Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

agencies; then nature will respond to God's physicians--pure air, pure water,
proper exercise, a clear conscience. Those who persist in the use of tea,
coffee, and flesh meats will feel the need of drugs, but many might recover
without one grain of medicine if they would obey the laws of health. Drugs
need seldom be used.
Seventh-day Adventists--An Example to the World
As a people we profess to be reformers, to be light bearers in the world,
to be faithful sentinels for God, guarding every avenue whereby Satan could
come in with his temptations to pervert the appetite. Our example and
influence must be a power on the side of reform. We must abstain from any
practice which will blunt the conscience or encourage temptation. We must
open no door that will give Satan access to the mind of one human being
formed in the image of God.
The only safe course is to touch not, taste not, handle not, tea, coffee,
wines, tobacco, opium, and alcoholic drinks. The necessity for the men of
this generation to call to their aid the power of the will, strengthened by the
grace of God, in order to withstand the temptations of Satan and resist the
least indulgence of perverted appetite is twice as great as it was several
generations ago. But the present generation have less power of self-control
than had those who lived then. Those who have indulged the appetite for
these stimulants have transmitted their depraved appetites and passions to
their children, and greater moral power is required to resist intemperance in
all its forms. The only perfectly safe course to pursue is to stand firmly on
the side of temperance and not venture in the path of danger.
If the moral sensibilities of Christians were aroused upon the subject of
temperance in all things, they could, by their example, commencing at their
tables, help those who are weak in self-control, who are almost powerless to
resist the cravings of appetite. If we could realize that the habits we form in
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