169. Temperance Reformers
Today’s reading: “The Ministry of Healing” pp. 334b-335.
The summary of today’s reading is “responsibility”, first the responsibility of parents, then the personal responsibility we all have to be temperate ourselves and to educate others in temperance and self-control.
The advocates of temperance reform should be awake to the evils resulting from the use of unwholesome food, condiments, tea, and coffee…In relation to tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic drinks, the only safe course is to touch not, taste not, handle not.
Temperance at home
Often intemperance begins in the home.
Often with rich, unhealthful food. And what is rich, unhealthful food?
- Mustard, pepper, spices, pickles and the like (p. 325)
- Food “prepared merely for the gratification of appetite” (p.47)
- Food with an “unnatural taste” , which makes natural food tasteless (p. 298)
Over and over the word “stimulating” is associated with unhealthy food as I read these references. What exactly is stimulated?
- the appetite, making good, healthy food tasteless (p. 298)
- the stomach, which causes a disordered mind leading to poor decisions (p. 310)
- addiction to increased dosage, more powerful stimulation, and eventually drunkenness (p. 334)
As with all stimulants, the result of repeated use is weakness, “debility” as the body tries to recover.
In the home, the parent’s crusade against intemperance begins in the child’s infancy by,
- helping them form habits of resisting, even abhorrence of, “stimulants”
- educating the appetite to enjoy simple, healthy food
- teaching “moral stamina” i.e. not swayed by peer pressure but to be “an influence for good”.
The next section is entitled “The Home” so we will get more of this soon. But for now we go on to,
Temperance Reform
Temperance reformers have a work to do in educating the people… Teach them that health, character, and even life, are endangered by the use of stimulants, which excite the exhausted energies to unnatural, spasmodic action.
Reformers are to attack the causes of intemperance, “unwholesome food, condiments, tea, and coffee”, and inform people how health, character and life are endangered by the steps to depravity,
- the body is “enfeebled and degraded” which leads to,
- imbalance, lowering the tone intellect intellect and morals which leads to
- further indulgence of appetite, leading to,
- an inability to resist temptation.
Reformers also have the responsibility to inform people that they can recover, it is not all lost, given a chance, the whole human nature can once again perform “nobly and well”. The steps are,
- cease using
- persist through the cravings and sufferings
- wait for the new tastes and habits to kick in.
A positive note before we drop in to the world of “liquor traffic” tomorrow.
