Temperance

Chapter 7—The Call to the Harvest

It Is Time for Us to Work—Now, brethren and sisters, is it not time for us to work? Is it not time for us to arouse our God-given capabilities, to catch holy zeal that we have not had as yet? And is it not time that we should stand as Calebs, come to the front, raise our voices, and cry out against the reports that are going all around us? Are we not able to possess the land? We are able in God to do a mighty work upon the point of temperance.—Manuscript 3, 1888. Te 256.3

Who Will Help?—All around us are the victims of depraved appetite, and what are you going to do for them? Can you not, by your example, help them to place their feet in the path of temperance? Can you have a sense of the temptations that are coming upon the youth who are growing up around us, and not seek to warn and save them? Who will stand on the Lord's side? Who will help to press back this tide of immorality, of woe and wretchedness, that is filling the world?—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 40. Te 256.4

Our Day of Opportunity—Intemperance of every kind is taking the world captive, and those who are true educators at this time, those who instruct along the lines of self-denial and self-sacrifice, will have their reward. Now is our time, now is our opportunity, to do a blessed work.—Medical Ministry, 25. Te 257.1

We Are Accountable—We are just as accountable for evils that we might have checked in others, by reproof, by warning, by exercise of parental or pastoral authority, as if we were guilty of the acts ourselves.—Testimonies for the Church 4:516. Te 257.2

Revive the Temperance Work—The temperance cause needs to be revived as it has not yet been.—The Review and Herald, January 14, 1909. Te 257.3

Years ago we regarded the spread of temperance principles as one of our most important duties. It should be so today.—Gospel Workers, 384. Te 257.4

If the work of temperance were carried forward by us as it was begun thirty years ago; [First published in 1900.] if at our camp meetings we presented before the people the evils of intemperance in eating and drinking, and especially the evil of liquor drinking; if these things were presented in connection with the evidences of Christ's soon coming, there would be a shaking among the people. If we showed a zeal in proportion to the importance of the truths we are handling, we might be instrumental in rescuing hundreds, yea thousands, from ruin.—Testimonies for the Church 6:111. Te 257.5

If our people can be made to realize how much is at stake, and will seek to redeem the time that has been lost, by now putting heart and soul and strength into the temperance cause, great good will be seen as the result.—Letter 78, 1911. Te 257.6

With God We Are a Majority—You say, we are in the minority. Is not God a majority? If we are on the side of the God who made the heaven and the earth, are we not on the side of the majority? We have the angels that excel in strength on our side.—Manuscript 27, 1893. Te 257.7

With our feeble human hands we can do but little, but we have an unfailing helper. We must not forget that the arm of Christ can reach to the very depths of human woe and degradation. He can give us help to conquer even this terrible demon of intemperance.—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 21. Te 258.1

Fields Ready to Harvest—In every place the temperance question is to be made more prominent. Drunkenness, and the crime that always follows drunkenness, call for the voice to be raised to combat this evil. Christ sees a plentiful harvest waiting to be gathered in. Souls are hungering for the truth, thirsting for the water of life. Many are on the very verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in. Cannot the people who know the truth see? Will they not hear the voice of Christ saying, “Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”—Letter 10, 1899. Te 258.2