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Obedience to Physical and Moral Laws, May 25
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service.
Romans 12:1
.
We should preserve our strength to labor in the cause of God when our labor is
needed. We should be careful not to take upon ourselves burdens that others can
and should bear. We should encourage a cheerful, hopeful, peaceful frame of mind;
for our health depends upon our so doing. The work that God requires us to do
will not prevent our caring for our health, that we may recover from the effect of
overtaxing labor. The more perfect our health, the more perfect will be our labor.
When we overtax our strength, and become exhausted, we are liable to take cold,
and at such times there is danger of disease assuming a dangerous form. We must
not leave the care of ourselves with God, when He has placed that responsibility
with us (
Testimonies For The Church 3:13
).
God created man a little lower than the angels and bestowed upon him attributes
that will, if properly used, make him a blessing to the world and cause him to reflect
the glory to the Giver. But although made in the image of God, man has, through
intemperance, violated principle and God’s law in his physical nature. Intemperance
of any kind benumbs the perceptive organs and so weakens the brain-nerve power
that eternal things are not appreciated, but placed upon a level with the common.
The higher powers of the mind, designed for elevated purposes, are brought into
slavery to the baser passions. If our physical habits are not right, our mental and
moral powers cannot be strong; for great sympathy exists between the physical and
the moral. The apostle Peter understood this and raised his voice of warning to his
brethren: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from
fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
There is but little moral power in the professed Christian world. Wrong habits
have been indulged, and physical and moral laws have been disregarded, until the
general standard of virtue and piety is exceedingly low. Habits which lower the
standard of physical health enfeeble mental and moral strength....
Those who have had the light upon the subjects of eating and dressing with
simplicity in obedience to physical and moral laws, and who turn from the light
which points out their duty, will shun duty in other things. If they blunt their
consciences to avoid the cross which they will have to take up to be in harmony with
natural law, they will, in order to shun reproach, violate the Ten Commandments....
There are many among professed Sabbathkeepers ... who are more firmly wedded to
worldly fashions and lusts than they are to healthy bodies, sound minds, or sanctified
hearts (
Testimonies for the Church 3:50, 51
).
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