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Temperance in the Home

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 28, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 48.

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Temperance in the Home

By Augusta C. Bainbridge

AUGUSTA C. BAINBRIDGE
“Now Kitty, I do not see why you make such a fuss about the use of liquor. None of us are drunkards, or ever likely to be. Do you not think you are straining a point? That wine is a tonic, and beer is nourishing, has been acknowledged by our wisest physicians for many years.”
“Yes, Aunt Sarah, I know some physicians still use it; but there are now many large hospitals that have discarded it altogether, and the result is they lose fewer patients than before. For myself, I shall never use it; and when my husband or baby is ill, I shall employ a temperance physician.”
“My! but you are radical.”
“Why should I not be, when God’s Word is against its use? ‘The old Book stands,’ you know.”
“Yes; I believe the Bible.”
“And the Bible says, He ‘giveth FOOD to all flesh.’ Alcohol is not a food, and it is not a gift from God to man. It is the product of decay; and you know that death and decay came by sin. Then, I do not want my husband or my child to be tempted to its use, by ever hearing me say it is good for food.”
“What do you mean, then, by food?”
“Food, real food, supplies the waste of the body, builds it up, makes it grow.”
“What, for instance?”
“Wheat is one of the natural foods. It builds bone and flesh and nerve. It keeps us warm, it gives energy for work or play, and it is good for the brain.”
“Is that why you gave wheat flakes and cracked wheat to Robbie as soon as he could chew?”
“Indeed it is.”
“How do you know that cider or beer or wine would not do that?”
“Because they contain alcohol, and that is a narcotic. It contains no nitrogen, and hence does not build flesh.”
“Well, it’s mighty warming, I know.”
“Yes, it seems to be; for it brings the blood to the surface, but it really lowers the temperature of the body; for a person is colder after taking it; when, had he taken milk or some form of food, the body would have been warmer.”
“It makes you strong, anyhow.”
“It does not give strength, auntie, for there is nothing in it of that nature; but it makes some parts of the body work harder for a time; and then afterward the weakness of the body is shown in trembling, and often in utter collapse.”
“I have noticed that, and have wondered how it was.”
“If it gave strength, real strength, as bread or beans or apples do, after drinking it one would feel like going to work, just as one does after a good dinner; but the reaction comes, and one feels like lying down. Food does not have such a contradictory effect.”
“Why do writers and students use it then?”
“Because of the stimulating effect it is supposed to have. Now we know by closer observation, that it is a narcotic, and this apparent quickening of brain action is because of its effect on the more sensitive nerves of the brain, hindering them from holding the check on overactivity. This overactivity results in great loss of brain power, sometimes producing brain fag, or utter loss of thinking ability.”
“O Kitty, Kitty, what would I have given to have known this years ago!”
“But, auntie, very few people knew it. Of course all the folks who believed the Bible, knew it from God’s own Word; but so many only half believe, or just believe what suits them.”
“Yes, I know; that’s the way I do, I guess. There comes Robbie, and his father.”
“Here, Kitty, where do you suppose I found this little chap?” said Papa Whyte. “I was a little late leaving the office, but he came on by himself, and there he stood on the transfer corner, waiting for me. He must have remembered that I got off there. Hey, sonny!” and Robbie received an extra hugging.
Aunt Sarah went to her room to wipe her glasses.
“She’s begun right. She’ll never know the pain a drunkard’s mother bears, and he will not slide when he has such a wife.”
“It’s the old story of ‘reaping’ and ‘sowing.’ She sows the Word of God in her home, in temperance as well as in other things, and of course ‘it shall not return . . . void.’”
“Dinner, auntie,” called a cheery voice, “food that is all food, for all of us.”
San Francisco, Cal.