
per at Braga, 648. Need no purifi-
cation, 158.
Guthrie, Dr. Thomas, 212.
Guthrie, Rev. Win., 347, 424.
H
Hale, Sir Matthew, 29.
Heavens, revelations concerning the,
718.
Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English
words for wine in the Word and in
the Writings, 291 et seq.
Hebrew and Greek words translated
wine, 296.
Henry, Matthew, 297.
Hieratic Papyri, 77.
Hippocrates, 332.
Holcombe, Dr., 695.
Holland, Dr., 140.
Holmes, Rev. H., 123.
Homer, 12.
Homes, Rev. Henry, 392.
Hopkins, Canon, 104-108.
Horace, 12
How the Lord has need of men's help,
179 et seq.
Howe, Dr. G. S., 374.
Hurtful things are all from hell, 45, 46.
732
INDEX.
I
Institutes of Menu, 78, 388.
Intemperance, the chief source of
crime, 28-31, 650.
Intoxicating Drinks, philosophy of the
New Church bearing upon the sub-
ject of, 63-74, 346. Fatal effects of,
66. New-Church periodicals justi-
fying the use of, 81. Mortality
caused by, 247. No justification
for their use by healthy persons,
52. Duty of the New Church re-
garding, 53 et seq., 274-282. Effects
of. 33. Scripture prohibition of, 98.
Isaacs, A. C, 423.
Isaacs, Rabbi, S. M., 230, 474.
Jacobus, Dr., 125.
J
Jehovah manifested in Jesus Christ,
715.
Jerome, St., 225.
Joachimsen, Hon. J. P., 230.
Johnson, Rev. Dr. Herrick, 13, 113, 129,
237, 347.
K
Kelly, Lord Chief Baron, 29.
Kerr, Dr. Norman, 127, 134, 240, 325,
392, 394, 424, 432, 473.
Kingsbury, Benj., 23–25.
L
Layman, what is an unauthorized,
532.
Laws, natural, all violations of these
are sins, 710.
Last Judgment and human reason, 725.
Leaven, always signifies what is cor-
rupt and defiled, 53. Destroys
everything in wine necessary to
nourish the body, 36, 76, 220, 270,
702. Which signifies the evil and
false overcomes and destroys pure
wine, 101, 163, 164, 215, 220, 452, 459,
543. Changes wrought in must by,
102, 626. Its action on grape juice
and flour or meal, 164-165, 626.
Defiles good and truth, 408. Not
allowed at Jewish religious festi
vals, 268-270, 418-421. Driven out
of bread in baking, 39. A new but
erroneous view of leaven presented
and examined, 213–217. Specious
argument of the "Magazine" in favor
of, 152-156. In three measures of
meal, 45, 156, 644. Signification of,
in food and drink, 660.
Leaven Germs, unclean excretions of,
409, 499, 535, 544, 549.
Lee, Dr. F. R., 94, 101, 124-126, 210,
241.
Lees, of a good and a bad significa-
tion, 206, 457.
Lewis, Prof. Tayler, 196, 325, 432.
Liebig, Prof., 430, 443.
Life Insurance Companies, statistics
and experience with moderate
drinkers and total abstainers, 247,
529, 603, 703.
Life, not doctrine, fits for heaven, 722.
Lord, The, light and sign of the com-
ing of, 717. Second coming of, 713.
Divine Humanity of, 720. All good
and truth in man are from, 724.
Lord's Supper, The, leavened wine
not suitable for, 19, 174, 212, 214,
221, 223, 269, 271, 410, 506, 510, 546, 699.
Unleavened wine used at the insti-
tution of, 24, 190, 225, 268-270, 418,
586. Propriety of using pure unfer-
mented wine at, 50, 51, 100, 221, 239,
281, 501, 579. Unfermented wine
used by the early church in, 426,
648. Unfermented wine enjoined
in, 441. Unfermented wine used by
the Coptic church in, 563. Unleav-
ened wine used by Eastern
churches in, 508,
Lunier, Dr., 374.
M
Mahometanism, the mission of, 567.
Marriage, necessity of true love in,
698.
Marriages, social extravagance dis-
courages young men from early,
693. Licentiousness and disease
fostered by late, 694.
Medes, temperate habits of the, 78.
Medical Testimony, concerning alco-
holic drinks, 22, 41, 80, 87-90, 144,
199-202, 224, 370-377, 456, 704-707.
Concerning fermented wines, 456.
Methodist Episcopal Conference on in-
temperance, 260.
Methodist Episcopal Church, activity
in reform movements of the, 264 et
seq.
Mill, John Stuart, 295.
Miller, Philip, 129.
Minend, 478.
Mission and office of Emanuel Sweden-
borg, 726.
Moderate drinking, especially danger-
ous in this age, 52. Great danger
of, 83, 151, 362, 599, 706.
Moderate drinkers and life insurance
statistics, 247, 529, 603, 703.
Moderation fallacy exposed, 87, 706.
Monroe, Dr. Henry, 120.
Montalembert, 138.
"Morning Light, The," its fallacy re-
specting the nature of alcoholic
liquors, 82. Its dangerous teaching
regarding natural drunkenness, 83.
Remonstrance of T. Platt against
its teaching, 85, 86.

(.
· Morning Light, The" (English), and
The Wine Question," 541-547. Its
serious error concerning ferment in
communion bread and wine, 542-
547. On Lay lecturing and Rebap-
tism, 181.
INDEX.
733
Must, signifies the same as wine, 102,
160, 169, 303, 435, 442, 444, 501-506,
545, 578. Two kinds of, 99–102, 301,
322. Changes wrought by leaven
in, 102, 163, 220. When fermenting
infests the stomach, 102, 414, 453.
Gross errors of the "Academy
to the signification of unferment-
ing, 436. Misrepresentations of the
"New Church Life" regarding, 584.
Fermentations in meal and, 401.
Myers, Rabbi E. M., 425.
N
Neuman, Caspar, 124.
as
New Church, The, its philosophy bear-
ing upon the subject of intoxicating
drinks, 45, 63-74, 346. Its periodi-
cals justifying the use of wine and
whiskey, 81. Periodicals and their
position on "The Wine Question,
569-572. Writers ignoring incon-
trovertible testimony, 120. The
author's attitude toward the peri-
odicals of, 514. Its duty regarding
intoxicating drinks, 53 et seq., 211,
274-282, 377. Its duty regarding re-
forms pertaining to life, 76, 614.
Must purge itself from evils of liv-
ing, 256 et seq. A harvest field
ready for, 261. Laymen will re-
pudiate the Academy's" false
doctrines, 511. Press should point
out the evils and dangers of intoxi-
cating drinks, 275-278. Pulpits
should expose and denounce the
evils of living, 263. Laity must help
the clergy to a right position, 278-
280. Efforts of the author to spread
a knowledge of the truths of, 178,
719. Final appeal to our brethren
of, 255-282, 662. Universality of, 723.
New Church (English), general con-
ference on temperance, 653. Pro-
gress of total abstinence in the,
255.
CC
(C
absti-
New Church Life, The," its charge
of "desecration of the Lord's Sup-
per" examined, 573-584. Its misrep-
resentation of the character of
must, 584. Its assumption that
there is no wine but fermented
wine, 587. Its argument founded
on punch and prohibition," 592 et
seq. Fallacies on "use and abuse,"
598. Its lament over the "prohib-
ition craze " and
and "total
nence," 601. Its unjust aspersions
upon abstainers, 604. Fallacy in
favor of the healthfulness of fer-
mented wine exposed, 517-519.
Fallacy that fermented wine is not
the cause of drunkenness, 519-522.
Its delusion that alcohol will sus-
tain life, 523. Its misinterpretation
of Swedenborg, 525. Its assertion
that leaven is inborn in the grape,
answered, 536,
"New Jerusalem Magazine, The,"
moderate drinking fallacy of, 49.
On "The Wine Question," 152-175.
Its specious argument in favor of
leaven, 152-156. Fundamental error
of, 158. Its theory that leaven pur-
ifies, 162. Its mistakes on Tirosh,
166-169. Fayin, tïrcsh and shechar, in
the Bible, in Swedenborg and in,
168 et seq. And the comparisons of
Swedenborg, 170-173. Results of
teachings of, 175. And "The Wine
Question," 539-541.
"
New Jerusalem Messenger, The," its
fallacious argument in favor of fer-
mented wines considered, 142–151.
Its unfair course on the wine ques-
tion, 144-147, 615. Letters between
the writer and the editor of, 615-623.
Its assumption that grape-juice is
impure till fermented, 620-624. Its
dangerous errors on evil uses and
diseases, 627-641. Its ungenerous
sneers at so-called modern reforms,
649-653. Communication from
Sufferer" to, 25-27. Powerful
preaching and, 74.
Nineteenth Century, 73.
Noah's drunkenness, 343, 576, 702.
Noah planting the vine, 669.
A
Nott, Dr. E., 12, 144, 210, 222, 241, 432.
0
Oinos and Yayin are generic words
for fermented and unfermented
wines, 467.
Olearus, Adam, 127.
P
Parents, example and influence of,
46, 47.
Parker, Dr. Willard, 22, 224.
Parkinson, 332.
Parsons, Wm. J., 642–647.
Passover, Jewish, unleavened wine
always used at the, 5, 227-234.
Leaven not allowed at the, 418-421.
Unfermented wine used by modern
Jews at the, 25, 423, 583.
Pasteur, 478, 480.
Patton, D.D., Rev. Wm., 15, 36, 115–117,
122, 126, 128, 335, 393, 431, 475.
Payen, 478.
Personal experience of the writer,
261, 266-268.
Perversions, effects of natural and
spiritual correspond, 70 et seq.
Philo, 196.
Philosophy of the New Church bear-
ing on intoxicating drinks, 63-74,
346.
Pitman, LL.D., Robt. C., 137, 141.
Platt, T., 85.
Pliny, 12, 13, 79, 122, 387, 485, 493.
Plutarch, 12, 13, 130, 493.
Poisons, cannot be used temperately
by a healthy person, 10.- (Alcohol,
tobacco, opium), create an un-
734
INDEX.
natural appetite for themselves,
16-18. Seductive nature of, 20.
Polybius, 390.
Porphyry, 77.
Potter, Archbishop, 35, 114, 121, 245.
Potter, J. S., 480.
Prohibition, not an interference with
private rights, 248, 251. Freedom
and, 594. Expediency and advan-
tage of, 247-254. In Kansas, 251-254.
E. Swedenborg on, 363, 368.
Pseudo Justin, 80.
Punch in spiritual London, 353, 368,
456, 592.
Puritan Stock in Massachusetts, The,
the deterioration of, 677. Statistics
showing its low rate of prolific-
ness as compared with the foreign-
born population, 678,679, 696. Causes
of the lack of fecundity in, 679-699.
Rich, Dr., 223.
R
Richardson, Dr. Benj., 42, 87, 119, 238,
372, 375, 706.
Ritchie, Rev. Wm., 110, 120.
Robertson, W., 332.
S
Sampson, D.D., Rev. G. W., 77, 103,
116, 123, 131, 137, 174, 196, 225, 226,
232, 234, 238, 250, 278, 383, 387, 426,
429. His competency as authority
on ancient wines, 383.
Schuck, Albert P., 496-498.
Sectarianism must give place to
charity, 728.
Shechar in the Bible, 110, 326-328.
Smith's "Greek and Roman Antiqui-
ties," 128, 485.
Smith, D.D., Rev. Eli, 125.
Sutton, H. S., 507.
Swedenborg, Emanuel, mission and
office of, 726. Partaking of fer-
mented wine. 527.
Swedenborg, Emanuel, subjects of
quotations from:
Alcohol compared to justification
by faith, 351, 405, 576, 606.
Allowed evils destroy man's free-
dom, 208, 308, 354.
Blood of the grape signifies spiritual
celestial good, 100, 219, 324, 448.
Bottles, signification of, 108.
Compares the process of regener-
ation with fermentation, 43, 50,
170, 173, 204.
Compares spiritual purification
with the purification of natural
spirits, 203.
Compares falses to such wine and
strong drinks as produce drunk-
enness, 95-97, 146, 575.
Distillation and digestion, 355.
Diseases have a correspondence
with the spiritual world, 631, 708.
Drunkenness an enormous sin, 48.
Drunkenness, natural, corresponds
to spiritual, 69, 316, 409, 575.
Drunkenness, spiritual, is never
caused by imbibing spiritual
truths, 192, 316, 576.
Drunkenness, Noah's, 343, 576, 702.
Drunkenness signifies truths falsi-
fied, 50.
Evil uses are such things as burt
and kill men, and are from hell,
64 et seq., 627.
Evils of living take away freedom,
208.
Fermentations, spiritual and na-
tural, 401, 402.
First fruits, signification of, 446.
Flour or meal, signification of, 404,
624, 660.
Food should be prepared by man
chiefly with reference to use and
the health of the body, 63, 651.
Fruit of the vine at the institution
of the Lord's Supper, 585.
Grapes, double signification of, 99.
Good flows in from the Lord when
man desists from evils, 708.
Human understanding, the use of,
725.
Insanity from truths falsified, 91.
Life, more than doctrine, fits man
for heaven, 722, 728.
Leaven, the false principle, defiles
good and truth, 53, 101, 408, 409,
575, 660.
Leaven, not at the institution of
the Lord's Supper, 268, 270, 586.
Leaven, signification of, in food and
drink, 660.
Lees, signification of, 206.
Mission and office of E. Sweden-
borg, 726.
Must, unfermented, has the highest
signification of wine, 169, 303, 437,
444, 501, 545, 701.
Strong drink, signification of, 111.
Sweet corresponds to what is
pleasant and delightful in the
spiritual world, 399-401.
Vinegar signifies truths mixed with
falses, 217.
Whiskey a pernicious drink, 40,
183, 225, 366, 387, 654.
Wine in the cluster denotes truth
from good, 99, 219, 579.
Wine, good signification of, 93.
Wine, evil signification of, 95.
Wine, new, signifies good and truth,
51, 93, 100, 189, 219, 303, 342, 434,
501.
Wine, new, changes its signification
when leavened, 102.
Wine, new, solidified, 454, 594.
Sweet or Sugar, correspondence of,
398. "Academy's" error on, 412.
T
Temptation, removal of, a great help
to right living, 655, 672.
Temperance, action of Methodist and
Presbyterian Churches on, 652.
General conference of the New
Church (England) on, 653.
INDEX.
735
Thayer, Rev. Wm. M., 103, 123, 130,
131, 230, 232, 237, 238, 329, 338, 389, 424,
431.
Thermopolium, engraving of an an-
cient, 118.
Thompson, Dr., 124.
Thought, present divergence of reli-
gious, 720.
Tight-lacing, injurious effects of, 49,
259, 682. Causes deformity of
figure and displacement of internal
organs, 690-692, 696. Inability to
bear and nurse children results
from, 685-687.
Tirosh, i.e., must, is translated wine,
291-296, 431, 579. Has almost invari-
ably a good signification in the
Word, 445. Has a very high signifi-
cation in the Writings, 505, 701.
Error of the "Magazine
concern-
ing, 166-169.
Tobacco, opium and intoxicating
drinks must be put away, 630, 689,
703.
Total Abstinence, the only absolutely
safe course, 50, 85, 280. Examples in
the Bible of, 23, 24. Appeal of Pliny
for, 79. Christian churches declar-
ing in favor of, 234, 652. Its progress
in the New Church, England, 255.
Total Abstainers and life insurance
statistics, 247, 529, 603, 703.
Treatt, Captain, 125.
Truths falsified cause insanity, 91.
U
“Unauthorized Layman," what is an,
532.
Ure, Dr., 132, 442.
Uses, philosophy of the New Church
concerning good and evil, 63–74,
160-165, 627.
-3
Uses, Evil, are such as hurt and kill
men, and originate from hell, 10, 64,
65, 160, 167, 630. Can never be
rightly used in health, 65, 630, 634,
672. May have a use as medicines,
68, 638. Afford a plane for the influx
of evil spirits, 636. Dangerous
error concerning diseases and, 627,
633.
Their
Uses, Good, are all things created by
the Lord for nourishing the body,
64. Are not destroyed or changed
by excess or abuse, 65, 67, 167. Do
not create an unnatural appetite,
and are not seductive, 67.
perversion corresponds to the per-
version of goodness and truth, 70.
Their abuse does not result like the
use of poisons, 412. Always have a
good correspondence, 67. Become
evil when contaminated by evil
uses, 67 et seq.
V
Van Buren, Rev. J. M. 194.
Varro, 13.
Vinegar, signification and uses of,
217 et seq.
Virgil, 12, 122, 386.
Volney, 124.
W
Wayland, Prof., 234.
Wells, Rev. A. S., 227.
Wheat, good, needs no purification,
158. Contains all substances neces-
sary to nourish the body, 73.
Whiskey. Emanuel Swedenborg on
the effects of this pernicious drink
on the Swedish people, 40, 183, 225,
366, 387, 654. The "Academy
editors recommend a judicious
selection of, 182, 367. A good use
for, 211.
Wilkinson, Sir Gardener, and Dr.
Sampson on Egyptian wine-making,
131-133, 381-387.
Wine, a generic word, including fer-
mented and unfermented grape
juice, 107, 114, 134, 168, 174, 291, 295,
844, 432, 445, 467, 610. Two kinds in
the Word, and in the Writings and
in ancient authors, 11-14, 92-115,
166-169, 210, 301, 565, 610. Both kinds
contrasted, 94, 95, 301 et seq., 610,699–
703. Such as causes drunkenness
compared to falses, 95-97, 146,336,575.
Philosophy of the New Church con-
cerning, 45, 346, 574-578. In the
cluster, 99, 579. Well refined, 542.
Anciently squeezed into cups and
drank fresh, 39, 241. E. Sweden-
borg's Latin calls freshly squeezed
grape juice, wine, 296 et seq. Its
good signification in the Word and
Writings, 93, 100, 150, 161, 170, 189 et
seq., 303. Its evil signification, 94,
342. Noble, 454.
Wine, Fermented, analysis of, 37. Never
has a good correspondence, 102, 609,
612. Is in no sense the fruit of the
vine, 174. Condemned by the pro-
phets, 103. Is not fit for use in the
Holy Supper, 19, 24, 25, 174, 212, 221,
223. Suitable only for a church
holding justification by faith alone,
435. Nature and effects of, 52, 53,
302. Warnings against, 406. Dan-
ger of using, 46, 52. Frequent
results of a first taste" of, 273,
280. E. Swedenborg partaking of,
527.
Wines, Ancient Unfermented, 386-389.
Were esteemed as the best, 12, 114,
116, 125, 300. Were preserved by
boiling, 12, 35, 119, 121, 147, 244, 329,
391. By filtration, 12, 119, 129-131.
By immersion, 13, 119, 127-129. By
sulphurization, 120, 132-134, 245. By
evaporation, 126, 127. By covering
with sweet oil, 131, 132, 246, 386.
Solidified, 12, 36, 126, 127.
Wine, Unfermented, analysis of, 36.
Has a correspondence and compo-
sition similar to blood, 38, 189, 239,
450, 510. Contains every necessary
736
INDEX.
nourishment for the body, 88, 71,
148, 458, 509. Always pure, 161, 162,
172, 534. Old better than new, 35.
Ferment destroys all nutritious
substances in, 36, 102, 215-220, 270,
543, 626. Drank in wine-growing
countries in Europe and Asia, 125.
Wine, Modern Unfermented, 134-136,
385-392, 394, 482-499, 562. Solidified,
563.
Wine, Unfermented, author's experi-
ments in preserving, by straining
and excluding air, 483-485. By
keeping it cool, 485-489. By boiling,
489-491. By filtering, 492.
Wine, Unfermented, religious use of-
used always at the Jewish Pass-
over, 25, 227-234, 418-421. Used by
modern Jews at the Passover, 25,
423-425, 474. Therefore used by our
Lord at the institution of the Lord's
Supper, 19, 24, 190, 225, 227-234, 268
et seq., 418, 586. Used by the early
Christian Church at the Lord's Sup-
per, 426-429, 648. By Eastern
Churches, 508. And by the Coptio
Church, 563. It should be used in
the Holy Supper, 50, 51, 100, 221, 239,
281, 441, 579.
Wine, New, in old bottles, 34, 104-108.
Wine, New, Solidified, 454, 563, 594.
Winn, Henry, 677, 682, 696, 697.
Writer's, The, views restated, 308.
Personal freedom on the Wine
Question, 308. Advantages for ex-
amining the Wine Question, 308,
309. Personal experience on the
Wine Question, 261, 266-268. Efforts
to spread a knowledge of the doc-
trines of the New Church, 177-180.
Y
Yayin in the Bible, 110, 844-350.
Yayin, tirosh and oinos, generic terms
for fermented and unfermented
wines, 291-297, 321-328, 467.
Yayin, tirosh and shechar in the Word
and Writings, and in the "Maga-
zine," 168..

195

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
wils
339.8 E159w
Ellis, John, b. 1815.
The wine question in the light of the ne
3 1951.001 561 660 N
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