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Our Vital Force, February 19
And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he
died.
Genesis 5:5
.
The book of Genesis gives quite a definite account of social and individual life,
and yet we have no record of an infant’s being born blind, deaf, crippled, deformed,
or imbecile. There is not an instance upon record of a natural death in infancy,
childhood, or early manhood. There is no account of men and women dying of
disease. Obituary notices in the book of Genesis run thus: “And all the days that
Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.” “And all the days
of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.” Concerning others, the
record states: He lived to a good old age; and he died. It was so rare for a son to die
before the father that such an occurrence was considered worthy of record: “And
Haran died before his father Terah.” Haran was a father of children before his death.
God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumula-
tion of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has
continued for 6,000 years. This fact of itself is enough to evidence to us the strength
and electrical energy that God gave to man at his creation. It took more than two
thousand years of crime and indulgence of base passions to bring bodily disease
upon the race to any great extent. If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed
with 20 times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present
habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct. At the time
of Christ’s first advent the race had degenerated so rapidly that an accumulation
of disease pressed upon that generation, bringing in a tide of woe and a weight of
misery inexpressible....
God did not create the race in its present feeble condition. This state of things
is not the work of Providence, but the work of man; it has been brought about by
wrong habits and abuses, by violating the laws that God had made to govern man’s
existence. Through the temptation to indulge appetite, Adam and Eve first fell from
their high, holy, and happy estate. And it is through the same temptation that the
race have become enfeebled. They have permitted appetite and passion to take the
throne, and to bring into subjection reason and intellect....
The strange absence of principle which characterizes this generation, and which
is shown in their disregard of the laws of life and health, is astonishing. Ignorance
prevails upon this subject, while light is shining all around them. With the majority,
their principal anxiety is, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? and wherewithal
shall I be clothed? ... How great is the contrast between this generation and those
who lived during the first 2,000 years! (
Testimonies For The Church 3:138-141
).
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