Untitled article by A. S. Hutchins

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, March 24, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 15

SUGAR PARTIES.

By A. S. Hutchins

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Luke xxi, 34.

This solemn injunction, which fell from the lips of the Saviour, was spoken to guard his people in the last days, from the stupefying sin of gluttony, and all excesses in eating and drinking, as well as to caution them against having their minds overburdened with the cares of this life.

And it is certain that if we heed not this admonition, our minds will be unbalanced, and we are driven from a watchful and prayerful attitude, which we are taught in the same connection to maintain. “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and stand before the Son of man.”

With these most impressive warnings before us, we ask, Can Christians attend sugar parties, consistently with their faith? I refer to those large gatherings which are so common in some parts of the Eastern States, where a large amount of sugar is usually manufactured annually by many farmers, and where it is customary to invite friends, neighbors, and townsmen, to eat of this luxury while sugaring off. Here the good and the bad, the professedly pious, and the profane swearer, the filthy tobacco-eater, and the delicate lady come to feast themselves, not unfrequently to surfeiting, from the same vessel; and we are sorry to say, that sometimes the Sabbath-keeper, the health reformer (?) may be found there also. All else, perhaps, but mirth and hilarity are forgotten for the time; but the occasion is a merry one, the sugar is sweet, and the time is pronounced a “good one.” But we are constrained to ask:

1. Is this the proper place for you, my Christian brother or sister? Can you here get nearer to your divine Master, and prepare your hearts better to do his will, to convince men that you most solemnly believe in the last message of mercy to a world lying in wickedness, and that you are striving to heed its warning notes, and prepare to meet the soon coming King in all his glory? Would it not be better far to deny yourself of the fleeting pleasure and gratification of this occasion, and spend the time in reading the Bible, Spiritual Gifts, or other good books; in prayer, or in visiting and administering to the wants of the sick? Would you not have a consciousness that in so doing you were imitating more closely the example of Him who “went about doing good?” And finally, Would you not in this way be more likely to secure to yourself the watchcare of holy angels, and the presence of the Spirit of God? What we do for the salvation of our fellow-men, we must do quickly. We have no time to waste, and we should avoid sad mistakes to mourn and lament over hereafter.

2. We ask, Is the sugar party above described, the place for health reformers to be found? Is it not doing sad injustice to the principles of health reform, to eat hot sugar as usually eaten on this occasion, and laying our integrity, as reformers, open to be questioned? We believe, and teach that our meals should be taken at regular hours, and that nothing should be eaten between meals; and the reformer who has not learned that it is a violation of the laws of health to eat at different hours between meals, whether it be much or little, has not advanced far in the reform.

Again, the unhygienic influence of sugar when eaten freely, is worthy of consideration in this connection. It deranges the digestive organs, overtaxes the liver, deteriorates the blood, reduces and weakens vital energies, and tends to a prostration of the entire system. This penalty may not overtake you speedily, but be sure that you will sooner or later be beaten by few or many stripes, if you persist in a violation of kind nature’s laws. Will Christians who have the light upon the subject of the health reform, who feel and appreciate its righteous principles, sanction such gatherings by mingling in them?

For one, setting aside custom, I am unable to see any reason why the community should expect the liberal, hard-laboring farmer to annually feed out in this way, from 50 to 150 lbs. of sugar, more than they should expect the merchant, on returning from market each spring, to open fifteen or twenty boxes of raisins for his friends to eagerly devour; or than that the honest dairyman’s wife should yearly call in her neighbors to feast themselves by consuming two or three of her first tubs of butter, or eating up half a dozen of her new cheeses.

“Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.”

A. S. HUTCHINS.

Health Institute, March 17, 1868.