16 MARCH 1878, Page 24

77/e Wines of the Bible. By the Rev. A. M.

Wilson. (Hamilton and Co.)—This is by no moans, as some might hastily suppose, a mere taking title for a volume of lectures or discourses, which was indeed our own supposition on first seeing the title, reminding us, as it did, of a popular preacher who once told us that he had just finished a course of lectures on "The Four Elements," and had just commenced another on "The Crowds of the Bible." The book is a most elaborate investi- gation of the question whether "the wines of the Bible" were fer- mented, and therefore intoxicating. The writer tells us that he is a teetotaler, and was therefore inclined to the "unfermented theory," but has come to the conclusion, after this most lengthy research in sources sacred and profane, that the theory cannot be maintained. Most people would probably have agreed with this conclusion, oven if it had been reached in as many words as the writer has written pages.