Chapter 50—Parents as Reformers
January 3, 1875, I was shown that none of us realize the perils that
attend us at every step. We have a vigilant foe, and yet we are not
awake and in earnest in our efforts to resist the temptations of Satan
and to overcome his devices.
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God has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us in
these last days, that by walking in the light we may escape many
dangers to which we will be exposed. Satan’s temptations are pow-
erful upon the human family to lead them to indulge appetite, gratify
inclination, and live a life of heedless folly. He presents attractions
in a life of personal enjoyment, and in seeking to gratify the animal
instinct. Licentiousness prevails to an alarming extent and is ruining
constitutions for life; and not only this, but the moral powers are sacri-
ficed. Intemperate indulgences are reducing the vital energies of both
body and mind. They place the one that is overcome upon the enemy’s
ground, where Satan can tempt, annoy, and finally control the will at
pleasure.
Those who have been overcome on the point of appetite and are
using tobacco freely are debasing their mental and moral powers and
bringing them into servitude to the animal. And when the appetite for
spirituous liquor is indulged, the man voluntarily places to his lips the
draft which debases below the level of the brute him who was made
in the image of God. Reason is paralyzed, the intellect is benumbed,
the animal passions are excited, and then follow crimes of the most
debasing character. If men would become temperate in all things, if
they would touch not, taste not, handle not, spirituous liquors and
narcotics, reason would hold the reigns of government in her hands
and control the animal appetites and passions. In this fast age the less
exciting the food the better. Temperance in all things and firm denial
of appetite is the only path of safety.
Satan comes to man, as he came to Christ, with his overpowering
temptations to indulge appetite. He well knows his power to overcome
man upon this point. He overcame Adam and Eve in Eden upon
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