believe nothing of the kind, and I call upon iny opponents to produce their proof. I cannot prove that the wine He made was innocent, nor is there any reason why I should. The theory that our Saviour turned water into another harmless and wholesome beverage involves no moral difficulties; but the theory that He turned water into an irritant narcotic poison involves great moral difficulties, and is a tremendous weapon in the hands of a well-informed modern infidel.

The hypothesis that the wine Christ made at Cana was unintoxicating invests the miracle with peculiar beauty and force, inasmuch as it represents Him accomplishing in a moment that which takes several months each year, the conversion of the watery sap of the vine into wine in the grape. This is the interpretation sustained by Chrysostom, the Bishop of Norwich (1650), Rev. W. Law (1702), and many others.

OPINION OF CHRYSOSTOM AND OTHERS.

Chrysostom : “ Δεικνὺς ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ ἐν ταῖς ἀμπέλοις τὸ υδωρ μεταβάλλων καὶ τον ὑετὸν διὰ τῆς ῥίζης εις οἴνον τρέπων ὁπερ εν τῷ φυτῷ διὰ πολλου χρόνου γινεται, τοῦτο αθρόον εν τῷ γαμῳ ἔιργάσατο.”

"Showing that it is He who changes the water

in the vines and the rain absorbed through the root into WINE, who did in an instant at the marriage that work which takes a long time in the plant" (Hom. xxii. in Joh.).

Augustine: "Ipse enim fecit vinum illo die in nuptiis in sex illis hydriis quas impleri aquâ præcipit, qui omni anno facit hoc in vitibus illud autem non miramur quia omni anno fit."

"For He on that nuptial day made wine in the six pots which He ordered to be filled with water, Who every year makes this in the vines . . . : but we do not wonder at this because it is done every year" ("In Evang. Joh.," Tract. viii.).

The Bishop of Norwich: "What doth He in the ordinary way of nature, but turn the watery juice that arises up from the root into wine? He will only do this now suddenly, and at once, which He doth usually by sensible degrees" (Josh. Hall, D.D., "Contempl.,” p. 117. Lond. 1759).

The Archbishop of Dublin: "He each year prepares the wine in the grape, causing it to absorb, and swell with, the moisture of earth and heaven, to transmute this into nobler juice of its own; concentrating all these slower processes into the act of a single moment, and accomplishing in an instant what usually He takes many months to accomplish (Trench, "Notes on Mirac.," p. 109. Lond. 1862).

ANSWER TO OBJECTION.

It has been objected to this rational and beautiful interpretation that it derogates from His power. It would, says the objector, be a greater miracle to convert water into alcoholic than into nonalcoholic wine, inasmuch as the conversion of sugar into alcohol is a matter of time under ordinary circumstances. The immediate presentation of alcoholic wine would be more wonderful, it is said, than the immediate presentation of the blood of the grape. This is groundless. Either kind of wine would be made by the immediate union of the constituent elements-carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, &c. Therefore, whether united in proportion to form alcoholic or non-alcoholic wine, the Divine power would, for the immediate production of the wine, be as necessary and as evident in the one case as in the other. It takes much longer for the sap of the vine to be converted into wine in the grape, than for intoxicating wine to be produced from the unfermented juice. The former process occupies several months, the latter only a few days. In either case, the Divine power would be manifested by the supersession of all the intervening stages, and the instantaneous attainment of the result.

CHAPTER IV.

FERMENTATION AND ITS PREVENTION.

EXISTENCE OF

UNFERMENTED GRAPE JUICE
DENIED.

IN arguing with an atheist some years ago, I was for a moment silenced when he showed me a book, written, I regret to say, by a minister of religion, denying the possibility of the existence of such an article as unfermented wine. Of course, if this is true, the controversy is at an end. If intoxicating wine cannot exist, the Bible, wherever it speaks of wine, must refer only to intoxicating wine. The proposition was so startling that, as an imperative duty, I resolved if possible to arrive at the truth. For nearly a year, aided by my friend Mr. T. A. Clifford, an accomplished chemist, I conducted a minute and crucial series of experiments with grapes and grape juice. (For detailed account of these experiments see my work "Unfermented

Wine a Fact." National Temperance Publication Depôt, 337, Strand. Reprinted also in the 5th edit. "Temperance Bible Commentary.)

UNFERMENTED GRAPE JUICE A FACT.

I

The outcome of this extended research proved that grape juice can be preserved unfermented and unintoxicating by a variety of processes, some of which have been and are still in vogue in Eastern countries.

FERMENTATION DEFINED.

The writer of the book in question, evidently from unacquaintance with scientific work and phraseology, had supposed that all fermentation was alcoholic, and thus misunderstood and unintentionally misrepresented the evidence of chemists, to the effect that fermentation begins immediately on exposure to the air.

The word "fermentation" is sometimes applied to the ripening process that goes on within the

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"The juice of many grapes is fragrant before fermentatation " (Mulder, "Chem. of Wine," p. 329. Lond. 1857). Speaking of Jeropiga, the authors say it is sometimes made of "the pure, sweet must, unfermented, with the addition of brandy" (Thudicum and Dupré, p. 677). They also describe a variety made of "unfermented grape juice," &c. (ibid.).