Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 6, 1873
TEMPERANCE
By D. T. Bourdeau
BY ELD. D. T. BOURDEAU.
TEXT:—“Know ye not, that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we, an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away.” 1 Cor. 9:24–27.
In this scripture the great apostle presents the true temperance platform, which is not simply temperance in one thing, but temperance “in all things.” He shows that it is as necessary for Christians to be temperate in running the Christian race, as it was for those who ran a literal race. He sets forth as an incentive to temperance, and successfully running the Christian race, the reward of an incorruptible crown, in contrast with that of a corruptible crown, which was awarded to those who, having practiced temperance, won the prize in running a literal race.
The words of the apostle are weighty, from the consideration that he obeyed them strictly. He says, “I keep under my body,” etc. Such was the importance that he attached to bringing his body into subjection by temperate habits, that he clearly teaches that if he failed to do this, he would run as uncertainly and be cast away. Therefore, he made the subject of temperance prominent in his preaching as well as in his writings, dwelling upon it in a most impressive manner, before the high as well as the low, associating it with righteousness and the Judgment. “And as he reasoned on righteousness, temperance, and Judgment to come, Felix trembled.” Acts 24:25.
Temperance, so far as eating and drinking are concerned, consists, first, in a moderate use of healthful food. To eat to excess, even of sanitary food, is to be intemperate. To eat at all hours of the day, and indulge in late suppers, not giving the digestive organs time to rest, using most of the vitality at the stomach, thereby beclouding the mind, and blunting the higher sensibilities of the soul, so that close study becomes a task, and spiritual things are not discerned, is gross, and very sinful intemperance. To be almost constantly humoring children, through perverted sympathy, in giving them cakes, nuts, candies, etc., is seriously violative of the principles of temperance, undermines the constitution of children, and creates in them unsanctified appetites, whose clamors will grow stronger as they advance in years.
Says the wise man: “When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee; and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite;” or, as the French translation reads, “else thou shalt put a knife to thy throat, if thy appetite rules thee.” Prov. 23:1, 2. And what can be the meaning of this wonderful proverb, unless it is this, that he who eats to excess is guilty of the same crime that he would be if he should literally cut his throat with his knife? That is, he is a self-murderer. He must feel the effects of his excess sooner or later.
Temperance does not simply lead us to refrain from gluttony in the use of healthful diet. It also leads us to abstain from unhealthful food, and from hurtful condiments and beverages.
SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.
And what shall we say of the use of spirituous liquors, which poison and inflame the system, degrade the body and the mind, dethrone reason, and have caused so much sin and misery in the world, and brought so many to an untimely grave? It is a sad fact that in the light of all those scriptures which condemn intemperance and drunkenness, there are more intoxicating drinks used in so-called Christian nations, than in heathen lands. Even in high Protestant circles, it has become fashionable to use strong drinks habitually. England spends more money yearly for strong drinks than she does for her bread and to sustain the royal navy; and the yearly amount of spirituous liquors sold in the United States has swelled up to nearly one and a half billion of dollars, a sum sufficiently large to buy most of the railroads in the United States. For statistics, see “Age of Murder, by D. T. Taylor,” etc.
TOBACCO, TEA, AND COFFEE.
And shall we overlook the use of tobacco, tea, and coffee? Were these articles made to be used as they are now used? No candid person, who has given this subject a careful perusal, will say that they were. These herbs, like all other stimulants, nerve up the system to undue action, and leave a depression behind. But we are exhorted by the Scriptures to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh,” 2 Cor. 7:1; and if the common use of tobacco does not produce filthiness of the flesh, what does?
Dr. Shew says: “There are only three animals that use tobacco—the tobacco-worm, the African rough-goat, a most filthy, disgusting, and loathsome animal, and man.” Even the swine will turn from it. The reason why tobacco relieves pain is because it deadens the nerves, and so far kills the part to which it is applied. It is a rank poison, as has often been proved by experiments on squirrels, cats, dogs, etc. Worms and vermin of all kinds, it is well known, are readily destroyed by this poison. In some localities, wool-growers are in the habit of killing sheep-ticks with it, and if due care is not observed, the sheep, as well as the vermin, are liable to be destroyed. More than one mother has lost her infant by applying the leaves of tobacco on the top of its head, before the substance of the skull was formed. This is a short way to kill pain, but not the best. For a thorough, scientific exposition of this subject, see a work on Tobacco by Dr. Trall, for sale at the REVIEW Office, Battle Creek, Mich.
One reason why those who use tobacco do not suffer more and die sooner, is because nature gets up a battle against it by washing it off with spittle, or secretions at the nose, or with fluid from the stomach and bowels when the juice is swallowed. But the squandering of this precious fluid is very expensive to the vital economy.
But if tobacco, tea, and coffee are so remarkable to cure disease, as some claim, why do not people lay them aside after using them awhile? Eminent physicians have given a list of scores of diseases caused by tobacco, among which are depraved blood, wasteness of the flesh, indigestion, liver, throat and lung complaints, nervous weakness, tremors of the nerves, deafness, and general dullness of the senses, catarrh, palpitation of the heart, intoxication, loss of memory, insanity; no result of its use being more deplorable than the weakening of the moral faculties. In the light of religious and scientific principles against the use of tobacco, the fact that some physicians have recommended to use tobacco for certain diseases, has no more weight than the fact that physicians generally used to practice bleeding, and thereby extract the very life of patients, for nearly all diseases.
Dr. Wood, one of the authors of the United States Dispensatory, says of tobacco, “that it is one of the most virulent poisons known.”
Professor Hitchcock says, “I group alcohol, opium, and tobacco together, as alike to be rejected, because they agree in being poisonous in their nature.”
Dr. Trall says of a professor of surgery, of the Vermont Academy of Medicine, with whom he was acquainted in 1831: “He died in a lunatic asylum from insanity, produced, as I believe, from snuffing tobacco.”
Dr. Shew says that “the celebrated French poet, Santeuil, was accidentally killed . . . at the Prince of Condé’s table, by a portion of Spanish snuff, which was put by one of his companions, a practical joker, into his glass of wine.”
Says Dr. Jennings, “You ask of my opinion of the effects of tobacco on the human system. They are ‘evil, and only evil, and that continually.’ Adopt for your motto, IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION AND TOTAL ABOLITION.”
To realize what an outrage the use of tobacco is to unperverted nature, let those who use it call to mind how repulsive it was to them the first time they used it, if they did not inherit a perverted taste for it. When the use of tobacco was first introduced in Prussia, it was made a penalty for those who snuffed it to have their noses cut off.
Said King James I: “Tobacco is the lively image and pattern of hell; for it hath, by allusion, in it, all the parts and vices of the world, whereby hell may be gained; to wit, first, it is a smoke—so are all the vanities of this world; secondly, it delighteth them that take it—so do all the pleasures of the world delight the men of the world; thirdly, it maketh men drunken and light in the head—so do all the vanities of the world; men are drunken therewith; fourthly, he that taketh tobacco cannot leave it, it doth bewitch him—even so the pleasures of the world make men loath to leave them; they are for the most part enchanted with them. And, further, besides all this, it is like hell in the very substance of it; for it is a stinking, loathsome thing, and so is hell. . . . Have you not reason to forbear this filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly received, and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof, sinning against God, harming yourselves, both in person and goods, and raking also thereby the marks and vanities upon you; by the custom thereof, making yourselves to be wondered at by all foreign nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned!” “It is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and, in the black, stinking fumes thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”
The use of tea and coffee as beverages, is seriously objectionable in that it injures the teeth in dissolving their enamel, hinders insalivation and mastication, hastens the work of digestion and increases the circulation, causing a flush at the face, and the pulse to beat faster, and producing a vivacity in all the organs of the system, to be followed, sooner or later, by a corresponding depression, and by some, or all, of the following symptoms: a poor circulation and feeble pulse, imperfect digestion, a craving and sinking emptiness at the stomach from a few minutes to two or three hours after eating, fullness in the chest, headache, paleness of the skin, sunken eyes, etc. According to Dr. Cole, these symptoms may be greatly aggravated, until suffocation, convulsions, violent pain in the head, dimness of the sight, dizziness in walking, peevishness, irritability, etc., are experienced. The fact that but few persons who have used tea to old age have firm and steady nerves, is a forcible comment on its pernicious effect on the nervous system.
Aside from the fact that tea is often prepared with such poisonous ingredients as indigo, white lead, Prussian blue, and plaster of Paris, physicians teach that tea and coffee are in their nature poisonous. Says Dr. Graham: “A small decoction of tea or coffee will destroy human life, in one unaccustomed to use it, as quickly as an equal quantity of laudanum.” Dr. Hooper, in his Medical Dictionary, says, “Tea, in its natural state, is a narcotic plant . . . . When taken too copiously, it is apt to occasion weakness, tremors, palsies, and various other symptoms arising from narcotic plants.” Dr. Combe says of tea and coffee, that, “when taken in large quantities, they not only ruin the stomach, but seriously derange the health of the brain and nervous system.” “Not a case of sick headache,” says Dr. Burdell of New York, “has ever occurred within my knowledge, except with the drinkers of narcotic drinks [meaning tea and coffee], and not a case has failed of cure on the entire renunciation of it.” Therefore, the safest course is entire abstinence.
The strength that is experienced under the use of tea and coffee is not derived from those articles, which have no nutritive qualities, but from vitality in the system, which should be preserved for future use. Therefore, those who use tea and coffee, live in the future and shorten their lives. The fact that some who use these, and other stimulants, may live to old age comparatively free from disease, is owing to a good constitution, and, perhaps, to properly relating themselves to life in other respects.
To use these stimulants, to perform an extra amount of work, and because one feels better under their use, is like applying the spur to the faithful, lagging horse, that has traveled sixty miles in one day, to make him go ten miles farther; or, like an invalid who, in case of incendiarism, would, under the excitement, forget his illness and perform the work of two well men. The next day he would realize how much he had transgressed. Or, it is as if you were waylaid, robbed, and nearly killed in the night by a stranger in disguise. A few days after, the stranger passes by, and joining with your sympathizing neighbors in words of sympathy and acts of benevolence, he takes out his wallet and gives you ten dollars. He is applauded as a kind-hearted Samaritan. But, fastening your eye on the stranger, you recognize him as the very man who waylaid you, and exclaim: No thanks to you, sir; but thanks to my wallet where you got the money. Catch the thief!
Says Dr. Alcott: “It is said of one of the giants of our American literature, that after a long season of mental depression, amounting sometimes to a fit of hypochondria—induced, no doubt, by former potations—he would suddenly resume his teacups, and accomplish, for a few days, a prodigious amount of mental labor, after which, he would sink down, and become again, for a long period, a mere hybernating animal. Yet in the end he destroyed himself prematurely in this way. Dr. Johnson, moreover,162another giant of literature, of another century and country, is believed to have essentially injured his intellectual faculties—if indeed he did not greatly hasten his dissolution—by his excess in tea-drinking. Other cases might be cited.”
The expensiveness of these articles adds to the impropriety of using them. The money spent yearly for tea, coffee, and tobacco, by Christian nations, would sustain 100,000 ministers of the gospel in heathen lands, at usual rates, and furnish a Bible yearly to every family on our earth; and the means spent for these articles by civilized nations would establish free schools throughout the habitable globe. Why do the users of these articles spend their money for naught? How can they meet God in the Judgment having worse than thrown away such an enormous amount of means that should have been spent for better purposes?
OPIUM AND MORPHINE.
Equally expensive and deleterious to health are these articles. When the traffic of opium, from which morphine is extracted, was urged by England on China by the mouth of the cannon, the Chinese Emperor complained of having an article crowded upon his people which was destructive of health and virtue. Well might he complain, for the average life of the Chinese who use this poison, is only ten years, and it is estimated that 500,000 Chinese die annually from the use of opium. And should Christians be behind a heathen emperor in their discernment and appreciation of health and virtue?
Dr. Medhurst, the missionary, says:— “Opium is demoralizing China, and becomes the greatest barrier to the introduction of Christianity which can be conceived of. Almost the first word uttered by a native, when urged to believe in Christ, is, ‘Why do you Christians bring opium, and bring it directly in defiance of our laws? That vile drug poisoned my son, has ruined my brother, has well-nigh led me to beggar my wife and children. Surely, those who import such a deleterious substance, and injure me for the sake of gain, cannot wish me well, or be in possession of a religion that is better than my own. Go, first, persuade your own countrymen to relinquish this nefarious traffic, and give me a prescription to correct this vile habit, and then I will listen to your exhortation on the subject of Christianity.’”—Signs of the Times by H. L. Hastings.
None are more illy prepared to fully appreciate and carry out the principles of holiness, than those who are under the benumbing influence of opium or morphine.
In reply to the oft-repeated plea that “It is not that which goeth into the mouth that defileth a man,” Matt. 15:11, we would say that Christ, by these words, was refuting the superstitious notion of the Jews, which condemned, as unclean, those who did not wash their hands just before eating, whether they were soiled or not. To claim that Christ gave men license to eat and drink what they please, and as they please, would make him contradict those scriptures which enjoin temperance, and command us to eat and drink to the glory of God, would justify the Chinese in eating rats, mice, and puppies, and would approve the crime of murder by the use of arsenic, or any other deadly poison.
The difference between those who are temperate, and those who are not, is well illustrated by two young men who receive $5000 each from their father, as a dowry. One of these lives within his means, and keeps his capital good; the other, not satisfied with the interest of his money, uses up his capital hastily, and with great display. This young man may appear the better off to those who are not acquainted with his character. But he is, in reality, the poorer. So it is with those who exhibit great strength through intemperance.
Every violation of physical law must reap its penalty. Because some do not feel the immediate effects of their intemperance at the point where they violate physical law, they venture to transgress the laws of their being, boast of having strong stomachs, and even exult over feeble ones who have adopted temperate habits. Such do not realize that they may be already suffering from stomach abuses, in poor quality of food, headache, or other difficulties. They may be on the point of breaking down with fever, paralysis, or consumption, &c. But should they brave it out through life, they transmit to their offspring the legacy of pent-up diseases and a miserable constitution; and perhaps such may wonder why the rising generation cannot endure as much as they used to.
Last fall, a man boasted to me that his stomach was all right, and could digest a wrought nail. He has since died of consumption. Years ago, I knew a drunkard who was blessed with an iron constitution, and his presumptuous course would almost lead the temperate to conclude that all their self-denial was in vain. But soon he was brought to terms by a difficulty in his great toe, which caused him much pain; and when it reached the stomach, which had reflected this disease to the extremity, to preserve the vital organs, the man died.
It is exceedingly unjust to charge to temperance the evils that men have brought upon themselves, through intemperance, as those do who point to the diseases of feeble persons who have broken down through intemperance, and have been compelled to adopt temperate habits as a matter of self-preservation.
EVILS OF INTEMPERANCE.
Taking a cursory view of the evils of intemperance from the standpoint of the appetites, we see,
1. That intemperance is very expensive, as to dollars and cents. This is by no means a point of minor importance, if we bear in mind that God holds us responsible for the manner in which we spend our money. The circumstances of many poor families would be much improved, should they apply a part of the means they squander upon perverted appetites, in meeting their own wants. Such would also experience great satisfaction in applying a portion of the means they misspend, for the furtherance of the cause of truth.
2. Intemperance is connected with a great expenditure of vitality, which money cannot refund.
3. It involves the violation of the laws of our being, which God has established, and by which he designed to have us governed, and is an insult to the kind Creator.
4. It also involves transgressions of the moral precept, “Thou shalt not kill.”
5. It is the great cause of disease. The physical and mental degeneracy of our race, and the diseases and sufferings of the human family, which have been increasing with each successive generation, are some of the legitimate fruits of intemperance.
6. It unfits those who practice it to present their bodies to God “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable,” Rom. 12:1, and to glorify God with their bodies and spirits which are his. 1 Cor. 6:20.
7. It eclipses from the mind the pleasures of the service of God. No pleasure can equal these, because they grow out of the proper use of all our powers. The pleasures of perverted appetites cannot be compared with those derived from the higher powers, which connect us with God, who can fill us with inexpressible happiness, and bless us as no other being can.
8. It causes impatience. It is impossible for those who are constantly abusing their nervous system by intemperate habits, to be patient, while so doing. They may pray for patience till they have worn their clothes through at the knees; this will be of no avail till they reform.
9. It strengthens the appetites and the selfish organs unduly, at the weakening of the moral faculties. It is a law of the human organism that when one class of organs is exercised to excess, the other organs must become enfeebled, and be inefficient in performing their functions. If the vitality of the system is drawn to the selfish organs, by undue and improper cultivation of those organs, the result will be selfishness, a lack of reverence for superiors, worldly-mindedness, sensuality, a want of aptitude to discern and appreciate divine things, and to manifest an interest in religion. The reason is obvious: The religious faculties are dwarfed by disuse, and need proper exercise, and the enlivening influence of God’s Spirit. I verily believe that we have before us a leading cause that made it necessary for Paul to write that, in the last days, men would be “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof;” 2 Tim. 3:1–4; and that many in this age cannot be led to live holy lives, until they see the bearing that temperance has on religion.
The Saviour, while giving a description of the last days, says: “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:26, 27. The sin of the antediluvians consisted in going to excess in eating and drinking, &c. And is it not so with the masses at the present time? The caution of Christ to the church who have witnessed the signs of his second coming, is, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Luke 21:34.
INTEMPERATE HABITS CAN BE OVERCOME.
With a clear and convincing view of the evils of intemperance, the following question will naturally arise in the minds of the intemperate who see the evil of their past course, Can I overcome my wrong habits? and, if so, how? To these questions, favorable answers can be returned. Others have overcome intemperate habits, and so can you? A few cases of victory over bad habits, will not be out of place.
Case first is that of a drunkard who resolved to abandon the use of intoxicating drinks. He came to the tavern where he had often drank from the fiery and debasing cup, with his fellows. Strong temptations were pressed upon him, to induce him to break his vow, when he bowed down before his companions and asked for overcoming grace. The victory was gained.
Case second is that of John Quincy Adams, who in his early youth was addicted to the use of tobacco in two of its mysteries—smoking and chewing. Being warned by a medical friend of the pernicious effect of this habit, he deliberately renounced the use of tobacco in all its forms. And hear the words of the noble veteran after thirty years’ abstinence: “Although the resolution was not carried into execution without a struggle of vitiated nature, I never yielded to its impulses; and in the space of three or four months of self-denial, they lost their stimulating power, and I have never since felt it as a privation. I have often wished that every individual of the human race, afflicted with this artificial passion, could prevail upon himself to try but for three months, the experiment which I have made! I am sure that it would turn every acre of tobacco-land into a wheat-field, and add five years of longevity to the average of human life.”
Case third is that of a resolute old man who, as a matter of conscience, nobly laid aside the filthy weed. Dame nature would often demand rest for abuses she had received, and to repair the damages caused by the intruder. He would calmly yield to her demands, if he had to take a nap in the furrow while following the plow. He conquered his foe.
Case fourth is that of a gentleman who, at the age of sixty-five years, had used tobacco forty years. His nerves were so affected that he could not shave himself. With English pluck and perseverance he overcame. Three months after, he could shave himself with steady nerve; and although he shortly met with a sad accident in terribly mangling his right hand in a threshing-machine, to-day, at the age of eighty, he shaves himself with his deformed and emaciated hand.
Case fifth is that of a lady who for years had used three dollars’ worth of morphine a month. She was in an awful state of prostration, and was a slave to her habit, not being able to robe herself in the morning until she had taken a dose. Great was her conflict. By faith she took hold of the strength of God, resisting temptation at times until the sweat would pour from her like water. But she, too, gained a noble victory.
Yes, intemperance may be overcome. Healthy persons, who have several bad habits, may master two or three at the same time, while weak persons will do well by overcoming one at a time. Aged persons using tea or coffee, whose stomachs are adapted to warm drinks, might use crust coffee, for awhile, as a substitute.
None should be discouraged because they feel worse in breaking off from bad habits. This is rather a matter of encouragement, as it shows how much the articles you were using were hurting you. While you were using stimulants, you were whipping up your nerves, and unduly exhausting your fund of vitality; and now that you have no false spurs to excite you to undue action, your system falls back upon its true resources, and nature, as a matter of preservation, says, Touch not the reserved capital of vital force; live within your means; and you realize the loss that you have sustained.
A good rule is, Touch not, handle not. Do not parley with the foe as Eve did. Linger not around the forbidden fruit. This tampering with the appetite, is to keep it alive to rule you in spite of your wits, might, and good resolutions. I have never yet known a person who fully overcame a bad habit while following the take-a-little principle. Make up your mind that it will require a struggle, and, like a noble soldier, in the strength of Jesus, who overcame appetite, and is able and willing to assist you, engage in the struggle with all your might. You have not yet resisted unto blood in striving against sin. Think of what the martyrs have suffered. Look at the death of the Man of Calvary for our sins, and murmur not. You may come off victorious, having obtained an experience that will be a help to you in other things.
Man fell, through the appetite, and since the fall, overcoming perverted appetite is an important means of restoration to that state of physical, mental, and moral rectitude, in which the great design of God in making man in his image shall be accomplished. John the Baptist, as a type of the last church, was temperate, and we need to be strictly temperate in all things, that we may, with steady nerve and strong bodies and minds, pass through the perils of the last days. And shall we be prepared to meet the Lord at his coming, if we are slaves to lust?
HEAVEN
By F. R. Havergal
Light after darkness,
Gain after loss,
Strength after suffering,
Crown after cross.
Sweet after bitter,
Song after sigh,
Home after wandering,
Praise after cry.
Sheaves after sowing,
Sun after rain,
Sight after mystery,
Peace after pain,
Joy after sorrow,
Calm after blast,
Rest after weariness,
Sweet rest at last.
Near after distant,
Gleam after gloom,
Love after loneliness,
Life after tomb.
After long agony
Rapture of bliss!
Right was the pathway
Leading to this!