94
The Retirement Years
about by a so-called health reform have militated greatly against true
reforms. These narrow ideas and this overstraining in the diet question
have done great injury to physical, mental, and moral strength.
Our missions should be conducted in a merciful way. It never pays
to cheat the stomach of healthful, wholesome food; for it is robbing
the blood of nourishment, and in consequence the whole system is
deranged, the whole mind diseased, and God has lame, inefficient
service in place of healthy, sound labor.... There are sufferers on
every hand because people do not think that the body needs special
[129]
favors.—
Letter 12, 1887
.
Faithful in Health Reform
[
Portion of manuscript read to the delegates at the 1909 General
Conference session.
]
The question of how to preserve the health is one of primary
importance. When we study this question in the fear of God we shall
learn that it is best, for both our physical and our spiritual advancement,
to observe simplicity in diet. Let us patiently study this question. We
need knowledge and judgment in order to move wisely in this matter.
Nature’s laws are not to be resisted, but obeyed.
Those who have received instruction regarding the evils of the use
of flesh foods, tea and coffee, and rich and unhealthful food prepa-
rations, and who are determined to make a covenant with God by
sacrifice, will not continue to indulge their appetite for food that they
know to be unhealthful. God demands that the appetites be cleansed,
and that self-denial be practiced in regard to those things which are
not good. This is a work that will have to be done before His people
can stand before Him a perfected people....
There are some professed believers who accept certain portions of
the Testimonies as the message of God, while they reject those portions
that condemn their favorite indulgences. Such persons are working
contrary to their own welfare and the welfare of the church. It is
essential that we walk in the light while we have the light. Those who
claim to believe in health reform, and yet work counter to its principles
in the daily life practice, are hurting their own souls and are leaving
[130]
wrong impressions upon the minds of believers and unbelievers.—
Testimonies for the Church 9:153, 154
.