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Healthful Living, June 25
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye
are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in
your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19, 20
.
The first messengers of the gospel were sent forth with the word, “The
kingdom of heaven is at hand” (
Matthew 10:7
). This is our message today.
We are to remember that the work of reaching souls cannot be confined to
any one method. Gospel medical missionary work is to be carried forward,
not in the precision of one man’s lines, but in Christ’s lines. All that is done
is to bear the impress of the Holy Spirit. We are to work as Christ worked, in
the same practical lines. Then we shall be safe.
The divine commission needs no reform. Christ’s way of presenting truth
cannot be improved upon. The worker who tries to bring in methods that will
attract the worldly-minded, supposing that this will remove the objections that
they feel to taking up the cross, lessens his influence. Preserve the simplicity
of godliness. The Lord’s blessing rests not upon the minister whose speech
bears the stamp of worldliness. But He blesses the words of the one who
cherishes the simplicity of true righteousness.
Our work is to be practical. We are to remember that man has a body
as well as a soul to save. Our work includes far more than standing before
the people to preach to them. In our work we are to minister to the physical
infirmities of those with whom we are brought in contact. We are to present
the principles of health reform, impressing our hearers with the thought that
they have a part to act in keeping themselves in health.
The body must be kept in a healthy condition in order that the soul may be
in health. The condition of the body affects the condition of the soul. He who
would have physical and spiritual strength must educate his appetite in right
lines. He must be careful not to burden the soul by overtaxing his physical or
spiritual powers. Faithful adherence to right principles in eating, drinking,
and dressing is a duty that God has laid upon human beings.
The Lord desires us to obey the laws of health and life. He holds each one
responsible to care properly for his body, that it may be kept in health.—
Letter
123, June 25, 1903
, to Edson and Emma White.
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