Seeking Stimulants, but Is Slowly Poisoned Instead—How We Deceive Ourselves by Some of Our Habits—Must Meet the Result if We Persist
By G. K. ABBOTT, M. D.
“Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. . . . I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Cor. 9:25, 27.
ESSENCE OF A TEMPERATE LIFE
The essence of a temperate life lies in self-control,—that is, control from within, and not by circumstances or environment. It is control by the judgment and reason, not by impulse or passion. Christian temperance consists in the control of self, together with its judgment and reason, by an enlightened conscience, and by a will fully surrendered to the will of the Creator. Being “temperate in all things” means so relating ourselves to the habits of life and the things which create habit, that the voice of God may always be heard, and circumstances and events may always appear in their true light.
A full understanding of the meaning of temperance is essential to any consideration of the question of stimulants and narcotics. Without a clear knowledge of all that temperance means, we are very likely to limit the list of stimulants and narcotics to alcohol, tobacco, and a few other of the more grossly harmful things.
STIMULANTS
A stimulant is anything that gives one an exaggerated sense of human power, calling forth an extravagant and prodigal expenditure of energy, thus depleting the reserve forces, without in any way adding to the available energy of the body, or providing for the replenishment of energy. Among such substances are tea, coffee, small doses of strychnine, condiments, and the juices and extractives of meat. One and all, these enable the body to expend greater energy, thus for a short time accomplishing more work. The one who uses them feels stimulated and enlivened.
This stage of stimulation varies in duration with the substance and the amount used; but sooner or later the vital forces sink below normal, and the endurance fails.
LESSENING ENDURANCE
This lessening of endurance may become manifest in a few hours, or it may require days or even months or years before the user himself appreciates the true condition. Scientific tests will usually show a falling off in work power in a very short time; but with youth and otherwise good health, nature endures this whipping up of its energy for a long time before the break comes. Like the last straw that breaks the camel’s back, the effort to meet some emergency receives credit for all the damage done.
HOW THEY FALSIFY
Sir William Broadbent has well defined the effect of stimulants. He says: “A falsehood that dies hard is the idea that stimulants of whatever kind actually give strength and are necessary for the maintenance of health and vigor. Such is not the case; and the well-worn comparison that they are the whip and spur and not the corn and grass is strictly accurate. Anything accomplished under the influence of stimulants is done at the expense of blood and tissue, and if frequently repeated, at the expense of the constitution.”
INTOXICATED BY DELUSIONS
But there are other things than chemical substances and so-called foods and drinks that we should consider under Christian temperance. In the mental and spiritual realm there are stimulants, as well as in the physical. Just as stimulants are false substitutes for physical food, so is assumed holiness Satan’s substitute for spiritual zeal. The deluded zealot feels enthused, he says and does many things which may appear meritorious; but his strength is all from self. He feels no need of the quiet, all-sustaining power of God in his life; and soon the stimulation is followed by a depression. The last state of that man is worse than the first. Such a result is all too commonly seen in many of the popular religious revivals of our day.
NARCOTICS
A narcotic is anything that so benumbs the senses, sense perception, or sense interpretation, as to prevent the mind from giving facts and events their actual significance. Alcohol is one of these. It is not a stimulant, never was, and never can be. It benumbs the senses. The weak feel strong, and cares and difficulties disappear. Hence the worn-out body continues to work, expending its little reserve force. But always with this, the narcotic gives a sense of renewed vigor and well-being—false, of course, but nevertheless deceiving its victim. Wine is indeed “a mocker.”
Morphine and cocaine are likewise narcotics, though often classed, by those who use them, as stimulants. Tobacco is another narcotic. The after-dinner cigar, by the narcotic effect of the nicotine, allays digestive distress, and the dyspeptic feels that he has been benefited.
A MENTAL NARCOTIC
But these are not all. Christian Science is another narcotic very popular at the present day. It narcotizes the conscience and puts it to sleep. It makes the devotee deny the existence of pain, disease, and sin, and hence he sees no need of any remedy for them. Pain is disease’s warning; but the Christian Scientist disregards it, and disease goes on to death.
A troubled conscience is the Holy Spirit’s warning of sin. But the disciple of Mrs. Eddy denies its existence; and it too must one day end in death, for “the wages of sin is death.” Stimulants of whatever kind are the archenemy’s substitutes for power and true zeal. Likewise the hypnotism of a narcotic is Satan’s substitute for true peace and rest, which can come only from a conscience void of offense, and a life fully surrendered to Christ. Both stimulants and narcotics give a false sense of human power; and by allowing a false interpretation of existing conditions, they are in essence the same.
When indulging in any of these things, is it at all possible for the mind to be clear, and the energies alert to do God’s bidding intelligently and with true zeal? But one says, I need just a little wine, or something of the sort, for my special frailty. “Touch not, taste not, handle not” does not apply to wine alone. No bypath ever began at any other place than side by side with the highway.
Both revelation and science have told us these things. The progress of human events demonstrates them. Is it more knowledge or more obedience that we need?
The Study of God’s Word
“If God’s word were studied as it should be, men would have a breadth of mind, a nobility of character, and a stability of purpose that are rarely seen in these times.”
BOOK NOTICE
“Songs of His Coming.” By Thoro Harris, 512 S. Campbell Ave., Chicago, Ill.
In many homes where music is prized, this new songbook will be welcomed, because of the number of new and pleasing selections it contains, to a place near the family instrument. It is also suitable for use in young people’s societies, schools, etc., as it contains a large number of the old favorites that are indispensable in a public hymnal. All told, there are about 340 selections, published with music. The name of the book is taken from the large number of songs, many new, that deal with the second coming of Christ. These are in harmony with Scriptural teachings on the subject. Bound in stiff paper. Single copies, 25 cents; by the hundred, $15, plus carriage.
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The World's Crisis
In the Light of Prophecy
A NEW book, just off the press. Gives a little history of events which led up to the present European war. Tells why God permitted it.
With a positiveness born of knowledge, this book, with the use of Bible texts, shows the real meaning of it all.
What will become of the Turk? Every thinking person is seeking a reliable answer to this query. It is your privilege to know. A chapter is devoted to one of the best presentations of the Eastern Question that has ever appeared in print. Fifty or more large and small illustrations — places, armies, munitions of war, charts, and diagrams — brighten the pages. 128 pages, and most appropriate cover in two colors.
Chapter Headings
Foreword
The Portent of the Times
The Eastern Question in Prophecy
Approaching Armageddon
Waymarks to the Kingdom
The Primitive Faith the Standard for This Generation
Christ's Second Coming
Signs of the Approaching End
The Gospel Message for This Generation
The Home of the Redeemed
You will wish at least one copy for yourself. Many Signs of the Times readers will wish quantities for selling.
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IN times of distress and perplexity like these in which we are living, how comforting and assuring are the following words from the divine Book:
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust. For He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the deadly pestilence. He will cover thee with His pinions, And under His wings shalt thou take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, Nor for the arrow that flieth by day; For the pestilence that walketh in darkness, Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, And ten thousand at thy right hand; But it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, And see the reward of the wicked. For Thou, O Jehovah, art my refuge!”
“Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. For He will give His angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: The young lion and the serpent shalt thou trample under foot.”
“Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, And show him my salvation.”
The psalmist is telling of a time when the deadly pestilence is abroad in the land, when there is terror by night, and when the arrow is flying by day, when destruction is spreading wasteness and desolation. And in that time, He assures those who trust in God that they shall not be afraid. His angels have charge over them, and they are kept by His mighty power.
What a contrast there is between the condition of those described in this psalm, and that other company that the Saviour tells about in the twenty-first chapter of Luke, whose hearts are failing them for fear as they are looking after the things that are coming upon the earth! The divine protection is over one class, and they have learned to know and to trust the Lord’s power so completely that they are not even afraid. And while destruction and desolation are stalking through the land everywhere, and while pestilence is creating havoc among the sinful inhabitants, those who have learned to trust Jehovah are not afraid.
The salvation that comes through Jesus Christ includes relief from fear even in times when storm, pestilence, and earthquake are creating their terrors, and when the violence of mobs as well as the furies of armies is causing anguish and perplexity.
The people are inspiring a false hope who would have you believe that the conditions which create the distress and perplexity of this time will soon pass by. The power of God and His salvation alone may be trusted with safety.
Reaping the Harvest
THERE is abundance of evidence to show the existence of an international combine among a certain class of capitalists to keep up war scares among the nations, and thus to increase the orders that the various governing bodies would place for battle-ships, guns, and other implements of destruction. It is stated that the Krupp gun works alone expended $200,000 a year “to popularize the idea of war, among politicians and writers.” These capitalists believed that the world was so civilized we would not have any more wars, and that therefore they were taking no risk in seeking the profits from the manufacture of these implements. Hence they went on with their crazed methods of building engines of death.
The war in Europe has broken over the world. The harvest of that kind of seed-sowing is being reaped. Hundreds of thousands of men and boys have already been killed. Other hundreds of thousands of hearts are broken, and multitudes of homes are in ruins.
Do the men who have created this war spirit in the world realize that there is a Judgment-day coming, that there is a just God who will settle with men for such awful deeds?
Agents from this country have recently been abroad; and the newspapers are telling, with a great deal of pleasure, that $50,000,000 worth of orders for cartridges and guns and other such things have been placed with manufacturers in this country by the various warring nations. Other millions of dollars worth of orders are placed with other classes of manufacturers. The people of this sordid, selfish age seem to think that increased business can cover and atone for a vast amount of wretchedness. God says, in His word, that the heart of man is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” And again He says, in His word, that in the time of the end “the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” Dan. 12:10.
Human beings appear to have a faculty for glossing over wickedness and making it to appear in gilded forms of righteousness. But the gilding is only a deceptive veneer. God says that He searches the hearts, and that He tries the reins, and it is high time for men to awake to the fact that there is a Judgment-day ahead of us, that a just God will sit in that tribunal, and that the excuses and subterfuges and cruelties and barbarities of men will have to stand in the light of the day of eternal righteousness.
We should build for that time, and not be deceived by any of the speculations and absurd theories that are so abundantly advanced by a class of people in this time who apparently are in such a delirious frame of mind that they can not observe the difference between right and wrong.
Heart Failure Through Fear
SPEAKING of the conditions that would prevail previous to His second coming, the Lord says:
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21: 25-28.
This earth has been visited with calamities of various kinds during all its history. Hence those occasional disasters would not be the things to which the Master was pointing through the foregoing scripture. He speaks specifically of certain things that will “begin to come to pass”; and these things are the tempestuous conditions of sea and wave, distress among the nations, with the climax finally to be reached in the shaking of the powers of heaven. Hence it would not do to refer to occasional disasters as the fulfilment of this prophecy.
The text shows that conditions of a distressing and tempestuous sort will become so prevalent that they will create perplexities among the nations, and cause men's hearts to fail them for fear as they look after the things that are coming upon the earth.
We are living in times when social unrest is occasioning perplexity and distress among all the nations of the world. That unrest has manifested itself in Europe in one of the most violent and unspeakable wars that has ever stained the pages of history. But the difficulties are not confined to Europe. The conditions throughout the world are causing untold alarm. Men's hearts are disquieted; they are quailing with fear. Not only do we have these distressing social conditions, but we have occurrences with increasing frequency like this great earthquake in Italy that has destroyed so many thousands. We have storm and tempest in every part of the world. And the Master shows us, in the words before quoted, that while these conditions may be bringing distress and perplexity to the great world at large, yet they are to bring rejoicing to the hearts of those who are standing in the light of His word. The struggle with sin is about at an end. The redemption of the followers of Christ draws nigh.
God is in no wise responsible for the calamities that are filling the world with distress and perplexity; but He does tell us what they mean, and assures us that we need not be filled with terrors because of them, but that we may look up and lift up our heads. All depends upon the position we occupy as to whether the conditions in the world to-day are causing the heart failures of fear, or whether we are filled with the rejoicings of the blessed hope that centers in the soon coming of Christ.
