drink and much as it is abused, we cannot think that the abuse is so widespread and so incurable by other means that total prohibition is justifiable. Man is made moral not by depriving him of liberty of choice, but by teaching him to use it aright. The Church has never officially supported Total Prohibition, and never will, until she be planted in the midst of a nation of habitual drunkards. From a legislative point of view the most equitable means of dealing with the question is in the author's opinion by means of local option, but the solution of the problem is not to be found in mere legislation but rather in the educating of the people in the ways of true temperance.

RELIGION AND DRINK, as the title might indicate, is written by a clergyman-the REV. DR. E. A. WASSON, Rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Newark, N. J. (Burr Printing House, New York City.) The book reveals the author's most careful study and painstaking scholarship.

By the word "Drink," as the preface explains, is meant those alcoholic beverages spoken of in the Bible. "Does God forbid or allow alcoholic drink?" is the question which this book is to answer, and the answer is to be found in the "law and testimony" itself.

Dr. Wasson has searched the Scriptures thoroughly. His conclusion is that

"All the teachings of the Old Testament as to the use of wine and 'strong drink' harmonize. Their common burden is: Wine and 'strong drink' are good gifts of God, not to be decried, not to be misused, but to be enjoyed (if one will) as a portion from Him who giveth to all their meat in due season. It was real wine, of different ages, of different vintage, the wine of Lebanon,' 'the wine of Helbon'; but all alike alcoholic."

Not content with the Old Testament teachings, however, he has gone to such outside authorities as the Apocrypha, Philo, the great Jewish scholar, Josephus, the famous Jewish historian and the Jewish Encyclopedia of the present day to show that in the Biblical and ancient references to "tirosh," "oinos," "yayin," the terms for wine, must have referred to fermented grape juice.

The Gospels and the Epistles of the New Testament are also examined. "Wine" is frequently mentioned in the New Testament and "strong drink" once. The Greek word rendered as "wine" is "oinos," the classic word for the fully fermented beverage. To

the author's mind there is no doubt that the "wine" which our Lord miraculously created at the marriage feast was alcoholic wine of the highest excellence. He quotes from Corinthians to show the intoxicating quality of the wine used at the Lord's Supper.

Several chapters are taken up with the attitude of the primitive church in regard to the use of wine. By "primitive" church Dr. Wasson means the early church of the first two or three centuries following Christ. He shows that the use of wine for sacramental purposes was practically universal and that drinking intoxicating beverages was general throughout the church. Several branches. of the then Christian church which used water for the Lord's Supper were commanded to stop and to use wine instead.

"The attitude of the primitive church toward wine," says the author, "was the attitude of the later church. Everywhere, always, and by all, was wine blessed and drunk in the most solemn and exalted of the church's rites-as it had been by its Founder and Lord." A significant historical fact is that throughout western Christendom the most famous drinks were made by monks, both wines and ales. The special value of the waters of Burton-on-Trent for brewing was discovered by the neighboring monks. The Malthouse, indeed, was as indispensable a feature of a monastery as the chapel. In medieval England an "ale" was synonymous with a parish festival, at which this was the chief drink.

The chapter on the Reformation gives the views of Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, and others, and shows how the subject of wine was treated in such books as "Pilgrim's Progress," "Robinson Crusoe," "Swiss Family Robinson" and "Vicar of Wakefield," which the author calls "immortal contributions of Non-Conformity to the English classics."

Martin Luther not only recommended the use of intoxicants in moderation, but wrote letters in which he stated that he himself used them. Calvin and Knox held practically the same attitude with reference to drink, but Wesley's was slightly different in that he regarded the use of light wines and beers as helpful to health but exhorted his followers to beware of the brandies and strong drinks. Kostlin's "Life of Luther" says: "Mrs. Luther 'at Wittenberg. . . brewed, as was then the custom, their own beer.'"

Wesley denounced dram-drinking and dram-shops. In a letter to a newspaper in 1772 he ascribes the high prices to the consumption of so much wheat by distilleries and advises that distilling be

prohibited by law, Beer, however, was regarded in a different light by the Father of Methodism. "Small beer," water, new cider and buttermilk are favored by him, but he believed tea to be injurious and started a society to promote abstinence from it.

We are reminded that Bunyan in his "Pilgrim's Progress" represents Christian and Christiania as frequently, if not ordinarily, drinking, on their way to the Celestial City, and as being helped on their way by this drink. From "Robinson Crusoe" Dr. Wasson adduces twenty passages which show that in the book drink is regarded as one of the necessities of life. The "Vicar of Wakefield” in Goldsmith's immortal book speaks very kindly of the country tavern: "I retired to a little ale-house by the roadside, . . . the usual retreat of indigence and frugality." . . . "I took shelter, as fast as possible, in the first ale-house that offered." Here he and a chance acquaintance shared "in a bowl of punch."

"The Temperance Movement" and "Prohibition" are treated in separate chapters. The Temperance Movement the author finds, to have a Biblical basis, whereas the Prohibition propaganda has moved over into the political arena. In the article on "The Temperance Movement" the customs and teachings of the more important churches as to the use of liquor are discussed. Since Dr. Wasson is a minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church, he naturally treats the usages of that church at some length. While much was being said in other denominations about the iniquity of fermented wine in the Holy Communion, he tells us, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in this country adopted the following Resolution, dated Chicago, October 26, 1886:

"That, in the judgment of the House of Bishops, the use of the unfermented juice of the grape, as the lawful and proper wine of the Holy Eucharist, is unwarranted by the example of our Lord, and an unauthorized departure from the custom of the Catholic Church."

He quotes Bishop Webb, of the diocese of Milwaukee, to indicate the attitude of the Episcopal clergy concerning saloons :

"The Episcopal clergy is inclined to regard with leniency the saloon in all its phases, so long as the saloon is not detrimental, on its face, to public interest and morals. I believe that the general tendency of the Episcopal clergy is to favor, rather than oppose, the well-regulated saloon. The saloon, when at its best, certainly has many things in its favor. It is a gathering-place of people, and in many instances of good people."

Other quotations are given to the same purpose. "The Holy Church throughout all the world" does not believe drink wrong Dr. Wasson holds. "The Church believes it right: it uses it in its holiest worship: it sanctions it as a beverage. Total abstinence, as a principle, is only a modern rigorist eccentricity; at outs with the Scriptures; at outs with the example and solemn precept of Jesus; at outs with antiquity and history; at outs with the Church. of God today. It is provincial, as against ecumenical'; sectarian, as against catholic; novel, as against ancient. Total abstinence, as a religious obligation, is a rigorist product."

Dr. Wasson, in reviewing the history of Prohibition in this country, calls it a sectarian and rural affair. The cities, with their great populations, and immense power and prestige, are gaining influence throughout the country; and the cities are against teetotalism by force. In fact, they are against teetotalism of any sort. The author finds that the consumption of alcoholic beverages is increasing, while alleged prohibition territory is also increasing, and this he holds to be a more vital fact than the increasing prohibition territory.

"The clear and striking fact for the United States is this: the more prohibition, the more drink. I am not saying that there is any relation between the two facts. I am not saying that with less prohibition there would not be still more drink. I am simply saying that prohibition has gone on increasing, and drink has gone on increasing. Prohibition aims to stop drink, and drink has not stopped; it has increased."

It is pointed out that in Europe, where there is no prohibition to speak of, drink is decreasing. He cites the Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, one of the ablest of the prohibition advocates, as saying that it is "the riddle of reformers the world over that countries with little or no prohibition are decisively reducing the national per capita consumption of liquors, while the United States, with more prohibition than any other country, has never succeeded in accomplishing such reduction in the nation as a whole, except temporarily in years of financial depression."

In the chapter on "Intemperance" still another paradox is brought to our attention, namely, that although there is more drinking, there is less drunkenness. The Church has always insisted that sobriety was consistent with drinking; and experience seems to confirm this ancient wisdom. Passages from literary writings of the

early eighteenth century are quoted to show the change in public opinion as to the man "in his cups." A hundred years ago it was no great sin to get drunk. A man did not lose caste by it. But today he does; and, if he offend often, he is banned, both in society. and business.

The author mentions six reasons for intemperance on the part of the individual; but abnormality of one kind or another is at the root of all six, and the cure for these abnormalities lies deep under the social surface, in many cases. The church can do much to remedy these evils, but not everything. "The church is out of its element when it sets up as political economist, and presumes to decide among conflicting policies; for, in these things, it knoweth 'not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good' (Ecc. 11, 6), or alike bad. On the other hand, in degree as the church attends to its spiritual task successfully, will the spirit of justice and charity permeate and shape legislation and industry, as a living and potent principle." But even more potent than religion, for temperance, are the natural forces in modern society. The greatest of these forces is business; organized labor has powerfully promoted temperance.

Part Three of the book is entitled “The Truth of the Gospel.” The Old Testament, Jesus, the New Testament, and the Universal Church all concur in blessing drink as "a good gift of God." Can there be any higher sanction of right than this? If these four witnesses of righteousness were wrong in this, then every moral certitude goes. "If these do not know, how can you or I?" asks the author. In the concluding chapters a powerful argument for personal liberty is made. Laws which have not their foundation in the desires and will of the people are useless. The aim should be to educate society for its greatest usefulness and development, physically, mentally and morally; the non-fundamental issues will then adjust themselves.

SMUGGLING IN THE HIGHLANDS, a book published in England, deals with the legends and stories of mystery which have grown up around the custom of illicit distilling and the followers of this mode of livelihood. The book is written by Ian MacDonald, "late of the Inland Revenue," and deals with the matter from a picturesque point of view. It is really a collection of papers read before the Gaelic Society some years ago, and put into book form in 1914.