p. 477 | Temperance by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 27, 1881

Temperance.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

TEMPERANCE AND MISSIONARY WORK.

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.

It is well understood that a large proportion of the Seventh-day Adventists are members of the American Health and Temperance Association. Those who have not joined the Association by signing the temperance pledge, have fully indorsed its principles in their religious faith. This organization has three pledges. One is known as the "Anti-whisky pledge," which prohibits the use of all alcoholic drinks. Then comes the "Anti-tobacco pledge." This pledge includes alcoholic drinks, and the use of tobacco in any form, by smoking, chewing, or applying it to the gums. The third pledge is still stronger. It is not only a pledge against the use of alcohol and tobacco, but all stimulants, such as tea, coffee, opium, etc.

In the work of conversion, it is necessary that men reform, as well as to profess faith in Christ. All Christians believe a moral reform essential. To repent is to reform. How far this reform should go is the question!

The Scriptures teach us that no drunkard will enter the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 6:9-11. Drunkenness is intoxication. When the powers of the mind become enslaved by certain habits, this is intoxication, and is sufficient reason why that which enslaves the mind should be laid one side. Tobacco does this. The habit of using tobacco holds its victim with an iron grasp. Therefore we cannot see how any man or woman can be a Christian in the highest sense, and be addicted to this filthy and hurtful habit. The rigid position taken by Seventh-day Adventists upon this question is thought by some to be too ultra. Missionaries of other denominations are favoring our view of the subject. For many years missionaries of different denominations have been laboring for the enlightenment and salvation of the natives in the Sandwich and other islands of the Pacific ocean, as well as in other lands. To accomplish this they have endured almost every deprivation and hardship, and have sought the most successful methods of bringing about that reform necessary to the permanent establishment of Christianity. They see the necessity that those who embrace the faith of the gospel should abandon the use of tobacco in every form.

In the September issue of The Friend, a mission paper published at Honolulu, in speaking of the missionary work opening in Micronesian islands, and the organization of the first church, the writer says: "The candidates are closely examined; they answer intelligently. In one point do we do wrong? All the way along tobacco and the pipe have been laid one side. Shall we recognize a church with this habit allowed to work evil all through the field? Six cling to the habit. They were asked to wait till another time when they will see the evil of this matter as the others do."

We think this is commencing right. Appetite should be under the control of an enlightened conscience. Adam, the representative of the human race, fell on the point of appetite. It was the intoxicating cup which led Noah, the father of the race this side of the flood, to disgrace himself. Christ the second Adam, when he entered upon his mission to save men, stepped in the gap which Adam opened, and after a forty days' fast came off victor on the point of appetite, thus sympathizing with, and offering divine aid to, the fallen race. We therefore conclude that those who cannot control their appetite, either with alcoholic drinks, tobacco, or any other hurtful indulgence, need the converting grace of God. We heartily unite with all missionary effort in battling the monster appetite upon that which enslaves the mind, whether it be in the form of stimulating drinks or that which is chewed or smoked.