The Milder Intoxicants

Persons who have inherited an appetite for unnatural stimulants should by no means have wine, beer, or cider in their sight or within their reach, for this keeps the temptation constantly before them. Regarding sweet cider as harmless, many have no scruples in purchasing it freely. But it remains sweet for a short time only; then fermentation begins. The sharp taste that it then acquires makes it all the more acceptable to many palates, and the user is loath to admit that it has become hard, or fermented.MHH 185.5

There is danger to health in the use of even sweet cider as ordinarily produced. If people could see what the microscope reveals in regard to the cider they buy, few would be willing to drink it. Often those who manufacture cider for the market are not careful as to the condition of the fruit squeezed, sometimes including even wormy or decayed apples. Those who would not think of using the poisonous, rotten apples in any other way will drink the cider made from them and call it a luxury; but the microscope shows that even when fresh from the press, this pleasant beverage is wholly unfit for use.^{*When the author wrote this in 1905, it was common practice to manufacture cider as here described. But today where cider is produced under sanitary conditions, using good, sound fruit, this comment may not be applicable.—Publisher.}MHH 185.6

Intoxication is just as really produced by wine, beer, and cider as by stronger drinks. The use of these drinks awakens the taste for those that are stronger, and thus the liquor habit is established. Moderate drinking is the school in which people are educated to be drunkards. Yet so insidious is the work of these milder stimulants that the highway to drunkenness is entered before the victim suspects danger.MHH 186.1

Some who are never considered really drunk are always under the influence of mild intoxicants. They are feverish, unstable in mind, unbalanced. Imagining themselves secure, they go on and on until every barrier is broken down, every principle sacrificed, the strongest resolutions undermined. The highest considerations are not sufficient to keep the debased appetite under the control of reason.MHH 186.2

The Bible nowhere sanctions the use of intoxicating wine. The wine that Christ made from water at the marriage feast of Cana was the pure juice of the grape. This is “‘the new wine ... found in the cluster,’” of which the Scripture says, ““‘Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it.”’” Isaiah 65:8.MHH 186.3

It was Christ who, in the Old Testament, gave the warning to Israel, “Wine is a mocker, intoxicating drink arouses brawling, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.” Proverbs 20:1.MHH 186.4

He Himself provided no such beverage. Satan tempts people to indulgence that will becloud reason and benumb the spiritual perceptions, but Christ teaches us to bring the lower nature into subjection. He never places before us that which would be a temptation. His whole life was an example of self-denial. It was to break the power of appetite that in the forty days’ fast in the wilderness He suffered in our behalf the severest test that humanity could endure.MHH 186.5

It was Christ who directed that John the Baptist should drink neither wine nor strong drink. It was He who enjoined similar abstinence upon the wife of Manoah.MHH 186.6

Christ did not contradict His own teaching. The unfermented wine that He provided for the wedding guests was a wholesome and refreshing drink. This is the wine that was used by our Savior and His disciples in the first Communion. It is the wine that should always be used on the Communion table as a symbol of the Savior’s blood. The sacramental service is designed to be soul-refreshing and life-giving. Nothing is to be connected with it that could minister to evil.MHH 186.7

In the light of what the Scriptures, nature, and reason teach concerning the use of intoxicants, how can Christians engage in the raising of hops for beer making? How can they engage in the manufacture of wine or cider for the market? If they love their neighbors as themselves, how can they help to place in their way that which will be a snare to them?MHH 187.1

Often intemperance begins in the home. By the use of rich, unhealthful food the digestive organs are weakened and a desire is created for food that is stimulating. Thus the appetite is educated to crave something still stronger. The demand for stimulants becomes more frequent and more difficult to resist. The system becomes more or less filled with poison, and the more debilitated it becomes, the greater is the desire for these things. One step in the wrong direction prepares the way for another. Many who would not be guilty of placing on their table wine or liquor will load their table with food that creates such a thirst for strong drink that to resist the temptation is almost impossible. Wrong habits of eating and drinking destroy the health and prepare the way for drunkenness.MHH 187.2

There would soon be little necessity for temperance campaigns if right principles in regard to temperance could be implanted in the youth who form and fashion society. Let parents conduct a campaign against intemperance at their own firesides, in the principles they teach their children to follow from infancy, and they may hope for success.MHH 187.3

There is work for mothers in helping their children to form correct habits and pure tastes. Educate the appetite; teach the children to abhor stimulants. Bring your children up to have moral stamina to resist the evil that surrounds them. Teach them that they are not to be swayed by others, that they are not to yield to evil influences, however strong, but to influence others for good.MHH 187.4

Great efforts are made to put down intemperance, but there is much effort that is not directed to the right point. The advocates of temperance reform should be awake to the evils resulting from the use of unwholesome food, condiments, tea, and coffee. We wish temperance workers the best of success; but we invite them to look more deeply into the causes of the evil they war against and to be sure they are consistent in reform.MHH 187.5

It must be kept before the people that the right balance of the mental and moral powers depends in a great degree on the right condition of the physical system. All narcotics and unnatural stimulants that enfeeble and degrade the physical nature tend to lower the tone of the intellect and morals. Intemperance lies at the foundation of the moral depravity of the world. By the indulgence of perverted appetite, people lose their power to resist temptation.MHH 187.6

Temperance reformers have a work to do in educating their hearers along these lines. Teach them that health, character, and even life are endangered by the use of stimulants, which excite the exhausted energies to unnatural, spasmodic action.MHH 187.7

In relation to tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic drinks, the only safe course is to touch not, taste not, handle not. The tendency of tea, coffee, and similar drinks is in the same direction as that of liquor and tobacco, and in some cases the habit is as difficult to break as it is for the alcoholic to give up intoxicants.MHH 188.1

Those who attempt to leave off these stimulants will for a time feel a loss and will suffer without them. But by persistence they will overcome the craving and cease to feel the lack. Nature may require a little time to recover from the abuse she has suffered, but give her a chance and she will again rally and perform her work nobly and well.MHH 188.2