Testimony for the Church — No. 25

Christian Temperance

I was shown, Jan. 3, 1875, that none of us realize the perils that attend us at every step. We have a vigilant foe, and yet we are not awake and in earnest in our efforts to resist the temptations of Satan, and to overcome his devices. T25 156.2

The light of health reform God has permitted to shine upon us in these last days, that we might, by walking in the light, escape many dangers to which we would be exposed. Satan's temptations are powerful upon the human family to lead them to indulge appetite, gratify inclination, and live a life of heedless folly. He presents attractions in a life of personal enjoyment, and in seeking to gratify the animal instincts. Licentiousness prevails to an alarming extent, which is ruining constitutions for life; and not only this, but the moral powers are sacrificed. Intemperate indulgences are reducing the vital energies of both body and mind. They place the one that is overcome upon the enemy's ground, where Satan can tempt, annoy, and finally control the will at pleasure. T25 157.1

Those who are overcome on the point of appetite, and use tobacco freely, are debasing their mental and moral powers in servitude of the animal. And when the appetite for spirituous liquor is indulged, the man voluntarily places to his lips that draught which debases him, who was made in the image of God, below the level of the brute. Reason is paralyzed, the intellect is benumbed, the animal passions are excited, and then follow crimes of the most debasing character. If men would become temperate in all things, if they would touch not, taste not, and handle not, spirituous liquors and narcotics, reason would hold the reins of government in her hands, and control the animal appetites and passions. In this fast age, the less exciting the food the better. Temperance in all things and firm denial of appetite, is the only path of safety. T25 157.2

Satan comes to man with his overpowering temptations to indulge appetite, as he came to Christ. He well knows his power to overcome man upon this point. He overcame Adam and Eve in Eden upon appetite, and they lost blissful Eden. What accumulated misery and crime have filled our world in consequence of the fall of Adam. Entire cities have been blotted from the face of the earth because of debasing crimes and revolting iniquity, that made them a blot upon the universe. Indulgence of appetite was the foundation of all their sins. Through appetite, Satan controlled the mind and being. Thousands who might have lived have prematurely passed into their graves, physical, mental, and moral wrecks. They had good powers, but sacrificed all to indulgence of appetite, which led them to lay the reins upon the neck of lust. Our world is a vast hospital. Vicious habits are increasing. T25 158.1

It is unpleasant, if not dangerous, to remain in a railroad car or in a crowded room that is not thoroughly ventilated, where the atmosphere is impregnated with the properties of liquor and tobacco. The occupants give evidence by the breath and emanations from the body that the circulating system is filled with the poison of liquor and tobacco. Tobacco-using is a habit which frequently effects the nervous system in a more powerful manner than the use of alcohol. It binds the victim in stronger bands of slavery, and is more difficult to overcome, than the intoxicating cup. Body and mind are, in many cases, more thoroughly intoxicated with the use of tobacco than with spirituous liquors; for it is a more subtle poison. T25 158.2

Intemperance is increasing everywhere, notwithstanding the earnest efforts made during the past year to stay its progress. I was shown that the giant power of intemperance will not be controlled with any previous efforts that have been made. T25 159.1

The work of temperance must begin in our families, at our tables. Mothers have an important work to do that they may give to the world, through correct discipline and education, children who will be capable of filling almost any position, and who can also honor and enjoy the duties of domestic life. T25 159.2

The work of the mother is a very important and sacred one. She should teach her children from the cradle to practice self-denial and habits of self-control. If her time is mostly occupied with the follies existing in this degenerate age, if dress and parties engage her precious time, her children fail to receive the education it is essential they should have in order that they may form correct characters. The anxiety of Christian mothers should not be in regard to the external merely, but that her children may have healthy constitutions and good morals. T25 159.3

Many mothers, who are deploring the intemperance which is existing everywhere, do not look deep enough to see the cause. They are daily preparing a variety of tempting dishes and highly-seasoned food, which tempt the appetite and encourage overeating. T25 160.1

The tables of our American people are generally prepared in a manner to make drunkards. Appetite is the ruling principle with a large class of persons. Whoever will indulge appetite in eating too often, and not of a healthful quality of food, is preparing himself to yield to the clamors of appetite and passion in proportion to the strength of this propensity. Mothers need to be impressed with their obligation to God and to the world to furnish society with children having well-developed characters. Men and women who come upon the stage of action with firm principles will be fitted to stand unsullied amid the moral pollutions of this corrupt age. It is the duty of mothers to improve their golden opportunities to correctly educate their children for usefulness and for duty. Their time belongs to their children in a special sense. Precious time should not be devoted to needless work upon garments for display, but in patiently instructing and carefully teaching their children the necessity of self-denial and self-control. T25 160.2

The tables of many professed Christian women are daily set with a variety of dishes which irritate the stomach and produce a feverish condition of the system. Flesh-meats constitute the principal article of food upon the tables of some families, until their blood is filled with cancerous and scrofulous humors. They are composed of what they eat. But when suffering and disease come upon them, it is considered an affliction of providence. T25 161.1

We repeat, intemperance commences at our tables. The appetite is indulged until it becomes second nature. By the use of tea and coffee an appetite is formed for tobacco, and this encourages the appetite for liquors. T25 161.2

Many parents, to avoid the task of patiently educating their children to habits of self-denial, and teaching them how to make a right use of all the blessings of God, indulge them by letting them eat and drink whenever they please. Appetite and selfish indulgence, unless positively restrained, grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength. When these children commence life for themselves, and take their place in society, they are powerless to resist temptation. Moral impurity and gross iniquity are abounding everywhere. The temptation to indulge taste, and to gratify inclination, has not lessened with the increase of years, and youth are governed generally by impulse, and are slaves to appetite. In the glutton, the tobacco devotee, the wine-bibber, and the inebriate, we see the evil results of defective education. T25 161.3

When we hear the sad lamentations of Christian men and women over the terrible evils of intemperance, the questions at once arise in the mind: Who have educated the youth, and given them their stamp of character? Who have fostered in them the appetites they have acquired? Who have neglected the most solemn responsibility of molding their minds and forming their characters for usefulness in this life, and for the society of the heavenly angels in the next? A large class of the human beings we everywhere meet are a living curse to the world. They live for no other purpose than to indulge appetite and passion, and corrupt soul and body by dissolute habits. This is a terrible rebuke to mothers who are the votaries of fashion, who have lived for dress and for show, and have neglected to beautify their own minds, and to form their own characters after the divine Pattern, and have also neglected the sacred trust committed to them, to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. T25 162.1

I saw that Satan, through his temptations, was instituting ever-changing fashions, attractive parties and amusements, that mothers may be led to devote their God-given, probationary time to frivolous matters, so that they can have but little opportunity to educate and properly train their children. Our youth want mothers who will teach them from their very cradles to control their passions, to deny their appetite, and to overcome selfishness. They need line upon line, and precept upon precept; here a little and there a little. T25 163.1

Direction was given to the Hebrews how to train their children to avoid the idolatry and wickedness of the heathen nations: “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your souls, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes, And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” T25 163.2

We have an earnest desire that woman shall fill the position God originally designed, as her husband's equal. We so much need mothers who are not thus merely in name, but mothers in every sense the word implies. The dignity and importance of woman's missions, and her distinctive duties, we may safely say are of a more sacred and holy character than the duties of man. T25 164.1

There are speculations as to woman's rights and duties in regard to voting. Many are in no way disciplined to understand the bearing of important questions. They have lived lives of present gratification because it was the fashion. Women who might develop good intellect, and have true moral worth, are now mere slaves to fashion. They have not breadth of thought, or cultivated intellect. They can talk understandingly of the latest fashion, the styles of dress, this or that party, or the delightful ball. Such women are not prepared to intelligently take a prominent position in political matters? They are mere creatures of fashion and circumstance. Let this order of things be changed. Let woman realize the sacredness of her work, and in the strength and fear of God, take up her life mission. Let her educate her children for usefulness in this world, and for a fitness for the better world. T25 164.2

We address Christian mothers. We entreat that as mothers you feel your responsibility, and that you live not to please yourselves, but to glorify God. Christ pleased not himself, but took upon him the form of a servant. He left the royal courts, he condescended to clothe his divinity with humanity, and to teach by his condescension, and by his example of self-sacrifice, how we may become elevated to the position of sons and daughters of the royal family, children of the Heavenly King. But what are the conditions of these sacred, elevated blessings? “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” T25 165.1

Christ humbled himself from the highest authority, from the position of one equal with God, to the lowest place as servant. His home was in Nazareth, which was proverbial for its wickedness. His parents were among the lowly poor. His trade was that of a carpenter, laboring with his hands to do his part in sustaining the family. He was for thirty years subject to his parents. Here the life of Christ points us to our duty to be diligent in labor, to provide for and to train the weak and the ignorant. In his lessons of instruction to his disciples, Jesus taught them that his kingdom was not a worldly kingdom where all were striving for the highest position. T25 165.2

Woman is to fill a more sacred and elevated position in the family than the king upon his throne. Her great work is to have her life constitute a living example which she would wish her children to copy. By precept, as well as example, she is to store their minds with useful knowledge, and lead them to self-sacrificing labor for the good of others. The great stimulus to the toiling, burdened mother should be that every child trained aright, who has the inward adorning, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, will have a fitness for Heaven, and will shine in the courts of the Lord. T25 166.1

How few see anything attractive in the true humility of Christ. His humility did not consist in a low estimate of his own character and qualifications, but in his humbling himself to fallen humanity in order to raise them up with him to a higher life. Worldlings are trying to exalt themselves to the position of those above them, or to become superior to them. But Jesus, the Son of God, humbled himself to elevate man; and the true follower of Christ will seek to meet men where they are, in order to elevate them. T25 166.2

Will mothers of this generation feel the sacredness of their mission, and not try to vie with their wealthy neighbors in appearances, but seek to excel them in faithfully performing the work of instructing their children for the better life. If children and youth were trained and educated to habits of self-denial and self-control, if they were taught that they eat to live instead of live to eat, there would be less disease, and less moral corruption. There would be little necessity for temperance crusades, which amount to so little, if the youth who form and fashion society could be constrained to inculcate right principles in regard to temperance; and they would have moral worth and moral integrity to resist, in the strength of Jesus, the pollutions of these last days. T25 167.1

It is a most difficult matter to unlearn the habits of educated appetite which have been indulged through life. The demon of intemperance is not easily conquered. It is of giant strength, and hard to overcome. But let parents begin a crusade against intemperance at their own firesides, in their own families, in the principles they teach their children to follow from their very infancy, and they may hope for success. It will pay you, mothers, to use the precious hours which are given you of God in forming, developing, and training the characters of your children, and in teaching them to strictly adhere to the principles of temperance in eating and drinking. T25 167.2

Parents may have transmitted to their children hereditary tendencies to appetite and passion, which will make the work more difficult of educating and training these children to pure and virtuous habits, and to be strictly temperate. If the appetite of children for unhealthy food, for stimulants and narcotics, has been transmitted to them as a legacy from their parents, what a fearfully solemn work rests upon the parents to counteract the evil tendencies which they have given to their children. How earnestly and diligently should the parents work in doing their duty, in faith and hope, to their unfortunate offspring. T25 168.1

Parents should make it their first business to understand the laws of life and health, that nothing shall be done by them in the preparation of food, or in any of their habits, which will develop wrong tendencies in their children. How carefully should mothers study that the table be prepared with the most simple, healthful food, so that the digestive organs may not be weakened and the nervous forces unbalanced, and that the instruction they should give them might not be counteracted by the food placed before them. This food either weakens or strengthens the organs of the stomach, which has much to do in controlling the physical and moral health of the children who are God's blood-bought property. What a sacred trust is committed to parents, to guard the physical and moral constitutions of their children, so that the nervous system be well balanced, and the soul be not endangered. Those who indulge the appetite of their children, and do not control their passions, will see the terrible mistake they have made, in the tobacco-loving, liquor-dealing slave whose senses are benumbed, and whose lips utter falsehoods and profanity. T25 168.2

When parents and children meet at the final reckoning, what a scene will then be presented. The thousands of children who have been slaves to appetite and debasing vice, whose lives are moral wrecks, will stand face to face with the parents who made them what they are. Who but the parents must bear this fearful responsibility? Did the Lord make these youth corrupt? Oh! no. He made them in his image, a little lower than the angels. Who, then, has done the fearful work of forming the life character? Who changed their characters so that they do not bear the impress of God, and must be forever separated from his presence as too impure to have any place with the pure angels in a holy Heaven. Were the sins of the parents transmitted to the children in perverted appetites and passions? And was the work completed by the pleasure-loving mother in a neglect to properly train her children according to the pattern given her? All these mothers, just as surely as they exist, will pass in review before God. Satan is ready to do his work, and to present temptations which they have no will or moral power to resist. T25 169.1

Our people are constantly retrograding upon health reform. Satan sees that he cannot have such power of control over them as he could if appetite were indulged. The conscience becomes stupefied under the influence of unhealthful food, the mind becomes darkened, and its susceptibility to impressions is blunted. Because violated conscience is benumbed and becomes insensible, it does not lessen the guilt of the transgressor. T25 170.1

Satan is corrupting minds and destroying souls through his subtle temptations. Will our people see and feel the sin of indulging perverted appetite? Will they discard tea, coffee, flesh-meats, and all stimulating food, and devote the means expended for these hurtful indulgences to spread the truth? These stimulants do only harm; and yet we see that in the Christian world a large number of those who profess to be Christians are using tobacco. These very men will deplore the evil of intemperance, and while speaking against the use of liquors will eject the juice of tobacco. While a healthy state of mind depends upon the normal condition of the vital forces, what care should be exercised that neither stimulus nor narcotics be used. T25 170.2

Tobacco is a slow, insidious^* poison, and its effects are more difficult to cleanse from the system than liquor. What power can the tobacco devotee have to correct the progress of intemperance? There must be a revolution in our world upon the subject of tobacco before the ax is laid at the root of the tree. And still we press the subject closer. Tea and coffee are fostering the appetite which is developing for stronger stimulus, as tobacco and liquor And we come still closer home to the daily meals, the tables spread in Christian households. Is temperance practiced in all things? Are the reforms carried out there which are essential to health and happiness? Every true Christian will have control of his appetite and passions. Unless he is free from the bondage and slavery of appetite, he cannot be a true, obedient servant of Jesus Christ. It is the indulgence of appetite and passions which makes the truth of none effect upon the heart. It is impossible for the spirit and power of the truth to sanctify a man, soul, body, and spirit, when he is controlled by appetite and passion. T25 171.1

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