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QUOTES - WINE
Toward evening, about suppertime, when the serious studies of the day are over, is the time to take wine (Clement of Alexandria).
Drink in itself is a good creature of God and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan; the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil (Increase Mather).
O blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, King of the Universe, who bringeth forth the fruit of the vine; blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, King of the Universe, who bringeth forth bread from the earth; blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, King of the Universe, who putteth compassion into the hearts of men (Old Table Grace).
We believe wine is the temperate, civilized, sacred, romantic, mealtime beverage recommended in the Bible. It is a liquid food that has been part of civilization for 8,000 years. Wine has been praised for centuries by statesmen, scholars, poets, and philosophers. It has been used as a religious sacrament, as the beverage of choice for food, and as a source of pleasure and diversion (Robert Mondavi).
If a man deliberately abstains from wine to such an extent that he does serious harm to his nature, he will not be free from blame (Thomas Aquinas).
A few sips from a glass of wine will calm the troubled mind, settle the stomach and bring a measure of contentment to the spirit. It also is well established, of course, that too many glasses will trouble the mind, capsize the stomach and decimate the spirit (Don & Betty Martin).
Rain makes the vines grow, the vines make the wine flow, Oh Lord! Let it rain! (Anonymous).
Back of this wine is the vintner, and back through the years his skill, and back of it all are the vines in the sun and the rain and the Master’s Will (Vintner’s Ode).
August makes the grapes, and September makes the wine (French Saying).
Beer is made by men, wine by God (Martin Luther).
The wine in the bottle does not quench thirst (George Herbert).
If any man should consider daintier food unlawful, in the end he will not be at peace before God, when he eats either black bread or common victuals, while it occurs to him that he could sustain his body on even courser foods. If he boggles at sweet wine, he will not with clear conscience drink even flat wine, and finally he will not dare touch water if sweeter and cleaner than other water. To sum up, he will come to the point of considering it wrong to step upon a straw across his path, as the saying goes (John Calvin).
And we have never been forbidden to laugh, or to be filled, or to join new possessions to old or ancestral ones, or to delight in musical harmony, or to drink wine (John Calvin).
There are two reasons for drinking wine: when you are not thirsty—to prevent it; when you are thirsty—to cure it; prevention is always better than cure (Lord Duff Cooper).
I have enjoyed great health at a great age because every day since I can remember I have consumed a bottle of wine except when I have not felt well. Then I have consumed two bottles (Bishop of Seville).
Prohibitionists say that drinking is bad for you, but the bible says that Noah made wine and drank it, and he only lived to be 950 years old. Show me an abstainer who ever lived that long (Will Rogers).
Yet it is precisely the most religious elements of American society who reject the most potent symbol of the Christian religion, in the form of wine (Andrew Barr).
If all be true that I do think, there are five reasons we should drink: good wine—a friend—or being dry—or lest we should be by and by—or any other reason why (Henry Aldrich).
Blessed be God, who prosper’d Noah’s vine, and made it bring forth grapes, good store: but much more Him I must adore, who of the Law’s sour juice sweet wine did make, even God Himself being pressed for my sake (George Herbert).
By the aid of genial showers the earth produces not merely necessaries but luxuries, that which furnishes a feast as well as that which makes a meal. O that man were wise enough to know how to use this gladdening product of the vine; but, alas, he full often turns it to ill account, and debases himself therewith. Of this he must himself bear the blame; he deserves to be miserable who turns even blessings into curses (C. H. Spurgeon).
He who hears the Shema, drinks the shekar (Jewish Saying).
Let us praise God with this symbol of joy and thank Him for the blessings of the past week, for life and strength, for home and love and friendship, for the discipline of our trials and temptations, for the happiness that has come to us out of our labors . . . Praised be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast created the fruit of the vine (Jewish Prayer).
Wine has been the ruin of many . . . Bitterness to the soul is much drinking of wine . . . Drunkenness increases the anger of a foolish man to his injury (Ecclesiasticus 31:25, 29, 30).
Wine is like life to men, if you drink it in moderation. What life has a man who is without wine? For it was created to give gladness to men (Ecclesiasticus 31:27).
An exhilaration to the heart and gladness to the soul is wine, drunk at the proper time and in sufficient quantity (Ecclesiasticus 31:28).
Wine and music delight the heart, but the love of wisdom is better than both of them (Ecclesiasticus 40:20).
The modest water, awed by power divine, beheld its God, and blushed itself to wine (John Dryden).
It seems utterly impossible, on any fair and honest interpretation, to reconcile the passage before us with the leading principles of what is commonly called “Teetotalism.” If our Lord Jesus Christ actually worked a miracle in order to supply wine at a marriage feast, it seems to me impossible, by any ingenuity, to prove that drinking wine is sinful. Temperance in all things is one of the fruits of the Spirit (J. C. Ryle).
He changes the water of Judaism into the wine of Christianity, the water of Christlessness into the wine of the richness and the fullness of eternal life in Christ, the water of the law into the wine of the gospel (Leon Morris).
All the Reformers were united that the wine comes from God but the drunkard comes from the Devil (Jim West).
Unlike many of today’s Protestant groups, the settlers of the seventeenth century had not been opposed to the consumption of wine or other alcoholic drinks in moderation . . . The Puritans did not have any problems about people drinking as long as it did not lead to drunkenness (Andrew Barr).
To the Puritans of New England and the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the production of fermented beverages served as a symbol of successful settlement, of overcoming the obstacles that had confronted them. No wonder the puritan preacher Samuel Parris described alcohol as “the principal drink that is given to mortal man, being profitable not only to moderate thirst but also to strengthen the heart, and revive the drooping spirits” (Andrew Barr).
Christ’s church is a banqueting-house, and the banquet in it, like Esther’s, is a banquet of wine; such is the ordinance of the supper, a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined (John Gill).
If a person can’t tolerate wine, omit it (the sacrament) altogether in order that no innovation may be made or introduced (Martin Luther).
Wine was given by God, not that we might be drunken, but that we might be sober. It is the best medicine when it has the moderation to direct it. Wine was given to restore the body’s weakness, not to overturn the soul’s strength (John Chrysostom).
Wine does not intoxicate men; men intoxicate themselves (Chinese Proverb).
It is interesting that many teetotalers who condemn others who drink in moderation do not eat in moderation themselves. Gluttony, like drunkenness, is a sin (James Nalls).
God in His goodness sent the grapes to cheer both great and small. Little fools will drink too much, and great fools none at all (Anonymous).
There are more old wine drinkers than old doctors (German Proverb).
Drink a glass of wine after your soup, and you steal a ruble from the doctor (Russian Proverb).
Good wine gladdens the eye, cleans the teeth, and heals the stomach (Spanish Proverb).
Wine is the greatest medicine (Jewish Saying).
The days will come in which vines will grow, each having ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give two hundred gallons of wine. And when any of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster, another shall cry out: “I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me” (Papias).
Drink to me only with thine eyes, and I will pledge with mine; or leave a kiss but in the cup, and I’ll not look for wine (Ben Johnson).
As wine is squeezed out of the grape in the wine-press, so the blood of Christ was pressed from him, when it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and when he trod the wine-press of divine wrath; and as wine cheers the heart of man, so the blood of Christ, applied by the Spirit, speaks peace and pardon to guilty minds, and puts joy and gladness into broken hearts and wounded spirits (John Gill).
Oh! that I might repose on Thee! Oh! that Thou wouldest enter into my heart, and inebriate it, that I may forget my ills, and embrace Thee, my sole good? (Augustine).
More are drowned in the wine-cup than in the ocean (German Proverb).
If you vow abstinence from wine as though something holy inhered in this act, you are superstitious (John Calvin).
The abuse of God’s blessings does not destroy their use. Wine is the gift of God (Charles Bridges).
Wine improves with age; the older I get; the better I like it! (Anonymous).
I hear many cry when deplorable excesses, “Would there were not wine!” oh, folly! Oh, madness! Is it the wine that causes this abuse? No. it is the intemperance of those who take an evil delight in it. Cry rather: “Would to God there were no drunkenness, no luxury.” If you say, “Would there were no wine” because of the drunkards, then you must say, going on by degrees, “Would there were no steel” because of the murderers, “Would there were no night” because of the thieves, “Would there were no light” because of the informers, and “Would there no women” because of adultery (John Chrysostom).
If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good? (Cardinal Richeliu).
Old wine and an old friend are good provisions (George Herbert).
When the time to drink wine comes, drink it (Chinese Proverb).
It takes only a very small amount of alcohol to help prevent heart disease, but it needs to be consumed on a regular basis (Curtis Ellison).
Arbitrary legalism is a poor substitute for an inner morality (Carl F. H. Henry).
A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine (French Proverb).
The juice of the grape is given to him that will use it wisely, as that which cheers the heart of man after toil, refreshes him in sickness and comforts him in sorrow. He who so enjoyeth it may thank God for his wine-cup as for his daily bread; and he who abuseth the gift of heaven is not a greater fool in his intoxication than thou in thine abstinence (Sir Walter Scott).
Wine, one sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise and taste (John Milton).
For Scriptures related to wine, see: Select Scriptures
Return to: Drinkers of Wine
For overview of THEOLOGY, see: Site Map - Theology
For overview of the website, see: Site Map
QUOTES - WINE
Toward evening, about suppertime, when the serious studies of the day are over, is the time to take wine (Clement of Alexandria).
Drink in itself is a good creature of God and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan; the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil (Increase Mather).
O blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, King of the Universe, who bringeth forth the fruit of the vine; blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, King of the Universe, who bringeth forth bread from the earth; blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, King of the Universe, who putteth compassion into the hearts of men (Old Table Grace).
We believe wine is the temperate, civilized, sacred, romantic, mealtime beverage recommended in the Bible. It is a liquid food that has been part of civilization for 8,000 years. Wine has been praised for centuries by statesmen, scholars, poets, and philosophers. It has been used as a religious sacrament, as the beverage of choice for food, and as a source of pleasure and diversion (Robert Mondavi).
If a man deliberately abstains from wine to such an extent that he does serious harm to his nature, he will not be free from blame (Thomas Aquinas).
A few sips from a glass of wine will calm the troubled mind, settle the stomach and bring a measure of contentment to the spirit. It also is well established, of course, that too many glasses will trouble the mind, capsize the stomach and decimate the spirit (Don & Betty Martin).
Rain makes the vines grow, the vines make the wine flow, Oh Lord! Let it rain! (Anonymous).
Back of this wine is the vintner, and back through the years his skill, and back of it all are the vines in the sun and the rain and the Master’s Will (Vintner’s Ode).
August makes the grapes, and September makes the wine (French Saying).
Beer is made by men, wine by God (Martin Luther).
The wine in the bottle does not quench thirst (George Herbert).
If any man should consider daintier food unlawful, in the end he will not be at peace before God, when he eats either black bread or common victuals, while it occurs to him that he could sustain his body on even courser foods. If he boggles at sweet wine, he will not with clear conscience drink even flat wine, and finally he will not dare touch water if sweeter and cleaner than other water. To sum up, he will come to the point of considering it wrong to step upon a straw across his path, as the saying goes (John Calvin).
And we have never been forbidden to laugh, or to be filled, or to join new possessions to old or ancestral ones, or to delight in musical harmony, or to drink wine (John Calvin).
There are two reasons for drinking wine: when you are not thirsty—to prevent it; when you are thirsty—to cure it; prevention is always better than cure (Lord Duff Cooper).
I have enjoyed great health at a great age because every day since I can remember I have consumed a bottle of wine except when I have not felt well. Then I have consumed two bottles (Bishop of Seville).
Prohibitionists say that drinking is bad for you, but the bible says that Noah made wine and drank it, and he only lived to be 950 years old. Show me an abstainer who ever lived that long (Will Rogers).
Yet it is precisely the most religious elements of American society who reject the most potent symbol of the Christian religion, in the form of wine (Andrew Barr).
If all be true that I do think, there are five reasons we should drink: good wine—a friend—or being dry—or lest we should be by and by—or any other reason why (Henry Aldrich).
Blessed be God, who prosper’d Noah’s vine, and made it bring forth grapes, good store: but much more Him I must adore, who of the Law’s sour juice sweet wine did make, even God Himself being pressed for my sake (George Herbert).
By the aid of genial showers the earth produces not merely necessaries but luxuries, that which furnishes a feast as well as that which makes a meal. O that man were wise enough to know how to use this gladdening product of the vine; but, alas, he full often turns it to ill account, and debases himself therewith. Of this he must himself bear the blame; he deserves to be miserable who turns even blessings into curses (C. H. Spurgeon).
He who hears the Shema, drinks the shekar (Jewish Saying).
Let us praise God with this symbol of joy and thank Him for the blessings of the past week, for life and strength, for home and love and friendship, for the discipline of our trials and temptations, for the happiness that has come to us out of our labors . . . Praised be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast created the fruit of the vine (Jewish Prayer).
Wine has been the ruin of many . . . Bitterness to the soul is much drinking of wine . . . Drunkenness increases the anger of a foolish man to his injury (Ecclesiasticus 31:25, 29, 30).
Wine is like life to men, if you drink it in moderation. What life has a man who is without wine? For it was created to give gladness to men (Ecclesiasticus 31:27).
An exhilaration to the heart and gladness to the soul is wine, drunk at the proper time and in sufficient quantity (Ecclesiasticus 31:28).
Wine and music delight the heart, but the love of wisdom is better than both of them (Ecclesiasticus 40:20).
The modest water, awed by power divine, beheld its God, and blushed itself to wine (John Dryden).
It seems utterly impossible, on any fair and honest interpretation, to reconcile the passage before us with the leading principles of what is commonly called “Teetotalism.” If our Lord Jesus Christ actually worked a miracle in order to supply wine at a marriage feast, it seems to me impossible, by any ingenuity, to prove that drinking wine is sinful. Temperance in all things is one of the fruits of the Spirit (J. C. Ryle).
He changes the water of Judaism into the wine of Christianity, the water of Christlessness into the wine of the richness and the fullness of eternal life in Christ, the water of the law into the wine of the gospel (Leon Morris).
All the Reformers were united that the wine comes from God but the drunkard comes from the Devil (Jim West).
Unlike many of today’s Protestant groups, the settlers of the seventeenth century had not been opposed to the consumption of wine or other alcoholic drinks in moderation . . . The Puritans did not have any problems about people drinking as long as it did not lead to drunkenness (Andrew Barr).
To the Puritans of New England and the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the production of fermented beverages served as a symbol of successful settlement, of overcoming the obstacles that had confronted them. No wonder the puritan preacher Samuel Parris described alcohol as “the principal drink that is given to mortal man, being profitable not only to moderate thirst but also to strengthen the heart, and revive the drooping spirits” (Andrew Barr).
Christ’s church is a banqueting-house, and the banquet in it, like Esther’s, is a banquet of wine; such is the ordinance of the supper, a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined (John Gill).
If a person can’t tolerate wine, omit it (the sacrament) altogether in order that no innovation may be made or introduced (Martin Luther).
Wine was given by God, not that we might be drunken, but that we might be sober. It is the best medicine when it has the moderation to direct it. Wine was given to restore the body’s weakness, not to overturn the soul’s strength (John Chrysostom).
Wine does not intoxicate men; men intoxicate themselves (Chinese Proverb).
It is interesting that many teetotalers who condemn others who drink in moderation do not eat in moderation themselves. Gluttony, like drunkenness, is a sin (James Nalls).
God in His goodness sent the grapes to cheer both great and small. Little fools will drink too much, and great fools none at all (Anonymous).
There are more old wine drinkers than old doctors (German Proverb).
Drink a glass of wine after your soup, and you steal a ruble from the doctor (Russian Proverb).
Good wine gladdens the eye, cleans the teeth, and heals the stomach (Spanish Proverb).
Wine is the greatest medicine (Jewish Saying).
The days will come in which vines will grow, each having ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give two hundred gallons of wine. And when any of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster, another shall cry out: “I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me” (Papias).
Drink to me only with thine eyes, and I will pledge with mine; or leave a kiss but in the cup, and I’ll not look for wine (Ben Johnson).
As wine is squeezed out of the grape in the wine-press, so the blood of Christ was pressed from him, when it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and when he trod the wine-press of divine wrath; and as wine cheers the heart of man, so the blood of Christ, applied by the Spirit, speaks peace and pardon to guilty minds, and puts joy and gladness into broken hearts and wounded spirits (John Gill).
Oh! that I might repose on Thee! Oh! that Thou wouldest enter into my heart, and inebriate it, that I may forget my ills, and embrace Thee, my sole good? (Augustine).
More are drowned in the wine-cup than in the ocean (German Proverb).
If you vow abstinence from wine as though something holy inhered in this act, you are superstitious (John Calvin).
The abuse of God’s blessings does not destroy their use. Wine is the gift of God (Charles Bridges).
Wine improves with age; the older I get; the better I like it! (Anonymous).
I hear many cry when deplorable excesses, “Would there were not wine!” oh, folly! Oh, madness! Is it the wine that causes this abuse? No. it is the intemperance of those who take an evil delight in it. Cry rather: “Would to God there were no drunkenness, no luxury.” If you say, “Would there were no wine” because of the drunkards, then you must say, going on by degrees, “Would there were no steel” because of the murderers, “Would there were no night” because of the thieves, “Would there were no light” because of the informers, and “Would there no women” because of adultery (John Chrysostom).
If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good? (Cardinal Richeliu).
Old wine and an old friend are good provisions (George Herbert).
When the time to drink wine comes, drink it (Chinese Proverb).
It takes only a very small amount of alcohol to help prevent heart disease, but it needs to be consumed on a regular basis (Curtis Ellison).
Arbitrary legalism is a poor substitute for an inner morality (Carl F. H. Henry).
A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine (French Proverb).
The juice of the grape is given to him that will use it wisely, as that which cheers the heart of man after toil, refreshes him in sickness and comforts him in sorrow. He who so enjoyeth it may thank God for his wine-cup as for his daily bread; and he who abuseth the gift of heaven is not a greater fool in his intoxication than thou in thine abstinence (Sir Walter Scott).
Wine, one sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise and taste (John Milton).
For Scriptures related to wine, see: Select Scriptures
Return to: Drinkers of Wine
For overview of THEOLOGY, see: Site Map - Theology
For overview of the website, see: Site Map