John 2:10

Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine.

The language of the ruler is sportive, but still he states. custom. The best wine was offered when the appetite of the guests was sharpest and most critical. After they were well filled and had entered fully into the spirit of the feast, poorer was offered.

Are drunken.

Not intoxicated, but have drunk considerable. The Revision says, "Have well drunk." Satan gives his good wine first; so the drunkard finds it; so did the prodigal son. Afterwards he gives the bitter; red eyes, pain, hunger, wretchedness.

Thou hast kept the good wine until now.

What meaneth Christ making wine. It must be borne in mind that among the Greeks and Romans and in Palestine there were three kinds of wine:

1. Fermented wines, which, however, were very unlike our fiery liquors, and contained only. small per cent. of alcohol. These were mixed with two or three parts of water. The laws of Zaleucus, the Locrian, put to death anyone who drank unmixed wine, except as medicine. The fermented wine, at first mild, and then diluted with water, was. drink as used, that had no intoxicating power unless used in enormous quantities.

2. New wine, the fresh juice of the grape, like our new cider, not intoxicating.

3. Wines in which, by boiling the unfermented juice of the grape, or by the addition of certain drugs, the process of fermentation was stopped, and which had no intoxicating properties.

We cannot surely determine which kind the Savior made here, but we agree with Whedon, who says: "We see no reason for supposing that the wine of the present occasion was that upon which Scripture places its strongest interdict, (Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 23:31; Isaiah 22:13,) rather than that eulogized as. blessing (Psalms 104:15; Isaiah 55:1)." Even adopting the view that it was fermented wine, it was totally unlike the fiery and undiluted drinks sold as wines in saloons, used in many families, offered at hotels and wine parties, and even poured out at communion tables. In the use of the usual wine of Palestine there is not the slightest apology for drinking as. beverage the alcoholic drinks which are the curse of our times. With regard to them the only safe rule is "to touch not, taste not, handle not." They are the "cup of Devils." It is. shame that anyone should pretend to quote the example of Christ as an apology for being. modern tippler.