Temperance

FOREWORD

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TEMPERANCE WAS AFAVORITE THEME OF MRS. ELLEN G. WHITE, BOTH IN HER WRITINGS AND IN PUBLICDISCOURSE. IN MANY OF HER ARTICLES WHICH APPEARED IN DENOMINATIONAL JOURNALSTHROUGH THE YEARS, AND IN MANUSCRIPTS AND LETTERS OF COUNSEL ADDRESSED TO BOTHWORKERS AND LAITY, SHE URGED SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS TO PRACTICE TEMPERANCE ANDTO PROMOTE VIGOROUSLY THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE. IN RESPONSE TO EARNEST REQUESTSTHAT THIS WEALTH OF MATERIAL AND INSTRUCTION SHOULD BE MADE AVAILABLE IN ASINGLE VOLUME, THIS HANDBOOK HAS BEEN PREPARED BY AUTHORIZATION OF THE ELLEN G.WHITE PUBLICATIONS, TO WHOM MRS. WHITE COMMITTED THE CUSTODY OF HER BOOKS ANDMANUSCRIPTS.

THESE SELECTIONSHAVE BEEN DRAWN FROM THE WHOLE RANGE OF MRS. WHITE'S WRITINGS ON THIS SUBJECT,INCLUDING SOME NOW OUT OF PRINT, SUCH AS THE FOLLOWING: HEALTH, OR HOW TO LIVE(1865); CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE AND BIBLE HYGIENE (1890); SPECIAL TESTIMONIES(1892-1912); AND DRUNKENNESS AND CRIME (1907).

BOTH IN THEOUTLINE AND IN THE CONTENT OF SUBJECT MATTER, THE COMPILERS HAVE EARNESTLYSOUGHT TO REFLECT THE EMPHASIS WHICH THE AUTHOR PLACED ON THE VARIOUS PHASES OFTEMPERANCE.

THE EFFORT TOGATHER SUCH SELECTIONS AS WOULD SET FORTH HER FULL CONTRIBUTION ON THIS SUBJECT,AND THE DESIRE TO MAKE QUITE COMPLETE THE VARIOUS SECTIONS ON THE DIFFERENTPHASES OF THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION HAVE NATURALLY RESULTED IN SOME REPETITION OFTHOUGHT. IN THE ENDEAVOR TO PRESENT THE SUBJECT MATTER IN AN ORDERLY WAY SO ASTO BE OF GREATEST SERVICE TO THE READER, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO AVOID UNDUEREPETITION, RATHER BRIEF SELECTIONS HAVE SOMETIMES BEEN MADE. HOWEVER, INOMITTING THE CONTEXT, GREAT CARE HAS BEEN EXERCISED TO ALTER IN NO WAY THETHOUGHT OR THE EMPHASIS OF THE AUTHOR. IN EACH CASE FULL SOURCE CREDIT IS GIVENTO THE BOOK, PERIODICAL, PAMPHLET, OR MANUSCRIPT FROM WHICH THE EXCERPT ISTAKEN.

THE READERS WILLRECOGNIZE THAT ELLEN G. WHITE, HAVING DIED IN 1915, DID HER WRITING IN A PERIODWHEN SOME TERMINOLOGY WAS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM THAT COMMONLY EMPLOYED TODAY,AND WHEN DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF CONDITIONS MIGHT VARY FROM THAT WITH WHICH WEARE NOW FAMILIAR. FOR INSTANCE, REFERENCE IS MADE TO THE SALOON. WHILE THELIQUOR DISPENSARY OF TODAY MAY DIFFER FROM THE SALOON OF FIFTY YEARS AGO,EVERYONE KNOWS THAT THE SAME TYPES OF BEVERAGES ARE DISPENSED THAT WERE USED ATTHE TIME IN WHICH MRS. WHITE WROTE, AND THAT THEIR EFFECTS UPON THE BODY, MIND,AND SOUL ARE THE SAME. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE USE OF ALCOHOL ANDAUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS WAS NOT STRESSED AS IT SHOULD BE TODAY, FOR THE SIMPLEREASON THAT AUTOMOBILES WERE NOT THEN IN COMMON USE. HOWEVER, THE READER WILLFIND SET FORTH IN STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE USE OF ALCOHOL AND ACCIDENTS ADESCRIPTION OF CAUSES AND EFFECTS WHICH ARE FULLY APPLICABLE TO PRESENT-DAYCONDITIONS. THE POWER OF ALCOHOL TO UNDERMINE THE HOME, TO WRECK THE HEALTH, TORUIN THE MORALS, AND TO DESTROY THE SOUL IS AS POTENT NOW AS IT WAS A HALFCENTURY AGO.

THE READER WILLQUICKLY DISCERN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TEMPERANCE AS IT WAS PRESENTED TO MRS.WHITE THROUGH THE LONG YEARS OF HER RICH MINISTRY. IN THIS RESPECT THIS VOLUMEMAKES AN INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION TO TEMPERANCE LITERATURE. THE TEMPERANCESERMONS FOUND IN THE APPENDIX TYPIFY MRS. WHITE'S INTENSE BURDEN TO SAVEHUMANITY FROM THE SOUL-DESTROYING CURSE OF INTEMPERANCE.

THAT THIS VOLUMEMAY, UNDER GOD'S BLESSINGS, ACCOMPLISH A WORK OF REVITALIZING THE INTERESTS OFSEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS IN TEMPERANCE AND THE TEMPERANCE WORK AND LEAD US TO OURHEAVEN-ASSIGNED POSITION IN THE FOREFRONT OF TEMPERANCE FORCES IS THE SINCEREWISH OF THE PUBLISHERS.

THE TRUSTEES OFTHE

ELLEN G. WHITEPUBLICATIONS.

Chap. 1 - The Original Perfection of Man

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Created in Perfection and Beauty.--Man came from the hand of his Creator perfect in organisation and beautiful in form.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 7.

Man was the crowning act of the creation of God, made in the image of God, and designed to be a counterpart of God. --Review and Herald, June 18, 1895.

Adam was a noble being, with a powerful mind, a will in harmony with the will of God, and affections that centred upon heaven. He possessed a body heir to no disease,and a soul bearing the impress of Deity.--The Youth's Instructor, March 5, 1903.

He stood before God in the strength of perfect manhood. All the organs and faculties of his being were equally developed, and harmoniously balanced.--Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ, page 30.

God's Pledge to Maintain the Body's Healthful Action.-- The Creator of man has arranged the living machinery of our bodies. Every function is wonderfully and wisely made.And God pledged Himself to keep this human machinery in healthful action if the human agent will obey His laws and co-operate with God.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 17.

Responsibility to Heed Nature's Laws.--A healthy experience demands growth, and growth demands that careful

attention be paid to the laws of nature, that the organs of the body may be kept in a sound state, untrammelled in their action.--Manuscript 47, 1896.

God Appointed the Inclinations and Appetites.--Our natural inclinations and appetites . . . were divinely appointed, and when given to man, were pure and holy. It was God's design that reason should rule the appetites, and that they should minister to our happiness. And when they are regulated and controlled by a sanctified reason, they are holiness unto the Lord.--Manuscript 47, 1896.

Chap. 2 - The Inception of Intemperance

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Satan gathered the fallen angels together to devise some way of doing the most possible evil to the human family. One proposition after another was made, till finally Satan himself thought of a plan. He would take the fruit of the vine, also wheat, and other things given by God as food, and would convert them into poisons, which would ruin man's physical, mental, and moral powers, and so overcome the senses that Satan should have full control. Under the influence of liquor, men would be led to commit crimes of all kinds. Through perverted appetite the world would be made corrupt. By leading men to drink alcohol, Satan would cause them to descend lower and lower in the scale.

Satan has succeeded in turning the world from God. The blessings provided in God's love and mercy he has turned into a deadly curse. He has filled men with a craving for liquor and tobacco. This appetite, which has no foundation in nature, has destroyed its millions.--Review and Herald, April 16, 1901.

The Secret of the Enemy's Strategy.--Intemperance of any kind benumbs the perceptive organs and so weakens the brain-nerve power that eternal things are not appreciated, but placed upon a level with the common. The higher powers of the

mind, designed for elevated purposes, are brought into slavery to the baser passions. If our physical habits are not right, our mental and moral powers cannot be strong;for great sympathy exists between the physical and the moral.--Testimonies,vol. 3, pp. 50, 51.

The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man and affect his inmost life. Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.--Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 347.

Satan is constantly on the alert to bring the race fully under his control. His strongest hold on man is through the appetite, and this he seeks to stimulate in every possible way.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 150.

Satan's Scheme to Wreck the Plan of Salvation.--Satan had been at war with the government of God,since he first rebelled. His success in tempting Adam and Eve in Eden, and introducing sin into the world, had emboldened this arch foe; and he had proudly boasted to the heavenly angels that when Christ should appear, taking man's nature, He would be weaker than himself, and that he would overcome Him by his power.

He exulted that Adam and Eve in Eden could not resist his insinuations when he appealed to their appetite. The inhabitants of the old world he overcame in the same manner, through the indulgence of lustful appetite and corrupt passions.Through the gratification of appetite, he had overthrown the Israelites.

He boasted that the Son of God Himself, who was with Moses and Joshua, was not able to resist his power, and lead the favoured people of His choice to Canaan; for nearly all who left Egypt died in the wilderness; also, that he had tempted

the meek man,Moses, to take to himself glory which God claimed. David and Solomon, who had been especially favoured of God, he had induced, through the indulgence of appetite and passion, to incur God's displeasure. And he boasted that he could yet succeed in thwarting the purpose of God in the salvation of man through Jesus Christ.-- Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ, page 32.

His Most Effective Temptation Today.--Satan comes to man, as he came to Christ, with his overpowering temptations to indulge appetite. He well knows his power to overcome man upon this point. He overcame Adam and Eve in Eden upon appetite,and they lost their blissful home. 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 the 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 they sacrificed all to indulgence of appetite, which led them to lay the reins upon the neck of lust.-- Testimonies, vol. 3, pp. 561,562.

Satan Triumphs at His Ruinous Work.--Satan exults to see the human family plunging themselves deeper, and deeper, into suffering and misery. He knows that persons who have wrong habits, and unsound bodies, cannot serve God so earnestly, perseveringly,and purely as though sound. A diseased body affects the brain. With the mind we serve the Lord. The head is the capital of the body. . . . Satan triumphs in the ruinous work he causes by leading the human family to indulge in habits which destroy themselves, and one another; for by this means he is robbing God of the service due Him. --Spiritual Gifts, vol. p. 146.

Chap. 3 - Impairment Through Indulged Appetite

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The Food We Eat and the Lives We Live.--Indulgence of appetite is the greatest cause of physical and mental debility, and lies at the foundation of the feebleness which is apparent everywhere.--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 487.

Our physical health is maintained by that which we eat; if our appetites are not under the control of a sanctified mind, if we are not temperate in all our eating and drinking, we shall not be in a state of mental and physical soundness to study the word with a purpose to learn what saith the Scripture --what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Any unhealthful habit will produce an unhealthful condition in the system, and the delicate, living machinery of the stomach will be injured, and will not be able to do its work properly. The diet has much to do with the disposition to enter into temptation and commit sin.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 52.

Adam and Eve Failed Here.--Through the temptation to indulge appetite, Adam and Eve first fell from their high, holy, and happy estate. And it is through the same temptation that the race have become enfeebled. They have permitted appetite and passion to take the throne, and to bring into subjection reason and intellect.--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 139.

Their Children Have Followed On.--Eve was intemperate in her desires when she put forth the hand to take of the fruit-forbidden tree. Self-gratification has reigned almost supreme in the hearts of men and women since the Fall. Especially has the appetite been indulged, and they have been controlled by it, instead of reason.For the sake of gratifying the taste, Eve transgressed the command of God. He had given her everything her wants required, yet she was not satisfied.

Ever since, her fallen sons and daughters have followed the desires of their eyes, and of their taste. They have, like Eve, disregarded the prohibitions God has made, and have followed

in a course of disobedience, and, like Eve, have flattered themselves that the consequence would not be as fearful as had been apprehended.--How to Live, page 51.

Sin Made Attractive.--Sin is made attractive by the covering of light which Satan throws over it, and he is well pleased when he can hold the Christian world in their daily habits under the tyranny of custom, like the heathen, and allow appetite to govern them.--Signs of the Times, Aug. 13, 1874.

Satan Gains Control of the Will.--Satan knows that he cannot overcome man unless he can control his will. He can do this by deceiving man so that he will co-operate with him in transgressing the laws of nature in eating and drinking, which is transgression of the law of God.--Manuscript 3, 1897.

Every Function Enfeebled.--Many groan under a burden of infirmities because of wrong habits of eating and drinking, which do violence to the laws of life and health. They are enfeebling their digestive organs by indulging perverted appetite. The power of the human constitution to resist the abuses put upon it is wonderful; but persistent wrong habits in excessive eating and drinking will enfeeble every function of the body. In the gratification of perverted appetite and passion,even professed Christians cripple nature in her work, and lessen physical, mental,and moral power.--The Sanctified Life, page 20.

Failure to Perfect Character.--The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have moral power to gain victory over every other temptation of Satan. But slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian character. The continual transgression of man for six thousand years has brought sickness, pain, and death, as its fruits.--Health Reformer, August, 1875.

Death Preferred to Reform.-Many are so devoted to

intemperance that they will not change their course of indulging in gluttony under any considerations. They would sooner sacrifice health, and die prematurely, than to restrain their intemperate appetite.--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, p. 130.

A Vicious Circleof Degradation.--The lower estimate men place upon their body, the less theydesire to keep it pure and holy, the more reckless will they be in theindulgence of perverted appetite.--Manuscript 150, 1898.

The World Taken Captive.--Satan is taking the world captive through the use of liquor and tobacco, tea and coffee. The God-given mind, which should be kept clear, is perverted by the use of narcotics. The brain is no longer able to distinguish correctly. The enemy has control. Man has sold his reason for that which makes him mad. He has no sense of what is right.--Evangelism, page 529.

The Results of Natural Law Violated.--Many marvel that the human race have so degenerated,physically, mentally, and morally. They do not understand that it is the violation of God's constitution and laws, and the violation of the laws of health, that has produced this sad degeneracy. The transgression of God's commandments has caused His prospering hand to be removed.

Intemperance in eating and in drinking, and the indulgence of base passions have benumbed the fine sensibilities. . . .

Those who permit themselves to become slaves to a gluttonous appetite, often go still further,and debase themselves by indulging their corrupt passions, which have become excited by intemperance in eating and in drinking. They give loose rein to their debasing passions, until health and intellect greatly suffer. The reasoning faculties are, in a great measure, destroyed by evil habits.--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, pp. 124-131.

Let none who profess godliness regard with indifference the health of the body, and flatter themselves that intemperance

is no sin, and will not affect their spirituality. A close sympathy exists between the physical and the moral nature. The standard of virtue is elevated or degraded by the physical habits. . . . Any habit which does not promote healthful action in the human system degrades the higher and nobler faculties. Wrong habits of eating and drinking lead to errors in thought and action. Indulgence of appetite strengthens the animal propensities, giving them the ascendancy over the mental and spiritual powers.--Review and Herald, Jan. 25, 1881.

Life Record Closed in Dissipation.--Many close their last precious hours of probationary time, in scenes of gaiety, feasting and amusement, where serious thoughts are not allowed to enter, where the spirit of Jesus would be unwelcome! Their last precious hours are passing while their minds are benumbed with tobacco and alcoholic liquors. There are not a few who pass directly from the dens of infamy to the sleep of death; they close their life record among the associations of dissipation and vice. What will the awakening be at the resurrection of the unjust!

The eye of the Lord is open upon every scene of debasing amusement and profane dissipation.The words and deeds of the pleasure lovers pass directly from these halls of vice to the book of final records. What is the life of this class worth to the world, except as a beacon of warning to those who will be warned, not to live like these men, and die as the fool dieth.--Signs of the Times, Jan. 6, 1876.

The Christian Controls His Appetite.--No Christian will take into his system food or drink that will cloud his senses, or that will so act upon the nervous system as to cause him to degrade himself, or to unfit him for usefulness. The temple of God must not be defiled. The faculties of mind and body should be preserved in health, that they may used to glorify God.--Manuscript 126, 1903.

With Ceaseless Vigilance.--Men's natural appetites have been perverted by indulgence. Through unholy gratification they have become "fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." Unless the Christian watches unto prayer, he gives loose reign to habits which should be overcome. Unless he feels the need of constant watching, ceaseless vigilance, his inclinations, abused and misguided, will be the means of his backsliding from God.--Manuscript 47, 1896.

Indulged Appetite Inimical to Christian Perfection.--It is impossible for those who indulge the appetite to attain to Christian perfection.--Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 400.

The Spirit of God cannot come to our help, and assist us in perfecting Christian characters,while we are indulging our appetites to the injury of health, and while the pride of life controls.--Health Reformer, September, 1871.

True Sanctification.--It [sanctification] is not merely a theory, an emotion, or a form of words, but a living, active principle, entering into the everyday life.It requires that our habits of eating, drinking, and dressing be such as to secure the preservation of physical, mental, and moral health, that we may present to the Lord our bodies--not an offering corrupted by wrong habits, but--"a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."--Review and Herald, Jan. 25,1881.

Fitted for Immortality.--If man will cherish the light that God in mercy gives him upon health reform, he may be sanctified through the truth and fitted for immortality.But if he disregards that light and lives in violation of natural law he must pay the penalty.--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 162.

Chap. 4 - Importance of Christ's Victory Over Appetite

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Christ's First Victory.--Christ knew that in order to successfully carry forward the plan of salvation He must commence the work of redeeming man just where the ruin

began. Adam fell on the point of appetite.--Health Reformer, August, 1875.

His first test was on the same point where Adam failed. It was through temptations addressed to the appetite that Satan had overcome a large proportion of the human race,and his success had made him feel that the control of this fallen planet was in his hands. But in Christ he found one who was able to resist him, and he left the field of battle a conquered foe.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 16.

Cause of His Anguish.--Many who profess godliness do not inquire into the reason of Christ's long period of fasting and suffering in the wilderness. His anguish was not so much from the pangs of hunger as from His sense of the fearful result of the indulgence of appetite and passion upon the race. He knew that appetite would be man's idol, and would lead him to forget God, and would stand directly in the way of his salvation.--Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ, page 50.

Victory in Behalf of the Race.--Satan was defeated in his object to overcome Christ upon the point of appetite. And here in the wilderness Christ achieved a victory in behalf of the race upon the point of appetite, making it possible for man, in all future time in His name to overcome the strength of appetite on his own behalf.--Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ, page 46.

We, Too, May Overcome.--Our only hope of regaining Eden is through firm self-control. If the power of indulged appetite was so strong upon the race, that, in order to break its hold, the divine Son of God, in man's behalf, had to endure a fast of nearly six weeks, what a work is before the Christian! Yet, however great the struggle, he may overcome. By the help of that divine power which withstood the fiercest

temptations that Satan could invent, he, too, may be entirely successful in his warfare with evil, and at last may wear the victor's crown in the kingdom of God.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 167.

Victory Through Obedience and Continued Effort.--Those who overcome as Christ overcame will need to constantly guard themselves against the temptations of Satan. The appetite and passions should be restricted and under the control of enlightened conscience, that the intellect may be unimpaired, the perceptive powers clear,so that the workings of Satan and his snares may not be interpreted to be the providence of God. Many desire the final reward and victory which are to be given to overcomers, but are not willing to endure toil, privation, and denial of self, as did their Redeemer. It is only through obedience and continual effort that we shall overcome as Christ overcame.

The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have had moral power to gain the victory over every other temptation of Satan. But those who are slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian character. The continual transgression of man for six thousand years has brought sickness, pain, and death as its fruits. And as we near the close of time, Satan's temptation to indulge appetite will be more powerful and more difficult to overcome.--Testimonies, vol. 3, pp. 491, 492.

Claim Christ's Overcoming Power.--Christ has power from His Father to give His divine grace and strength to man-- making it possible for him through His name, to overcome.There are but few professed followers of Christ who choose to engage with Him in the work of resisting Satan's temptation as He resisted, and overcome. . ..

All are personally exposed to the temptations that Christ overcame, but strength is provided for them in the all-powerful

name of the great Conqueror. And all must, for themselves, individually overcome.--Signs of the Times, Aug. 13, 1874.

What Will We Do?--Shall we not draw near to the Lord, that He may save us from all intemperance in eating and drinking, from all unholy, lustful passion, all wickedness? Shall we not humble ourselves before God, putting away everything that corrupts the flesh and the spirit, that in His fear we may perfect holiness of character?--Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 258.

Chap. 5 - An Incentive to Crime

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Crime Is in the Land.--In these days when vice and crime of every form are rapidly increasing,there is a tendency to become so familiar with existing conditions that we lose sight of their cause and of their significance. More intoxicating liquors are used today than have ever been used heretofore. In the horrible details of revolting drunkenness and terrible crime, the newspapers give but a partial report of the story of the resultant lawlessness. Violence is in the land.--Drunkenness and Crime, page 3.

The Testimony of the Judiciary.--The relation of crime to intemperance is well understood by men who have to deal with those who transgress the laws of the land. In the words of a Philadelphia judge: "We can trace four fifths of the crimes that are committed to the influence of rum. There is not one case in twenty where a man is tried for his life, in which rum is not the direct or indirect cause of the murder.Rum and blood, I mean the shedding of blood, go hand in hand."--Drunkenness and Crime, page 7.

High Percentage of Crime Attributable to Liquor.--Nine tenths of those who are taken to prison are those who have learned to drink.--Review and Herald, May 8, 1894.

Sequence of Drinking and Crime.--When the appetite for spirituous liquor is indulged, the man voluntarily places to his lips the draft which debases below the level of the brute him who was made in the image of God. Reason is paralysed, the

intellect is benumbed, the animal passions are excited, and then follow crimes of the most debasing character.--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 561.

Why Alcohol and Crime Are Related.--Those who frequent the saloons that are open to all who are foolish enough to tamper with the deadly evil they contain, are following the path that leads to eternal death. They are selling themselves, body, soul, and spirit, to Satan. Under the influence of the drink they take, they are led to do things from which, if they had not tasted the maddening drug, they would have shrunk in horror. When they are under the influence of the liquid poison,they are in Satan's control. He rules them, and they co-operate with him.--Letter 166, 1903.

Nature of Crimes Committed Under Alcohol.--The result of liquor drinking is demonstrated by the awful murders that take place. How often it is found that theft, incendiarism,murder, were committed under the influence of liquor. Yet the liquor curse is legalised, and works untold ruin in the hands of those who love to tamper with that which ruins not only the poor victim, but his whole family.--Review and Herald, May 1, 1900.

Houses of prostitution, dens of vice, criminal courts, prisons, almshouses, insane asylums, hospitals, all are, to a great degree, filled as a result of the liquor seller's work. Like the mystic Babylon of the Apocalypse, he is dealing in "slaves, and souls of men." Behind the liquor seller stands the mighty destroyer of souls, and every act which earth or hell can devise is employed to draw human beings under his power.

In the city and the country, on the railway trains, on the great steamers, in places of business, in the halls of pleasure, in the medical dispensary, even in the church on the sacred Communion table, his traps are set. Nothing is left undone to create and to foster the desire for intoxicants. On almost

every corner stands the public house with its brilliant lights, its welcome and good cheer,inviting the workingman, the wealthy idler, and the unsuspecting youth. Day by day, month by month, year by year, the work goes on.--Drunkenness and Crime,page 8.

The Drinker Not Excusable.--While intoxicated, every degree of crime has been committed, and yet the perpetrators have been excused in many instances, because they knew not what they were doing. This does not lessen the guilt of the criminal. If by his own hand he puts the glass to his lips, and deliberately takes that which he knows will destroy his reasoning faculties, he becomes responsible for all the injury he does while intoxicated, at the very moment he lets his appetite control him, and he barters away his reasoning faculties for intoxicating drinks. It was his own act which brought him even below the brutes, and crimes committed when he is in a state of intoxication should be punished as severely as though the person had all the power of his reasoning faculties.--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, p. 125.

Drunkenness and Crime Before the Flood and Now.-- The evils that are so apparent at the present time, are the same that brought destruction to the antediluvian world. "In the days that were before the Flood" one of the prevailing sins was drunkenness. From the record in Genesis we learn that "the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." Crime reigned supreme; life itself was unsafe. Men whose reason was dethroned by intoxicating drink, thought little of taking the life of a human being.

"As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." The drunkenness and the crime that now prevail, have been foretold by the Saviour Himself. We are living in the closing days of this earth's history. It is a most solemn time. Everything betokens the soon return of our Lord.--Review and Herald, Oct. 25, 1906.

God's Judgements in Our Day.--Because of the wickedness that follows largely as the result of the use of liquor, the judgments of God are falling upon our earth today.--Counsels on Health, page 432.

San Francisco's Object Lesson.--For a time after the great earthquake along the coast of California, the authorities in San Francisco and in some of the smaller cities and towns ordered the closing of all liquor saloons. So marked were the effects of this strictly enforced ordinance, that the attention of thinking men throughout America, and notably on the Pacific Coast, was directed to the advantages that would result from a permanent closing of all saloons. During many weeks following the earthquake in San Francisco, very little drunkenness was seen. No intoxicating drinks were sold. The disorganised and unsettled state of affairs gave the city officials reason to expect an abnormal increase of disorder and crime, and they were greatly surprised to find the opposite true. Those from whom was expected much trouble, gave but little. This remarkable freedom from violence and crime was traceable largely to the disuse of intoxicants.

The editors of some of the leading dailies took the position that it would be for the permanent betterment of society and for the up building of the best interests of the city, were the saloons to remain closed forever. But wise counsel was swept aside, and within a few short weeks permission was given the liquor dealers to reopen their places of business, upon the payment of a considerably higher license than had formerly been paid into the city treasury.

In the calamity that befell San Francisco, the Lord designed to wipe out the liquor saloons that have been the cause of so much evil, so much misery and crime; and yet the guardians of the public welfare have proved unfaithful to their trust, by legalising the sale of liquor. . . . They know that in doing this, they are virtually licensing the commission of crime; and

yet their knowledge of this sure result deters them not. . . . The people of San Francisco must answer at the judgment bar of God for the reopening of the liquor saloons in that city. --Review and Herald, Oct. 25, 1906.

Significance of Present-Day Conditions.--Notwithstanding the many evidences of the increase of crime and lawlessness, men seldom stop to think seriously of the meaning of these things. Almost without exception, men boast of the enlightenment and progress of the present age.

Upon those to whom God has given great light, rests the solemn responsibility of calling the attention of others to the significance of the increase of drunkenness and crime. They should also bring before the minds of others the Scriptures that plainly portray the conditions which will exist just prior to the second coming of Christ. Faithfully should they uplift the divine standard, and raise their voices in protest against the sanctioning of the liquor traffic by legal enactment.-- Drunkenness and Crime, page 3.

Chap. 6 - An Economic Problem

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Liquor Traffic Breeds Dishonesty and Violence.--In every phase of the liquor-selling business,there is dishonesty and violence. The houses of liquor dealers are built with the wages of unrighteousness, and upheld by violence and oppression. --Review and Herald, May 1, 1894.

Millions Spent to Buy Wretchedness and Death.--"Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; . . . that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? . . . Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it."

This Scripture pictures the work of those who manufacture and who sell intoxicating liquor.Their business means robbery. For the money they receive no useful equivalent is returned. Every dollar they add to their gains has brought a curse to the spender.

Every year millions upon millions of gallons of intoxicating liquors are consumed.Millions upon millions of dollars are spent in buying wretchedness, poverty,disease, degradation, lust, crime, and death. For the sake of gain, the liquor dealer deals out to his victims that which corrupts and destroys mind and body.He entails on the drunkard's family poverty and wretchedness.--Drunkenness and Crime, pages 7, 8.

A Contrasting Economic Status.--The drunkard is capable of better things. God has entrusted to him talents with which to glorify God; but his fellow men have laid a snare for his soul, and built themselves up out of his property. They have lived in luxury while their poor brethren whom they have robbed, lived in poverty and degradation. But God will require for all this at the hand of him who has helped to speed the drunkard on the way to ruin.--Undated Manuscript 54.

Lawmakers and Liquor Dealers Held Financially Responsible.--Lawmakers and liquor dealers may wash their hands as did Pilate, but they will not be clean from the blood of souls. The ceremony of washing their hands will not cleanse them when by their influence or agency, they have helped to make men drunkards. They will be held accountable for the millions of dollars that have been wasted in consuming the consumers. No one can blind himself to the terrible results of the drink traffic. The daily papers show that the wretchedness, the poverty, the crime,that result from this traffic, are not cunningly devised fables, and that hundreds of men are growing rich off the pittances of the men they are sending to perdition by their dreadful drink business. O that a public sentiment might be created that would put an end to the drink

traffic, close the saloons, and give these maddened men a chance to think on eternal realities!--Review and Herald, May 29, 1894.

Schools Could Have Been Established.--Think of the money wasted in saloons, where men sell their reason for that which places them wholly under Satan's control. What a change there would be in society if this money were used to establish schools where children and youth would be given instruction in Bible lines, taught how to help their fellow beings, how to seek and save the lost!

There is a work to be done for all classes of society. . . . We are not to forget the ministers, lawyers, senators, judges, many of whom use strong drink and tobacco. . . . Ask them to give the money they would otherwise spend for the harmful indulgences of liquor and tobacco, to the establishment of institutions where children and youth can be prepared to fill positions of usefulness in the world.--Letter 25, 1902.

The Starving Might Be Fed.--The cries of the starving millions in our world would soon be hushed if the money put into the tills of the liquor sellers were spent in alleviating the sufferings of humanity. But the evil is constantly increasing.The youth are being educated to love the vile stuff, and this is ruining them,soul and body. The work they might do in God's vineyard they refuse to do.--Manuscript 139, 1899.

Missions Might Have Been Established.--Think of the thousands and millions of dollars that are invested in drink that will make a man like a brute, and destroy his reason. .. . All this money could accomplish untold good if it were used in the support of missions in the dark places of our world. God is being robbed of that which is rightfully His. --Manuscript 38 1/2, 1905.

Publications Could Have Been Increased.--When we obey the injunction of the apostle,"Whether therefore ye eat, or

drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," thousands of dollars which are now sacrificed upon the altar of hurtful lust will flow into the Lord's treasury, multiplying publications in different languages to be scattered like the leaves of autumn. Missions will be established in other nations, and then will the followers of Christ be indeed the light of the world.--Signs of the Times, Aug. 13, 1874.

Intemperance Increased by Holidays.--Drunkenness, rioting, violence, crime, murder, come as the result of man selling his reason. The numerous holidays increase the evils of intemperance. These holidays are no help to morality or to religion. On them men spend in drink the money that should be used to supply the necessities of their families; and the liquor sellers reap their harvest.

When drink is in,reason is out. This is the hour and power of darkness, when all crime becomes possible, and the whole human machinery is controlled by a power from beneath,when soul and body are brought under the control of passion. And what can stay this passion? What can hinder it? These souls have no certain anchorage.Holidays are leading them on to temptation; for on a holiday many think that it is their privilege, because it is a holiday, to do as they please. --Manuscript 17, 1898.

Millions for the Devil's Treasury.--Look at those that drink wine and beer and strong drink. Let them reckon up how much money they spend in this. How many thousands and millions of dollars have gone into the devil's treasury to perpetuate wickedness, and to carry on dissolution, corruption, and crime.--Manuscript 20,1894.

Chap . 7 - Alcohol and the Home

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Moderate Drinking.--Moderate drinking is the school in which men are receiving an education for the drunkard's career.--Review and Herald, March 25, 1884.

God's Blessings Changed to a Curse.--Our Creator has bestowed His bounties upon man with a liberal hand. Were all these gifts of Providence wisely and temperately employed, poverty, sickness, and distress would be well-nigh banished from the earth. But alas, we see on every hand the blessings of God changed to a curse by the wickedness of men.

There is no class guilty of greater perversion and abuse of His precious gifts than are those who employ the products of the soil in the manufacture of intoxicating liquors. The nutritive grains, the healthful, delicious fruits, are converted into beverages that pervert the senses and madden the brain. As a result of the use of these poisons, thousands of families are deprived of the comforts and even the necessaries of life, acts of violence and crime are multiplied, and disease and death hurry myriads of victims to a drunkard's grave.--Gospel Workers, page 385, 386.

Marriage Vows Melted in the Fiery Liquid.--Look upon the drunkard's home. Mark the squalid poverty, the wretchedness, the unutterable woe that are reigning there. See the once happy wife fleeing before her maniac husband. Hear her plead for mercy as the cruel blows fall on her shrinking form. Where are the sacred vows made at the marriage altar? where is the love to cherish, the strength to protect her now? Alas, these have been melted like precious pearls in the fiery liquid, the cup of abominations! Look upon those half-naked children. Once they were cherished tenderly. No wintry storm, nor the cold breath of the world's contempt and scorn, was permitted to approach them. A father's care, a mother's love, made their home a paradise. Now all is changed. Day by day the cries of agony wrenched from the lips of the drunkard's wife and children go up to heaven.--Review and Herald, Nov. 8, 1881.

His Manhood Is Gone.--Look at the drunkard. See what liquor has done for him. His eyes are bleared and bloodshot.

His countenance is bloated and besotted. His gait is staggering. The sign of Satan's working is written all over him. Nature herself protests that she knows him not; for he has perverted his God-given powers, and prostituted his manhood by indulgence in drink.--Review and Herald, May 8, 1894.

An Expression of Satan's Violence.--Thus he [Satan] works when he entices men to sell the soul for liquor. He takes possession of body, mind, and soul, and it is no longer the man, but Satan, who acts. And the cruelty of Satan is expressed as the drunkard lifts his hand to strike down the wife he has promised to love and cherish as long as life shall last. The deeds of the drunkard are an expression of Satan's violence.--Medical Ministry, page 114.

Indulgence in intoxicating liquor places a man wholly under the control of the demon who devised this stimulant in order to deface and destroy the moral image of God.--Manuscript 1, 1899.

Calmness and Patience Lost.--It is not possible for the intemperate man to possess a calm,well-balanced character, and if he handles dumb animals, the extra cut of the whip which he gives God's creatures, reveals the disturbed condition of his digestive organs. In the home circle the same spirit is seen.--Letter 17,1895.

The Shame and Curse of Every Land.--The bleared, besotted wrecks of humanity--souls for whom Christ died, and over whom angels weep--are everywhere. They are a blot on our boasted civilisation. They are the shame and curse and peril of every land.--The Ministry of Healing, page 330.

The Wife Robbed,the Children Starved.--The drunkard has no knowledge of what he is doing when under the influence of the maddening draft, and yet he who sells him that

which makes him irresponsible, is protected by the law in his work of destruction. It is legal for him to rob the widow of the food she requires to sustain life. It is legal for him to entail starvation upon the family of his victim, to send helpless children into the streets to beg for a penny or to beseech for a morsel of bread. Day by day, month by month, year by year, these shameful scenes are re-enacted, until the conscience of the liquor dealer is seared as with a red-hot iron. The tears of suffering children, the agonised cry of the mother,only serve to exasperate the rum seller. . . .

The liquor dealer will not hesitate to collect the debts of the drunkard from his suffering family, and will take the very necessaries from the home to pay the drink bill of the deceased husband and father. What is it to him if the children of the dead starve? He looks upon them as debased and ignorant creatures, who have been abused, kicked about, and degraded; and he has no care for their welfare.But the God that rules in the heavens has not lost sight of the first cause or the last effect of the inexpressible misery and debasement that have come upon the drunkard and his family. The ledger of heaven contains every item of the history.--Review and Herald, May 15, 1894.

The Drinker Responsible for His Guilt.--Let not the man who indulges in drink think that he will be able to cover his defilement by casting the blame upon the liquor dealer; for he will have to answer for his sin and for the degradation of his wife and children. "They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed."--Review and Herald, May 8, 1894.

In the Shadow of Liquor.--Day by day, month by month, year by year, the work goes on. Fathers and husbands and brothers, the stay and hope and pride of the nation, are steadily passing into the liquor dealer's haunts, to be sent back wrecked and ruined.

More terrible still, the curse is striking the very heart of

the home. More and more, women are forming the liquor habit. In many a household, little children, even in the innocence and helplessness of babyhood, are in daily peril through the neglect, the abuse, the vileness of drunken mothers. Sons and daughters are growing up under the shadow of this terrible evil. What outlook for their future but that they will sink even lower than their parents?--The Ministry of Healing, page 339.

Chap. 8 - A Cause of Accidents

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The Drinker Under Satan's Control.--Men who use liquor make themselves the slaves of Satan. Satan tempts those who occupy positions of trust on railways, on steamships, those who have charge of the boats or cars laden with people flocking to idolatrous amusement, to indulge perverted appetite, and thus forget God and His laws. He offers tempting bribes to allure them, that by indulging wrong habits and appetites, they may place themselves where he can control their reason, as a workman handles an instrument. Then he works to destroy the pleasure lovers.

Thus men co-operate with Satan, as his agents, his instruments. They cannot see what they are about. Signals are made incorrectly, and cars collide with each other.Then comes horror, mutilation, and death. This condition of things will become more and more marked. The daily papers will relate many terrible accidents. Yet the saloons will be made just as enticing. Liquor will still be sold to the poor tempted soul who has lost the power to stand up and say, I am a man, but who says by his actions, I have no self-control. I cannot resist temptation.All such have severed their connection with God, and are the dupes of Satan's deception.--Manuscript 17, 1898.

Judgement Impaired Through Liquor.--Liquor drinkers are under Satan's destroying influence. He presents to them

his false ideas,and no confidence can be placed in their judgement.--Review and Herald, May 1,1900.

Some official on a railway train neglects to heed a signal, or misinterprets an order. On goes the train; there is a collision, and many lives are lost. Or a steamer is run aground, and passengers and crew find a watery grave. When the matter is investigated, it is found that someone at an important post was under the influence of drink.--The Ministry of Healing, page 331.

God Holds the Drinker Responsible.--Are the men who command the great ocean steamers, who have the control of railways, strict temperance men? Are their brains free from the influence of intoxicants? If not, the accidents occurring under their management will be charged to them by the God of heaven, whose property men and women are.--Review and Herald, May 1, 1900.

Men on whom devolve grave responsibilities in safeguarding their fellow men from accident and harm, are often untrue to their trust. Because of indulgence in tobacco and liquor, they do not keep the mind clear and composed as did Daniel in the courts of Babylon. They becloud the brain by using stimulating narcotics, and temporarily lose their reasoning faculties. Many a shipwreck upon the high seas can be traced to liquor drinking.

Time and again have unseen angels protected vessels on the broad ocean because on board there were some praying passengers who had faith in God's keeping power. The Lord has power to hold in abeyance the angry waves so impatient to destroy and engulf His children.--Manuscript 153, 1902.

To Rebuke Liquor Drinking.--We have need of men who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,will rebuke gambling and liquor drinking, which are such prevalent evils in these last days.--Manuscript 117, 1907.

The Only Safe Course.--How many frightful accidents occur through the influence of drink. . .. What is the portion of this terrible intoxicant that any man can take, and be safe with the lives of human beings? He can be safe only as he abstains from drink. He should not have his mind confused with drink. No intoxicant should pass his lips; then if disaster comes, men in responsible places can do their best, and meet their record with satisfaction, whatever may be the issue.--Review and Herald, May 29, 1894.

Chap. 9 - A Public-Health Problem

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They Have Sold Their Will Power.--There is in the world a multitude of degraded human beings, who have, by yielding in their youth to the temptation to use tobacco and alcohol, poisoned the tissues of the human structure, and perverted their reasoning powers, until the result is just as Satan meant it to be. The faculties of thought are clouded. The victims yield to the temptation for alcohol, and they sell what reason they have for a glass of liquor.

See that man bereft of reason. What is he? He is a slave to the will of Satan. The arch apostate imbues him with his own attributes. He is a slave to licentiousness and violence. There is no crime that he will not commit; for he has put into his mouth that which has intoxicated him, and made him, while under its influence, a demon.

Look at our young men. And I write now what causes my heart to ache. They have lost their will power. Their nerves are enfeebled, because their power is exhausted. The ruddy glow of health is not upon their countenances. The healthy sparkle of the eye is gone. Its lustre is lost. The wine they have drunk has enfeebled the memory. They are like persons aged in years. The brain is no longer able to produce its rich treasures when required.--Manuscript 17, 1898.

A Moral Sin and a Physical Disease.--Among the victims

of intemperance are men of all classes and all professions. Men of high station, of eminent talents, of great attainments, have yielded to the indulgence of appetite, until they are helpless to resist temptation. Some of them who were once in the possession of wealth are without home, without friends, in suffering, misery, disease, and degradation. They have lost their self-control. Unless a helping hand is held out to them, they will sink lower and lower. With these self-indulgence is not only a moral sin, but a physical disease.--The Ministry of Healing, page 172.

In a Desperate Situation.--The man who has formed the habit of using intoxicants is in a desperate situation. His brain is diseased, his will power is weakened. So far as any power in himself is concerned, his appetite is uncontrollable. He cannot be reasoned with or persuaded to deny himself.--The Ministry of Healing, page 344.

Body and Soul in Slavery.--Drinking houses are scattered all over the cities and towns. . . . The traveller enters the public house with his reason, with ability to walk in an upright manner; but look at him as he leaves. The lustre is gone from his eye. The power to walk uprightly is gone; he reels to and fro like a ship at sea. His reasoning power is paralyzed, the image of God is destroyed. The poisoning, maddening draft has left a brand upon him. . . . Body and soul he is in slavery, and he cannot distinguish between right and wrong. The liquor dealer has put his bottle to his neighbour’s lips, and under its influence he is full of cruelty and murder, and in his madness actually commits murder.

He is brought before an earthly tribunal, and those who legalized the traffic are forced to deal with the results of their own work. They authorized by law the giving to this man a draft that would turn him from a sane man into a madman, and yet now it is necessary for them to send him to prison and to the gallows for his crime. His wife and children are left

in destitution and poverty, to become the charge of the community in which they live. Soul and body the man is lost,-- cut off from earth, and with no hope of heaven. . . .

No Strength to Resist Temptation.--The victims of the drink habit become so maddened under the influence of liquor that they are willing to sell their reason for a glass of whisky. They do not keep the commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Their moral power is so weakened that they have no strength to resist temptation, and their desire for drink is so strong that it eclipses all other desires, and they have no realization of the fact that God requires them to love Him with all their hearts. They are practical idolaters; for whatever alienates the affections from the Creator, whatever weakens and deadens moral power, usurps His throne, and receives the service that is due to Him alone. In all these vile idolatries Satan is worshiped.

He who tarries at the wine is playing the game of life with Satan. He it is who made evil men his agents, so that those who begin the drink habit may be made into drunkards. He has his plans laid that when the brain is confused with liquor, he will drive the drunkard to desperation, and cause him to commit some atrocious crime. In the idol he has set up for the man to worship is all pollution and crime, and the worship of the idol will ruin both soul and body, and extend its evil influence to the wife and children of the drunkard. The drunkard's corrupt tendencies are transmitted to his posterity, and through them to the coming generations.

A Demon Power at Work.--But are not the rulers of the land largely responsible for the aggravated crimes, the current of deadly evil, that is the result of the liquor traffic? Is it not their duty and in their power to remove this deadly evil? Satan has formed his plans, and he counsels with legislators, and they receive his advice, and thus keep in activity, through legislative enactments, a multiplicity of evil, which results in

much misery and crime of so terrible a character that human pen cannot portray it. A demon power is at work through human instruments, and men are tempted to indulge appetite until they lose all control of themselves. The sight of a drunken man, were the sight not so common, would arouse public indignation, and cause the drink traffic to be swept away; but the power of Satan has so hardened human hearts, so perverted human judgment, that men can look upon the woe, the crime, the poverty, which floods the world through the drink traffic, and remain indifferent. . . .

Day after day, month after month, year after year, Satan's death traps are set in our communities, at our doors, at the street corners, wherever it is possible to catch souls, that their moral power may be destroyed, and the image of God obliterated, and they be sunken in degradation far below the level of the brute. Souls are imperilled and perishing, and where is the active energy, the determined effort on the part of Christians, to raise a warning signal, to enlighten their fellow men, to save their perishing brothers? We are not to talk of devising methods to save those who are dead and lost, but to move upon those who are not yet beyond the reach of sympathy and help. . . .

By legalizing the liquor traffic, the law gives its sanction to the downfall of the soul, and refuses to stop the traffic that floods the world with evil. Let lawmakers consider whether or not all this imperilling of human life, of physical power and mental vision, is unavoidable. Is all this destruction of human life necessary?--Review and Herald, May 29, 1894.

The Responsibility of the Liquor Dealer.--Those who sell intoxicating liquor to their fellow men . . . receive the earnings of the drunkard, and give him no equivalent for his money. Instead of this, they give him that which maddens him, which makes him act the fool, and turns him into a demon of evil and cruelty. . . .

But angels of God have witnessed every step in the downward path, and have traced every consequence that resulted from a man's placing the bottle to his neighbour’s lips. The liquor dealer is written in the records among those whose hands are full of blood. He is condemned for keeping on hand the poisonous draft by which his neighbour is tempted to ruin, and by which homes are filled with wretchedness and degradation. The Lord holds the liquor dealer responsible for every penny that comes to his till out of the earnings of the poor drunkard, who has lost all moral power, who has sunk his manhood in drink.--Review and Herald, May 8, 1894.

He Must Answer to God.--No matter what may be the wealth, power, or position of a man in the sight of the world, no matter whether or not he has been permitted by the law of the land to sell poisonous drinks to his neighbour, he will be held accountable in the sight of heaven for degrading the soul that has been redeemed by Christ, and will be arraigned before the judgment for lowering a character that ought to have reflected the image of God, to reflect the image of that which is below the brute creation.

In enticing men to educate themselves in the liquor habit, the rum seller is effectually taking away the righteousness of the soul, and leading men to become the abject slaves of Satan. The Lord Jesus, the Prince of Life, is in controversy with Satan, the prince of darkness. Christ declares that His mission is to lift men up. . . .

Jesus left the royal courts of heaven, and laid aside His own glory, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might come into close connection with humanity, and by precept and example uplift and ennoble humanity, and restore in the human soul the lost image of God. This is the work of Christ; but what is the influence of those who legalize the liquor traffic? What is the influence of those who put the bottle to their neighbour’s lips? Contrast the work of the rum seller

with the work of Jesus Christ, and you will be forced to admit that those who deal in liquor, and those who sustain the traffic, are working in co-partnership with Satan. Through this business they are doing a greater work to perpetuate human woe than are men through any other business in the world. . . .

The rum seller takes the same position as did Cain, and says, "Am I my brother's keeper?" and God says to him as He said to Cain, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground." Rum sellers will be held accountable for the wretchedness that has been brought into the homes of those who were weak in moral power, and who fall through temptation to drink. They will be charged with the misery, the suffering, the hopelessness, brought into the world through the liquor traffic. They will have to answer for the woe and want of the mothers and children who have suffered for food and clothing and shelter, who have buried all hope and joy. He that has a care for the sparrow, and notes its fall to the ground, who clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will not pass by those who have been formed in His own image, purchased with His own blood, and pay no heed to their suffering cries. God cares for all this wickedness that perpetuates misery and crime. He charges it all up to those whose influence helps to open the door of temptation to the soul.--Undated Manuscript 54.

God's Sentence on the Liquor Seller.--He knows not, nor cares, that the Lord has an account to settle with him. And when his victim is dead, his heart of stone is unmoved.

He has not heeded the instruction, "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless".-- Review and Herald, May 15, 1894.

There will be no excuse for the liquor dealers in that day

when every man shall receive according to his works. Those who have destroyed life, will by their own life have to pay the penalty. God's law is holy and just and good.--Letter 90, 1908.

Encourage Not the Desire for Stimulants.--Let every soul remember that he is under sacred obligations to God to do his best for his fellow creatures. How careful should everyone be not to create a desire for stimulants. By advising friends and neighbours to take brandy for the sake of their health, they are in danger of becoming agents for the destruction of their friends. Many incidents have come to my attention in which through some simple advice, men and women have become the slaves of the drink habit.

Physicians are responsible for making many drunkards. Knowing what drink will do for its lovers, they have taken upon themselves the responsibility of prescribing it for their patients. Did they reason from cause to effect, they would know that stimulants would have the same effect on every organ of the body as they have on the whole man. What excuse can doctors render for the influence they have exerted in making fathers and mothers drunkards?--Review and Herald, May 29, 1894.

Warned That They May Escape the Evil Results.--With the awful results of indulgence in intoxicating drink before us, how is it that any man or woman who claims to believe in the word of God, can venture to touch, taste, or handle wine or strong drink? Such a practice is certainly out of harmony with their professed faith. . . .

The Lord has given special directions in His word in reference to the use of wine and strong drink. He has forbidden their use, and enforced His prohibitions with strong warnings and threatenings. But His warning against the use of intoxicating beverages is not the result of the exercise of arbitrary authority. He has warned men, in order that they may escape from the evil that results from indulgence in wine and strong drink. . . .

The liquor traffic is a terrible scourge to our land, and is sustained and legalized by those who profess to be Christians. In thus doing, the churches make themselves responsible for all the results of this death-dealing traffic. The liquor traffic has its root in hell itself, and it leads to perdition. These are solemn considerations.--Review and Herald, May 1, 1894.

Chap. 10 - Alcohol and Men in Responsible Positions

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Lessons from the Experience of Nadab and Abihu.--Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, who ministered in the holy office of priesthood, partook freely of wine, and, as was their usual custom, went in to minister before the Lord. The priests who burned incense before the Lord were required to use the fire of God's kindling, which burned day and night, and was never extinguished. God gave explicit directions how every part of His service should be conducted, that all connected with His sacred worship might be in accordance with His holy character. And any deviation from the express directions of God in connection with His holy service was punishable with death. No sacrifice would be acceptable to God which was not salted nor seasoned with divine fire, which represented the communication between God and man that was opened through Jesus Christ alone. The holy fire which was to be put upon the censer was kept burning perpetually. And while the people of God were without, earnestly praying, the incense kindled by the holy fire was to arise before God mingled with their prayers. This incense was an emblem of the mediation of Christ.

Aaron's sons took the common fire which God did not accept, and they offered insult to the infinite God by presenting this strange fire before Him. God consumed them by fire for their positive disregard of His express directions. All their works were as the offering of Cain. There was no divine Saviour represented. Had these sons of Aaron been in full

command of their reasoning faculties they would have discerned the difference between the common and sacred fire. The gratification of appetite debased their faculties and so beclouded their intellect that their power of discernment was gone. They fully understood the holy character of the typical service, and the awful solemnity and responsibility assumed of presenting themselves before God to minister in sacred service.

They Were Responsible.--Some may inquire, How could the sons of Aaron have been accountable when their intellects were so far paralyzed by intoxication that they were not able to discern the difference between sacred and common fire? It was when they put the cup to their lips that they made themselves responsible for all their acts committed while under the influence of wine. The indulgence of appetite cost those priests their lives. God expressly forbade the use of wine that would have an influence to becloud the intellect.

"And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations: and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses." . . .

Here we have the most plain directions of God, and his reasons for prohibiting the use of wine; that their power of discrimination and discernment might be clear, and in no way confused; that their judgment might be correct, and they be ever able to discern between the clean and unclean. Another reason of weighty importance why they should abstain from anything which would intoxicate, is also given. It would require the full use of unclouded reason to present to the children of Israel all the statutes which God had spoken to them.

Qualifications for Spiritual Leaders.--Anything in eating or drinking which disqualifies the mental powers for healthful and active exercise is an aggravating sin in the sight of God. Especially is this the case with those who minister in holy things, who should at all times be examples to the people, and be in a condition to properly instruct them. . . .

Ministers in the sacred desk, with mouth and lips defiled, dare to take the sacred word of God in their polluted lips. They think God does not notice their sinful indulgence. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." God will no more receive a sacrifice from the hands of those who thus pollute themselves, and offer with their service the incense of tobacco and liquor, than He would receive the offering of the sons of Aaron, who offered incense with strange fire.

God has not changed. He is as particular and exact in His requirements now as He was in the days of Moses. But in the sanctuaries of worship in our day, with the songs of praise, the prayers, and the teaching from the pulpit, there is not merely strange fire, but positive defilement. Instead of truth being preached with holy unction from God, it is sometimes spoken under the influence of tobacco and brandy. Strange fire indeed! Bible truth and Bible holiness are presented to the people, and prayers are offered to God, mingled with the stench of tobacco! Such incense is most acceptable to Satan! A terrible deception is this! What an offence in the sight of God! What an insult to Him who is holy, dwelling in light unapproachable!

If the faculties of the mind were in healthful vigour, professed Christians would discern the inconsistency of such worship. Like Nadab and Abihu, their sensibilities are so blunted that they make no difference between the sacred and common. Holy and sacred things are brought down upon a level with

their tobacconised breaths, benumbed brains, and their polluted souls, defiled through indulgence of appetite and passion. Professed Christians eat and drink, smoke and chew tobacco, and become gluttons and drunkards, to gratify appetite, and still talk of overcoming as Christ overcame!-- Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ, pages 82-86.

A Call for Clear-Minded Officials.--How is it with our lawmakers, and the men in our courts of justice? If it was necessary that those who minister in holy office should have clear minds and full control of their reason, is it not also important that those who make and execute the laws of our great nation should have their faculties unclouded? What about the judges and jurors, in whose hands rests the disposing of human life, and whose decisions may condemn the innocent, or turn the criminal loose upon society? Do they not need to have full control of their mental powers? Are they temperate in their habits? If not, they are not fit for such responsible positions. When the appetites are perverted, the mental powers are weakened, and there is danger that men will not rule justly. Is indulgence in that which beclouds the mind less dangerous today than when God placed restrictions upon those who ministered in holy office?--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 19.

When Government Men Betray Their Trust.--Men who make laws to control the people should above all others be obedient to the higher laws which are the foundation of all rule in nations and in families. How important that men who have a controlling power should themselves feel they are under a higher control. They will never feel thus while their minds are weakened by indulgence in narcotics, and strong drink. Those to whom it is entrusted to make and execute laws should have all their powers in vigorous action. They may, by practicing temperance in all things, preserve the clear discrimination between the sacred and common, and have

wisdom to deal with that justice and integrity which God enjoined upon ancient Israel. . . .

Many who are elevated to the highest positions of trust in serving the public are the opposite of this. They are self-serving, and generally indulge in the use of narcotics, and wine and strong drink. Lawyers, jurors, senators, judges, and representative men have forgotten that they cannot dream themselves into a character. They are deteriorating their powers through sinful indulgences. They stoop from their high position to defile themselves with intemperance, licentiousness, and every form of evil. Their powers prostituted by vice open their path for every evil. . . .

Intemperate men should not by vote of the people be placed in positions of trust. Their influence corrupts others, and grave responsibilities are involved. With brain and nerve narcotized by tobacco and stimulus they make a law of their nature, and when the immediate influence is gone there is a collapse. Frequently human life is hanging in the balance; on the decision of men in these positions of trust depends life and liberty, or bondage and despair. How necessary that all who take part in these transactions should be men proved, men of self-culture, men of honesty and truth, of stanch integrity, who will spurn a bribe, who will not allow their judgment or convictions of right to be swerved by partiality or prejudice. Thus saith the Lord, "Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous."--Signs of the Times, July 8, 1880.

Only men of strict temperance and integrity should be admitted to our legislative halls and chosen to preside in our courts of justice. Property, reputation, and even life itself, are insecure when left to the judgment of men who are

intemperate and immoral. How many innocent persons have been condemned to death, how many more have been robbed of all their earthly possessions, by the injustice of drinking jurors, lawyers, witnesses, and even judges!--Signs of the Times, Feb. 11, 1886.

If All Responsible Men Were Temperate.--Should representative men keep the way of the Lord, they would point men to a high and holy standard. Those in positions of trust would be strictly temperate. Magistrates, senators, and judges would have a clear understanding, and their judgment would be sound and unperverted. The fear of the Lord would ever be before them, and they would depend upon a higher wisdom than their own. The heavenly Teacher would make them wise in counsel, and strong to work steadfastly in opposition to all wrong, and to advance that which is right and just and true. The word of God would be their guide, and all oppression would be discarded. Lawmakers and administrators would abide by every good and just law, ever teaching the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. God is the head of all good and just governments and laws. Those who are entrusted with the responsibility of administering any part of the law, are accountable to God as stewards of His goods. --Review and Herald, Oct. 1, 1895.

Reason Dethroned at Belshazzar's Feast.--In his pride and arrogancy, with a reckless feeling of security, Belshazzar "made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand." All the attractions that wealth and power could command, added splendour to the scene. Beautiful women with their enchantments were among the guests in attendance at the royal banquet. Men of genius and education were there. Princes and statesmen drank wine like water, and revelled under its maddening influence. With reason dethroned through shameless intoxication, and with lower impulses and passions now in the ascendancy, the king

himself took the lead in the riotous orgy.--Prophets and Kings, page 523.

At the very moment when the feasting was at its height, a bloodless hand came forth, and traced on the wall of the banqueting room the doom of the king and his kingdom. "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," were the words written, and they were interpreted by Daniel to mean, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. . . . Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." And the record tells us, "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom."

Little did Belshazzar think that an unseen Watcher beheld his idolatrous revelry. But there is nothing said or done that is not recorded on the books of heaven. The mystic characters traced by the bloodless hand testify that God is a witness to all we do, and that He is dishonoured by feasting and revelling. We cannot hide anything from God. We cannot escape from our accountability to Him. Wherever we are and whatever we do, we are responsible to Him whose we are by creation and by redemption.--Manuscript 50, 1893.

Awful Result of Herod's Dissipation.--In many things Herod had reformed his dissolute life. But the use of luxurious food and stimulating drinks was constantly enervating and deadening the moral as well as the physical powers, and warring against the earnest appeals of the Spirit of God, which had struck conviction to the heart of Herod, arousing his conscience to put away his sins. Herodias was acquainted with the weak points in the character of Herod. She knew that under ordinary circumstances, while his intelligence controlled him, she could not obtain the death of John. . . .

She covered her hatred as best she could, looking forward to the birthday of Herod, which she knew would be an occasion of gluttony and intoxication. Herod's love of luxurious food and wine would give her an opportunity to throw him

off his guard. She would entice him to indulge his appetite, which would arouse passion and lower the tone of the mental and moral character, making it impossible for his deadened sensibilities to see facts and evidences clearly, and make right decisions. She had the most costly preparations made for feasting, and voluptuous dissipation. She was acquainted with the influence of these intemperate feasts upon the intellect and morals. She knew that Herod's indulgence of appetite, pleasure, and amusement would excite the lower passions, and make him spiritless to the nobler demands of effort and duty.

The unnatural exhilaration which intemperance gives to the mind and spirits, lowers the sensibilities to moral improvement, making it impossible for holy impulses to affect the heart, and hold government over the passions, when public opinion and fashion sustain them. Festivities and amusements, dances, and free use of wine, becloud the senses, and remove the fear of God. . . .

As Herod and his lords were feasting and drinking in the pleasure saloon or banqueting hall, Herodias, debased with crime and passion, sent her daughter, dressed in a most enchanting manner, into the presence of Herod and his royal guests. Salome was decorated with costly garlands and flowers. She was adorned with sparkling jewels and flashing bracelets. With little covering and less modesty she danced for the amusement of the royal guests. To their perverted senses, the enchanting appearance of this, to them, vision of beauty and loveliness charmed them. Instead of being governed by enlightened reason, refined taste, or sensitive consciences, the lower qualities of the mind held the guiding reins. Virtue and principle had no controlling power.

The false enchantment of the dizzy scene seemed to take away reason and dignity from Herod and his guests, who were flushed with wine. The music and wine and dancing

had removed the fear and reverence of God from them. Nothing seemed sacred to Herod's perverted senses. He was desirous to make some display which would exalt him still higher before the great men of his kingdom. And he rashly promised, and confirmed his promise with an oath, to give the daughter of Herodias whatever she might ask. . . .

Having obtained so wonderful a promise, she ran to her mother, desiring to know what she should ask. The mother's answer was ready, The head of John the Baptist in a charger. Salome at first was shocked. She did not understand the hidden revenge in her mother's heart. She refused to present such an inhuman request; but the determination of that wicked mother prevailed. Moreover, she bade her daughter make no delay, but hasten to prefer her request before Herod would have time for reflection, and to change his mind. Accordingly, Salome returned to Herod with her terrible petition, "I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her."

Herod was astonished and confounded. His riotous mirth ceased, and his guests were thrilled with horror at this inhuman request. The frivolities and dissipation of that night cost the life of one of the most eminent prophets that ever bore a message from God to men. The intoxicating cup prepared the way for this terrible crime.--Review and Herald, March 11, 1873.

No Voice to Save John.--Why was there no voice to be heard in that company to keep Herod from fulfilling his mad vow? They were intoxicated with wine, and to their benumbed senses there was nothing to be reverenced.

Although the royal guests virtually had an invitation to release him from his oath, their tongues seemed paralyzed. Herod himself was under the delusion that he must, in order

to save his own reputation, keep an oath made under the influence of intoxication. Moral principle, the only safeguard of the soul, was paralyzed. Herod and his guests were slaves, held in the lowest bondage to brute appetite. . . .

The mental powers were enervated by the pleasure of sense, which perverted their ideas of justice and mercy. Satan seized upon this opportunity, in the person of Herodias, to lead them to rush into decisions which cost the precious life of one of God's prophets.--Review and Herald, April 8, 1873.

Divine Warnings.--The Lord cannot bear much longer with an intemperate and perverse generation. There are many solemn warnings in the Scriptures against the use of intoxicating liquors. In the days of old, when Moses was rehearsing the desire of Jehovah concerning His people, there were uttered against the drunkard the following words:

"And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven."

Solomon says: "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder."

The use of wine among the Israelites was one of the causes

that finally resulted in their captivity. Through the prophet Amos the Lord said to them:

"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. . . . Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed."

"Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!" "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted."

These words of warning and command are pointed and decided. Let those in positions of public trust take heed lest through wine and strong drink they forget the law, and pervert judgment. Rulers and judges should ever be in a condition to fulfil the instruction of the Lord: "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless."

The Lord God of heaven ruleth. He alone is above all authority, over all kings and rulers. The Lord has given special directions in His word in reference to the use of wine and strong drink. He has forbidden their use, and enforced

His prohibitions with strong warnings and threatenings. But His forbidding the use of intoxicating beverages is not an exercise of arbitrary authority. He seeks to restrain men, in order that they may escape from the evil results of indulgence in wine and strong drink. Degradation, cruelty, wretchedness, and strife follow as the natural results of intemperance. God has pointed out the consequences of following this course of evil. This He has done that there may not be a perversion of His laws, and that men may be spared the widespread misery resulting from the course of evil men who, for the sake of gain, self maddening intoxicants.--Drunkenness and Crime, pages 4-6.

Chap. 11 - Effects of Tobacco Use

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What It Does to the Body.--Tobacco is a slow, insidious poison, and its effects are more difficult to cleanse from the system than those of liquor.--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 569.

Tobacco using is a habit which frequently affects the nervous system in a more powerful manner than does the use of alcohol. It binds the victim in stronger bands of slavery than does the intoxicating cup; the habit is more difficult to overcome. 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.--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 562.

Tobacco Users Guilty Before God.--Tobacco, in whatever form it is used, tells upon the constitution. It is a slow poison. It affects the brain and benumbs the sensibilities, so that the mind cannot clearly discern spiritual things, especially those truths which would have a tendency to correct this filthy indulgence. Those who use tobacco in any form are not clear before God. In such a filthy practice it is impossible for them to glorify God in their bodies and spirits which are His. And while they are using slow and sure poisons, which are ruining their health, and debasing the faculties of the mind, God cannot approbate them. He may be merciful to them while they indulge in this pernicious habit in ignorance of the injury it is doing them, but when the matter is set before them in its true light, then they are guilty before God if they continue to indulge this gross appetite.--Counsels on Health, page 81.

Resistance Lowered and Restorative Powers Weakened.-- God's healing power runs all through nature. If a human being cuts his flesh or breaks a bone, nature at once begins to heal the injury, and thus preserve the man's life. But man can place himself in a position where nature is trammelled so that she cannot do her work. . . . If tobacco is used, . . . the healing power of nature is weakened to a greater or less extent.--Medical Ministry, page II.

Sowing and Reaping.--Let old and young remember that for every violation of the laws of life, nature will utter her protest. The penalty will fall upon the mental as well as the physical powers. And it does not end with the guilty trifler. The effects of his misdemeanours are seen in his offspring, and thus hereditary evils are passed down, even to the third or fourth generation. Think of this, fathers, when you indulge in the use of the soul-and-brain benumbing narcotic, tobacco. Where will this practice leave you? Whom will it affect besides yourselves?--Signs of the Times, Dec. 6, 1910.

Among children and youth the use of tobacco is working untold harm. The unhealthful practices of past generations affect the children and youth of today. Mental inability, physical weakness, disordered nerves, and unnatural cravings are transmitted as a legacy from parents to children. And the same practices, continued by the children, are increasing and perpetuating the evil results. To this cause in no small degree is owing the physical, mental, and moral deterioration, which is becoming such a cause of alarm.

Boys begin the use of tobacco at a very early age. The habit thus formed, when body and mind are especially susceptible to its effects, undermines the physical strength, dwarfs the body, stupefies the mind, and corrupts the morals.--The Ministry of Healing, pages 328, 329.

Beginnings of Tobacco Intemperance.--There is no natural appetite for tobacco in nature unless inherited.--Manuscript 9, 1893.

By the use of tea and coffee an appetite is formed for tobacco.--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 563.

The highly seasoned flesh meats and the tea and coffee, which some mothers encourage their children to use, prepare the way for them to crave stronger stimulants, as tobacco. The use of tobacco encourages the appetite for liquor.-- Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 488.

Food prepared with condiments and spices inflames the stomach, corrupts the blood, and paves the way to stronger stimulants. It induces nervous debility, impatience, and lack of self-control. Tobacco and the wine cup follow.--Signs of the Times, Oct. 27, 1887.

Lives Are Sacrificed.--Alcohol and tobacco pollute the blood of men, and thousands of lives are yearly sacrificed to these poisons.--Health Reformer, November, 1871.

Nature does her best to expel the poisonous drug, tobacco; but frequently she is overborne. She gives up her struggle to expel the intruder, and the life is sacrificed in the conflict.--Manuscript 3, 1897.

Tobacco Use Is Suicide.--God requires purity of heart, and personal cleanliness, now, as when He gave the special directions to the children of Israel. If God was so particular to enjoin cleanliness upon those journeying in the wilderness who were in the open air nearly all the time, He requires no less of us who live in ceiled houses, where impurities are more observable, and have a more unhealthful influence. Tobacco is a poison of the most deceitful and malignant kind, having an exciting, then a paralyzing influence upon the nerves of the body. It is all the more dangerous because its effects upon the system are so slow, and at first scarcely perceivable. Multitudes have fallen victims to its poisonous influence. They have surely murdered themselves by this slow poison. And we ask. What will be their waking in the resurrection morning?--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, p. 128.

There Is No Defence.--Intemperance of every kind is holding human beings as in a vice. Tobacco inebriates are multiplying. What shall we say of this evil? It is unclean; it is a narcotic; it stupefies the senses; it chains the will; it holds its victims in the slavery of habits difficult to overcome; it has Satan for its advocate. It destroys the clear perceptions of the mind that sin and corruption may not be distinguished from truth and holiness. This appetite for tobacco is self-destructive. It leads to a craving for something stronger,--fermented wines and liquors, all of which are intoxicating.--Letter 102a, 1897.

Chap. 12 - Tobacco's Polluting, Demoralizing Influence

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We Meet It Everywhere.--Wherever we go, we encounter the tobacco devotee, enfeebling both mind and body by his darling indulgence. Have men a right to deprive their Maker and the world of the service which is their due? . . .

It is a disgusting habit, defiling to the user, and very annoying to others. We rarely pass through a crowd but men will puff their poisoned breath in our faces. It is unpleasant, if not dangerous, to remain in a railway car or in a room where the atmosphere is impregnated with the fumes of liquor and tobacco.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, pages 33, 34.

It Curses and Kills.--Women and children suffer from having to breathe the atmosphere that has been polluted by the pipe, the cigar, or the foul breath of the tobacco user. Those who live in this atmosphere will always be ailing.-- Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 440.

The infant lungs suffer, and become diseased by inhaling the atmosphere of a room poisoned by the tobacco user's tainted breath. Many infants are poisoned beyond remedy by sleeping in beds with their tobacco-using fathers. By inhaling the poisonous tobacco effluvia, which is thrown from the lungs

and pores of the skin, the system of the infant is filled with poison. While it acts upon some infants as a slow poison, and affects the brain, heart, liver, and lungs, and they waste away and fade gradually, upon others, it has a more direct influence, causing spasms, fits, paralysis, and sudden death.

The bereaved parents mourn the loss of their loved ones, and wonder at the mysterious providence of God which has so cruelly afflicted them, when Providence designed not the death of these infants. They died martyrs to filthy lust for tobacco. Every exhalation of the lungs of the tobacco slave, poisons the air about him.--Health Reformer, January, 1872.

A Factor in Increasing Crime.--The use of tobacco and strong drink has a great deal to do with the increase of disease and crime.--Manuscript 29, 1886.

The use of liquor or tobacco destroys the sensitive nerves of the brain, and benumbs the sensibilities. Under their influence crimes are committed that would have been left undone had the mind been clear and free from the influence of stimulants or narcotics.--Manuscript 38 1/2, 1905.

Satan Controls the Paralyzed Mind.--Thousands are continually selling physical, mental, and moral vigour for the pleasure of taste. Each of the faculties has its distinctive office, and yet they all have a mutual dependence upon each other. And if the balance is carefully preserved, they will be kept in harmonious action. Not one of these faculties can be valued by dollars and cents. And yet, for a good dinner, for alcohol, or tobacco, they are sold. And while paralyzed by the indulgence of appetite, Satan controls the mind, and leads to every species of crime and wickedness.--Review and Herald, March 18, 1875.

Will the Women Smoke?--God forbid that woman should degrade herself to the use of a filthy and besotting narcotic. How disgusting is the picture which one may draw in the

mind, of a woman whose breath is poisoned by tobacco. One shudders to think of little children twining their arms about her neck, and pressing their fresh, pure lips to that mother's lips, stained and polluted by the offensive fluid and odour of tobacco. Yet the picture is only more revolting because the reality is more rare than that of the father, the lord of the household, defiling himself with the disgusting weed. No wonder we see children turn from the kiss of the father whom they love, and if they kiss him seek not his lips, but his cheek or forehead, where their pure lips will not be contaminated. --Health Reformer, September, 1877.

The Only Safe Path.--Many are the temptations and besetments on every side to ruin the prospects of young men, both for this world and the next. But the only path of safety is for young and old to live in strict conformity to the principles of physical and moral law. The path of obedience is the only path that leads to heaven. Alcohol and tobacco inebriates would, at times, give any amount of money if they could by so doing overcome their appetite for these body-and-soul-destroying indulgences. And they who will not subject the appetites and passions to the control of reason, will indulge them at the expense of physical and moral obligation.--Review and Herald, March 18, 1875.

Tobacco's Enslaving Power.--In fastening upon men the terrible habit of tobacco using, it is Satan's purpose to palsy the brain and confuse the judgment, so that sacred things shall not be discerned. When once an appetite for this narcotic has been formed, it takes firm hold of the mind and the will of man, and he is in bondage under its power. Satan has the control of the will, and eternal realities are eclipsed. Man cannot stand forth in his God-given manhood; he is a slave to perverted appetite.--Letter 8, 1893.

Those who claim that tobacco does not injure them, can

be convinced of their mistake by depriving themselves of it for a few days; the trembling nerves, the giddy head, the irritability they feel, will prove to them that this sinful indulgence has bound them in slavery. It has overcome will power. They are in bondage to a vice that is fearful in its results.--Signs of the Times, Oct. 27, 1887.

The Witness of Those Who Overcame.--While speaking, we asked those to arise who had been addicted to the use of tobacco, but had entirely discontinued its use because of the light they had received through the truth. In response, between thirty-five and forty arose to their feet, ten or twelve of whom were women. We then invited those to arise who had been told by physicians that it would be fatal for them to stop the use of tobacco, because they had become so accustomed to its false stimulus that they would not be able to live without it. In reply, eight persons, whose countenances indicated health of mind and body, arose to their feet.--Review and Herald, August 23, 1877.

Warn Against Presumption.--Parents, warn your children against the sin of presumption. Teach them that it is presumption to educate an appetite for tobacco, liquor, or any hurtful thing. Teach them that their bodies are God's property. They are His by creation and by redemption. They are not their own; for they have been bought with a price. Teach them that the body is the temple of God, and that it is not to be made strengthless and diseased by the indulgence of appetite.

The Lord did not create the disease and imbecility now seen in the bodies and minds of the human race. The enemy has done this. He desires to enfeeble the body, knowing that it is the only medium through which mind and soul can be developed for the upbuilding of a symmetrical character. Habits which are contrary to the laws of nature, war constantly against the soul.

God calls upon you to do a work which through His grace you can do. How many sound bodies are there which can be presented to God as a sacrifice that He will accept in His service? How many are standing forth in their God-given manhood and womanhood? How many can show a purity of tastes, appetites, and habits that will bear comparison with Daniel's? How many have calm nerves, clear brain, unimpaired judgment?--Signs of the Times, April 4, 1900.

Chap. 13 - Defiling the Temple of God

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Inconvenient, Expensive, Uncleanly.--The use of tobacco is an inconvenient, expensive, uncleanly habit. The teachings of Christ, pointing to purity, self-denial, and temperance, all rebuke this defiling practice. . . . Is it for the glory of God for men to enfeeble the physical powers, confuse the brain, and yield the will to this narcotic poison?--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, pages 17, 18. Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-style-parent:""; line-height:115%; font-size:11.0pt;"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-"Times New Roman";}

Looking Through Clouded Windows.--The youth who has made a practice of using tobacco has defiled the whole man. The will has no longer the promptness and force which made him trustworthy and of value before he accepted the enemy's poison. . . . His mind need not have decayed. He need not have lost the inspiration that comes from God. But when the human agent works in perfect harmony with the destroyer, enervating the sinews and muscles, the fluids and solids, of the whole human structure, he is dulling the machinery through which the intellect works. He is clouding the windows through which he looks. He sees everything in a perverted light.--Manuscript 17, 1898.

Incense to His Satanic Majesty.--As I have seen men who claimed to enjoy the blessing of entire sanctification, while they were slaves to tobacco, spitting and defiling everything around them, I have thought, How would heaven appear with tobacco users in it? The lips that were taking the precious

name of Christ were defiled by tobacco spittle, the breath was polluted with the stench, and even the linen was defiled; the soul that loved this uncleanness and enjoyed this poisonous atmosphere must also be defiled. The sign was hung upon the outside, testifying of what was within.

Men professing godliness offer their bodies upon Satan's altar, and burn the incense of tobacco to his satanic majesty. Does this statement seem severe? The offering must be presented to some deity. As God is pure and holy, and will accept nothing defiling in its character, He refuses this expensive, filthy, and unholy sacrifice; therefore we conclude that Satan is the one who claims the honour.--Counsels on Health, page 83.

The Pipe Versus Heaven.--I have seen many an example of the power of these habits. One woman I knew who was advised by her physician to smoke as a remedy for the asthma. To all appearance she had been a zealous Christian for many years, but she became so addicted to smoking that when urged to give it up as an unhealthful and defiling habit, she utterly refused to do so. She said, "When the matter comes before my mind distinctly, that I must give up my pipe or lose heaven, then I say, 'Farewell heaven;' I cannot surrender my pipe." This woman only put into words that which many express by their actions. God, the maker of heaven and earth, He who created man and claims the whole heart, the entire affections, is held subordinate to the disgusting, defiling nuisance, tobacco.--Letter 8, 1893.

That Christ should be discarded for these soul-and-body- destroying indulgences, is an amazement to the unfallen universe.--Letter 8, 1893.

Dulls Appreciation of Atonement and Eternal Things.-- When we pursue a course of eating and drinking that lessens physical and mental vigour, or become the prey of habits that tend to the same results, we dishonour God, for we rob Him

of the service He claims from us. Those who acquire and indulge the unnatural appetite for tobacco, do this at the expense of health. They are destroying nervous energy, lessening vital force, and sacrificing mental strength.

Those who profess to be the followers of Christ, yet have this terrible sin at their door, cannot have a high appreciation of the atonement and an elevated estimate of eternal things. Minds that are clouded and partially paralyzed by narcotics, are easily overcome by temptation, and cannot enjoy communion with God.--Signs of the Times, Jan. 6, 1876.

If Christ and the Apostles Were Here.--James says that the wisdom which is from above is "first pure." If he had seen his brethren using tobacco, would he not have denounced the practice as "earthly, sensual, devilish"?--The Sanctified Life, page 24.

Were Peter upon the earth now he would exhort the professed followers of Christ to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And Paul would call upon the churches in general to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And Christ would drive from the temple those who are defiled by the use of tobacco, polluting the sanctuary of God by their tobacconised breaths. He would say to these worshipers, as He did to the Jews, "My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." We would say to such, Your unholy offerings of ejected quids of tobacco defile the temple, and are abhorred of God. Your worship is not acceptable, for your bodies which should be the temple for the Holy Ghost are defiled. You also rob the treasury of God of thousands of dollars through the indulgence of unnatural appetite.--Signs of the Times, Aug. 13, 1874.

Tobacco-Using Priests Would Have Suffered Death.--The priests, who ministered in sacred things, were commanded to wash their feet and their hands before entering the

tabernacle in the presence of God to importune for Israel, that they might not desecrate the sanctuary. If the priests had entered the sanctuary with their mouths polluted with tobacco, they would have shared the fate of Nadab and Abihu. And yet professed Christians bow before God in their families to pray with their mouths defiled with the filth of tobacco. . . .

Be Ye Clean.--Men who have been set apart by the laying on of hands, to minister in sacred things, often stand in the desk with their mouths polluted, their lips stained, and their breath tainted with the defilements of tobacco. They speak to the people in Christ's stead. How can such service be acceptable to a holy God, who required the priests of Israel to make such special preparations before coming into His presence, lest His sacred holiness should consume them for dishonouring Him, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu?

These may be assured that the mighty God of Israel is still a God of cleanliness. They profess to be serving God while they are committing idolatry, by making a god of their appetite. Tobacco is their cherished idol. To it every high and sacred consideration must bow. They profess to be worshiping God, while at the same time they are violating the first commandment. They have other gods before the Lord. "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord."--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, pp. 127, 128.

He Will Not Defile God's Temple.--God desires all who believe in Him to feel the necessity of improvement. Every entrusted faculty is to be enlarged. Not one gift is to be laid aside. As God's husbandry and building, man is under His supervision in every sense of the word, and the better he becomes acquainted with his Maker, the more sacred will his life become in his estimation. He will not place tobacco in his mouth, knowing that it defiles God's temple. He will not drink wine or liquor, for, like tobacco, it degrades the whole being.--Manuscript 130, 1899.

Chap. 14 - An Economic Waste

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God's Money Squandered.--The love of tobacco is a warring lust. Means are thereby squandered that would aid in the good work of clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and sending the truth to poor souls out of Christ. What a record will appear when the accounts of life are balanced in the book of God! It will then appear that vast sums of money have been expended for tobacco and alcoholic liquors! For what? To ensure health and prolong life? Oh, no! To aid in the perfection of Christian character and a fitness for the society of holy angels? Oh, no! But to minister to a depraved, unnatural appetite for that which poisons and kills not only the user but those to whom he transmits his legacy of disease and imbecility.--Signs of the Times, Oct. 27, 1887.

All Must Give an Account.--Millions of dollars are spent for stimulants and narcotics. All this money rightfully belongs to God, and those who thus misappropriate His entrusted goods will someday be called to give an account of how they have used their Lord's goods.--Letter 243a, 1905.

Tobacco Users to Look Over the Record.--Have you considered your responsibility as God's stewards, for the means in your hands? How much of the Lord's money do you spend for tobacco? Reckon up what you have thus spent during your lifetime. How does the amount consumed by this defiling lust compare with what you have given for the relief of the poor and the spread of the gospel?

No human being needs tobacco, but multitudes are perishing for want of the means that by its use is worse than wasted. Have you not been misappropriating the Lord's goods? Have you not been guilty of robbery toward God and your fellow men? Know ye not that "ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. I Corinthians 6:19, 20.-- The Ministry of Healing, page 330.

Appetite Versus Natural Affection and Claims of God.-- Those who are slaves to tobacco will see their families suffering for the conveniences of life, and for necessary food, yet they have not the power of will to forgo their tobacco. The clamours of appetite prevail over natural affection. Appetite, which they have in common with the brute, controls them. The cause of Christianity, and even humanity, would not in any case be met, if dependent upon those in the habitual use of tobacco and liquor. If they had means to use only in one direction, the treasury of God would not be replenished, but they would have their tobacco and liquor. The tobacco idolater will not deny his appetite for the cause of God.--Review and Herald, Sept, 8, 1874.

Taking the Lead in Self-Denial, Self-Sacrifice, and Temperance.--The man who has become the property of Jesus Christ, and whose body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, will not be enslaved by the pernicious habit of tobacco using. His powers belong to Christ, who has bought him with the price of blood. His property is the Lord's. How, then, can he be guiltless in expending every day the Lord's entrusted capital to gratify an appetite which has no foundation in nature?

An enormous sum is yearly squandered for this indulgence, while souls are perishing for the word of life. Professed Christians rob God in tithes and offerings, while they offer on the altar of destroying lust, in the use of tobacco, more than they give to relieve the poor or to supply the wants of God's cause. Those who are truly sanctified, will overcome every hurtful lust. Then all these channels of needless expense will be turned to the Lord's treasury, and Christians will take the lead in self-denial, in self-sacrifice, and in temperance. Then they will be the light of the world.--The Sanctified Life, pages 24, 25.

Chap. 15 - The Power of Example

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The Older Ones Set the Example.--How often do we see boys not more than eight years old using tobacco! If you speak to them about it, they say, "My father uses it, and if it does him good, it will me." They point to the minister or the Sunday school superintendent, and say, "If such good men as they use it, surely I can." How can we expect anything else of the children, with their inherited tendencies, while the older ones set them such an example?--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 18.

Popularity of the Tobacco Habit.--So powerful is the habit when once formed, that the use of tobacco becomes popular. An example of sin is set before youth, whose minds should be disabused of all thought that the use of the narcotic is not harmful. They are not told of its injurious effects on the physical, mental, and moral powers. . . .

If a follower of Christ allows himself to be led astray by the influence of others, and conforms to the fashionable dissipation of the world, he is under Satan's sway, and his sin is even greater than is the sin of avowed unbelievers,--the ungodly,--because he is standing under false colours. His life is inconsistent; professedly a Christian, in practice he is yielding to unnatural, sinful propensities that war against the purification and elevation necessary for spiritual superiority. . . .

Becoming conformed to the habit, in practice they are in fellowship with the world. All such who claim to be Christians, have no right to assume this name; for a Christian is one who is Christlike. When the judgment sits and all are judged according to the deeds done in the body, they will learn that they have misrepresented Christ in practical life, and have not made themselves a savour of life unto life, but a savour of death unto death. In fellowship with them will be a numerous company who have conformed to lustful practices; but numbers will neither excuse their iniquity, nor

lessen their condemnation for destroying the brain nerve power and the physical health. All will be judged personally. They will stand before God to hear their sentence.--Manuscript 123, 1901.

Smoking Clergymen.--How many there are who minister in the sacred desk, in Christ's stead, and are beseeching men to be reconciled to God, and are exalting the free gospel, who are themselves slaves to appetite, and are defiled with tobacco. They are daily weakening their nerve brain power by the use of a filthy narcotic. And these men profess to be ambassadors for the holy Jesus.--Health Reformer, December, 1871.

No man can be a true minister of righteousness, and yet be under the inspiration of sensual appetites. He cannot indulge the habit of using tobacco, and yet win souls to the platform of true temperance. The cloud of smoke coming from his lips has no salutary effect upon liquor drinkers. The gospel sermon must come from lips undefiled by tobacco smoke. With pure, clean lips God's servants must tell the triumphs of the cross. The practice of using liquor, tobacco, tea, and coffee must be overcome by the converting power of God. There shall nothing enter into the kingdom of God that defileth.-- Manuscript 86, 1897.

When clergymen throw their influence and example on the side of this injurious habit, what hope is there for young men? We must raise the standard of temperance higher and still higher. We must bear a clear, decided testimony against the use of intoxicating drinks and the use of tobacco. --Manuscript 82, 1900.

The Tobacco-Using Physician.--Many come under the physician's care who are ruining soul and body by the use of tobacco or intoxicating drink. The physician who is true to his responsibility must point out to these patients the cause of their suffering. But if he himself is a user of tobacco or intoxicants, what weight will be given to his words? With

the consciousness of his own indulgence before him, will he not hesitate to point out the plague spot in the life of his patient? While using these things himself, how can he convince the youth of their injurious effects?

How can a physician stand in the community as an example of purity and self-control, how can he be an effectual worker in the temperance cause, while he himself is indulging a vile habit? How can he minister acceptably at the bedside of the sick and the dying, when his very breath is offensive, laden with the odour of liquor or tobacco?

While disordering his nerves and clouding his brain by the use of narcotic poisons, how can one be true to the trust reposed in him as a skilful physician? How impossible for him to discern quickly or to execute with precision!

If he does not observe the laws that govern his own being, if he chooses selfish gratification above soundness of mind and body, does he not thereby declare himself unfit to be entrusted with the responsibility of human lives?--The Ministry of Healing, pages 133, 134.

Father Disqualified for Parental Responsibilities.--Fathers, the golden hours which you might spend in getting a thorough knowledge of the temperament and character of your children, and the best method of dealing with their young minds, are too precious to be squandered in the pernicious habit of smoking, or in lounging about the dramshop.

The indulgence of this poisonous stimulant disqualifies the father to bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The directions given by God to the children of Israel were that the fathers should teach their children the statutes and precepts of His law, when they rose up, and when they sat down, when they went out, and when they came in.

This commandment of God is too little heeded; for Satan, through his temptations, has chained many fathers in the slavery of gross habits, and hurtful appetites. Their physical,

mental, and moral powers are so paralyzed by these means that it is impossible for them to do their duty toward their families. Their minds are so besotted by the stupefying influences of tobacco or liquor that they do not realize their responsibility to train their children so that they may have moral power to resist temptation, to control appetite, to stand for the right, not to be influenced to evil, but to yield a strong influence for good.

Parents by a sinful indulgence of perverted appetite often place themselves in a condition of nervous excitability or exhaustion, where they are unable to discriminate between right and wrong, to manage their children wisely, and to judge correctly their motives and actions. They are in danger of magnifying little matters to mountains in their minds, while they pass lightly over grave sins. The father who has become a slave to abnormal appetite, who has sacrificed his God-given manhood to become a tobacco inebriate, cannot teach his children to control appetite and passion. It is impossible for him to thus educate them either by precept or example. How can the father whose mouth is filled with tobacco, whose breath poisons the atmosphere of home, teach his sons lessons of temperance and self-control? . . .

Held Accountable for Example and Influence.--When we approach the youth who are acquiring the habit of using tobacco, and tell them of its pernicious influence upon the system, they frequently fortify themselves by citing the example of their fathers, or that of certain Christian ministers, or good and pious members of the church. They say, "If it does them no harm, it certainly cannot injure me." What an account will professed Christian men have to render to God for their intemperance! Their example strengthens the temptations of Satan to pervert the senses of the young by the use of artificial stimulants; it seems to them not a very bad thing to do what respectable church members are in the habit of

doing. But it is only a step from tobacco using to liquor drinking; in fact, the two vices usually go together.

Thousands learn to be drunkards from such influences as these. Too often the lesson has been unconsciously taught them by their own fathers. A radical change must be made in the heads of families before much progress can be made in ridding society of the monster of intemperance.--Health Reformer, September, 1877.

Tobacco User No Help to Inebriates.--As twin evils, tobacco and alcohol go together.--Review and Herald, July 9, 1901.

Those who use tobacco can make but a poor plea to the liquor inebriate. Two thirds of the drunkards in our land created an appetite for liquor by the use of tobacco.--Signs of the Times, Oct. 27, 1887.

Tobacco Users in Temperance Work.--Tobacco users cannot be acceptable workers in the temperance cause, for there is no consistency in their profession to be temperance men. How can they talk to the man who is destroying reason and life by liquor drinking, when their pockets are filled with tobacco, and they long to be free to chew and smoke and spit all they please? How can they with any degree of consistency plead for moral reforms before boards of health and from temperance platforms while they themselves are under the stimulus of tobacco? If they would have power to influence the people to overcome their love for stimulants, their words must come forth with pure breath and from clean lips.-- Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 441.

What power can the tobacco devotee have to stay the progress of intemperance? There must be a revolution upon the subject of tobacco before the axe will be laid at the root of the tree. Tea, coffee, and tobacco, as well as alcoholic drinks, are different degrees in the scale of artificial stimulants.-- Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 34.

Chap. 16 - Abstain From Fleshy Lusts

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There Is Always a Reaction.--Under the head of stimulants and narcotics is classed a great variety of articles that, altogether used as food or drink, irritate the stomach, poison the blood, and excite the nerves. Their use is a positive evil. Men seek the excitement of stimulants, because, for the time, the results are agreeable. But there is always a reaction. The use of unnatural stimulants always tends to excess, and it is an active agent in promoting physical degeneration and decay. --The Ministry of Healing, page 325.

Peter's All-Inclusive Warning.--"Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," is the language of the apostle Peter. Many regard this warning as applicable only to the licentious; but it has a broader meaning. It guards against every injurious gratification of appetite or passion. It is a most forcible warning against the use of such stimulants and narcotics as tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, and morphine. These indulgences may well be classed among the lusts that exert a pernicious influence upon moral character. The earlier these hurtful habits are formed, the more firmly will they hold their victim in slavery to lust, and the more certainly will they lower the standard of spirituality.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, pages 62, 63.

Lessens Physical and Mental Activity.--Never be betrayed into indulging in the use of stimulants: for this will result

not only in reaction and loss of physical strength, but in a benumbed intellect.--Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 214.

Vital energy is imparted to the mind through the brain; therefore the brain should never be dulled by the use of narcotics or excited by the use of stimulants. Brain, bone, and muscle, are to be brought into harmonious action, that all may work as well-regulated machines, each part acting in harmony, not one being overtaxed.--Letter 100, 1898.

When those who are in the habit of using tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, or spirituous liquors, are deprived of the accustomed indulgence, they find it impossible to engage with interest and zeal in the worship of God. Divine grace seems powerless to enliven or spiritualize their prayers or their testimonies. These professed Christians should consider the source of their enjoyment. Is it from above, or from beneath? --The Sanctified Life, page 25.

Advanced Age of Some Users No Argument.--Those who use tea, coffee, opium, and alcohol, may sometimes live to old age, but this fact is no argument in favour of the use of these stimulants. What these persons might have accomplished, but failed to do because of their intemperate habits, the great day of God alone will reveal.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 35.

Not All Tempted Alike.--Some look with horror upon men who have been overcome with liquor, and are seen reeling and staggering in the street, while at the same time they are gratifying their appetite for things differing in their nature from spirituous liquor, but which injure the health, affect the brain, and destroy their high sense of spiritual things. The liquor drinker has an appetite for strong drink which he gratifies, while another has no appetite for intoxicating drinks to restrain, but he desires some other hurtful indulgence, and does not practice self-denial any more than the drunkard.--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, p. 125.

Satan's Counterfeit of the Tree of Life.--From beginning to end, the crime of tobacco using, of opium and drug medication, has its origin in perverted knowledge. It is through plucking and eating of poisonous fruit, through the intricacies of names that the common people do not understand, that thousands and ten thousands of lives are lost. This great knowledge, supposed by men to be so wonderful, God did not mean that man should have. They are using the poisonous productions that Satan himself has planted to take the place of the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Men are dealing in liquors and narcotics that are destroying the human family.--Manuscript 119, 1898.

Chap. 17 - Tea and Coffee

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The stimulating diet and drink of this day are not conducive to the best state of health. Tea, coffee, and tobacco are all stimulating, and contain poisons. They are not only unnecessary, but harmful, and should be discarded if we would add to knowledge, temperance.--Review and Herald, Feb. 21, 1888. Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-style-parent:""; line-height:115%; font-size:11.0pt;"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-"Times New Roman";}

Stimulants--Not Foods.--Tea and coffee do not nourish the system. The relief obtained from them is sudden, before the stomach has time to digest them. This shows that what the users of these stimulants call strength is only received by exciting the nerves of the stomach, which convey the irritation to the brain, and this in turn is aroused to impart increased action to the heart and short-lived energy to the entire system. All this is false strength that we are the worse for having. They do not give a particle of natural strength.--Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 65.

The health is in no way improved by the use of those things which stimulate for a time, but afterward cause a reaction which leaves the system lower than before. Tea and coffee whip up the flagging energies for the time being; but when

their immediate influence has gone, a feeling of depression is the result. These beverages have no nourishment whatever in themselves. The milk and sugar it contains constitute all the nourishment afforded by a cup of tea or coffee.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 425.

Because these stimulants produce for the time being such agreeable results, many conclude that they really need them and continue their use. But there is always a reaction. The nervous system, having been unduly excited, borrowed power for present use from its future resources of strength.-- Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 487.

What Tea Does.--Tea . . . enters into the circulation and gradually impairs the energy of body and mind. It stimulates, excites, and quickens the motion of the living machinery, forcing it to unnatural action, and thus gives the tea drinker the impression that it is doing him great service, imparting to him strength. This is a mistake.

Tea draws upon the strength of the nerves and leaves them greatly weakened. When its influence is gone and the increased action caused by its use is abated, then what is the result? Languor and debility corresponding to the artificial vivacity the tea imparted.

When the system is already overtaxed and needs rest, the use of tea spurs up nature by stimulation to perform unwonted, unnatural action, and thereby lessens her power to perform and her ability to endure; and her powers give out long before Heaven designed they should. Tea is poisonous to the system. Christians should let it alone. . . . The second effect of tea drinking is headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling of the nerves, with many other evils.--Testimonies, vol. 2, pp. 64, 65.

Coffee Still More Harmful.--The influence of coffee is in a degree the same as tea, but the effect upon the system is still worse. Its influence is exciting, and just in the degree that it

elevates above par it will exhaust and bring prostration below par. Tea and coffee drinkers carry the marks upon their faces. . . . The glow of health is not seen upon the countenance. --Testimonies, vol. 2, pp. 64, 65.

Coffee is a hurtful indulgence. It temporarily excites the mind, . . . but the after-effect is exhaustion, prostration, paralysis of the mental, moral, and physical powers. The mind becomes enervated, and unless through determined effort the habit is overcome, the activity of the brain is permanently lessened.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 34.

Effects of All Caffeine Drinks.--The action of coffee and many other popular drinks is similar. The first effect is exhilarating. The nerves of the stomach are excited; these convey irritation to the brain, and this in turn is aroused to impart increased action to the heart, and short-lived energy to the entire system. Fatigue is forgotten; the strength seems to be increased. The intellect is aroused, the imagination becomes more vivid.--The Ministry of Healing, page 326.

By this continual course of indulgence of appetite the natural vigour of the constitution becomes gradually and imperceptibly impaired. If we would preserve a healthy action of all the powers of the system, nature must not be forced to unnatural action. Nature will stand at her post of duty, and do her work wisely and efficiently, if the false props that have been brought in to take the place of nature are expelled.-- Review and Herald, April 19, 1887.

Cause of Time Lost on Account of Sickness.--Many who have accustomed themselves to the use of stimulating drinks, suffer from headache and nervous prostration, and lose much time on account of sickness. They imagine they cannot live without the stimulus, and are ignorant of its effects upon health. What makes it the more dangerous is, that its evil effects are so often attributed to other causes.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 35.

Habit-Forming Beverages.--Tea and coffee are neither wholesome nor necessary. They are of no use as far as the health of the body is concerned. But practice in the use of these things becomes habit.--Manuscript 86, 1897.

An Unnatural Craving Produced.--The continued use of these nerve irritants is followed by headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling, and many other evils; for they wear away the life forces. Tired nerves need rest and quiet instead of stimulation and overwork. Nature needs time to recuperate her exhausted energies. When her forces are goaded on by the use of stimulants, more will be accomplished for a time; but as the system becomes debilitated by their constant use, it gradually becomes more difficult to rouse the energies to the desired point. The demand for stimulants becomes more difficult to control, until the will is overborne, and there seems to be no power to deny the unnatural craving. Stronger and still stronger stimulants are called for, until exhausted nature can no longer respond.-- The Ministry of Healing, pages 326, 327.

Preparing the System for Disease.--It is these hurtful stimulants that are surely undermining the constitution and preparing the system for acute diseases, by impairing Nature's fine machinery and battering down her fortifications erected against disease and premature decay.--Testimonies, vol. 1, pp. 548, 549.

The Whole System Suffers.--Through the use of stimulants, the whole system suffers. The nerves are unbalanced, the liver is morbid in its action, the quality and circulation of the blood are affected, and the skin becomes inactive and sallow. The mind, too, is injured. The immediate influence of these stimulants is to excite the brain to undue activity, only to leave it weaker and less capable of exertion. The after-effect is prostration, not only mental and physical, but moral. As a result we see nervous men and women, of unsound judgment

and unbalanced mind. They often manifest a hasty, impatient, accusing spirit, viewing the faults of others as through a magnifying glass, and utterly unable to discern their own defects--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, pages 35,36.

The Tongue Is Loosened.--When these tea and coffee users meet together for social entertainment, the effects of their pernicious habit are manifest. All partake freely of the favourite beverages, and as the stimulating influence is felt, their tongues are loosened, and they begin the wicked work of talking against others. Their words are not few or well chosen. The tidbits of gossip are passed around, too often the poison of scandal as well. These thoughtless gossipers forget that they have a witness. An unseen Watcher is writing their words in the books of heaven. All these unkind criticisms, these exaggerated reports, these envious feelings, expressed under the excitement of the cup of tea, Jesus registers as against Himself. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."-- Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 36.

An Economic Waste.--The money expended for tea and coffee is worse than wasted. They do the user only harm, and that continually--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, page 35.

Destructive Narcotics.--All should bear a clear testimony against tea and coffee, never using them. They are narcotics, injurious alike to the brain and to the other organs of the body. --Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 430.

Destroys Temple of God.--The drunkard sells his reason for a cup of poison. Satan takes control of his reason, affections, conscience. Such a man is destroying the temple of God. Tea drinking helps to do this same work. Yet how many there are who place these destroying agencies on their tables, thereby

quenching the divine attributes.--Manuscript 130, 1899.

Use Inimical to Spiritual Life.--Tea and coffee drinking is a sin, an injurious indulgence, which, like other evils, injures the soul. These darling idols create an excitement, a morbid action of the nervous system.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 425.

Those who indulge a perverted appetite, do it to the injury of health and intellect. They cannot appreciate the value of spiritual things. Their sensibilities are blunted, and sin does not appear very sinful, and truth is not regarded of greater value than earthly treasure.--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, p. 129.

Less Susceptible to Holy Spirit's Influence.--To a user of stimulants, everything seems insipid without the darling indulgence. This deadens the natural sensibilities of both body and mind, and renders him less susceptible to the influence of the Holy Spirit. In the absence of the usual stimulant, he has a hungering of body and soul, not for righteousness, not for holiness, not for God's presence, but for his cherished idol. In the indulgence of hurtful lusts, professed Christians are daily enfeebling their powers, making it impossible to glorify God.--The Sanctified Life, page 25.

Fosters Desire for Stronger Stimulants.--By the use of tea and coffee an appetite is formed for tobacco, and this encourages the appetite for liquors.--Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 563.

Some Have Backslidden.--Some have backslidden and tampered with tea and coffee. Those who break the laws of health will become blinded in their minds and break the law of God.--Review and Herald, Oct. 21, 1884.

God's People Must Overcome.--Those who have received instruction regarding the evils of the use of flesh foods, tea and coffee, and rich and unhealthful food preparations, and who are determined to make a covenant with God by sacrifice, will not continue to indulge their appetite for food that they know

to be unhealthful. God demands that the appetites be cleansed, and that self-denial be practiced in regard to those things which are not good. This is a work that will have to be done before His people can stand before Him a perfected people. --Testimonies, vol. 9, pp. 153, 154.

Determined Perseverance Will Bring Victory.--Those who use these slow poisons, like the tobacco user, think they cannot live without them, because they feel so very bad when they do not have these idols.

Why they suffer when they discontinue the use of these stimulants, is because they have been breaking down nature in her work of preserving the entire system in harmony and in health. They will be troubled with dizziness, headache, numbness, nervousness, and irritability. They feel as though they should go all to pieces, and some have not courage to persevere in abstaining from them till abused nature recovers, but again resort to the use of the same hurtful things. They do not give nature time to recover the injury they have done her, but for present relief return to these hurtful indulgences. Nature is continually growing weaker, and less capable of recovering. But if they will be determined in their efforts to persevere and overcome, abused nature will soon again rally, and perform her work wisely and well without these stimulants.--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, pp. 128, 129.

In some cases it is as difficult to break up this tea and coffee habit as it is for the inebriate to discontinue the use of liquor. --Counsels on Health, page 442.

A Pledge Embracing Tea and Coffee.--All these nerve irritants are wearing away the life forces; and the restlessness, the impatience, the mental feebleness caused by shattered nerves, become a warring element, ever working against spiritual progress. Shall Christians bring their appetite under the control of reason, or will they continue its indulgence because they fell so "let down" without it, like the drunkard without his

stimulant? Shall not those who advocate temperance reform awake in regard to these injurious things also? And shall not the pledge embrace coffee and tea as hurtful stimulants? --Counsels on Health, page 442.

Some Need to Take This Step.--We hope to carry our brethren and sisters up to a still higher standard to sign the pledge to abstain from Java coffee and the herb that comes from China. We see that there are some who need to take this step in reform.--Review and Herald, April 19, 1887.

Proper Course at the Tables of Others--a Word to Colporteur Evangelists.--If you sit at their table, eat temperately, and only of food that will not confuse the mind. Keep yourself from all intemperance. Be yourself an object lesson, illustrating right principles. If they offer you tea to drink, tell them in simple words its injurious effect on the system.-- Manuscript 23, 1890.

Following Jesus in the Path of Reform.--Jesus overcame on the point of appetite, and so may we. Let us move on, then, step by step, advancing in reform until all our habits shall be in accordance with the laws of life and health. The Redeemer of the world in the wilderness of temptation fought the battle upon the point of appetite in our behalf. As our surety He overcame, thus making it possible for man to overcome in His name. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne."--Review and Herald, April 19, 1887.

Chap. 18 - Drugs

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The Usual but Dangerous Course.--A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and of even more serious evils, is the free use of poisonous drugs. When attacked by disease, many will not take the trouble to search Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-style-parent:""; line-height:115%; font-size:11.0pt;"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-"Times New Roman";}

out the cause of their illness. Their chief anxiety is to rid themselves of pain and inconvenience. So they resort to patent nostrums, of whose real properties they know little, or they apply to a physician for some remedy to counteract the result of their misdoing, but with no thought of making a change in their unhealthful habits. If immediate benefit is not realized, another medicine is tried, and then another. Thus the evil continues.--The Ministry of Healing, page 126.

Medicine at Any Cost.--The sick are in a hurry to get well, and the friends of the sick are impatient. They will have medicine, and if they do not feel that powerful influence upon their systems their erroneous views lead them to think they should feel, they impatiently change for another physician. The change often increases the evil. They go through a course of medicine equally as dangerous as the first.--How to Live, No. 3, p. 62.

The Sad Result.--By the use of poisonous drugs, many bring upon themselves lifelong illness, and many lives are lost that might be saved by the use of natural methods of healing. The poisons contained in many so-called remedies create habits and appetites that mean ruin to both soul and body. Many of the popular nostrums called patent medicines, and even some of the drugs dispensed by physicians, act a part in laying the foundation of the liquor habit, the opium habit, the morphine habit, that are so terrible a curse to society.-- The Ministry of Healing, pages 126, 127.

Nervous System Deranged.--Drugs given to stupefy, whatever they may be, derange the nervous system.--How to Live, No. 3, p. 57.

A Penalty Fixed for Every Transgression.--God has formed laws which govern our constitutions, and these laws which He has placed in our being are divine, and for every transgression there is affixed a penalty, which must sooner or later be

realized. The majority of diseases which the human family have been and still are suffering under, they have created by ignorance of their own organic laws. They seem indifferent in regard to the matter of health, and work perseveringly to tear themselves to pieces, and when broken down and debilitated in body and mind, send for the doctor and drug themselves to death.--Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 19.

Simple Living Versus the Drugstore.--Thousands who are afflicted might recover their health, if, instead of depending upon the drugstore for their life, they would discard all drugs, and live simply, without using tea, coffee, liquor, or spices, which irritate the stomach and leave it weak, unable to digest even simple food without stimulation. The Lord is willing to let His light shine forth in clear, distinct rays to all who are weak and feeble.--Medical Ministry, page 229.

A Reckless Course.--To use drugs while continuing evil habits, is certainly inconsistent, and greatly dishonours God by dishonouring the body which He has made. Yet for all this, stimulants and drugs continue to be prescribed, and freely used by human beings, while the hurtful indulgences that produce the disease are not discarded.--Letter 19, 1892.

Those who will gratify their appetite, and then suffer because of their intemperance, and take drugs to relieve them, may be assured that God will not interpose to save health and life which is so recklessly periled. The cause has produced the effect. Many, as their last resort, follow the directions in the word of God, and request the prayers of the elders of the church for their restoration to health. God does not see fit to answer prayers offered in behalf of such, for He knows that if they should be restored to health, they would again sacrifice it upon the altar of unhealthy appetite.--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, p. 145.

A Sin Against the Children.--If those who take these drugs

were alone the sufferers, then the evil would not be as great. But parents not only sin against themselves in swallowing drug poisons, but they sin against their children. The vitiated state of their blood, the poison distributed throughout the system, the broken constitution, and various drug diseases, as the result of drug poisons, are transmitted to their offspring, and left them as a wretched inheritance, which is another great cause of the degeneracy of the race.--How to Live, No. 3, p. 50.

Easier to Use Drugs.--Make use of the remedies that God has provided. Pure air, sunshine, and the intelligent use of water are beneficial agents in the restoration of health. But the use of water is considered too laborious. It is easier to employ drugs than to use natural remedies.--Healthful Living, page 247.

Many parents substitute drugs for judicious nursing.-- Health Reformer, September, 1866.

Educate Away From Drugs.--Drug medication, as it is generally practiced, is a curse. Educate away from drugs. Use them less and less, and depend more upon hygienic agencies; then nature will respond to God's physicians--pure air, pure water, proper exercise, a clear conscience. Those who persist in the use of tea, coffee, and flesh meats will feel the need of drugs, but many might recover without one grain of medicine if they would obey the laws of health. Drugs need seldom be used.--Counsels on Health, page 261.

The only hope of better things is in the education of the people in right principles. Let physicians teach the people that restorative power is not in drugs, but in nature. Disease is an effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health. In case of sickness, the cause should be ascertained. Unhealthful conditions should be changed, wrong habits corrected. Then nature is

to be assisted in her effort to expel impurities and to re-establish right conditions in the system.--The Ministry of Healing, page 127.

Importance of Preventive Medicine.--The first labours of a physician should be to educate the sick and suffering in the very course they should pursue to prevent disease. The greatest good can be done by our trying to enlighten the minds of all we can obtain access to, as to the best course for them to pursue to prevent sickness and suffering, and broken constitutions, and premature death. But those who do not care to undertake work that taxes their physical and mental powers will be ready to prescribe drug medication, which lays a foundation in the human organism for a twofold greater evil than that which they claim to have relieved.--Medical Ministry, pages 221, 222.

People need to be taught that drugs do not cure disease. It is true that they sometimes afford present relief, and the patient appears to recover as the result of their use; this is because nature has sufficient vital force to expel the poison and to correct the conditions that cause the disease. Health is recovered in spite of the drug. But in most cases the drug only changes the form and location of the disease. Often the effect of the poison seems to be overcome for a time, but the results remain in the system, and work great harm at some later period.--The Ministry of Healing, page 126.

A Challenge to Conscientious Physicians.--A physician who has the moral courage to imperil his reputation in enlightening the understanding by plain facts, in showing the nature of disease and how to prevent it, and the dangerous practice of resorting to drugs, will have an uphill business, but he will live and let live. . . . He will, if a reformer, talk plainly in regard to the false appetites and ruinous self-indulgence, in dressing, in eating and drinking, in overtaxing to do a large amount of work in a given time, which has a ruinous influence

upon the temper, the physical and mental powers. . . .

Right and correct habits, intelligently and perseveringly practiced, will be removing the cause for disease, and the strong drugs need not be resorted to.--Medical Ministry, page 222.

Study and Teach Laws of Preventive Medicine.--There is now positive need even with physicians, reformers in the line of treatment of disease, that greater painstaking effort be made to carry forward and upward the work for themselves, and to interestedly instruct those who look to them for medical skill to ascertain the cause of their infirmities. They should call their attention in a special manner to the laws which God has established, which cannot be violated with impunity. They dwell much on the working of disease, but do not, as a general rule, arouse the attention to the laws which must be sacredly and intelligently obeyed, to prevent disease.--Medical Ministry, page 223.

Medicines Which Leave Injurious Effects.--God's servants should not administer medicines which they know will leave behind injurious effects upon the system, even if they do relieve present suffering. Every poisonous preparation in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, taken into the system, will leave its wretched influence, affecting the liver and lungs, and deranging the system generally.--Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, p. 140.

Why Sanitariums Were Established.--Nothing should be put into the human system that will leave a baleful influence behind. And to carry out the light on this subject, to practice hygienic treatment, is the reason which has been given me for establishing sanitariums in various localities.--Medical Ministry, page 228.

Years ago the Lord revealed to me that institutions should be established for treating the sick without drugs. Man is

God's property, and the ruin that has been made of the living habitation, the suffering caused by the seeds of death sown in the human system, are an offence to God.--Medical Ministry, page 229.

Patients are to be supplied with good, wholesome food; total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks is to be observed; drugs are to be discarded, and rational methods of treatment followed. The patients must not be given alcohol, tea, coffee, or drugs; for these always leave traces of evil behind them. By observing these rules, many who have been given up by the physicians may be restored to health.--Medical Ministry, page 228.

Drugs Seldom Needed.--Many might recover without one grain of medicine, if they would live out the laws of health. Drugs need seldom be used. It will require earnest, patient, protracted effort to establish the work and to carry it forward upon hygienic principles. But let fervent prayer and faith be combined with your efforts, and you will succeed. By this work you will be teaching the patients, and others also, how to take care of themselves when sick, without resorting to the use of drugs.--Medical Ministry, pages 259, 260.

Our institutions are established that the sick may be treated by hygienic methods, discarding almost entirely the use of drugs. . . . There is a terrible account to be rendered to God by men who have so little regard for human life as to treat the body so ruthlessly in dealing out their drugs. . . . We are not excusable if through ignorance we destroy God's building by taking into our stomachs poisonous drugs under a variety of names we do not understand. It is our duty to refuse all such prescriptions. We wish to build a sanitarium where maladies may be cured by nature's own provisions, and where the people may be taught how to treat themselves when sick; where they will learn to eat temperately of wholesome food, and be educated to refuse all narcotics,--tea, coffee,

fermented wines, and stimulants of all kinds,--and to discard the flesh of dead animals.--Manuscript 44, 1896.

For the Most Effective Work.--The question of health reform is not agitated as it must and will be. A simple diet, and the entire absence of drugs, leaving nature free to recuperate the wasted energies of the body, would make our sanitariums far more effectual in restoring the sick to health.--Letter 73a, 1896.

Teach the Patients How to Co-operate With God.--The people must be educated to understand that it is a sin to destroy their physical, mental, and spiritual energies, and they must understand how to co-operate with God in their own restoration. Through faith in Christ they can overcome the habit of using health-destroying stimulants and narcotics.-- Manuscript 12, 1900.

Chap. 19 - Importance of Strictly Temperate Habits

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Examples From Old and New Testament.--When the Lord would raise up Samson as a deliverer of His people, He enjoined upon the mother correct habits of life before the birth of her child. And the same prohibition was to be imposed, from the first, upon the child; for he was to be consecrated to God as a Nazarite from his birth.

The angel of God appeared to the wife of Manoah, and informed her that she should have a son; and in view of this He gave her the important directions: "Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing." Judges 13:4, 14.

God had important work for the promised child of Manoah to do, and it was to secure for him the qualifications necessary for this work, that the habits of both the mother and the child were to be so carefully regulated. "Neither let her drink wine or strong drink," was the angel's instruction for the wife of Manoah, "nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe." The child will be affected for good or evil by the habits of the mother. She must herself be controlled by principle, and must practice temperance and self-denial, if she would seek the welfare of her child.

In the New Testament we find a no less impressive example of the importance of temperate habits.

John the Baptist was a reformer. To him was committed a great work for the people of his time. And in preparation

for that work, all his habits were carefully regulated, even from his birth. The angel Gabriel was sent from heaven to instruct the parents of John in the principles of health reform. He "shall drink neither wine nor strong drink," said the heavenly messenger; "and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost." Luke 1:15.

John separated himself from his friends, and from the luxuries of life, dwelling alone in the wilderness, and subsisting upon a purely vegetable diet. The simplicity of his dress-- a garment woven of camel's hair--was a rebuke to the extravagance and display of the people of his generation, especially of the Jewish priests. His diet also, of locusts and wild honey, was a rebuke to the gluttony that everywhere prevailed.

The work of John was foretold by the prophet Malachi: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers." Malachi 4:5, 6. John the Baptist went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare the way of the Lord, and to turn the people to the wisdom of the just. He was a representative of those living in the last days, to whom God has entrusted sacred truths to present before the people, to prepare the way for the second appearing of Christ. And the same principles of temperance which John practiced should be observed by those who in our day are to warn the world of the coming of the Son of man.

God has made man in His own image, and He expects man to preserve unimpaired the powers that have been imparted to him for the Creator's service. Then should we not heed His admonitions, and seek to preserve every power in the best condition to serve Him? The very best we can give to God is feeble enough.

Why is there so much misery in the world today? Is it because God loves to see His creatures suffer?--Oh, no! It

is because men have become weakened by immoral practices. We mourn over Adam's transgression, and seem to think that our first parents showed great weakness in yielding to temptation; but if Adam's transgression were the only evil we had to meet, the condition of the world would be much better than it is. There has been a succession of falls since Adam's day.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, pages 37-39.

A Warning Regarding the Effect of Wine.--The history of Nadab and Abihu is also given as a warning to man, showing that the effect of wine upon the intellect is to confuse. And it will ever have this influence upon the minds of those who use it. Therefore God explicitly forbids the use of wine and strong drink.--Signs of the Times, July 8, 1880.

Nadab and Abihu would never have committed that fatal sin, had they not first become partially intoxicated by the free use of wine. They understood that the most careful and solemn preparation was necessary before presenting themselves in the sanctuary where the divine presence was manifested; but by intemperance they were disqualified for their holy office. Their minds became confused, and their moral perceptions dulled, so that they could not discern the difference between the sacred and the common.--Patriarchs and Prophets, pages 361, 362.