The Christian church is pronounced to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Can we apply this to the churches of today, many of whose members are using, not only the defiling narcotic, tobacco, but intoxicating wine, and spirituous liquor, and are placing the wine cup to their neighbor’s lips? The church of Christ should be a school in which the inexperienced youth should be educated to control their appetites, from a moral and religious standpoint. They should there be taught how unsafe it is to tamper with temptation, to dally with sin; that there is no such thing as being a moderate and temperate drinker; that the path of the tippler is ever downward. They should be exhorted to “look not thou upon the wine when it is red,” which “at the last biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”(Proverbs 23:31, 32)—The Signs of the Times, August 29, 1878.
(Te 165.1)
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Total Abstinence Our Platform—When temperance is presented as a part of the gospel, many will see their need of reform. They will see the evil of intoxicating liquors and that total abstinence is the only platform on which God’s people can conscientiously stand.—Testimonies for the Church 7:75.
(Te 165.2)
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A Living, Working Element in the Church—In the family circle and in the church we should place Christian temperance on an elevated platform. It should be a living, working element, reforming habits, dispositions, and characters. Intemperance lies at the foundation of all the evil in our world.—Manuscript 50, 1893.
(Te 165.3)
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Those We Cannot Take Into the Church—God grant that we may be wide awake to this awful evil. May He help us to labor with all our power to save men and women and youth from this effort of the enemy to ensnare them. We do not take into the church those who use liquor or tobacco. We cannot admit such ones. But we can try to help them to overcome. We can tell them that by giving up these harmful practices, they will make their families and themselves happier. Those whose hearts are filled with the Spirit of God will feel no need for stimulants.—The Review and Herald, June 15, 1905.
(Te 165.4)
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