Southern Indiana has always had a strong anti-alcohol sentiment among its religious groups. However, there have been voices raised in enthusiastic support from the other side by religious leaders. In this 1882 anecdote, a Madison minister argues essentially "that if wine was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me."
Frank Leslie's Sunday magazine, T. DeWitt Talmage, Editor Volume 12 No. 1, July 1882.
The Rev. Dr. Samuel R. Wilson pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, of Madison, Ind., was elected a delegate to the general Assembly, but the New Albany Presbytery refused to send him, for the reason, it is said, that he had objected to admitting a woman to plead before the Presbytery in favor of total abstinence and a prohibitory law. Dr. Wilson has published an open letter to the New Albany Presbytery and the Presbyterian Church in general, concluding as follows: "Thus let the Presbyterian people of God everywhere, and all the Church of God, know that the Presbytery of New Albany makes it a test of ministerial standing that her members shall approve of what Paul has forbidden, and shall co-operate with a self-constituted body of women, who, assuming without right the divine name of Christian, are using all their power and influence to secure the enactment of a law, under which, if Jesus were at a marriage feast in Indiana, and were to make and give to the guests, not for medicine, but as a festive beverage, a quart, not to Say a hundred gallons, of wine, as He did at Cana, He would be fined and imprisoned; and the Presbytery of New Albany, if their advocate, Mrs. Leavitt, is correct, would say He has been served exactly right. I would not consent to this deed, and, while regretting the shameful fact that not another elder was found who cared enough for the honor of his Lord to join in the protest, I thank God for the grace and courage given me to stand alone, with P.ml and Christ as my examples and teachers.
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