739. The health is in no way improved by the use of those things which stimulate for a time, but afterward cause a reaction which leaves the system lower than before. Tea and coffee whip up the flagging energies for the time being, but when their immediate influence has gone, a feeling of depression is the result. These beverages have no nourishment whatever in themselves. The milk and sugar it contains constitute all the nourishment afforded by a cup of tea or coffee.—Letter 69, 1896
(CD 425.1)
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740. Tea and coffee are stimulating. Their effects are similar to those of tobacco; but they affect in a lesser degree. Those who use these slow poisons, like the tobacco user, think they cannot live without them, because they feel so very bad when they do not have these idols....Those who indulge a perverted appetite, do it to the injury of health and intellect. They cannot appreciate the value of spiritual things. Their sensibilities are blunted, and sin does not appear very sinful, and truth is not regarded of greater value than earthly treasure.—Spiritual Gifts 4a:128, 129, 1864
(CD 425.2)
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741. Tea and coffee drinking is a sin, an injurious indulgence, which, like other evils, injures the soul. These darling idols create an excitement, a morbid action of the nervous system; and after the immediate influence of the stimulants is gone, it lets down below par just to that degree that its stimulating properties elevated above par.—Manuscript 44, 1896
(CD 425.3)
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742. Those who use tobacco, tea, and coffee should lay aside those idols, and put their cost into the treasury of the Lord. Some have never made a sacrifice for the cause of God, and are asleep as to what God requires of them. Some of the very poorest will have the greatest struggle to deny themselves of these stimulants. This individual sacrifice is not required because the cause of God is suffering for means. But every heart will be tested, every character developed. It is principle that God’s people must act upon. The living principle must be carried out in the life.—Testimonies for the Church 1:222, 1861
(CD 425.4)
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