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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
be preserved in sanctification and honor. Health and life are sacrificed
upon the altar of base passion. The higher, nobler powers are brought
into subjection to the animal propensities. Those who thus sin are
not acquainted with the result of their course.—
Testimonies for the
Church 2:472
(1870).
The Delicate Balance Between Love and Lustful Passion—It
is not pure love which actuates a man to make his wife an instrument
to minister to his lust. It is the animal passions which clamor for
indulgence.
How few men show their love in the manner specified by the
apostle: “Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for
it; that He might [not pollute it but] sanctify and cleanse it;... that it
should be holy and without blemish” (
Ephesians 5:25-27
). This is the
quality of love in the marriage relation which God recognizes as holy.
Love is a pure and holy principle, but lustful passion will not admit
of restraint and will not be dictated to or controlled by reason. It is
blind to consequences; it will not reason from cause to effect.
Many women are suffering from great debility and settled disease
because the laws of their being have been disregarded; nature’s laws
have been trampled upon. The brain nerve power is squandered by
men and women, being called into unnatural action to gratify base
passions; and this hideous monster—base, low passion—assumes the
delicate name of love.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:473, 474
(1870).
[223]
Love Versus the Passion of the Natural Human Heart—Love
... is not unreasonable; it is not blind. It is pure and holy. But the
passion of the natural heart is another thing altogether. While pure
love will take God into all its plans and will be in perfect harmony
with the Spirit of God, passion will be headstrong, rash, unreasonable,
defiant of all restraint, and will make the object of its choice an idol.
In all the deportment of one who possesses true love, the grace of God
will be shown.—
The Review and Herald, September 25, 1888
. (
The
Adventist Home, 50
.)
Dictates of Reason to Control—Those who regard the marriage
relation as one of God’s sacred ordinances, guarded by His holy pre-
cept, will be controlled by the dictates of reason.—
Healthful Living,
No 2, 48
, 1865. (
Selected Messages 2:440
.)
Keep Confidences Within the Sacred Family Circle—Around
every family there is a sacred circle that should be kept unbroken.