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^
THE
FIRST MIRACLE OF CHRIST
AND
PROHIBITION;
A SERMON PREACHED IN ST PETFR'9 phttx^^^
ov n^r^r. ' ^^^-.^S CHURCH, BROCKVILLE.
ON IHE SECOND SUNbAY AFTER EPIPHANY
(17TH JANUARY), 1886.
BY
GEORGE J. LOW, Rector.
PRINTED BY C^ BLACKEn> ROBINSON.
5 JORDAN STREET.
1886.
THE
First Miracle of Christ
AND
PROHIBITION.
glory^L'St' z°' """'" '•' ^"-^ " ^^"^ °^ ^^'"^^' -'^ "-'f-'^'l 'o^'*' His
T T IS a thing for which we ought to be very thankful, brethren,
A that the Church's yearly system of teaching brings before'
us every incident of our dear Lord's life, and forces into promi-
nence, each in turn, every saying, every work of His, whether we
personally care to view it or not. In these days, when there are so
many different kinds of religion, I think we may without much
difficulty discern that each particular kind of religion has its own
special "hobby," so to speak. It takes one or two "texts,"
and out of them manufactures its own theology : every other
text must be made to fit into that, and is warped and twisted
and turned until it does, after a fashion, fit in ; and if, after all
the manipulation, this cannot be effected, then it is summarily
dismissed from the count as a "Judaism," or a "metaphor," or
an " Oriental hyperbole," or something of that sort.
And as in other bodies, so in the Church of England indi-
vidual preachers have their " hobbies," their favourite doctrines
their favourite "texts." It is human nature after all-; we are'
all partialists, more or less ; and if we were left unrestricted,
our congregations would too often be fed with some particular
kind of spiritual diet, which might be wholesome and beneficial
in due proportion, but if persisted in to the exclusion of all
other kinds ol food, would produce spiritual dyspepsia — a
morbid unhealthy state— no matter what that particular doctrine
may be.
Now what a grand and wholesome corrective to the indi-
vidual preacher's fancies is the system of the Church, which
forces us, whether we will or no, to take in every species of food
which the Holy Scriptures contain. For to me this is one of
the greatest evidences of the Divine origin of the Scriptures,
that they are so multiform, so complex, so many-sided. Our
spiritual nature is like our physical nature, very complex ; and
he who imagines he can administer to every mind diseased by
one prescription, is as great a charlatan as he who thinks he
can cure every kind of physical ill by one particular dose. The
Bible is not of this nature; it is very complex, and rightly so; it
contains elements apparently antagonistic to one another ; just
as our food for our bodies must contain many diverse elements,
acid and alkaline, sweet and bitter. He that prophesieth, says
St. Paul in the Epistle for this day, should prophesy (/.^., preach)
" according to the proportion of faith." The true Churchman,
then, I conceive, should endeavour, as a rule, to put himself ^m
rapport with the liturgical services of the day, and like St. Chry-
sostom and other mighty preachers of old, make the pulpit
reecho the teachings of the lectern and the altar.
Now what is the great lesson of to-day, this second Sunday
after Epiphany ? What is the keynote which the Church
strikes, to which we should attune our harmonies? The Gospel
for the day furnishes it to us, and our text is the essence of that
Gospel. This whole Epiphany season is but an elaboration of
the great song of praise begun at Christmastide : " Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace." " Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed Hir.
people : and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us." " The
Dayspring from on high hath visited us." The manifestation ot
God in the flesh is the theme : the different modes and degrees
of that manifestation the elaboration of the theme. Manifest
first to the shepherds of Bethlehem ; then to the Eastern sages ;
then, after twelve years, to the doctors of the Temple, if only
they had had eyes to see ; then after a long period of obscura-
tion manifest to all the beholders at this marriage feast in Cana
of Galilee, when His Divinity shone forth in this first miracle
that He wrought. Let us view this light as it then burst forth,
so unexpectedly ; let us analyze its rays and see what we can
learn therefrom.
" Thisbeghmitig of miracles." Our Lord Jesus Christ, then,
never performed a single miracle — never let the world know
that He was the Messiah — until He was thirty years of age.
All that long period of time, from His birth, when " all the sons
of God shouted for joy," until His baptism, when the voice
from heaven was heard saying, " Thou art My beloved Son "
(Luke iii. 22), is wrapt in obscurity, save that one gleam which
we catch of the Holy Child when He was twelve years of age,
and went up, " after the custom of the feast," to His confirma-
tion at Jerusalem. We dwelt upon this on Sunday last. Does
He not by this very obscuration reveal Himself — to speak in
paradox ? Does He not manifest Himself as the typical, the
representative, the perfect human character ? Does He not
show us hereby that He does not countenance precociousness
in children and youths ? Does He not teach us that even if
we think we have a call from God we must bide our time until
the outward call comes ? '* So also Christ glorified not Himsell
to be made an High Priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou
art My Son " (Heb. v. 5).
Next let us consider the circumstances under which He
" manifested forth His glory."
It was at a marriage feast. In the East such entertainments
often lasted a whole week. What a strange environment, judging
with human judgment, does the Lord select for manifesting
forth His glory ! A scene of festivity, a time of making merry —
of congratulations — of eating and drinking ! What a contrast
to his precursor, John the Baptist — the last prophet of the old
dispensation — the connecting link between the Law and the
Gospel — who comes into view in the dreary wilderness, clad in
camel's-hair cloth and leathern girdle — hermit-like in his cloth-
ing and in his diet — ascetic, austere. To quote the words of
Dean Alford's Commentary : " Our Lord at once opens His
ministry with the character which He gives of Himself" (Luke vii.
33, 34, 35). "John the Baptist," says He to the Pharisees, " came
neither eating bread nor drinking wine ; and ye say. He hath a
devil : the Son of Man is come eating and drinking ; and ye say.
Behold, a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of pub-
licans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children."
" He also," as Archbishop Trench admirably remarks, "gives us
His own testimony against the tendency which our indolence
ever favours, of giving up those things and occasions to the
world and the devil, which we have not Christian boldness to
mingle in and purify . . . And such is the verdict of modern
religionism, which would keep the leaven distinct from the lump,
for fear it should become unleavened/'
We are not given the name of the host, or of the bride or
bridegroom. Doubtless they were relatives or connections of
our Lord according to the flesh. Cana was not very far from
Nazareth : and the Virgin Mother had evidently considerable
authority in the household. (St. John ii. i, "There was a
marriage . . . and the mother of Jesus was there"; again,
verse 5, " His mother saith unto the servants," etc.) Our Lord
was invited to this wedding feast, and He went.
)r
)f
" And when they wanted wine." This does not mean that there-
was none originally supplied, but that, for some reason or other,
the wine ran short : either the festivities lasted longer, or the
guests were more numerous, than had been calculated for. You
will observe the Revised Version renders the passage correctly :
"And when the wine failed." Here let me quote a passage of
Archdeacon Farrar's " Life of Christ ": " Whether the marriage
festival lasted for seven days, as was usual among those who
could afiford it, or only for one or two, as was the case among the
poorer classes, we cannot tell ; but at some period of the enter-
tainment the wine suddenly ran short. None but those who
know how sacred in the East is the duty of lavish hospitality,
and how passionately the obligation to exercise it to the utmost
is felt, can realize the gloom which this incident would have
thrown over the occasion, or the misery and mortification which
it would have caused to the wedded pair. They would have
felt it to be, as in the East it would still be felt to be, a bitter
and indelible disgrace."
In order to avert this threatened disaster — in order to dissi-
pate the gloom impending over this festive gathering — in order
to enhance their joy and happiness — in order to show that He
entered heartily into all their lawful pleasures, and sanctioned
their innocent enjoyments — the Son of God, the Eternal Word
made flesh, " manifested forth His glory." And how did He do
so ? I must answer this question with a statement which, I
know, will shock the feelings of many modern religionists — a
statement opposed to the spirit of the age — one which may
possibly call forth a storm of vituperation, and yet it must be
said ; for it is the truth — the truth of God and of His Holy
Word.
Our Lord Jesus Christ began His Messianic career — began
that glorious and dazzling series of mercy -giving, life-prolonging,
pain-destroying, evil-dispelling miracles — with the production
i!
8
of an alcoholic, intoxicating drink. And that in no mean
quantity : on the lowest computation the amount of wine thus
divinely manufactured was one hundred and twenty gallons.
(See Alford in loc.)
Now let us face this fact ; for faced it must be. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, whom we all confess to be God, of God, and yet
very man, began his official career as the Messiah with the
miraculous creation of an intoxicating element : He was all
through His official life assailed by the Pharisees as a " wine-
bibber" : and His last official act was His consecrating that
same intoxicating element to be the sacrament of His own most
precious blood.
Now what are we to make of this ? Was Christ mistaken ?
Was He ignorant of the laws of hygiene and physiology ? Is
His doctrine behind the times ? For there is of necessity a
terrible mistake somewhere. Either our modern moral reformers
are wrong, or Jesus Christ was wrong. I put it plainly, but so
it is. The Dominion Churchman very truly said last week : If
Christ had worked that miracle to-day in one of our Scott Act
counties He would have been convicted of a crime. And so it
is. If Jesus Christ was right. Prohibition is wrong. If Pro-
hibition is right, Jesus Christ was wrong. That is simply the
naked truth.
And what escape can be framed from this dilemma, viz.:
that not only our Lord Jesus Christ, but the whole Word of God,
from beginning to end, countenances and makes provision for
the drinking of intoxicating liquor : therefore either the con-
sumption of such liquor is lawful and right, or the Word of God
is wrong. There are three effijrts to answer this :
I. The effort of some to prove that there are two kinds of
" wine " and " strong drink " mentioned in the Bible, one alco-
holic and the other non-alcoholic; that whenever "wine" is
commended it means the unfermented juice of the grape. I
have only to say of this that such a plea is beneath contempt.
No accurate scholar would ever think of thus " handling the
Word of God deceitfully." A great deal of capital has been
made by some of the fact that two words, in special, occur to
<lesignate " wine " in the Hebrew — the one " Yayin " and the
other " Tirosh "; and they claim that one of these — it makes no
matter which — is alcoholic and the other non-alcoholic. The
Rev. Dr. Carry, of Port Perry, has lately issued a pamphlet
which effectually disposes of all this sophistry. But it needs no
learned Hebraist to understand the matter nowadays. The
Rev. Dr. Young, a Presbyterian minister, has within the last
few years published a most valuable Analytical Concordance ;
and any ordinary English scholar, by looking up the words
** wine'" and "strong drink" in the said Concordance, can see
for himself what an amount of special pleading and prevarica-
tion they are guilty of who resort to this line of argument. Pro-
hibitionism, it seems, like many other *' hobbies," has a demora-
lizing tendency : it blunts all sense of manliness and truth.
2. The second effort to escape from our dilemma is one not
quite so dishonest as the last, but equally short-sighted, and
equally opposed to the truth of the Scriptures. It alleges: " We
admit that the Bible seems to allow the use of alcohoUc bever-
ages; we admit that Christ used them and countenanced their
use when He was on earth. But if He had lived now, and seen
the evil effects of the practice. He would have done differently."
Surely this argument has only to be thus stated in its simplicity
to meet its own repudiation at the hands of any honest Christian
man. Is it not strange — passing strange — that men who arro-
gate to themselves the title of "Christians" — men who fancy
they have a monopoly of " The Gospel " — men who look upon
all those who cannot pronounce their shibboleth as '• unsaved " —
men who boast of " the Bible and the Bible alone " — should
thus speak of "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for
lO
ever " ? — that such as thej' should think the Scriptures need
supplementing ? — that they should make the Word of God of
none effect through their tradition ?
3. The third answer to this dilemma is that of the Infidel
Prohibitionists ; and their reply is : " It is true that the Bible
allows the use of intoxicants; and so much the worse for the
Bible." Well, this answer has the merit, at all events, of being
straightforward and logical. But you see to what it leads. Per-
haps you may bf surprised to hear of Infidel Prohibitionists; yet
there are very many of them in the United States. They have a
very extensive literature of their own — newspapers, novels, etc. —
all inculcating total abstinence and atheism. The late D. M.
Bennett, in his lifetime the editor of an agnostic paper called
the Truth Seeker, founded a town in the State of Missouri, called
Liberal, on a prohibitionist and atheistic basis. And this town
of Liberal was advertised in the various freethinking papers
(such as Man, Tins World, etc.,) in terms to this effect: that in
the said town there were "no churches, no saloons, no preachers,
no spirit-sellers, no alcohol, no devil, no Christ, no God ! " What
think you of that for Prohibition ?
Now, in order to answer this third and last argument, that of
Prohibitionist Infidels — which at any rate is more honest than
either of the others — we must, of course, meet them on some
common ground. We answer it by an appeal to facts and
history, and show how the Divine Wisdom has been justified
of her children. Prohibition is 1.0 new thing: it has been tried
for a thousand years and more. Over one thousand years ago
there were two rival systems of religion, each with its own Scrip-
tures, struggling for supremacy in the East. One was the Church
of Christ with its Bible ; the other Mohammedanism with its
Koran. The Church of Christ said to its adherents: "Take
this element of alcohol ; use it, and it will be a blessing ; abuse
it, and, like every other gift of God, it will become a curse.
II
Hi
t&
te
ke
Exercise your manliness, your self-control, in dependence on-
the grace of God." The other religious system, Mohammedanism,
said: "Wine and strong drink are an unmitigated curse; I pro-
hibit their use. No follower of mine can buy, or sell, or manu-
facture, or consume, intoxicating drink. My religion is an
improvement upon that of Jesus Christ. If He had lived to-day
He would do as I do."
We know from history how this last-named religion, in the
flush of its first enthusiasm of Prohibition, seemed likely to wipe
out Christianity from the face of the earth. But, after the lapse
of a thousand years, what are the relative positions, morally and
intellectually, of those two religious systems to-day ? Who was
right in the end, Christ or Mohammed ? Apart from all con-
sideration of the religious aspect of the question — for we are
now addressing ourselves to the infidel argument — let me ask :
Would you not rather, a thousand times, be a descendant of
four hundred generations of the " drunken " English, or the
" drunken " Irish, or the " drunken " Scotch, or the " drunken "
Germans, than of four hundred generations of the total abstain-
ing but unspeakable Turk ?
I speak thus strongly, because I feel that in this question the
honour and truth of Christ and of the Bible are involved ;
because every one who advocates Prohibition flings an insult in
the face of his Lord: every such advocate declares that the
religion of Christ is insufficient and needs supplementing. And
because I feel that this whole Prohibition movement is a retro-
grade step in our civilization, our religion, our liberty. It is a
returning to " the weak and beggarly elements of the law '; it
is destructive of "the right of private judgment"; it is just
another species of " priestcraft and popery." I no more want
to be told what articles of food are prohibited than I want to be
told what books are placed on the " prohibition list " of the Index
Expurgatorius. I do not want to belong to a nation of slaves.
I do not want a new Gospel.
12
With regard to those who from conscientious motives choose
to practise the self-denial of total abstinence, either because
they find it better for themselves, or because they would set an
example to others, I have nothing but feelings of the highest
respect and admiration. Only let them remember that self-
denial is one thing, denial to others a very different thing. St.
Paul appreciated this difference. He says, indeed : *' If meat
make my brother to offiend, I will not eat meat while the world
standeth." There is the spirit of self-denial. But St. Paul does
not say •* I will eat no meats, and I will see that nobody else shall,
and I will agitate to get laws passed to that effect." No, his
language is " Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth
not ; and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth."
*' Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which
he alloweth." Indeed, he warns us that the " Prohibition " spirit
will be a sign of the declension from the Truth: he says that "In
the latter times some shall depart from the faith . . . forbid-
ding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats." St. Paul
himself did not marry; he advised others to abstain from mar-
riage, but he did not "forbid." There are many earnest, saintly
men and women devoted to celibacy. There are many clergymen
of the English Church who, for the love of God and of His work,
have determined never to marry — some who have taken pledges
to that effect. I honour and venerate the holy zeal of such men ;
but if they were ever to attempt to pass a Canon of Synod — as
was done in the Middle Ages — forbidding all clerymen to marry,
I think most Churchmen would resist such an act of tyranny
unto the death.
If I am asked, " Will not such doctrines encourage the drunk-
ards ? " I answer no ; for they are the doctrines of Scripture.
^' Yea, let God be true, though every man a liar." If I am asked
■*' Will you not admit that drunkenness would diminish if not
disappear, were the temptation placed out of men's reach ? " I
13
answer, most certainly, of course. If the tree of knowledge had
been placed out of the reach of Adam and Eve they would never
have fallen. But that was not God's way of training His chil-
dren, and it is not His way now. We must face temptation^
battle with it, and overcome it by the Grace of God, "which we
must learn at all times to ask for by diligent prayer."
You will observe, brethren, I have only been speaking against
Prohibition, which I hold to be not only unscriptural but anti-
scriptural, an infringement of the liberty wherewith Christ has
made us free. I would not speak one word — God forbid — in
depreciation of any honest, constitutional scheme for reforming
the drunkard, for punishing the drunkard, or for diminishing the
amount of this sin and its attendant evils. I, myself, have not
much faith in the majority of these schemes. I believe there is
one great remedy for this sin, as for all other sins, and that is
the Grace of Christ, which we must, obtain by using the means
of Grace. Still, so long as Christian men and women labour on
this behalf, on any lines consistent with the liberty of the Gospel,
though I might not personally approve their particular method,
I would bid them God-speed.
And now dismissing this subject, and turning our eyes agam
to the more grateful contemplation of the Light of the World as
manifested in this miracle, let us view that loving and beautiful
character, that Godhead veiled in flesh, scattering His blessings
in the midst of this humble yet joyous gathering in Cana of
Galilee. Let us see Him who "came not to be ministered unto
but to minister," enhancing the enjoyments of this happy throng,
and showing how to carry out the injunction of the Epistle for
the day: "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with
them that weep." Let us see in this first miracle that He
wrought, not only an act of love and goodness, but a type of His
whole work and office. He came into this world to bless, and
ennoble, and sanctify human nature ; to turn curses into blessings ;
ill
!
li!
l!
to turn the ordinary blessings which surround the daily life of
€ach of us into still higher, and holier, and sweeter blessings ; to
turn the water into wine. And He came to show us that He
-keeps the good wine until the last. For great and marvellous
as have been the humanizing, and civilizing, and elevating, and
ennobling effects of His religion even on this earth, they are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us, when this creation shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God ; when
the marriage of the Lamb shall have come ; when He Himself
shall drink the new wine with us in the Kingdom of God.
life of
s; to
t He
illous
, and
2 not
ialed
je of
/hen
iself