Chapter 2—Diet and Spirituality
Intemperance a Sin
47. Let none who profess godliness regard with indifference the
health of the body, and flatter themselves that intemperance is no sin,
and will not affect their spirituality. A close sympathy exists between
the physical and the moral nature.—[
The Review and Herald, January
25, 1881
]
Counsels on Health, 67
48. With our first parents, intemperate desire resulted in the loss
of Eden. Temperance in all things has more to do with our restoration
to Eden than men realize.—
The Ministry of Healing, 129, 1905
49. The transgression of physical law is the transgression of God’s
law. Our Creator is Jesus Christ. He is the author of our being. He has
created the human structure. He is the author of physical laws, as He
is the author of the moral law. And the human being who is careless
and reckless of the habits and practices that concern his physical life
and health, sins against God. Many who profess to love Jesus Christ
do not show proper reverence and respect for Him who gave His life
to save them from eternal death. He is not reverenced, or respected, or
recognized. This is shown by the injury done to their own bodies in
violation of the laws of their being.—
Manuscript 49, 1897
50. A continual transgression of nature’s laws is a continual trans-
gression of the law of God. The present weight of suffering and
anguish which we see everywhere, the present deformity, decrepitude,
disease, and imbecility now flooding the world, make it, in compari-
son to what it might be and what God designed it should be, a lazar
house; and the present generation are feeble in mental, moral, and
physical power. All this misery has accumulated from generation to
generation because fallen man will break the law of God. Sins of the
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greatest magnitude are committed through the indulgence of perverted
appetite.—
Testimonies for the Church 4:30, 1876
51. Excessive indulgence in eating, drinking, sleeping, or seeing, is
sin. The harmonious healthy action of all the powers of body and mind
results in happiness; and the more elevated and refined the powers, the
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