14
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene
Christ began the work of redemption just where the ruin began.
His first test was on the same point where Adam failed. It was through
temptations addressed to the appetite that Satan had overcome a large
proportion of the human race, and his success had made him feel that
the control of this fallen planet was in his hands. But in Christ he
found one who was able to resist him, and he left the field of battle
a conquered foe. Jesus says, He “hath nothing in me.” [
John 14:30
.]
His victory is an assurance that we too may come off victors in our
conflicts with the enemy. But it is not our heavenly Father’s purpose
to save us without an effort on our part to co-operate with Christ. We
must act our part, and divine power, uniting with our effort, will bring
victory.
We meet intemperance everywhere. We see it on the cars, the
steamboats, and wherever we go; and we should ask ourselves what we
are doing to rescue souls from the tempter’s grasp. Satan is constantly
on the alert to bring the race fully under his control. His strongest hold
on man is through the appetite, and this he seeks to stimulate in every
possible way. All unnatural excitants are harmful, and they cultivate
the desire for liquor. How can we enlighten the people, and prevent
the terrible evils that result from the use of these things? Have we
done all that we can do in this direction?
Some will say that it is impossible to reclaim the drunkard, that
efforts in this direction have failed again and again. But although
we cannot reclaim all who have gone so far, we may do something
to check the growth of the evil. I appeal to you, parents, to begin
with your children, and give them a right education. Seek to bring
them up so that they shall have moral stamina to resist the evil that
surrounds them. The lesson of self-control must begin with the child
[17]
in its mother’s arms. It must learn to restrain passionate temper, to
bring its will into subjection, and to deny unhealthful cravings.
Teach your children to abhor stimulants. How many are ignorantly
fostering in them an appetite for these things! In Europe I have seen
nurses putting the glass of wine or beer to the lips of the innocent little
ones, thus cultivating in them a taste for stimulants. As they grow
older, they learn to depend more and more on these things, till little by
little they are overcome, drift beyond the reach of help, and at last fill
a drunkard’s grave.