Stimulants
97
503. Tobacco and liquor stupefy and defile the user. But the evil
does not stop here. He transmits irritable tempers, polluted blood,
enfeebled intellects, and weak morals to his children, and renders
himself accountable for all the evil results that his wrong and dissipated
course of life brings upon his family and the community.—
Testimonies
for the Church 4:30
.
Alcohol
504. The tables of our American people are generally prepared in
a manner to make drunkards.... By the use of tea and coffee an appetite
[112]
is formed for tobacco, and this encourages the appetite for liquors....
Youth in general are governed by impulse and are slaves to appetite.
In the glutton, the tobacco devotee, the wine-bibber, and the inebriate,
we see the evil results of defective education.—
Testimonies for the
Church 3:563
.
505. The only safe course is to touch not, taste not, handle not, tea,
coffee, wines, tobacco, opium, and alcoholic drinks.—
Testimonies for
the Church 3:488
.
506. If men would become temperate in all things, if they would
touch not, taste not, handle not, spirituous liquors and narcotics, reason
would hold the reins of government in her hands, and control the animal
appetites and passions.—
Testimonies for the Church 3:561
.
507. Persons may become just as really intoxicated on wine and
cider as on stronger drinks, and the worst kind of inebriation is pro-
duced by these so-called milder drinks. The passions are more per-
verse; the transformation of character is greater, more determined and
obstinate. A few quarts of cider or sweet wine may awaken a taste for
strong drinks, and many who have become confirmed drunkards have
thus laid the foundation of the drinking habit.... Moderate drinking is
the school in which men are receiving an education for the drunkard’s
career. The taste for stimulants is cultivated; the nervous system is
disordered; Satan keeps the mind in a fever of unrest; and the poor
victim, imagining himself perfectly secure, goes on and on, until every
barrier is broken down, every principle sacrificed.—
The Review and
Herald, March 25, 1884
.
[113]
508. The Bible nowhere teaches the use of intoxicating wine,
either as a beverage or as a symbol of the blood of Christ. We appeal