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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
hearts? Do we love our neighbor as Christ loved us? If we have this
love for souls, it will lead us to consider carefully whether by our
words, our acts, our influence in any way, we are placing temptation
before those who have little moral power. We shall not censure the
weak and suffering, as the Pharisees were continually doing, but we
shall endeavor to remove every stone of stumbling from our brother’s
path lest the lame be turned out of the way.
As a people we profess to be reformers, to be light bearers in the
world, to be faithful sentinels for God, guarding every avenue whereby
Satan could come in with his temptations to pervert the appetite. Our
example and influence must be a power on the side of reform. We must
abstain from any practice which will blunt the conscience or encourage
temptation. We must open no door that will give Satan access to the
mind of one human being formed in the image of God. If all would
be vigilant and faithful in guarding the little openings made by the
moderate use of the so-called harmless wine and cider, the highway to
drunkenness would be closed up. What is needed in every community
is firm purpose, and a will to touch not, taste not, handle not; then the
temperance reformation will be strong, permanent, and thorough.
The love of money will lead men to violate conscience. Perhaps
that very money may be brought to the Lord’s treasury, but He will
not accept any such offering; it is an offense to Him. It was obtained
by transgressing His law, which requires that a man love his neighbor
as himself. It is no excuse for the transgressor to say that if he had
not made wine or cider, somebody else would, and his neighbor might
have become a drunkard just the same. Because some will place the
bottle to their neighbor’s lips, will Christians venture to stain their
garments with the blood of souls,—to incur the curse pronounced upon
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these who place this temptation in the way of erring men? Jesus calls
upon His followers to stand under His banner and aid in destroying
the works of the devil.
The world’s Redeemer, who knows well the state of society in the
last days, represents eating and drinking as the sins that condemn this
age. He tells us that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when
the Son of man is revealed. “They were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
and knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away.” Just such
a state of things will exist in the last days, and those who believe these