Words of Warning by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Dec 6, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 49.

Words of Warning.

By Editor

In his Thanksgiving proclamation, President Roosevelt said:

We live in easier and more plentiful times than our forefathers, the men who, with rugged strength, faced the rugged days; and yet the dangers to national life are quite as great now as at any previous time in our history.

No other people has ever stood on as high a level of material well being as ours now stands; we are not threatened by foes from without. The foes from whom we should pray to be delivered are our own passions, appetites and follies; and against these there is always need that we should war.

There are no more important words in this public document. The day as in the past was kept by many in feasting, gluttony, sport, and revelry, yielding to their worst foes, their appetites, and passions. And these are the nation's foes. More than the money question, more than the trusts, more than socialism, more than all these outward manifestations, are the lusts which degrade and destroy the national life by destroying men. A truly strong people must be a temperate people. Can we say that we are a temperate people to-day?