Tea and Coffee
343
We are already suffering because of the wrong habits of our fathers,
and yet how many take a course in every way worse than theirs! Opium,
tea, coffee, tobacco, and liquor are rapidly extinguishing the spark
of vitality still left in the race. Every year millions of gallons of
intoxicating liquors are drank, and millions of dollars are spent for
tobacco. And the slaves of appetite, while constantly spending their
earnings in sensual indulgence, rob their children of food and clothing
and the advantages of education. There can never be a right state of
society while these evils exist.
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 80
Since a healthy state of mind depends upon the normal condition of
the vital forces, what care should be exercised that neither stimulants
nor narcotics be used! Yet we see that a large number of those who
profess to be Christians are using tobacco. They deplore the evils
of intemperance; yet while speaking against the use of liquors, these
very men will eject the juice of tobacco. There must be a change
of sentiment with reference to tobacco-using before the root of the
evil will be reached. We press the subject still closer. Tea and coffee
are fostering the appetite for stronger stimulants. And then we come
still closer home, to the preparation of food, and ask, Is temperance
practiced in all things? Are the reforms which are essential to health
and happiness carried out here?
The Ministry of Healing, 335
Great efforts are made to put down intemperance; but there is
much effort that is not directed to the right point. The advocates of
temperance reform should be awake to the evils resulting from the
use of unwholesome food, condiments, tea, and coffee. We bid all
temperance workers Godspeed; but we invite them to look more deeply
into the cause of the evil they war against, and to be sure that they are
consistent in reform.
It must be kept before the people that the right balance of the mental
and moral powers depends in a great degree on the right condition
of the physical system. All narcotics and unnatural stimulants that
enfeeble and degrade the physical nature tend to lower the tone of the
intellect and morals. Intemperance lies at the foundation of the moral