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Temperance
solid rock. We have seen many who said they could not overcome,
brought safely out.
A Majority With God
—No one can be written in the books of
heaven who is a drunkard. Resist temptation as a man. In the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth you can lay hold upon divine power.
Christ will work in behalf of every one of you. The tobacco appetite
is created which hath no foundation in nature. Nevertheless you can
have the victory. The curse of God is upon them who pass the bottle
to their neighbors’ lips. You say we are in the minority. Is not God
a majority? If we are on the side of the God who made the heaven
and the earth, are we not on the side of the majority? We have the
angels that excel in strength, on our side. Away with the fashions
of this degenerate age. Sisters and mothers, you are abusing the
bodies which God has given you. What does it mean, young women,
this girdling of the waist which does not give your lungs, liver, and
vital organs their proper capacity? Your future posterity will testify
against you. How could I have spoken as I have, if I would girdle
myself as some of you do? You see, nothing is pressing against these
vital organs. We sometimes see women who have some records to
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read, and they cannot speak loudly. They seem to have no voice.
They are girdled until they have tiny waists, as though God did not
know how to make them.
The Lord would have the wife of Manoah adhere to strict habits
of temperance. “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman,
and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but
thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray
thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean
thing.” The angel who appeared to Zacharias and Elisabeth said,
“Thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son,
and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and
gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in
the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink;
and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” Here we have the child
taken before his birth and after. You mothers should place value
on these things. The appetites of the mother are transmitted to the
children. Many of you who indulge in things to satisfy appetite
are taking the underpinning out of your house. There are men who
might have had as clear a record as Daniel. Satan is playing his cards