The Great Temperance Movement.
By George I. Butler
S. D. Adventists ought to act a leading part in every true reform. Their faith demands it. A people preparing for the coming of Christ, with a mission to proclaim to the whole world, cannot consistently ignore any work of genuine reform, or be indifferent to it. Their platform, “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” includes all the great truths of inspiration,—those generally received and those trampled down by the hoof of apostasy. Their work is to group all these truths together, calling special attention to those which are forgotten and downtrodden, and press them with earnest persistency upon the consciences of mankind. Temperance stands prominent as one of these. The Bible presents it before us as one of the fruits of the Spirit, which we must bear in order to inherit the kingdom of God,—one of the great steps we will take in the upward pathway of genuine sanctification, unless we are “blind” and “have not forsaken our old sins.” Our good Bible everywhere teaches the necessity of the denial of hurtful lusts and appetites. The ruin of our world is more plainly traceable to these than to any other cause. Lust is unlawful desire,—desire for that which is physically and morally injurious. Temperance is the opposite. In its broadest sense its principles require us to use in moderation those things which do us good, and to utterly discard those which do us injury. This places temperance on the rock bottom of true principle and genuine reform. Man has no moral right to eat, drink, or do, that which injures or debases him, mentally, morally, or physically. He may do that by using to excess those things which are really good. Hence the necessity of moderation in the use of good things. There is no principle of right which can justify any practice which is wholly injurious in its effects. We firmly believe that all habits of self-injury are a violation of the principles of true temperance; and hence, wherever they are truly understood and carried out there will be an irrepressible conflict between them and such habits; and if temperance reformers would build upon these fundamental principles and act consistently with them, they would strike a powerful blow at the root of the worst evils which affect mankind. Temperance, as commonly understood in our time, teaches merely abstinence from alcoholic beverages; and some who would wish to be thought temperance men teach that even the use of these in moderation is temperance. Such definitions are altogether too superficial. Abstinence from alcoholic drinks is excellent as far as it goes; and all true reformers should use their influence in favor of every reasonable effort to stem the alarming tide of evil resulting from the use of alcoholic beverages. We cannot be indifferent spectators of the dire results of this form of intemperance, and stand clear before God. It is startling to think that more money is expended yearly for alcoholic poison in our beloved land than for bread; and that more men are engaged in selling poison, thus making orphans and widows, than are devoting their time to preaching the gospel of the Son of God. Hundreds of millions of dollars are wasted every year in that which not only profits not, but destroys all that is noble in humanity, literally brutalizing kind and affectionate husbands, and changing happy homes into the abodes of sorrow and shame. Moderate drinking leads to these evil results, and popularizes this terrible business. Were it not for moderate drinking by respectable people there would not be such temptations to the young, and such difficulty in putting down this dreadful iniquity. Moderate drinkers do more than all other influences combined to uphold and perpetuate the death and ruin which follow in the wake of hard drinking. They make it seem respectable; and so young men and young women enter the gate they have opened, and go down the pathway to death. Can Christian men stand by and be indifferent spectators to such appalling evils, and raise no voice and make no effort for their overthrow? Talk about its being like the world to work in the temperance cause and sign a pledge to taste not and handle not. Such an excuse is unworthy a moment’s consideration. To be like the world in any objectionable sense is to follow the world as they lead away from God and truth and right. As far as the world do right we should certainly do it also; not because they do it, but because it is right. Those who are so afraid of being like the world that they will not work in the temperance cause or sign a pledge, are the very ones who are “like the world” in an objectionable sense. They are really on the side of the enemy in not warning against one of his most powerful agencies to destroy men. Hundreds of thousands of drunkards are going down to death every year, their nobility debased by alcohol, their consciences benumbed,—lost to God and humanity; and Christians who are looking for their Lord have nothing to say about it. They stand in a position of indifference, some of them perhaps indulging in an occasional glass themselves. If this is not being like the wicked world, I know not what is. We must give all men to understand that our voice and sympathies are with those who are striking against this terrible monster, intemperance, even that limited sort which they preach. But every reflecting mind must perceive that refraining from alcoholic drinks alone “heals the heart of the daughter of my people but slightly.” True temperance is broader than that. We know that many other habits create the craving appetite for strong drink, and as long as these causes are at work this appetite will exist. Thousands try to reform, and go back again to their cups. The feverish, unnatural appetite is there; certain causes have produced it. The use of strong drink is almost sure to follow. We must have a temperance which cuts up the roots of this poisonous tree. We feel thankful that Seventh-day Adventists have inaugurated the most sensible and thorough-going temperance society the world has ever known, and that they have placed themselves in the lead of the great temperance movement. They prepare to strike not only at the effects, but at the causes, of intemperance. They design to make vigorous war upon the whole fraternity of unnatural poisonous stimulants which are firing the blood and debasing our race. Not only will they fight King Alcohol and his family with as much determination as other temperance workers, but they will also deal out some good solid blows to filthy tobacco and his poisonous, odoriferous brood, not sparing bewitching tea and coffee, or any other narcotic poisons. More than five hundred millions of dollars are annually spent for tobacco. I firmly believe that as many are killed by it as by alcohol. So prevalent is this habit that one can hardly travel without being forced to breathe its nauseous fumes. Grave senators, the newspapers say, are fast going into the grave from its effects. Ministers of the pure gospel of Jesus are found in insane asylums from its influence. Whole nations, like the Turks, are besotted by its indulgence, till they are past being reached by moral appeal. It stalks abroad, boldly filling the pure air of heaven with its stifling odors. Has pure and holy Temperance nothing to say to this filthy monster’s victims, no warnings to their sons to beware of him? When Christ’s professed followers in our country are giving twenty-six million dollars for tobacco to seven millions for Christ’s cause (according to reliable data), have those preparing for his coming no warning voice to utter? We must press this battle boldly. But tea and coffee, “which exhilarate but do not intoxicate,” who shall dare to raise a voice against them? These are subtler forms of stimulation, not so deadly and terrible in their effects as the others, but nevertheless evil, and only evil. They cost our own country alone from fifty to one hundred millions of dollars per year,—quite a sum to be wasted, and worse than wasted, when there are so many good ways to use money. They do not build up the system, but they are poison stimulants. The world lived without them thousands of years, and were better off physically because of it. That coffee is poisonous, such experiments as Dr. Smith’s fully prove. The strength steeped out of a few ounces of coffee berries laid two strong men insensible. Tea colored by Prussian blue is still more injurious in its effects. Thousands go about with constant headache, caused by tea and coffee, and know not the cause. Many are as dependent on these as whisky topers are on their false support. The reasons for drinking them are precisely the same. Why do you drink tea and coffee, my friend? “Oh! I like it.” Just what the other man says. “Well, I feel so weak and gone without it.” Precisely what the dram drinker says after a spree, and what the tobacco toper says. And the weak and gone feeling, nine cases out of ten, was caused by these very poisons. The evil effects of all these miserable stimulants and false props are many and terrible. I am glad that we have at last a temperance platform broad enough to cover the whole ground. Its principles are laid in sound philosophy, common sense, and the good religion of the blessed Bible. This temperance question must be pressed home upon the consciences of all within our reach, and especially must it search out those weak-kneed S. D. Adventists, and help and bless them by bringing them up to a higher standard, and enabling them to set an example worthy the noble truths they profess.