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Appendix B Typical Temperance Addresses By Ellen G. White
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the character and destiny of the nation. How important, then, the
mission of those who are to form the habits and influence the lives
of the rising generation. To deal with minds is the greatest work ever
committed to men. The time of parents is too valuable to be spent in
the gratification of appetite or the pursuit of wealth or fashion. God
has placed in their hands the precious youth, not only to be fitted for
a place of usefulness in this life, but to be prepared for the heavenly
courts. We should ever keep the future life in view, and so labor
that when we come to the gates of paradise we may be able to say,
“Here, Lord, am I, and the children whom Thou hast given me.”
But in the work of temperance there are duties devolving upon
the young which no other can do for them. While parents are re-
sponsible for the stamp of character as well as for the education and
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training which they give their sons and daughters, it is still true that
our position and usefulness in the world depend, to a great degree,
upon our own course of action.
Daniel a Noble Example
—Nowhere shall we find a more com-
prehensive and forcible illustration of true temperance and its at-
tendant blessings than in the history of the youthful Daniel and his
associates in the court of Babylon. When they were selected to be
taught the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans, that they might
“stand in the king’s palace,” “the king appointed them a daily pro-
vision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank.” “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.”
Not only did these young men decline to drink the king’s wine, but
they refrained from the luxuries of his table. They obeyed the divine
law, both natural and moral. With their habits of self-denial were
coupled earnestness of purpose, diligence, and steadfastness. And
the result shows the wisdom of their course.
God always honors the right. The most promising youth of every
land 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 showing that
the blood was uncorrupted, the undimmed senses, the untainted
breath,—all were so many certificates of good habits, insignia of the
nobility with which nature honors those who are obedient to her laws.
And when their ability and acquirements were tested by the king at