Recently I attended a convention and rally held by the Minnesota United Temperance Organization in Rochester, Minnesota. Meetings were held in the various churches of the city. On Sabbath two of the temperance lecturers were in charge of our Adventist services, giving a very appropriate and constructive study on the responsibility of the church in the cause of temperance.
Their final meeting was held in the large Presbyterian church, and to this gathering all the churches were invited to come as the main event of the week. Since Rochester is very much of a church town, with all the leading Protestant churches represented, I expected to see a very impressive gathering. Unfortunately the pews were scarcely half filled. The lecture was a very sound appeal to Christian organizations everywhere to rise against the almost universal curse of liquor. The great emphasis was on the fact that true temperance is a Christian concept and principle. The conclusion was that the teaching of temperance is therefore an essential part of the proclaiming of the gospel, the good news of salvation from sin.
This impelling sermon deserved a much larger hearing than it received from the Christian people of the city. The reason for the apathy may lie in part, as the speaker pointed out, in the fact that many a Christian minister's lips are sealed on the question of temperance by the presence of men on his church board, or among his elders, or even among his most loyal supporters, who countenance no interference with their social drinking habits.
After the service the executive secretary spoke to me very enthusiastically of the work of Adventists in temperance. Said he, "You people are 'away out in front in the matter of temperance."
I appreciated the estimate he made of our work, but secretly wished it were more deserved. He went on, "Your man, Mr. Carrier, is doing an excellent work and we wish there were many more like him."
Mentioning our work in the giving of temperance lectures in the high schools and colleges of Washington, D. C., he emphasized his belief that in such a plan of promotion lay the most effective and fruitful form of temperance education. It is true that some of the best literature in this field has come from our presses. In some localities we have been definitely identified with the temperance cause, both through our lay membership and our ministry.
Almost as a challenge the executive secretary pointed out that we have many Christian physicians throughout the country, who by profession, practice, and training, are admirably prepared for the scientific presentation of temperance. Much more might have been done in many sections to place Adventists on record as ardent advocates of the temperance cause. This applies to all, but it is a very special challenge to our medical men. Doctors are in a strategic position to lend their influence in this matter in every community. Projects in which our doctors, working with our laymen in co-operation with ministers, may join to advantage, would be some of the following:
1. Systematic and extensive distribution of temperance literature. (So much the better if done in connection with recognized local temperance groups.)
2. Speaking before churches, clubs, schools, and civic groups, preferably in co-operation with, or as a representative of, the local temperance organization.
3. Taking advantage of every opportunity to instruct patients in the principles of temperance.
The initiation of such a program by our Adventist physicians would result in much good in this worthy, though neglected, cause, and would incidentally more fully justify the remark of the executive secretary that we as a people are well out in front in the temperance movement.