August 3 - Temperance Crusaders

Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine. Prov. 23:29, 30.

One of the great crusades of nineteenth-century America was the  temperance movement, which had as its goal the outlawing of the use and sale of alcoholic beverages. Lyman Beecher, one of the nation's most influential preachers, started the movement in 1825. "Intemperance," he thundered, "is the sin of our land, . . .and if anything shall defeat the hopes of the world, . . .it is that river of fire." Beecher went on to call for a national remedy through the banning of strong drinks as an item of commerce.

By the time Adventism had reached its adolescenece in the 1870s the general temperance campaign had broadened to include the abolition and all alcoholic beverages. The young church actively advocated voting for temperance candidates, and Ellne White was so concerned with the issue that she even suggested the unprecedented step of going to the polls and voting on Sabbath for temperance propnents.

Across the United States and eventually around the world, Adventism offered its speakers and its properties to aid the anti-alcohol crusade. In 1874, for example, the Adventists lent their two large evangelistic tents to a series of meetings aimed at closing the 135 saloons in Oakland, California, home of Advemtism's publishing program on the West Coast. Such cooperation brought the Adventists into working relationship with the "city mayor, several clergymen, one of the daily papers, and several of the leading citizens and businessmen. . .Having thoroughly orgainized, the executive committee planned for a series of mass meetings, which were held in our large and commodious tents. They worked night and day, until the whole city was roused to action."

The result was a "glorious victory" for which the Adventists got partial credit in the newspaper headlines.

Ellen White was at the forefront of the Adventists in temperance, often speaking to large non-Adventist audiences in America, Europ, and Australia. By 1879 the Seventh-day Adventists had formed the American Health and Temperance Association under the leadership of John Harvey Kellogg.

The temperance crusade was one avenue that God used to open the way for the church to have a larger impact on the culture of its day. What reform movements should we (or I) be involved in today?