312
Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 2
Those who are cooperating with God have humble opinions of
themselves. They are not boastful, self-sufficient, and self-exalted.
They are long-suffering, kind, full of mercy and good fruits. Human
ambition takes the background with them. The righteousness of Christ
goes before them, and the glory of the Lord is their reward.—SpT
Series A, No. 3, p 49, May 7, 1895. (
Testimonies to Ministers and
Gospel Workers, 215, 216
.)
Questions for Counselors—When we have tried to present the
health reform to our brethren and sisters and have spoken to them
of the importance of eating and drinking and doing all that they do
to the glory of God, many by their actions have said,“It is nobody’s
business whether I eat this or that. Whatever we do we are to bear the
consequences ourselves.”
[770]
Dear friends, you are greatly mistaken. You are not the only
sufferers from a wrong course. The society you are in bears the
consequences of your wrongs, in a great degree, as well as yourselves.
If you suffer from your intemperance in eating or drinking, we that are
around you or associated with you are also affected by your infirmities.
We have to suffer on account of your wrong course.
If it has an influence to lessen your powers of mind or body, we
feel it when in your society and are affected by it. If, instead of having
a buoyancy of spirit, you are gloomy, you cast a shadow upon the
spirits of all around you. If we are sad and depressed and in trouble,
you could, if in a right condition of health, have a clear brain to show
us the way out and speak a comforting word to us. But if your brain is
so benumbed by your wrong course of living that you cannot give us
the right counsel, do we not meet with a loss? Does not your influence
seriously affect us?
We may have a good degree of confidence in our own judgment,
yet we want to have counselors; for “in the multitude of counselors
there is safety.” We desire that our course should look consistent to
those we love, and we wish to seek their counsel and have them able
to give it with a clear brain. But what care we for your judgment if
your brain nerve power has been taxed to the utmost and the vitality
withdrawn from the brain to take care of the improper food placed in
your stomachs, or of an enormous quantity of even healthful food?
What care we for the judgment of such persons? They see through a
mass of undigested food. Therefore your course of living affects us.