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Abstaining from Harmful Indulgences, August 13
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain
from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.
1 Peter 2:11
.
The Word of God plainly warns us that unless we abstain from
fleshly lusts, the physical nature will be brought into conflict with the
spiritual nature. Lustful eating wars against health and peace. Thus
a warfare is instituted between the higher and the lower attributes of
the man. The lower propensities, strong and active, oppress the soul.
The highest interests of the being are imperiled by the indulgence of
appetites unsanctioned by Heaven.
Health, character, and even life, are endangered by the use of stim-
ulants, which excite the exhausted energies to unnatural, spasmodic
effort.
Condiments are injurious in their nature. Mustard, pepper, spices,
pickles, and other things of a like character, irritate the stomach and
make the blood feverish and impure....
Tea and coffee do not nourish the system.... The continued use of
these nerve irritants is followed by headache, wakefulness, palpitation
of the heart, indigestion, trembling, and many other evils; for they wear
away the life forces....
Tobacco is a slow, insidious, but most malignant poison. In whatever
form it is used, it tells upon the constitution; it is all the more dangerous
because its effects are slow and at first hardly perceptible.... Its use
excites a thirst for strong drink and in many cases lays the foundations
for the liquor habit.
In relation to tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic drinks, the only safe
course is to touch not, taste not, handle not.
True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything
hurtful, and to use judiciously that which is healthful.
The Spirit of God cannot come to our help, and assist us in perfecting
Christian characters, while we are indulging our appetites to the injury
of health.
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