To Take a Decided Stand for Temperance, July 24

To Take a Decided Stand for Temperance, July 24

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. 1 Corinthians 9:25.

In the family circle and in the church we should place Christian temperance on an elevated platform. It should be a living, working element, reforming habits, dispositions, and characters. Intemperance lies at the foundation of all the evil in our world.56

The children need to be given lessons that will nurture in them courage to resist evil.... Parents should exercise great care in regard to the food placed before their children. Drunkards are only too often made by lessons of intemperance learned in the home. Let the children be given food that will build up mind and body, but keep away from them the highly seasoned dishes that would arouse a desire for still stronger stimulants.

The use of tobacco and strong drink has a great deal to do with the increase of disease and crime. Tobacco is a slow, insidious, but most malignant poison, and its use is working untold harm....

No argument is needed to show the evils of the use of intoxicating drink. The bleared, besotted wrecks of humanity,—souls for whom Christ died, and over whom angels weep,—are everywhere. They are a blot on our boasted civilization....

Those who in ancient times ran for a prize realized the importance of temperate habits, and how much more should we, who are running a race for a heavenly crown. We should put forth every effort to overcome evil.57

At all times and on all occasions it requires moral courage to adhere to the principles of strict temperance.58

Remember that you are daily weaving for yourself a web of habits.... The better you observe the laws of health, the more clearly can you discern temptations, and resist them, and the more clearly can you discern the value of eternal things.59 [213]