p. 453 | Temperance by G. D. Ballou

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 5, 1882

Temperance.

By G. D. Ballou

Doing Penance.

BY ELD. G. D. BALLOU.

A GENTLEMAN who is a strong anti-liquor man said to me the other day, "I don't like your temperance principles as set forth in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES." "What is the matter with our temperance principles?" I inquired. "Oh, you are too radical; you would have a man do penance all his life." By further conversation I found that he was a user of tobacco, and that tea and coffee were his favorite beverages. He was very much out of health, in a general way, beside being afflicted with a painful affection of the eyes.

This little incident set me to wondering who it is that are doing penance, those who conquer their depraved appetites, or those who let their appetites run riot after vile narcotics and stimulants, and then suffer with vertigo, dimness of vision, sick headache, nervousness, loss of appetite, palpitation of the heart, and many other ills that are directly traceable in thousands of cases to the use of these substances.

I am sure that if the use of tobacco were enforced as a penalty in our reform schools and houses of correction, there would go up such a cry against it as was never heard in the land, and the old veterans of the tobacco-using fraternity would shout most lustily against it. And why? Because they know by experience what a loathsome, health-destroying thing tobacco is, and they feel sorry to see the youth ruined by such a habit.

And now old, but hitherto vanquished veterans, let me ask you to do one of three things. (1) Come out and avow to the youth that tobacco-using is right and a blessing to the race, and invent some manly way of defending it, and thus still the voice of conscience that continually warns you of your influence in leading the youth astray. Or, (2) Do your smoking, chewing, snuffing, and dipping, on the sly, so that no one ever will know it. Or, (3) Quit the use of the noxious drug entirely. We recommend the last. Then your words of caution will have weight with the young, and you may be the means of saving some from a life of slavery and suffering. It will not kill you to quit. After a day or two you may think you are going to die, but you will not. Just lay your business by, stand firm to your resolutions, take a few hot baths to draw out the poison, seek help from above, and you will come out clean after a few days, or weeks, at most. Don't just stop for a week, to see how you will feel, but quit for eternity. If you have been using a great amount, or if what you have used has had a marked effect on your health, moderate the quantity one-half for a few days, and then drop it entirely. Be consistent and determined, and success will crown your effort.

And let no one be guilty of discouraging any person who wants to leave the use of tobacco. After all, what a wretched way of doing penance, to squander money for the gratification of a useless appetite, and thus bring misery and suffering upon the race.