The Religious Connection

At the close of her lecture the president of the local temperance society spoke, urging his audience to note that the success of the American temperance movement rested on religious zeal and Biblical principles. Mrs. White had requests to speak at local churches but she declined because her mission in Norway was to build up the Adventist churches. ^{21Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 207-211.}MOL 364.8

In reviewing the text of that Norway address, which was typical of her temperance talks to the general public, we can better understand what made her messages distinctive. She traced the subject of temperance in Bible history, especially emphasizing how closely Christ was connected to the work of temperance throughout His life on earth. The main points of her public talks on temperance were:MOL 364.9

Our first parents sinned by “the indulgence of appetite.”MOL 365.1

Christ overcame the “indulgence of appetite” in the wilderness temptation, “showing that in His strength it is possible for us to overcome.”MOL 365.2

Nadab and Abihu, men of holy office, suffered fearful judgment because they permitted their minds to become “beclouded” and thus incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.MOL 365.3

“Men of principle are needed” in legislative halls and in courts of justice, as well as in schools and churches—“men of self control, of keen perceptions and sound judgment.” Intemperance will render them incapable of “just decisions” and the ability “to rise above motives of self-interest or the influence of partiality or prejudice.”MOL 365.4

Parents must learn the lesson angels brought to Manoah, Samson’s father, and to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Children are affected “for good or evil, by the habits of the mother” and their early household training.MOL 365.5

Parents “transmit their own characteristics, mental and physical, their dispositions and appetites.” “Children often lack physical strength and mental and moral power” because of parental intemperance (lack of self-control).MOL 365.6

“From babyhood” children should be taught the principles and habits of “self-denial and self-control.”MOL 365.7

Daniel and his associates in the court of Babylon were used as forcible illustrations of true temperance. They were a “noble testimony” to the benefits of “strict temperance in the use of all His bounties, as well as total abstinence from every injurious and debasing indulgence.”MOL 365.8

“Not only is the use of unnatural stimulants needless and pernicious, but it is also extravagant and wasteful.... Thousands of parents ... spend their earnings in self-indulgence, robbing their children of food and clothing and the benefits of education.” ^{22Temperance, 267-273; Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 207-211. Two other temperance addresses by Ellen White, one in 1891, the other at Sydney, Australia, in 1893, are also included in Temperance, 273-292.}MOL 365.9

These principles are amplified, with more detail as to how they should be taught, in the Ellen G. White compilation entitled, Temperance. When most temperance leaders focused primarily on alcohol, largely ignoring tobacco and unnatural stimulants such as tea and coffee, Mrs. White went deeper—to the causes of drunkenness and debasement of morals. ^{23For a review of Adventist cooperation with temperance societies, see Robinson, Our Health Message, pp. 223-235. For an overview of anti-alcohol campaigns in the nineteenth century, see Jerome L. Clark, “The Crusade Against Alcohol,” in Land, World of E. G. White, pp. 131-140.}MOL 365.10