A CALL TO THE TEMPERANCE WORK.
By Mrs. S. N. Haskell
“In our work more attention should be given to the temperance reform. Every duty that calls for reform involves repentance, faith, and obedience. It means the uplifting of the soul to a new and nobler life. Thus every true reform has its place in the work of the Third Angel’s Message. Especially does the temperance reform demand our attention and support. We should call attention to this work, and make it a living issue. We should present to the people the principles of true temperance, and call for signers to the temperance pledge. In other churches there are Christians who are standing in defense of the principles of temperance. We should seek to come near to these workers, and make a way for them to stand shoulder to shoulder with us.” This extract has been published twice in the columns of the REVIEW during the present year. It will bear reading every day. It comes to us as a bugle call to arouse the dormant energies and enlist them in this neglected branch of the work. We are called upon to make the temperance reform a living issue, to present the principles of true temperance, and call for signers to the temperance pledge. Years ago in almost every church of Seventh-day Adventists throughout the land there were live temperance meetings, in which the people were solicited to sign the temperance pledge. How many such meetings are held at the present day? Many of our people have never even heard of such a thing as a Seventh-day Adventist temperance pledge. This should not be. The temperance reform has its place in the work of the Third Angel’s Message, and demands our attention and support. There are women all around us who are fighting the demon of drink with all their God-given powers, and God recognizes them, and blesses them in their work. They are doing a noble work, and we should seek to come near to them. Let them see that we appreciate the work they are doing. But their work is not our work. While we have the greatest sympathy for them in their work, yet it is just as different from the temperance reform in the Third Angel’s Message as the revival meetings of the Salvation Army and of churches around us are different from our revival meetings. There are many earnest Christians in the nominal churches, and souls are converted under their labors; but we can not work shoulder to shoulder with them in their gospel work; for God has given us the light of the Third Angel’s Message. Neither can we work shoulder to shoulder with the world’s temperance workers in the temperance reform; but we can come near to these workers, “and make a way for them to stand shoulder to shoulder with us.” The temperance reform that has its place in the work of the Third Angel’s Message is just as different from the temperance work in the world around us as any other phase of our work is different from the work in the churches around us. Let us look at the world for a moment. They drink intoxicating liquors, and use tea, coffee, spices, and meats. As in the days of Noah, the people are given to eating and drinking, and forget God. Years ago Christian men and women realized where the world was drifting, and organized the Good Templars Lodge and other temperance organizations, and through these societies a good work has been done. They presented a pledge to abstain from all alcoholic drinks; that was one step in the right direction, and God blessed them in it. A few years later the Lord moved upon earnest Christian women to take more advanced steps in the temperance work. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was organized. This society has encircled the world by its efforts to save young men and women from the curse of drink. They go a step further than do other temperance societies, and present a pledge to abstain from all alcoholic drinks and from tobacco. But they indorse the use of tea, coffee, spices, and meats, the same as the other temperance societies of the world at large. The use of these articles is like so many rivulets, constantly feeding the great stream of intemperance. We might as well try to stop the Mississippi River by blocking up the mouth as to attempt to stop the tide of intemperance by simply urging the intemperate to give up the use of alcoholic drinks. Millions are constantly partaking of those things that create an appetite for liquors. We must dry up the rivulets that form the great river if we would check its destructive tide. God has given to us a standard far above that taken by any temperance association that has ever been formed. The banner that we should hold up prohibits the use of alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, spices, and meats. The standard of temperance in the Third Angel’s Message contains pure food only. God would have us lift this standard high, and by friendly intercourse with those who are laboring earnestly around us make a way for them to stand shoulder to shoulder with us. But if we do nothing to lift up our standard, do not let them see that we have something far in advance of what they are advocating, can we expect them to come and stand shoulder to shoulder with us? Years ago, when Seventh-day Adventists were living up to the light God had given them, there were three temperance pledges presented by our people. The first, or anti-whisky pledge, was that presented to those who knew little of our temperance principles; it was simply a pledge to abstain from alcohol, as follows:— “I do hereby solemnly affirm that, with the help of God, I will totally abstain from the voluntary use, as a beverage, or in any equivalent manner, of all liquids or substances containing alcohol.” The second, or the anti-rum and tobacco pledge, was a pledge presented to those who were more enlightened. It required abstinence from alcoholic drinks and tobacco, thus:— “I do hereby solemnly affirm that, with the help of God, I will wholly abstain from the voluntary use of alcohol in any form, as a beverage, or in any equivalent manner, and from smoking, chewing, or snuffing tobacco, or using it in any other form, and from in any way encouraging the use of these poisons.” The third, or teetotal pledge, as it was called, reads as follows:— “I do hereby solemnly affirm that, with the help of God, I will wholly abstain from the voluntary use, as a beverage, or in any equivalent manner, of alcohol, tea, and coffee, and from the use of tobacco, opium, and all other narcotics and stimulants.” Would it not please God if our churches throughout the length and breadth of the land would arouse to the light God has given, and call special attention to this work, making it a living issue in each church? During the coming winter a live temperance meeting could be held once a month or once in two weeks. Invite all the neighborhood, and let them know it is to be a temperance meeting: not a meeting to discuss the Sabbath or kindred truths, but a meeting to which you invite all, young and old, to come and unite with you in trying to stay the dread curse of intemperance. Children of Seventh-day Adventists are not safe. The demon of drink is upon their track. He is no respecter of persons; he is just as well pleased to see sons of Sabbath-keepers staggering home drunk as to see the sons of the world doing so. There are faithful Sabbath-keeping fathers and mothers to-day whose hearts are crushed by the fact that their sons have been entrapped by the demon of drink. God would have the little ones warned against it. He has said, “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.” “At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” God compares the work of the wine to the bite of a serpent and the sting of the adder. Fathers and mothers, you who live out in the country where the serpent and the adder lurk in the grass, how soon do you begin to warn your little one of their deadly bite? Do you wait until your child is grown up, and then say: My son, take heed when you come into the high grass; for the deadly adder lurks there? My childhood was spent upon a farm where the rattlesnake and the deadly adder were found, and my earliest recollection is of my father warning me against the snake and the adder in the grass. God has compared the deadly work of the fermented wine to the bite of the serpent and the sting of the adder, so that you could teach your little ones to hate the drink and shun it, just as you would teach them to shun the snake. Below we give a programme for a temperance meeting. It may help some in planning temperance meetings. The different parts can be assigned to different members of your company:— Song: “Launch the Life-Boat” ............ No. 1384 Song: “Sound the Battle Cry” ............ No. 1379 Bible Reading, twenty minutes: Fermented and Unfermented Wine. Address, fifteen minutes: Effect of Alcohol upon the Stomach and Food. “Home Hand Book,” pages 463-470. A Talk, ten minutes: Earnest appeal, giving summary of points made by others, followed by presentation of Anti-Whisky Pledge. Song: Yield Not to Temptation ............ No. 1382 Let the speakers be brief and to the point, keeping within the allotted time.