The Coming Man Will Drink Wine, etc. 



213; 



error or a prejuice has been destroyed, 

 there is ever to be found some knave 

 or fool ea<ier to restore it to life. 



From time immemoi'ial, moralists 

 have inveighed, in prose and in poetr}', 

 against intemperance or the abuse of 

 strong drinks, nevertheless drinking 

 has always been a necessity cherished 

 by man, and upheld not only by sober 

 and well constituted minds, but even 

 by those whom a sincere faith in the 

 teachings of the scriptures, not only 

 compel us to regard but to follow as 

 the great lights of our holy religion. 

 In proof of my assertion I could, if I 

 so desired, take you as far back almost 

 as creation, but this might be rashly 

 tampering with your powers of endur- 

 ance. I will not prove thus cruel, and 

 without looking further back in the 

 annals of the world than the time when 

 the earth was flooded, I will simply 

 call your attention to the fact, that the 

 only man whom the Lord considered 

 worth}', and singled out to replenish 

 the world, was him who at once set to 

 replant the vine, Noah ! if I must call 

 him by name, the patron of all true 

 vinej'ardists. 



My time being limited, a wide leap 

 will bring us down to that worth}' man 

 from whose loins sprang the Messiah. 

 AVhat will our modern temperance men 

 say w^hen, by turning to that book of 

 books, to which all professed christians 

 look to as a moral guide, they find in 

 the 104th psalm that " God sendeth the 

 springs into the valleys to give drink 

 to every beast of the field and wherein 

 the wild asses quench their thirst ; that 

 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, and wine that maketh glad the 



Jieart of man." Can there be a reason- 

 able doubt but that it was intended, in 

 the beautiful and admirable organiza- 

 tion of this world, that wine should be 

 the drinlv for the superior and rational 

 being, man, and water the drink for 

 wild asses ? Perhaps the chief reason 

 of immature temperance men for exalt- 

 ing water above wine is, that they con- 

 sider themselves as members of this 

 last mentioned class of animals ; if so^ 

 as all created beings have a right to 

 their own opinion, and should act 

 according to their nature, — reasonable 

 men cannot object ; the motive of the 

 reason is good, and should receive the 

 due consideration of all the charitabl}^ 

 disposed. But 1 wish to insist upon 

 the fact that whilst calling themselves 

 christians, they do not appear to re- 

 alize that they are warring against 

 Providence, seeing that in obedience ta 

 the stern law of a misguided philan- 

 thropy, they are continually rejecting 

 the favors that he has and is abund- 

 antly throwing upon them. I ask of 

 all right thinking men if it is not better 

 assuredly to be on the side of Provi- 

 dence against the recent water drinkers 

 than on the side of water drinkers 

 against I'rovidence? 



The great Creator, who has provided 

 so wisely and abundantly for all his 

 creatures, " grass for the cattle and 

 WINE that maketh glad the heart of 

 man, and water for the asses," knows 

 what is best for us infinitely better than 

 we do ourselves, all politico-religionists 

 included ! And there can be neither 

 sense nor merit, nor even sound states- 

 manship, I take it, in churlishly refusing 

 to partake of that ample entertainment, 

 sprinkled with delicate perfumes, gar- 

 nished with roses, and crowned with 



