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Total Abstinence Our Position
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When ministers, from their pulpits, make loyalty to the law of
God disreputable; when they join with the world in making it un-
popular; when these teachers of the people indulge in the social
glass, and the defiling narcotic, tobacco, what depth of vice may
not be expected from the youth of this generation? You have heard
much in regard to the authority and sanctity of the law of the Ten
Commandments. God is the author of that law, which is the foun-
dation of His government in heaven and on earth. All enlightened
nations have based their laws upon this grand foundation of all law;
yet the legislators and ministers, who are recognized as the leaders
and teachers of the people, live in open violation of the principles
inculcated in those holy statutes.
Many ministers preach Christ from the pulpit, and then do not
hesitate to benumb their senses by wine tippling, or even indulging
in brandy and other liquors. The Christian standard says, “Touch
not; taste not; handle not;” and the laws of our physical being repeat
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the solemn injunction with emphasis. It is the duty of every Christian
minister to lay this truth plainly before his people, teaching it both
by precept and example....
The Christian church is pronounced to be the salt of the earth,
the light of the world. Can we apply this to the churches of today,
many of whose members are using, not only the defiling narcotic,
tobacco, but intoxicating wine, and spirituous liquor, and are placing
the wine cup to their neighbor’s lips? The church of Christ should
be a school in which the inexperienced youth should be educated to
control their appetites, from a moral and religious standpoint. They
should there be taught how unsafe it is to tamper with temptation,
to dally with sin; that there is no such thing as being a moderate
and temperate drinker; that the path of the tippler is ever downward.
They should be exhorted to “look not thou upon the wine when it
is red,” which “at the last biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an
adder.”—
The Signs of the Times, August 29, 1878
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Total Abstinence Our Platform
—When temperance is pre-
sented as a part of the gospel, many will see their need of reform.
They will see the evil of intoxicating liquors and that total abstinence
is the only platform on which God’s people can conscientiously
stand.—
Testimonies for the Church 7:75
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