"In these two verses, the author of Proverbs has more than nullified all the good things he said in his earlier chapters, and which I have quoted in List A. I am quite sure that where they have prevented the drinking of one glass of wine or strong drink, these passages have led to the drinking of one thousand. And this is a mild statement of the case. "Eccl. 9 : 7: 'Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.' "Song of Sol. 1 : 2: 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for thy love is better than wine.' "From this we gather that, next to love wine is the best thing in the world. This is the opinion of most bacchanalian experts, I believe. Solomon seems to have had much experience. "Song of Sol. 5 : 1: 'I have drunk my wine with my milk; eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O believers.' "Is this the earliest mention of milk punch? "Song of Sol. 8 : 2: 'I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.' Metaphorical, undoubtedly. "Isa. 1 : 22: 'Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water.' "Have your wine full strength, as much as you would have your silver unalloyed, is the admonition of God's prophet. "Isa. 24 : 7: 'The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth; all the merry-hearted do sigh.' "One more in the long list of passages wherein it is said that God punished his chosen people by cutting off their vintage. What God regards as a real deprivation to lose must be good to have and to keep, in his opinion, whatever the Woman's Christian Temperance Union people may think about it. Verse 9 says: 'They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.' Verse 11: 'There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened; the mirth of the land is gone.' "God thus punished them by taking away their wine, on the same principle that he punishes us by killing our children, as Christians say that he does. Will they contend that children are inherently an evil? They must if they follow the same line of reasoning that they do in interpreting these texts. "Isa. 27 : 2, 3: 'In that day sing ye unto her, a vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.'