Stimulants
95
492. There is need of a better understanding of the principles
of health reform. Temperance in eating, drinking, and dressing is
essential. The advocates of temperance should place their standard on
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a broader platform. They would then be laborers together with God.
With every iota of their influence they should encourage the spread
of reform principles. Let appetite rule instead of principle, and the
whole machinery will be implicated. The violation of physical law is
a violation of the law of God. Those who eat too much, and whose
food is of an objectionable quality are easily led into dissipation.—
Unpublished Testimonies, August 25, 1897
.
493. He calls upon them to sacrifice their idols. They should lay
aside such stimulants as tobacco, tea, and coffee.—
Testimonies for the
Church 1:224
.
494. The highly seasoned flesh meats and tea and coffee, which
some mothers encourage their children to use, prepare the way for
them to crave stronger stimulants, as tobacco.—
Testimonies for the
Church 3:488
.
Tobacco
495. The use of tobacco encourages the appetite for liquor; and the
use of tobacco and liquor invariably lessens nerve power.—
Testimonies
for the Church 3:488
.
496. By the use of alcoholic drinks and narcotics and the flesh of
diseased animals, man has distorted and crippled the Lord’s divine
arrangements. Nature does her best to expel the poisonous drug to-
bacco, but frequently she is overborne, gives up her struggle, and life
is sacrificed in the conflict.—
Unpublished Testimonies, January 11,
1897
.
497. Tobacco, in whatever form it is used, tells upon the con-
stitution. It is a slow poison. It affects the brain and benumbs the
sensibilities so that the mind cannot discern spiritual things, especially
those truths which would have a tendency to correct this filthy indul-
gence. Those who use tobacco in any form are not clear before God.
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In such a filthy practise it is impossible for them to glorify God in their
bodies and spirits, which are his. And while they are using slow and
sure poisons, which are ruining their health and debasing the faculties
of the mind, God cannot approbate them. He may be merciful to them