THE EPISTLE OF

ST PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS.

CHAPTER II. VERSE 16.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.

OR IN DRINK] Ee en posei, or in drink.' Codex B has kai en posei, 'and in

drink.'

The apostle is not alluding to a distinction of drinks as intrinsically wholesome or unwholesome, dangerous or safe, but to certain arbitrary and ceremonial fancies founded on Jewish ideas of 'clean' and 'unclean.' Some expositors suppose the existence at Colosse of a strong pseudo-ascetic party, such as afterwards developed into the Gnostic sect, which affirmed that hulee, matter,' was inherently evil'; and if this conjecture be correct, the caution of St Paul is intelligible, and in perfect harmony with the Temperance doctrine that whatever God provides for the food of man is 'very good.' The text, observe, has a dual reading,—for if I am not to judge my neighbour in eating or drinking, neither must my neighbour judge me in abstaining from meat or drink. If people would first consider what this text does not mean, they would more accurately comprehend what is its true scope and purport. For instance, it cannot be supposed that it forbids that exercise of reason concerning the quality and consequences of action which the apostle himself is enforcing. He is bringing a certain wilful self-regarding conduct before the church for judgment. He cannot, then, mean that the Christian is not to judge in such matters, for he is himself judging, and has elsewhere, on this very case, come to a conclusion which he puts as an interrogatory-'How then walk you charitably, if you do these things?' Still less can the apostle be understood to affirm that we are to exercise no discrimination as to the qualities of food or drink, for that would be equal to saying that the laws of physiology are abolished to the Christian! Nor can 'the liberty' so often pleaded for be sustained by this text as being the power to act, or not to act, according to one's own pleasure.' True 'liberty'-Christian 'liberty-has no such test as 'pleasure' or wilfulness. It must be based upon the ought,' and be guided by the reasonable and the imperative -the imperative because the reasonable. The will must be the servant of the

reason, not the slave of the passions. In a Christian sense, we are only 'free to act rightly,' or, as it is poetically and proverbially expressed,—

'He is the freeman whom the Truth makes free.'

Obey conscience first, for it is God's proximate organ of truth; but, beyond and above all, seek the truth which gives authority to conscience and direction to the will. "Looking upon my neighbour's conviction, I say, If you esteem such a course best (not pleasantest) and right (not comfortable merely), you will do well to pursue it; but as for me, THE TRUTH seems the highest obligation, and therefore I follow it, whether it be pleasant or painful.”

CHAPTER II. VERSES 20-22.

20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

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This passage has been foolishly quoted as condemnatory of the Temperance reform, as thus :-"The language of ver. 21 is at times applied to strong drink ; but St Paul quotes it to condemn it; ergo he condemns the modern application"! Can anything be more puerile? By parity of unreason, if the words were applied to the common use of laudanum, St Paul would become, logically, ranged on the side of the opium-eater!

It is said that Temperance advocates, like the persons censured by St Paul, insist upon self-mortification and compliance with absurd ordinances of restraint; but,

(1) No one can be more emphatic himself than St Paul (1 Cor. ix.) in exhorting Christians to self-mastery and subjugation of mere animal desire; and no one dealt more copiously than he in the spirit and language of prohibition; does he therefore come under his own rebuke?

(2) It is altogether contrary to truth to affirm that the abstinence principle is based on the theory of neglecting or emaciating the body; the opposite is the fact; abstinence is expressly founded on the injurious nature of alcohol.

Correctly construed, the passage is favourable to the Temperance reform, for the apostle repudiates ordinances springing from the theory of a moral or immoral quality in things themselves, irrespective of their actual effects,—putting superstitious fancies in the place of observed results; whereas the Temperance principle ascribes rightness and wrongness solely to responsible agents, and proscribes intoxicating drinks as unfit for use on the ground of a want of physical appropriateness, and their injurious influences upon the body, and only through it upon the mental and moral nature. Hence the apostle's argument is, that as material things are perishable, to identify religion with material observances is to degrade it, with all its immortal treasures;—an excellent reason, so far as it goes, against that blind attachment to intoxicating liquors which is the only religion that many persons acknowledge, while over many men, who profess better things, these drinks exert a witchery that Christianity fails to command. Truly, 'extremes meet'; and the superstitious rejection of good or neutral things is well matched by the senseless and sensual esteem in which bad and dangerous things are held.

CHAPTER II. VERSE 23.

Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom.

This text has sometimes been oddly quoted against the practice of abstinence from alcoholic liquors, to which it has no relation whatever. An enlightened Temperance man does not abstain from wine, 'the mocker,' because he believes it is a good creature, which will strengthen the body, but because he knows it is a bad article, that will weaken and deprave it. It is a physiological truth, that to weaken the body is to weaken the brain, the organ of the mind, and thereby to increase the power of many morbid and depraved feelings. On the other hand, to keep the body pure, as commanded in the sequel (chap. iii. 4, 5), is the rational method of aiding the suppression of 'shameful appetites and unnatural desires.' Hence the propriety of not looking, with desire, upon the wine which is red,' 'lest thine eyes look upon strange women, and thine heart dictate perverse things.'

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST PAUL

TO THE THESSALONIANS.

CHAPTER V. Verses 6—9.

6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

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V. 6. LET US WATCH] Greegorōmen, 'let us be wakeful?; in apposition to the 'let us not sleep' of the preceding clause.

AND BE SOBER] Kai neephōmen, 'let us be abstinent.'

V. 7. AND THEY THAT BE DRUNKEN ARE DRUNKEN IN THE NIGHT] Kai oi methuskomenoi nuktos methuousin, and those that are making themselves drunk, drink deep in the night.' A partial reform had been effected since the days of Isaiah, when men rose up early in the morning to follow strong drink.

V. 8. BUT LET US, WHO ARE OF THE DAY, BE SOBER] Heemeis de heemeras ontes neephōmen, but let us who are of the day be abstinent.'

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Day and night, light and darkness, have been immemorial symbols of truth and error, holiness and sin. In speaking of the coming of 'the day of Christ'—the day of revelation and destiny-the apostle reminds the Thessalonians (ver. 4) that they were not 'in darkness'-in a state of depravity,- -so that that day should overtake them as a thief.' [Some MSS. read hōs kleptas, 'as thieves,' instead of hōs kleptees, as a thief.'] As children of the day, then, it was fitting that they should not sleep, as others did, who were children of the night-i. e. that they should not be in a state of insensibility and moral unpreparedness for the advent of the 'great day of the Lord'; rather that they should be ever 'wakeful' and 'sober,' free from all intoxicating influences and delusions. The use of the word neephōmen seems to have suggested to St Paul another descriptive metaphor-that of drinkers carousing, which in his age was wholly carried on in the night season, except by the outrageously intemperate. As those who sleep are insensible of what is passing and impending, so sinners are insensible of approaching judgment—this is one comparison. But also, as lovers of strong drink fill themselves in the night, so do sinners fill and intoxicate themselves with delusive pleasures-those of drink among

the rest,-in contrast to whom the Christian, 'who is of the day,' is both wakeful and abstinent, even as those who in the day time go about their business and keep themselves free from inebriating drinks in order that they may be able to discharge their duties aright. That the apostle wishes neephōmen to be taken literally as well as spiritually may be inferred from the well-known connection of sobriety with wakefulness, both of the senses and of the mind; as if he had said, 'The children of the day are to be wakeful; and in order that they may be wakeful, let them also be sober.' The influence of even small portions of alcoholic liquor in producing drowsiness is well known, and not a few persons who do not always abstain, yet abstain during the day in order that they may be the better qualified for the business of life. The military metaphor which the apostle proceeds to introduce-'putting on the breastplate of righteousness'-supports the view that he uses neephō in its primary sense, for the Roman soldier on duty was bound over to the most stringent sobriety, and no other drink but posca, an acidulous liquor, was supplied to him. Xenophon, in his Cyropædia (vii. 5), represents Cyrus the Great as addressing his chiefs, and reminding them that their soldiers were all wakeful and sober (egreegoratas apantas kai neephontas), while many of the Babylonians were asleep, and many of them drunken (methuousi). Plutarch says of Epaminondas, that on one occasion 'he went the round of the defences and walls, telling the men not to sleep nor to drink (agrupnein kai neephein), so that the others might have licence to sleep and to sot (methuein).' To the Christian soldier, physical sobriety is as needful as to the literal warrior when on service, nor can he wisely dispense with the one infallible security of that state-abstinence from all that can intoxicate.

CRITICAL REMARKS ON NEEPHO,' ETC.

I. Since this Greek word and its derivatives henceforth occur repeatedly in the Apostolic epistles, we will here cite the whole of those passages, with the renderings of the A. V., and then proceed to consider their meaning.

I Cor. xv. 34. Ekneepsate dikaiōs, 'awake to righteousness.'

I Thess. v. 6. Greegorōmen, let us watch,' kai neephōmen, and be sober.'

I Thess. v. 8. Heemeis neephōmen, let us be sober.'

1 Tim. iii. 2. (Of a bishop,) let him be neephaleon, 'vigilant,' sōphrona, 'sober.'

1 Tim. iii. 11. (Of deacons' wives,) let them be neephaleous, 'sober.'

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2 Tim. ii. 26. Ananeepsōsin, they may recover themselves.'

2 Tim. iv. 5. Su de neephe, but watch thou,' in pasi, 'in all things.'

I Pet. iv. 7. Sophroneesate oun, 'be ye therefore sober,' kai neepsate, and watch,' eis tas proseuchas, 'unto prayers.'

I Pet. v. 8. Neepsate, 'be sober,' greegoreesate, 'be vigilant.'

In the Lxx. version of the Old Testament neither the verb neepho nor the adjective neephalios occurs, except in combination in the following places :Gen. ix. 24. And Noah exeneepse, became sober'

(autou), 'from his wine.'

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awoke, apo tou oinou

I Sam. xxv. 37. Nabal exeneepsen, 'became sober' awoke, apo tou oinou, 'from the wine.' The Hebrew reads, 'in the going out of the wine from Nabal.' Joel i. 5. Ekneepsate, 'become sober' = awake.

Hab. ii. 1. Ekneepson, 'awake!' Hab. ii. 7. Ekneepsousin, shall awake.' Ekneepsin occurs in Lament. ii. 8 and (in some MSS.) in iii. 48.