Reasons for Reform
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conditions, and have mental clearness to discern between the evil and
the good.
In order rightly to understand the subject of temperance, we must
consider it from a Bible standpoint; and nowhere can we find a more
comprehensive and forcible illustration of true temperance and its
attendant blessings, than is afforded by the history of the prophet
Daniel and his Hebrew associates in the court of Babylon.
When these youth were selected to be educated in the “learning
and the tongue of the Chaldeans,” that they might “stand in the king’s
palace,” there was appointed them a daily allowance from the king’s
table, both of food and wine. “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he
would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with
the wine which he drank.”
The food appointed them would include meats pronounced unclean
by the law of Moses. They requested the officer who had them in
charge to give them a more simple fare; but he hesitated, fearing that
such rigid abstinence as they proposed would affect their personal
appearance unfavorably, and bring himself into disfavor with the king.
Daniel pleaded for a ten days’ trial. This was granted; and at the
expiration of that time these youth were found to be far more healthy
in appearance than were those who had partaken of the king’s dainties.
Hence the simple “pulse and water” which they at first requested, was
thereafter the food of Daniel and his companions.
It was not their own pride or ambition that had brought these
young men into the king’s court,—into the companionship of those
who neither knew nor feared the true God. They were captives in a
strange land, and Infinite Wisdom had placed them there. At this trial
of their loyalty, they considered their position, with its dangers and
difficulties, and then in the fear of God made their decision. Even at
the risk of the king’s displeasure, they would be true to the religion of
their fathers. They obeyed the divine law, both physical and moral, and
the blessing of God gave them strength and comeliness and intellectual
power....
God always honors the right. The most promising youth from all
the lands subdued by the great conqueror had been gathered at Babylon,
yet amid them all, the Hebrew captives were without a rival. The erect
form, the firm, elastic step, the fair countenance, the undimmed senses,
the untainted breath—all were so many certificates of good habits—