W. V. HARDY by W. V. Hardy

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1875

W. V. HARDY

By W. V. Hardy

Stimulants.

“NATURE kindly guards us from harm by diminishing the enjoyment as we approach excess. Thus food, which at first is palatable, becomes tasteless; exercise, which at first gives pleasure, becomes wearisome; wakefulness is succeeded by desire for sleep; and everywhere this law protects us from harm until flattering stimulants step in and give appetite for the otherwise unpalatable food, goad on the energy of the weary, and banish the desire for sleep, giving unrestricted license for excess in every department of our nature. If no other evil resulted from their use, this alone is sufficient reason why they should be condemned.”

Can we afford to cast aside the guarding and guiding hand of our Creator so wisely given to us to lead us into physical as well as moral rectitude? All of God's laws are not written out by inspiration. Why is it not sin to efface the inspiration of nature as well as to add to, or detract from, the sacred pages?

Doubtless many would be willing to condemn stimulants in general, but would make an exception in favor of their particular stimulant. The well-known Dr. Hall says, “There is no such thing as a good stimulant, so there can be no best stimulant. Stimulants are all bad. What is a stimulant? It is a poison. To stimulate means to goad; to excite. Alcohol is a stimulant, and when it is taken into the system, the vital powers recognize it as a poison, and resist it with sufficient force to expel it from the vital domain, and this action is stimulation. It is really poisoning, and nothing else; therefore, if there is no best poison, there can be no best stimulant.”

Still the use of stimulants like tea, spices, etc., is common among many of those who advocate the strictest temperance with regard to alcohol. The excuse may be made that tea may be nutritious; but people do not pay one dollar a pound or more for tea when flour can be had for five cents, on account of any nutritive quality existing in the dried leaves. They buy it because it contains that which makes it good, viz.: its stimulating quality.

The belief is almost universal that a stimulant of some kind is necessary to health and vigor, and hygienists who live without them are regarded by such as fanatics. When people come to believe that the human system is sustained by simple food and drink alone, then we can teach temperance in the world of stimulants and narcotics like alcohol, tobacco and opium, without the seed falling on barren and stony ground, or by the wayside.

It would fill a volume to trace out the different ways in which stimulants encourage every vice, and lay the foundation for every crime known among men, and in whatever light we view their effects, we must consider them an unmitigated curse to mankind.