p. 191 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 12. (3/31/1914)

History of the Tea, Coffee, and Cocoa Habit

By Daniel H. Kress, M. D.

THEIR GENERAL USE OF QUITE MODERN ORIGIN—HABITUES OF "COFFEE HOUSES" WERE ONCE REGARDED AS COMMON TIPPLERS — HARMFUL EFFECTS OF THESE BEVERAGES TO BE EXPOSED

By Daniel H. Kress, M. D.

No less than one third of the world's inhabitants are tea-drinkers. Yet tea-drinking is of modern origin; our forefathers knew nothing of this habit.

Tea is said to have been introduced into China from Korea about the fourth century. It had found its way into Japan by the ninth century, and became known to European countries in the sixteenth.

ORIGINALLY FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES

It was originally imported into Europe for medicinal rather than dietetic purposes.

In 1664 a present of two pounds two ounces of tea was made by the East India Company to Charles II. The price was then about fifteen dollars a pound. The first mention we find of tea in England is in an act of Parliament passed about that time, by which it charged with a duty of one shilling sixpence a gallon when drunk in public houses.

BECAME FASHIONABLE AT COURT

About the year 1666 it became a fashionable beverage at court, owing to the example of Catherine, the queen of Charles II, who had been addicted to its use in Portugal. In the year 1678, Bontekoe, a Dutch physician, published a treatise in favor of tea as a drug in certain diseases; and to his authority its general use in so many parts of Europe is to be attributed.

Up to the present century, tea was still so uncommon on the continent of Europe that it could only be obtained of chemists, the same as other drugs. In 1728 the use of tea had so much grown that the price was reduced to five dollars a pound, and in 1836 it stood at fifty cents a pound.

AUSTRALIA THE GREATEST CONSUMER

In Great Britain the consumption of tea is to-day six pounds for each person, as against half an ounce in 1771. The price was then about five dollars a pound, as against the popular thirty cents a pound of to-day.

The West Australian consumes ten pounds of tea per annum, and the New Zealander imbibes annually seven pounds of it. Australia consumes a greater quantity per annum a head than does any other country in the world.

In 1830, in evidence given before the House of Commons, it was stated that the consumption of tea by the whole civilized world exclusive of England was computed at 22,000,000 pounds. For an article of consumption to assume such proportions, can not be without its influence on national life.

COFFEE AS A BEVERAGE

As a beverage, coffee was introduced into Europe about three centuries ago. Gradually its use became popular, and coffee-houses arose everywhere. The first one was established in Constantinople in 1573. One was opened in London in 1652. Others sprang up in other parts.

That the coffee-house was regarded as an evil and a nuisance will be seen from the following, which appeared in the "New Views of London" in 1708. It is mentioned that "one James Farr, a barber, who kept a coffee-house, which was afterward The Rainbow by the Inner Temple Gate, was in the year 1657 prosecuted by the inquest of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West for making and selling a sort of liquor called coffee, as a great nuisance and prejudice of the neighborhood."

Many were addicted to the use of this new beverage, and the intoxication produced made these places a common resort.

The following poem, describing the coffee-house, was published in 1665, entitled "The Character of a Coffee-House":

"Of some and all conditions, Even vintners, surgeons, and physicians, The blind, the deaf, and aged cripple Do here resort, and coffee tipple."

Germany and the United States are the greatest coffee-drinking countries in the world, both consuming about fourteen pounds annually a head. America takes half of the coffee crop of the world. The importation of coffee into the United States amounted in 1904 to 1,116,922,651 pounds, worth nearly $100,000,000 at wholesale rates.

COCOA, AND THE WAY IT IS MADE

Cocoa as a beverage is of more modern origin. The amount consumed is considerably less than that of tea or coffee, but its use is increasing. Doubtless cocoa will become eventually as popular a stimulant as tea or coffee. Consumers may be interested to know something of its origin and preparation.

The commercial cocoas are prepared from the seed of the plant named theobroma cacao. The seeds are concealed in a large pod or fruit, which in shape resembles the cucumber. They are arranged in rows, imbedded in a pulp or spongy substance. In their natural state the seeds are bitter and extremely unpleasant to the taste. After they are removed from the pods, they are placed in pits in the ground, and covered up for four or five days, or until they have undergone fermentation. Then they are dried in the sun, roasted the same as coffee, and ground. By the process of fermentation and roasting, they lose much of their harsh flavor. Many of the preparations have from twenty-three to sixty-one per cent of cane-sugar added to conceal still further the disagreeable principles.

THEIR TRUE NATURE WILL BE EXPOSED

These three articles, coffee, tea, and cocoa, seem destined to become three of the most widely advertised commodities the world has ever seen. But the true nature of these beverages will also become known, and anti-tea, coffee, and cocoa crusades will be organized and carried forward.

The Talent of Appreciation

"THERE is one thing I like about Helen," said a girl speaker. "She has a genuine gift of appreciation. Whenever you speak of anybody, she always seems to bubble over with some kindly appreciation of her. When some one remarked the other day that Miss K— was not at all pretty, she broke in with, 'Yes, but then some people don't need to be pretty, they're nice enough without it.' It is always that way with her. She has seen the gleam of gold somewhere in somebody, that nobody else ever detected or thought of looking for. Her older sister is a splendid musician, and her younger is quite a brilliant elocutionist, but I don't know but I'd rather have Helen's talent of appreciating people than to have the gifts of either of the others. I believe she gets more joy out of it and perhaps gives more joy with it." It is a talent toward the acquiring of which we can do a great deal by practise, even if we seem to be lacking in it by nature.—Onward.

The Planet Mars

By Augusta Wolcott Heald

In Fine Position for Observation Now—May It Be Inhabited?—God's Expressed Purpose in Creating the Worlds

By AUGUSTA WOLCOTT HEALD

THE orbit of Mars being next to that of earth, we take a most lively interest in him, as our nearest planetary neighbor. This is a very favorable time for observing him, as he has within a few weeks made his nearest approach to the earth,—about fifty millions of miles,—while at his greatest distance he is about two hundred and fifty millions of miles from us.

VERY ERRATIC

Astronomers say that the motions of Mars are very erratic, so that he may truly be called a wanderer, as the word "planet" signifies. This season we have had a good opportunity to watch his antics. He appeared in Taurus, scarcely one degree from Saturn; after a long period of cloudy nights, we next discovered him in Gemini, in a direct line below Castor and Pollux, making a most singular appearance in that constellation. He has since been retrograding in Gemini, constantly changing position, and with his glowing red color, is a most beautiful object in the evening sky.

Mars journeys about the sun in six hundred eighty-seven days. His daily rotation is performed in twenty-four hours, thirty-nine minutes, thus making his day a little longer than ours. He has as satellites two tiny moons, which revolve very rapidly about him. They are called Deimos and Phobos, and are only about ten miles in diameter.

CONDITIONS SIMILAR TO THE EARTH

The apparent conditions on Mars are more similar to those on our earth than are those of any other planet. Many conjectures are rife as to whether this world, which occupies the place next to ours in the solar system, may not also be the abode of intelligent beings. Some have thought they could distinguish signal lights, and others dream of establishing connection by means of modern inventions. These ideas seem most visionary, while the present order of the age continues, and such speculations are unsatisfying to most people.

ARE OTHER SPHERES INHABITED?

While this is true, there is yet nothing to forbid the thought that other spheres may be inhabited. There is a passage in the inspired Word which sheds light on this subject: "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited." Isa. 45:18. The questions may well arise, Has God created anything in vain? Is our small planet the only world the Creator has formed to be inhabited?—Most assuredly, No.

The Lord spoke to one of old, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth, . . . when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Job 38:4, 7.

Before our earth was spoken into existence, or ever man was formed in the image of God, there were holy, intelligent beings in His universe, rendering homage to the great Creator, rejoicing in the work of His hands. We, as inhabitants of this lower sphere, are permitted, through redeeming grace, to join the universal song of sinless beings, and with them to ascribe glory and honor and praise to the great Author of all good, Maker of heaven and earth and all the starry host.

Pity for the Fallen

By L. D. Santee

By L. D. SANTEE

SOMETIMES I grow tenderly sober As I look at the faces defiled, And the sorrows that, all the world over, Strew the path of the prodigal child. I think of the pain and the trouble That attend all the pathways of sin, Of the sadness the years but redouble, Of those who have entered therein.

I think of the sorrows unspoken, Of the fallen that long for the light, Of the sad eyes, and hearts that are broken, Of the tears that are kept out of sight; And mercy, with low-bending pinion, Looks out o'er the path of the years, Looks out o'er a fallen dominion, And pities a world full of tears.

I think of the hopes of to-morrow, Of the sadness that fades not away, Of the pleasures that end but in sorrow That will banish the hopes of to-day; And my bosom grows tender with pity As I ponder the woes of the world. Then I think of the jasper-walled city, Where the banner of peace is unfurled,

And I think of the Saviour all-seeing, His nature as loving as when, Long ago in the streets of Judea, He carried the sorrows of men. And O, could I take to the Saviour Those burdened with sorrow and loss, I would tell them their sinful behavior Has caused Him to die on the cross.

The weary of earth, and the lonely, Grow sad with the passing of years. They bear heavy burdens, that only The Master can lighten and cheer. Then hasten Thy coming, O "Strong One"! There are mourners awaiting Thy call. I know that Thou never canst wrong one, For Thy love is extended to all.

Earth's byways are thorny and dreary. Life's burdens — they've carried them long. We point them, when homeless and weary, To a region of joy and of song, To a land that is rich in its gladness, To a country where tears never fall, To a home of unspeakable gladness, Where Jesus is King over all.

Sometime is a brighter to-morrow, When Jesus the Saviour shall call; And the tears that have fallen in sorrow Will not be remembered at all; But the joy that outweighs every other Is the welcome to heaven's bright shore. I long for the time, O my brother, When farewells are spoken no more!

Deem not that the friends that now love you Will ever prove fickle or cold; For heaven is bending above you, With a love that can never be told. And though in my heart is a sadness As I ponder the woes of the world, I know there's unspeakable gladness Where the banners of love are unfurled.

A Fallen Star

By W. R. Uchtmann

His Light Had Gone Out—Witness from Four Different Angles

By W. R. Uchtmann

WHILE walking through Castle Square one Sunday afternoon, I was attracted by a sign inviting the people to a lecture. Thinking it was probably after the order of some religious branch, I walked in and heard the best—or worst—lecture I ever heard on the contradictions of the four Gospels, by an ex-minister.

It seemed that every one of quite a large audience was fully convinced that there was but little if any truth in the part of Scripture discussed. After the lecture, lasting about forty minutes, an invitation like a challenge was given to any one to answer what had been said.

A woman, evidently from some city mission, was on her feet in a moment, and began to rant, shouting, "Halleluiah! I'm saved," etc., which made religion appear as something without very much understanding.

After she got through, I was permitted to take ten minutes, if I would promise to say something besides "I'm saved." I promised, and proceeded by asking the speaker:

"Did I understand that you at one time had been a gospel minister?"

He said, "Yes, but I'm glad I got beyond that."

"Then," said I, "my text for my little sermonette is, 'If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!'"

"The contradictions of the Bible," I proceeded, "are only seen through Satan's glasses."

I compared the Gospels to four men writing a history of George Washington. One of the writers only knew him on the battlefield, and described him as a thorough fighter and strict disciplinarian. The next one only knew about his home life, and wrote that Mr. Washington never fought with any one there, but was a thorough gentleman in every way. In like manner the other two wrote, one about Washington when he was at school, and the last showed Washington as a statesman.

"Now," I asked, "who is there that thinks it requires much gray matter to produce quite a number of apparent contradictions in these four accounts of the same man? But every sane man knows that each of the four gives one side of a great man's character."

"Thus Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each give us certain grand characteristics of our Saviour. For instance, Matthew, in his genealogy, goes back only to Abraham, showing us Christ as the perfect Jew; but Luke the physician traces His ancestry back as far as Adam, thus showing us Jesus as the true and perfect 'Son of man.' Mark shows us Jesus as a servant; but John begins at the creation, and shows us the Son of God and co-Creator (John 1), but made flesh to dwell among us."

"To look for and find contradictions in any part of the word of God, shows plainly the condition of the one thus engaged."

One of the infidels took me by the hand, and said, "That was all right"; and I walked out to save further argument. My work there was finished.

Created for Christ’s Service

“WE are brought into existence because we are needed; and it is a sad thought that if we stand on the wrong side, in the ranks of the enemy, we are lost to the design of our creation. We are disappointing our Redeemer; the powers He designs for His service are used to oppose His grace and matchless love. This thought should be sufficient to keep us humble.”

The Modern Dances and Unwholesome Social Conditions

A FEW days ago, Dr. Charles A. Eaton, pastor of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church of New York City, addressed himself to modern dances and present-day social conditions, in the following significant language:

"The new style of dance is a craze, a form of nervous degeneracy. It has been stimulated, first, by unwholesome social conditions, and, second, by commercialism. People of all walks of life seem to have abandoned their common sense, their sense of self-possession, and in many cases their morals. . . .

"I don't know what the parents of our country are thinking about. They throw their children to the crocodiles as the Indian mothers used to do, but the former without any religious motive. They are consumed by an itch for social advance, and they think the only way to get into society is to dance in. The present condition is a result of a spiritual degeneracy. It in turn is the cause of worse degeneracy. It is time for the church, the home, and the press to use every legitimate means against these degrading conditions. They are nothing more or less than sensuality set to music."

Men are compelled to recognize the gross sensuality of the times, and how it is leading the world toward irretrievable ruin; and yet, in the face of all the facts, we are still told that the world is getting better and better.

We will yet see that God's word has the right of it. God knew how things would be in these times, and He has foretold it. He has said plainly that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. He compares these days to the violent conditions that existed in the time of Noah. He compares them to the vice-laden conditions in Sodom while Lot was there. He has told us that "wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt. 7:13, 14. And the Master furthermore has raised the question whether or not He will find faith on the earth when He returns the second time; and while His own question is answered in scriptures that show there will be some men and women of the most heroic faith in the days when He returns to earth, yet faithlessness and debauchery will be among the conditions that will mark the imperative necessity for Christ to come in person to meet the terrible situation.

The Message More Important Than Advertising

A GREAT deal of attention is given in some sections to the "church advertising its wares." It is certainly very proper for people to advertise anything of real value; but when a minister advertises a service and draws a crowd to his place of meeting, he ought to have something to present that would show them that the divine Lord offers things through His word that are better than anything this world can give. And once his work is established on these divine lines, he will find that those who hear him will be his best advertisers. They will urgently invite others to come to hear the wonderful soul message of salvation that is presented. The trouble with many ministers is not in the fact that they fail to advertise, but it is in that they fail to have a message from God to deliver to the people. The message is more important than the advertising, however important and necessary the advertising itself may be.

What Killed a Republic

The Columbus Journal thus refers to the history of Rome during the reign of Augustus:

“The Roman people were growing rich and luxurious, morals were deteriorating and the birth-rate falling. Literature was erotic, the stage depraved. Men preferred to be bachelors and women to be divorced.

“And the next thing, big, strong, grand Rome began to go down-hill, where it finally went to smash. It was never any good after it lost its moral fiber. The ruin of a country or community is not brought about by a lack of money, business, industry, enterprise. These may attend, but the primary cause is the lack of morality. When that disappears all is gone.

“This is no speculation or fine-haired theory—it is logic and history. Every man who is a representative of the immoral tendency is an enemy of the people.”

The simple logic of history shows that the world is rapidly approaching a climax; and when the prophecies have gone on before to tell us what is coming, we may be doubly sure that it is high time for every one to be earnestly planning for the day dawn of eternity. The great climax that is just before the world is the final destruction of all wickedness at the second coming of Christ.

Concerning the Disclosures of Vice and Crime

By Editor

ON the subject of the disclosure of vice and crime, the New York Christian Advocate has this to say:

“Startling disclosures of vice and crime should not impel us to denounce our age as wicked beyond the measure of former days. On the degradation of Roman society long centuries ago Juvenal wrote: ‘Posterity will add nothing to our immorality. Our descendants can but do and desire the same crimes as ourselves.’ Iniquity takes on new phases with the development of civilization, but it can not reach any darker depths than have already been sounded. Moreover, the public reprobation of evil was never more pronounced than now.”

It is perfectly true that ancient Roman society became degraded, but Rome went down. It is also perfectly true that ancient Greece became degraded and vice-laden, but Greece is only a matter of history. It is perfectly true that Persia became infamous because of her luxurious debaucheries and vices, but Persia went down. And so it has been with every nation in the past that has become proverbial for its conditions of vice and crime and debasing luxuries.

It is true that there are many strong and earnest voices in these times that are sounding a note of alarm and warning because of the evils of the day, and these voices will be heard stronger and stronger, and their influence is preparing some to be saved from the wreckage when all the wickedness of this world meets its doom at the second coming of Christ.

There is a way of escape from the evils that threaten the age, but it is through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and through recognizing and believing His word, and His word has plainly told us that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse; and the facts are in harmony with the prediction.

“The Availability of Nutrients from Plant Sources”

A RECENT issue of the American Medical Journal discusses the subject of “The Availability of Nutrients from Plant Sources.” In the article may be found these statements:

“The final source of human energy is found in plants. In so far as mankind obtains energy by consuming the flesh of the domestic animals, only a fraction of the supply taken by the latter in the plant products can ever reach the sphere of usefulness to man. The animals which furnish food to man are expensive converters of the energy of plants into a form directly available for his uses. Only a very small residue of the total energy intake of such animals is left in the tissues which they furnish as food to man; the great bulk of what has been consumed has become lost in the processes of animal life during the long periods of growth and maintenance before the animal food products can be marketed. To appreciate this, one need only consider the enormous amounts of vegetable food necessary to produce the flesh of cattle for human consumption. A cow eats a liberal plant ration daily during several years before she is ready for the market. . . .

“It has long been believed that it may be possible to utilize green vegetables so as to render them more available for digestion and assimilation by man. Some experiments in this direction have recently been carried on in Germany. The outcome has been decidedly gratifying and may pave the way for useful innovations in the use of vegetable foods.”

The article, while not fully endorsing vegetarianism, nevertheless shows that leaders in the great medical profession are coming more and more to recognize the value and the true scientific basis of a vegetarian diet. There are many of us who know from personal experience that a rational vegetarian diet is by all odds the most desirable. If vegetarianism could be relieved of the faddists who apply neither sense nor reason in their methods, the cause would be greatly benefited.

Signs of a Troubled World

THE unusual conditions of this time are causing men to tremble, and to ask anxiously for the meaning of it all. The nations of the whole earth are in a ferment, and storm and destructive flood are seen in very many parts of the world. As the increasing wickedness is considered, it brings very forcibly to mind the warning: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish." Hosea 4: 1-3.

Bibles and Christ’s Second Coming

THE number of Bibles issued by the home agencies of the American Bible Society during the year 1913 was 280,222 more than for any previous year. There is a significant providence in the earnestness with which devoted men and women are placing copies of the sacred Book in the homes of all people throughout the world. The second coming of Christ, the greatest event of the ages, is revealed in that Book, and this mighty doctrine is becoming more and more of an issue in the world; and as the climax is approaching, God is seeing to it that the Volume that tells the wonderful story, is found in every home, not only in the civilized world, but in the uncivilized world.

The Wickedness of Sun-Worship

ONE of the most prominent writers in America has been telling us that sun-worship is probably one of the oldest forms of religion in the world, and the claim is made that when it is properly understood it is not wicked. It is all right to state that sun-worship is indeed one of the oldest forms of false religion, but the individual must be in a peculiar frame of mind who would think that the various orgies of sun-worship that have been practised in all heathen lands would not be classed as wickedness. And the wickedest thing about it is that it leads away from the true worship of Jehovah.

Is Christ a Temporal King?

A CARD recently received announces the call of a conference to be held in Iowa, and all are invited—

“who are neither ashamed of King Jesus, nor afraid to acknowledge Him as the Christ politically as well as religiously, and ready to cooperate in doing the will of God on earth through a direct vote of the people, governed by His national Decalogue standard, and the Christ rule nationally.”

But how could any intelligent Christian respond to such a call as that? Christ said to Pilate, when He was before his tribunal: “My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence.” John 18:36.

Christ shows, all through His teaching, that His kingdom is not political, but spiritual. The kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, not through politics, not through majority vote, but by His own personal power at His coming. So-called Christian parties that have been formed in different periods of the world’s history have always resulted in religious despotisms and oppressions that have ended in the worst and the bloodiest persecutions. Christ Himself was crucified at the behest of the organized church of His time. His apostles, with possibly one exception, were put to death by the religiousists of their day. God has not ordained that His kingdom shall be built up by the power of numbers through the influence of politics. But it is by the spiritual power that speaks through His word into the inmost souls of men, and calls them to reforms that are higher than anything this world can invent.