74. Professor George Bush

Professor George Bush

Professor George Bush—Mr. E.C. Delavan, having been referred to Professor Bush, as a learned Biblical scholar, from whom he might obtain correct information as to Bible temperance, visited him in his library, and stated to him his views on the wine question. With promptness he condemned them, and, referring to a text, he said, “This verse upsets your theory.” “When asked to refer to the original, he did so, and, with amazement, said, “No permission to drink intoxicating wine here. I do not care about wine, and it is very seldom that I taste it, but I have felt until now at liberty to drink, in moderation, from this verse.” Being entreated to make this a subject of special and particular examination, he said he would. At a subsequent visit he thus greeted Mr. Delavan: “You have the whole ground, and, in time, the whole Christian world will be obliged to adopt your views.” At the request of Mr. Delavan, he published his views in the New York Observer (Enquirer, Aug., 1869). This testimony is the more valuable, as it is not only the result of a careful examination of the original languages, but the honest surrender to the force of evidence of a previous conviction.