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Counsels on Diet and Foods
Part 2—How to Present the Principles of Health Reform
Keep in View the Great Object of Reform
789. There is great need of instruction in regard to dietetic reform.
Wrong habits of eating and the use of unhealthful food are in no small
degree responsible for the intemperance and crime and wretchedness
that curse the world.
In teaching health principles, keep before the mind the great object
of reform,—that its purpose is to secure the highest development of
body and mind and soul. Show that the laws of nature, being the laws
of God, are designed for our good; that obedience to them promotes
happiness in this life, and aids in the preparation for the life to come.
Lead the people to study the manifestation of God’s love and
wisdom in the works of nature. Lead them to study that marvelous
organism, the human system, and the laws by which it is governed.
Those who perceive the evidences of God’s love, who understand
something of the wisdom and beneficence of His laws, and the results
of obedience, will come to regard their duties and obligations from
an altogether different point of view. Instead of looking upon an
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observance of the laws of health as a matter of sacrifice or self-denial,
they will regard it, as it really is, as an inestimable blessing.
Every gospel worker should feel that the giving of instruction in the
principles of healthful living, is a part of his appointed work. Of this
work there is great need, and the world is open for it.—
The Ministry
of Healing, 146, 147, 1905
790. The requirements of God must be brought home to the con-
science. Men and women must be awakened to the duty of self-mastery,
the need of purity, freedom from every depraving appetite and defiling
habit. They need to be impressed with the fact that all their powers of
mind and body are the gift of God, and are to be preserved in the best
possible condition for His service.—
The Ministry of Healing, 130,
1905
Follow the Saviour’s Methods
791. Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the
people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good.
He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won
their confidence. Then He bade them, “Follow Me.”