To Our Dear Young Christians:
The use of tobacco fulfills no design of God for His creatures; it is in no sense food, containing a rank poison (nicotine). It is habit-forming, those who follow it, becoming slaves of the habit; and it is a “lust of the flesh,” and a cloud upon every believer that yields to it. I think I can truly say that I have never known a spiritual Christian to use tobacco in smoking or chewing, and I have seen not a few young Christians, and persons newly converted, stumbled by the bad example of others in this thing.
Card playing and theater going are, like smoking, so common in the world that one who does neither is viewed with astonishment. Worldly amusements they are, certainly, and the heart that knows not God must have something to occupy the time pleasurably; besides, God must be kept out. Card playing is often called an “innocent” game, but it is, at the least, time occupied without profit for the believer, and it is often associated with gambling.
The theater, never very elevated in its tone (for no stream can rise higher than its source) has in the last two decades become even lower in its standards, so that of late there has been a public outcry about it. Of what sort of testimony is one’s presence in a theater, seeking enjoyment there with the Christ-rejecting world from which we are called to walk in holy separation to God? Will the Lord hold one guiltless in it?
Dancing and drink, I have been reminded by people who ought to know better, are not condemned in the Old Testament. Can it be the sober thought of any Christian that David’s dancing in 2 Samuel 6:1414And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. (2 Samuel 6:14), and 1 Chronicles 13:29 has any similarity to the dancing of the twentieth century: Surely not. I know little about the subject, but I have been told by worldly acquaintances that there are “good” and “bad” dances; for my part, it is all one, it being of the world, and a part of the broad system of Satan’s devices for the amusement of his dupes. The Christian’s sources of happiness are full and deep, but they are apart from the world and its fleeting joys.
With the passage of the prohibition amendment to the federal constitution, the possession and sale of intoxicants became illegal; during the succeeding period the drinking habit, at first repressed, later grew greatly in volume. Now, with the practical repeal of restrictions, beer and more intoxicating liquors are in vastly increased demand.
Proverbs 20:11Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1) truly says that “wine is a mocker (or scorner), strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived (or erreth) thereby is not wise.”
And Ephesians 5:1818And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; (Ephesians 5:18) yields this for our guidance and help: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit....”
Water is given to us freely by God; it alone satisfies thirst, and in the beginning, we may well suppose that no other beverage was thought of. It is a humiliating fact that the first mention in the Word of God of any other beverage is found in the record of Noah’s later years, after the flood which destroyed the early world it was then that this saint, who had been so faithful in word and work, and was so singularly preserved and blessed, made wine of grapes and became drunk, to his abiding shame.
I am aware that it is said that beer is no more than a means of quenching thirst, but there is abundant evidence that this is not true. It is the alcohol in it that makes this drink attractive, and the agitation over the “alcoholic content” of beer, which took place while the laws permitting its manufacture were being enacted, is a matter of recent history. There were two distinct and opposing elements then in action; one seeking to hold the liquor traffic in check for the good of the country, and the other endeavoring to obtain license for intoxicants without restraint. No such manifestation could have occurred had the question related to the manufacture of tea or coffee, or soda water; these, although stimulating, do not contain the far more effective element which makes beer and other drinks of that type attractive.
Now the desire for beer and the stronger stimulants comes from the lower desires of man, and the record of crime tells of the depths of depravity to which alcohol leads. As in the case of tobacco, no one asserts, or could with truth, that the thing is beneficial; rather is the opposite true, and in a marked way with the habitual user. “But there is no harm in a single glass,” someone will say; this is incapable of proof, and the temptation is to go on to a second and third, and thus a wrong course is begun.
I am reminded of the object lesson my Sunday School teacher many years ago put before her class, about the man who, wishing to engage a coachman, inquired of each applicant for the position, how near to the edge of a cliff road he could drive with safety. The man he chose said he would drive the carriage as far away from it as possible. So I would urge any young Christian who may read these lines to heed the word of 1 Thessalonians 5:2222Abstain from all appearance of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:22):
“Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
Today “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God” is true of the world, as foretold in 2 Timothy 3:44Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; (2 Timothy 3:4). Am I to be a partner with the world in pursuing the same worldly pleasures, knowing full well that there is a day approaching when I shall be with the blessed Lord in heaven’s bright glory, and many of those with whose ways I have become familiar, will be spending eternity in a place of woe and torment? One word more, and I close:
This letter I have written to meet your desire for some thoughts gathered from God’s Word about some things which endanger the happiness of Christians, particularly the young.
Yours in Christ,
(Continued from page 38)