USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > Biographical and genealogical history of the city of Newark and Essex County, New Jersey, V. 1 > Part 3
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ยท In deep glen seatcd, or on mountain steep, Sung to his harp in morn or evening calm, Many a holy pastoral and psalm-
As certain shepherds, simple and devout,
Under the starry heavens were lying out,
Watching their flocks, while one lifts up the chant, "The Lord my shepherd is, I shall not want." Or, as with upturned face, he ravished sees Belted Orion and the Pleiades, Singing, "When I the heavens consider, made And fashioned by Thy fingers, thick inlaid With stars and suns in numbers numberless, Lord, what is man that Thou shouldst come bless?''-
An Angel of the Lord beside them stood: The glory of the Lord in mighty flood Shone round about them luminous and clear, And all the shepherds feared with a great fear. "Fear not," the Angel said, "good news I bear, Cause of great joy to people everywhere. In David's city is a Saviour born, Who is the Christ the Lord, this happy morn. And this the sign to you: Ye shall not find Prepared a stately edifice, designed For His reception: this great Potentate And Prince of Heaven and Earth, assumes no state; Comes with no retinue; conceals and shrouds His proper glory under veils and clouds
to
Of lowliness, in stable of an inn
His Showing and Epiphany begin.
There look and you shall find in manger laid
The Infant Christ in swaddling clothes arrayed."
Then suddenly were present, height o'er height, A countless multitude of the sons of light, In mighty chorus singing loud and clear. Charming celestial silences to hear;
"Glory to God there in the highest heaven! Peace here on earth, good will to men forgiven!"
-The Evangel, pages 59-61.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.
* *
*
* He stood
On a raised plain mid a vast multitude, Composed of His disciples-and all them Who from Judea, and Jerusalem, And from the shores of Tyre and Sidon came
To hear Him and be healed-His blessed name, Now on all lips, because there was no case Too desperate for His relieving grace;
The virtue that went out of Him was such
That men were healed with one believing touch.
All hushed, He sat, and lifting up His eyes On His disciples, taught them in this wise. Happy the poor in spirit, who
their deep demerit own,
In them My Kingdom I set up; with them I share my throne. Happy are they, who mourn for sin with smitings on the breast. The Comforter shall comfort them in ways He knoweth best.
Happy the meek, who patient bear unconscious of their worth, They shall inherit seats of power, and dominate the earth. Happy who hunger and who thirst for righteousness complete, Their longings shall fulfillments have and satisfactions sweet.
Happy the merciful, who know to pity and forgive, They mercy shall obtain at last, and evermore shall live. Happy the pure in heart, whose feet with holiness are shod, They shall run up the shining way and see the face of God. Happy the friends of peace, who heal the wounds by discord given,
The God of Heaven shall hold them dear and call them sons of heaven. Happy are they who suffer for adherence to the right, They shall be kings and priests to God in realms of heavenly light. Happy are ye when men revile and falsely you accuse, Be very glad, for so of old . did they the prophets use. Happy are ye, when for My sake, men persecute and hate, Exult! for your reward in heaven is made thereby more great. -The Light of the World, pages 76-77.
The late Hon. Frederick W. Ricord, in his memorial address before the New Jer- sey Historical Society (May 19, 1892).
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said: "Dr. Coles was a man who pos- sessed and enjoyed a religion founded upon the teachings of the Old and New Testa- ments. It was a religion which pervaded all the recesses of his heart, which gave a temper to all his thoughts, which entered into all the transactions of his life,-a reli- gion of the soul, a religion of the closet, a religion which he cared not whether the world was cognizant of or not, never seek- ing to thrust it upon others, or to display it as a beautiful, well fitting garment. He recognized God as a being to be worshiped, to be loved and to be obeyed; and he ac- corded to his neighbor the same love that he had for himself. He was, however, a man of strong convictions, and in religious matters those convictions were the result of a thorough investigation by a mind well equipped, and influenced in its labors only by a desire to find out the truth. So ar- dent and thorough a student of the Scrip- tures as he was, reading them in the lan- guages in which they earliest appeared, he was fully able to give a reason for the faith that was in him, which was strictly evan- gelical."
In refutation of certain statements and specious arguments published with the in- tent of proving that the gallons of wine made by Christ for free distribution at Cana were intoxicating and that He thus sanctioned with Divine authority the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, the New- ark Daily Advertiser of Saturday, Nov. 27, 1897, in its leading editorial, said :
We print to-day a compendium of facts relating to the wine Christ made and drank, taken from 'The Life and Teachings of Our Lord,' by the late Dr. Abraham Coles, a work that has become a standard authority in this country and in Europe." * * * * * *
"Mahomet forbade wine, and Christ made it. The difference between Christ and Mahomet was that of divine knowledge and human ignorance. Mahomet mistook a part for the whole, and with his axe of prohibition struck at a branch, supposing it to he the
trunk. The Omniscient Christ was guilty of no such error. He knew that the bane was manifold, and that to single out wine for special prohibition was folly.
The truth is, Christ forbade nothing. Not but ten thousand things are forbidden,-everything hurtful is so. Nature forbids, and nature is final. Why re-enact nature? reaffirm creation? deal in dittoes and deu- teronomies? repeat laws established? settle what was never unsettled? Christ left nature as He found it, inviolate, unrepealed. His walking on the water did not abolish gravitation. Fact was fact the same as before; arsenic was arsenic; alcohol was alcohol. So far as nature forbade these they were forbidden; so far as nature permitted them they were permitted. Christ could go no farther than nature and be the Lord of nature. Consequently Christ could not have forbidden wine absolutely and been God.
Wine is many and different. There is a kind of wine which is not, and another which is, intoxicat- ing; that is, has a toxic or poisoning power, for that is the meaning of the term. Was the wine Christ made the latter? Christ's character is the answer. If that says no, it is no; for the wine is to be judged by Christ, not Christ by the wine. Christ we know; the wine we do not know. That which best befitted Him to make, He undoubtedly made. * * * * Tak- ing our stand, therefore, on the immovable rock of Christ's character, we risk nothing in saying that the wine of miracle answered to the wine of nature, and was not intoxicating. No counter proof can equal the force of that drawn from His attributes. It is an in- decency and a calumny to impute to Christ conduct which requires apology. One thing is certain, He did not make fermented wine, for there was no time for fermentation.
In opposition to those who deny (for what is not denied by somebody?) that unfermented grape-juice is wine at all, we maintain that not only is it wine, but wine pre-eminently, the original, the true, as be- ing nearest to the parent vine, and overflowing with the abundance of its life. Every step of that process called fermentation, whereby innocent sugar is con- verted into alcohol, is of the nature of a removal and eloignment. Wine and vine are etymologically the same. The Greeks called the vine "the mother of wine" (oinometor). Properly "oinos" is only then the child of the vine when vinous and vital it represents "the wine of the cluster," "the pure blood of the grape." Death follows life, and corruption death, and there results a deadly something which men call wine, but wrongly, for it is no longer vinous. The vine disowns it. It is a corpse, not a living thing. Al- cohol is not wine, but an atrocious usurper of its name and rights.
Christ made wine. He was maker, not manufacturer. The key-note to the miracle is creation. This alone renders it worthy and intelligible. Christ was no Demiurge, but God. Not inferior nor different. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God." "All things were made by Him." It was fitting that He should in the outset make this appear; and so He did. In a miraculous moment, He did what, in His ordinary working in nature, He takes four months to do. Such was His debut-an epiphany of Godhead; a demonstration to the whole universe that He was "over all, God blessed forever." "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory"-giving, in His own Divine Person, by a new genesis, as "in the beginning" of the world, needed practical proof and illustration that God is; and that He is one, not two nor many; that He cre- ated matter; that nature is from Him; that though He exists and operates in nature, He is not nature, but a power apart from it and above it, acting upon it from without in omnipotent freedom of will, and di-
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recting it to beneficent ends; that the God who feeds us is identical with the God who saves us,-thus sweeping away all the hoary diabolisms of disbelief, bearing the names of Atheism, Dualism, Polytheism, Materialism, Pantheism and Fatalism.
It is assumed, for this view necessitates it, that the wine of miracle was the same as the wine of nature, the wine of the cluster, holy and life giving, the type of all nourishment, and the type of salvation. The wine of art is not this. It represents evil rather than good. It is better fitted to typify destruction than creation. It is less a making than an unmaking. Alcohol is unmade sugar. Men brand it poison. The Bible furnishes for our warning many examples of the evil following its use.
Thus far we have limited ourselves to asserting that Christ did not make intoxicating wine; whether he ever drank it is another question. Here, too, His char- acter is everything,-far more than doubtful philol- ogy. Anything He drank must, we know, have been a safe and unhurtful beverage, wherein there was no "excess." We are not permitted to suppose that the Saviour from sin was an example of sin; that He who taught self-denial practiced self-indulgence. Rather must we believe that every meal he ate was a lesson of temperance. He, knowing what is in man, the liability of the best to fall, ceased not to warn against a vain self-confidence and a false security. "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." * * * * "Pray that ye enter not into temptation." That the wine of com- munion was azymous wine, new wine, sweet and sacred, made the festal token of a heavenly renewal of divine fellowship, is proved by His own words: "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new (kainon) with you in my Father's Kingdom." * * *
It is stated that all points in dispute have their final answer in the settlement of the one question,-"Does 'wine,' standing alone, mean, as is claimed, only and always the juice of the grape fermented, and never the juice of the grape unfermented; and was the same made and drunk by Christ and used by Him as one of the elements of the Last Supper?" The pivot, evi- dently on which everything turns, are the words "only and always," so that if it can be shown, in a single instance, that the word "wine," uncoupled with "new," is clearly used anywhere in the Bible in the sense of "new wine" or "must," the learning which denies it goes for nothing, and the whole argument based on that erroneous assumption falls to the ground.
"Must," as defined in all the dictionaries, is 'new wine.' Beyond all question oinos neos, in Greek, an- swers to vinum mustum in Latin, and new wine in English, and all refer to the unfermented juice of the grape. In Luther's translation, wherever oinos neos occurs in the New Testament, it is invariably rendered must. Must is from the Latin mustus, new, fresh, with vinum understood, and the Imperial Dictionary defines it to be 'new wine, wine pressed from the grape, but not fermented.' In similar terms it is defined in all the languages of Europe. To say that new wine is not wine, is as absurd as to say that a new bottle is not a bottle. A thing is known by what it is called. It is mere trifling to say that what has the perpetual sanction of the highest literary and scientific authori- ties is unwarranted and incorrect. It is true that it is not wine in the sense of fermented wine, but it is called wine nevertheless; and my purpose is to pro- duce undoubted examples from the New Testament of oinos being used in the place and in the sense of oinos neos-i. e., must.
In Matthew ix., 17, we read: "Neither do men put new wine (oinon neon) into old bottles else the bottles
("old" omitted) break, and the wine (oinos, alone, with neos omitted) runneth out.' In the parallel passage in Mark ii., 22, there are the same omissions in the second clause of the verse. In Luke, it is 'new wine' in both places, thus confirming the identity of the two. If oinos neos here means, as is admitted it does, must, then oinos inevitably means must likewise, see- ing the two indisputably refer to one and the same thing. When neos (new) was no longer needed for definition it was dropped and only the general or gen- eric term 'Wine,' was retained. It was in obedience to the same law of language that the defining adject- ives 'old' and 'new' applied to bottles, were dropped after they had served their purpose. One only needs to omit the specific and defining words to see how pointless and meaningless all this becomes: 'Neither do men put wine into-bottles; else the bottles break and the wine runneth out. But they put wine into bottles and both are preserved:'
What now is wanted to the completeness and ab- soluteness of the proof? Here we have the Holy Ghost for a witness, and a divine example of usus loquendi, clearly showing that oinos is properly used to denote the unfermented grape juice without the qualifying epithet neos, as well as with it. The proof is certain, contemporaneous, positive, inspired and infallible; not to be gainsaid or questioned, repeated by two evan- gelists and fortified by a third-proof drawn directly from the Holy Gospels themselves and Christ's own words. We might properly stop here without adding a single word. The proof adduced is of the simplest kind, needing for its full appreciation no learning be- yond the ability to spell. Yet so conclusive that I cannot doubt that it would be accepted as such by any court in Christendom. I for my part would not ask to have the title to my own house and grounds sup- ported by stronger proof.
Reference has already been made to that familiar principle which governs speech in the use of generic and specific terms, of which here we have an excellent example. New wine is expressly named, because the similitude pointed at is based on properties which are peculiar to unfermented wine. There are three neces- sary factors in the case: First, A fermentable liquor (which excludes, of course, any liquor that has under- gone fermentation already); second, the possible pres- ence of a ferment liable to be found in old bottles (i. e., bottles previously used), whether made of skins or glass or earthenware, for this, by exciting fer- mentation in a fermentable liquor, would inevitably give rise to the liberation of a large quantity of gas, which, if confined, would operate with rending and de- structive violence; third, the closure of the bottle, for unless closed the gas would escape as soon as gen- erated and cause no damage. But as the whole pro- cedure avowedly looked to the prevention of fermenta- tion, and thereby the preservation of the liquor in its unfermented state, the strict closure of the bottle, so as to effectually exclude the atmospheric air, formed a necessary part of it. Such was the Jewish method employed for preserving must from one vintage to another, which differs in no essential respect from that described by Latin writers-e. g., Cato, the elder, who lived two centuries before Christ, and Columella, who was contemporary.
One cannot fail to be struck how very remarkably the two methods, the Roman and the Jewish, tally. Thus another important point is established, that it was customary in the time of our Lord to permanent- ly preserve the unfermented jnice of the grape. Why preserved, unless to be drunk? It is clear. moreover. that this process was so common as to be known to everybody, otherwise Christ would not have said. virtually. 'No man' is so incredibly stupld or so lg- norant (seeing the veriest child ought to know better) as to put 'new wine,' a fermentable liquor, In imme-
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diate contact with a ferment if he wishes to preserve it. The structure of the whole similitude goes to prove that the thing entered into the daily domestic life of the people, living in a vine-growing country, and that the name of wine was constantly applied to it.
Nobody who is acquainted with the high value of grapes, and grape juice as food (grape juice being in this respect little, if at all, inferior to milk itself, which chemically it closely resembles) will wonder that pains should have been taken to preserve and store up a means of subsistence so luxurious and so cheap.
The above article attracted profound and widespread interest resulting in extra de- mands for the paper, orders therefor rang- ing from one hundred to six hundred cop- ies.
The late Dr. Ezra M. Hunt and others eminent in their profession were, before graduation, students of medicine in the of- fice of Dr. Coles, who was particular to im- press upon the memory of his hearers the danger of prescribing for use in the nur- sery, hospital and in general practice prep- arations containing alcohol or opium, af- firming that although they produce effects that differ, they agree in this that if used habitually they alike tend by a law as con- stant as gravity itself to establish a tyranny compared with which chains, racks, dun- geons and whatever else go to make up the material apparatus of the most cruel despo- tism are as nothing.
Dr. Coles was not a prohibitionist in its political sense, but as a Christian, physician, chemist and scientist, he taught and prac- ticed total abstinence. In the light of history, the power, and the consequent re- sponsibility of arresting and preventing the spread of the plague of intemperance would seem to rest, primarily, with the members of the medical, and, secondarily, with the members of the clerical, profes- sion, inasmuch as without their aid other philanthropists have generally, if not al- ways, failed in their efforts to effect any permanent abatement of the ravages of the
disease, centuries of evidence bearing wit- ness to the fact that argument is of little or no avail with those who can quote their physician or pastor as their authority for non-abstinence.
In 1888 Dr. Coles put forth a volume of more than three hundred and fifty pages, entitled "A New Rendering of the Hebrew Psalms into English Verse, with notes, critical, historical and biographical, includ- ing an historical sketch of the French, Eng- lish and Scotch metrical versions."
The New York Tribune, in a lengthy critical review of the work, said: "Dr. Coles' name on the title page is a sufficient indication of the excellence and thorough- ness of the work done. Indeed, Dr. Coles has done much more than produce a fresh, vigorous and harmonious version of the Psalms, though this was alone well worth doing. His full and scholarly notes on the early versions of Clement Marot, Sternhold and Hopkins, and others, his sketches of eminent persons connected in various ways with particular psalms, his literary and bib- liographical information, together impart a value and interest to this work which should insure an extensive circulation for it. Very much of the historical and other matter thus brought within the reach of the public is inaccessible to such as have not means of access to public libraries. In his version of the Psalms he has wisely pre- served the rhythmical swing and the terse language which distinguish the early ren- derings."
The Rev. Frederic W. Farrar, D. D., F. R. S., chaplain in ordinary to the queen, in a letter to Dr. Coles, said: "The task of versifying the Psalms was too much, even for Milton, but you have attempted it with seriousness and with as much success as
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seems to be possible. I was much inter- ested in your introduction."
S. W. Kershaw, F. T. A., the librarian of the Lambeth Palace Library, London, England, also writes to Dr. Coles: "I am greatly interested in the introduction, in reading about the psalms of Clement Marot, and in the allusion to the Hugue- nots."
On the scroll in the hand of the beauti- ful symbolical figure of Poetry, by J. Q. A.
Comes from his chamber richly drest, An athlete strong and full of grace, And glad to run the heavenly race, -- Completes his round with tireless feet, And naught is hidden from his heat.
But, Nature's book sums not the whole: God's perfect law converts the soul; His sure unerring word supplies
The means to make the simple wise; His precepts are divinely right,
An inspiration and delight;
His pure commandment makes all clear, Clean and enduring in His fear. .
The judgments of the Lord are true, And righteous wholly, through and through; More to be coveted than gold, Of higher worth a thousand fold;
VAJE
THE LIBRARY AT DEERHURST.
Ward, in the Library of Congress, at Washington, the artist has memorialized Dr. Coles' version of Psalm xix., which is as follows :
The rolling skies with lips of flame Their Maker's power and skill proclaim: Day speaks to day, and night to night Shows knowledge writ in beams of light, And though no voice, no spoken word Can by the outward ear be heard, The witness of a traveling sound Reverberates the world around.
In the bright east with gold enriched He for the sun a tent has pitched, That, like a bridegroom after rest,
More sweet than sweetest honey far, Th' unfoldings of their sweetness are; They warn Thy servant, and they guard; In keeping them there's great reward.
Who can his errors understand ? My secret faults are as the sand: From these me cleanse, make pure within, And keep me from presumptuous sin; Lest sin me rule and fetter fast, And I unpardoned die at last. My words and meditation be O Lord, my Rock, approved of Thee.
During his travels abroad, Dr. Coles had been greatly impressed with the private and public parks of Europe, and as early as 1862 inaugurated a unique project of land-
2
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scape gardening upon seventeen acres of his ancestral farm, at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, converting it into a park of rare and enchanting beauty. It was adorned with native groves, every attainable choice variety of tree and shrub, with imported statuary, garden and lawn effects. It was named "Deerhurst," from its herd of deer. Here he had his library and study, built of brick, stone, foreign and native woods, memorable alike for its architectural beau- ty, its "easy-chair," its works of art, and as the rendezvous of distinguished guests. Here the Doctor spent the last thirty years of his life, with his son and daughter as constant associates, the latter gracefully presiding over their father's establishment, among literary and professional friends.
While on a visit with his son and daugli- ter to California, Dr. Coles died suddenly, May 3, 1891, from heart complication, re- sulting from an attack of la grippe. At the time of his decease his life and works were extensively commented upon by the press, secular and religious. Appreciatory letters were received by his family from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, England; from the Royal Society, London; from the Academie des Sciences, Paris; from the home of Tennyson, Isle of Wight; from the Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C., etc., etc. The funeral services were held in Newark, New Jersey,-the private services at the home of his married life, on Market street, and the public services in the Peddie Memorial church, its pastor, the Rev. Dr. William W. Boyd, presiding. The Rev. 'Dr. Philip Schaff, by reason of the serious illness of his son, was prevented from preaching the funeral sermon. An address, by Rev. Charles F. Deems, D. D., of New York, was preceded by prayer by
the Rev. Dr. Robert Lowry, and the sing- ing of Dr. Coles' hymns, "Ever with Thee," and "All the Days." An address, by George Dana Boardman, D. D., was followed by the singing of Dr. Coles' trans- lation of St. Bernard of Clairvaux's hymn, "Jesu Dulcis Memoria."
The memory of Jesus' name Is past expression sweet; At each dear mention, hearts aflame With quicker pulses beat.
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