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44
Temperance
would receive the offering of the sons of Aaron, who offered incense
with strange fire.
God has not changed. He is as particular and exact in His require-
ments now as He was in the days of Moses. But in the sanctuaries
of worship in our day, with the songs of praise, the prayers, and the
teaching from the pulpit, there is not merely strange fire, but positive
defilement. Instead of truth being preached with holy unction from
God, it is sometimes spoken under the influence of tobacco and
brandy. Strange fire indeed! Bible truth and Bible holiness are pre-
sented to the people, and prayers are offered to God, mingled with
the stench of tobacco! Such incense is most acceptable to Satan! A
terrible deception is this! What an offense in the sight of God! What
an insult to Him who is holy, dwelling in light unapproachable!
If the faculties of the mind were in healthful vigor, professed
Christians would discern the inconsistency of such worship. Like
Nadab and Abihu, their sensibilities are so blunted that they make
no difference between the sacred and common. Holy and sacred
things are brought down upon a level with their tobacconized breaths,
[46]
benumbed brains, and their polluted souls, defiled through indul-
gence of appetite and passion. Professed Christians eat and drink,
smoke and chew tobacco, and become gluttons and drunkards, to
gratify appetite, and still talk of overcoming as Christ overcame!—
Redemption; or the Temptation of Christ, 82-86
.
A Call for Clear-Minded Officials
—How is it with our law-
makers, and the men in our courts of justice? If it was necessary
that those who minister in holy office should have clear minds and
full control of their reason, is it not also important that those who
make and execute the laws of our great nation should have their
faculties unclouded? What about the judges and jurors, in whose
hands rests the disposing of human life, and whose decisions may
condemn the innocent, or turn the criminal loose upon society? Do
they not need to have full control of their mental powers? Are they
temperate in their habits? If not, they are not fit for such responsible
positions. When the appetites are perverted, the mental powers are
weakened, and there is danger that men will not rule justly. Is indul-
gence in that which beclouds the mind less dangerous today than
when God placed restrictions upon those who ministered in holy
office?—
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 19
.