p. 21 | Letting Our Light Shine

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 4, 1912

Letting Our Light Shine

“UPON every believer to whom has come the light of the third angel’s message, there rests a solemn responsibility to let the light of His truth shine forth clearly.” I do not believe that we half appreciate as yet what a mighty truth we have in the principles of temperance and Christian education. There are many who are appalled at the inroads that sin is making in their lives and in the lives of those about them, who will gladly listen to those seeking to uplift Christ in their lives and teaching. There are opportunities opening all about us. Let us beware lest we hide our light under a bushel.

The following article, taken from the Pasadena (Cal.) Star, shows what one of our young men is doing by voice and the scattering of the printed page, while taking work as a student in one of our colleges:—

“School circles of this city have been much interested during the last two weeks by a young man who is doubtless the youngest of the official lecturers working under the direction of the W. C. T. U. He is Edmund Jaeger, of Riverside, and came to Pasadena under the auspices both of the W. C. T. U. of this city and of the school board.

“Mr. Jaeger has given lectures at all the schools on the subjects of medical temperance, hygiene, and social ethics, illustrating his interesting talks with pictures.

“At the Pasadena high school yesterday he spoke to four hundred students assembled. At some of the schools he was summoned back for other lectures, on request of the pupils. At one of the schools the boys begged that recess hour might be given up to a continuation of the lecture.

“Widely Active

“Mr. Jaeger seems little more than a schoolboy himself, but has a record to be proud of. He was graduated from the Riverside high school at fifteen years of age, taught school four years, and found many opportunities to give temperance talks to boys. So helpful were these that friends persuaded him to give more of his time to such work.

“To enlarge his opportunity for good, he is now taking a medical course at the Loma Linda medical college.

“In two and a half years he has spoken to 200,000 children of California’s schools.

“He circulated 186,000 pages of literature, mostly among boys, last year, and in that time contributed seventy-five columns to the daily press, the health magazines, and educational journals. His chosen subject is temperance and hygiene, and his efforts are mainly in the interests of boys of the schools.

“Keeps Them Good

“The young man has one favorite axiom to the effect that it is better to keep a boy good than to let him get bad and then try to reform him.

“In Riverside schools he is giving regular monthly lectures on applied physiology. Besides the lectures for the young people, he has been invited to speak to teachers’ institutes and to parent-teachers’ associations. He has been appointed a State lecturer by the young people’s branch of the W. C. T. U.

“The attractive personality of the lecturer, his bright and interesting way of presenting his subject, and a real earnestness of purpose have made him a most effective speaker in local schools.

“At the polytechnic building of the Pasadena high school yesterday Mr. Jaeger spoke, in part, as follows:—

“Too Many Sick

“There are 27,000,000 sick people in the United States all the time. These people are not getting much pleasure out of all their indispositions; and by the habits by which they have brought on all these home-made diseases, they are laying a foundation of degeneracy for the future nation. We have learned to be prosperous, and we have learned to be ambitious, but we have not learned to have foresight in matters pertaining to our national vitality. It is time we were ceasing to do evil and learning to do well. Insanity is increasing three times faster in proportion than the population. Bright’s disease, diabetes, and cancer are increasing by leaps and bounds.

“Tobacco and Liquor

“But you must remember that the curse does not come causeless. Last year the men and boys of our country smoked enough cigarettes so that if they were put in a line, they would reach three and a half times around the earth at the equator. Then we used enough alcoholic liquors to give every man, woman, and child in America twenty-three gallons. Now I did not use any, hence somebody must have used my portion in addition to his own, making forty-six gallons, enough to fill an ordinary-sized bath tub. No wonder some men were sick.

“When people eat veritable mustard plasters in the form of pepper-sauce and other foods that taste hot when they are cold, they are sure to have an irritation and a thirst in their bodies that nothing but alcohol or tobacco will satisfy. Dr. Lauter Brunton was right when he said that the frying-pan drums up trade for the saloon. He also made another significant statement when he said that “ill-cooked joints and poorly boiled potatoes put asunder what God hath put together in matrimony.” Diet stands in direct relation to morals and health; don’t forget that.

“Tobacco is killing off our men on the instalment plan; that is why we do not notice the effects so much. It kills by ambush, as it were, hardening arteries, raising blood pressure, and causing numberless forms of digestive troubles, which are always blamed to other causes. Increase of Bright’s disease and apoplexy is proportionate to the increase of the use of tobacco and alcohol.’”