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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
Some of you feel as though you would like to have somebody
tell you how much to eat. This is not the way it should be. We are to
act from a moral and religious standpoint. We are to be temperate
in all things, because an incorruptible crown, a heavenly treasure,
is before us. And now I wish to say to my brethren and sisters, I
would have moral courage to take my position and to govern myself.
I would not want to put that on someone else. You eat too much, and
then you are sorry, and so you keep thinking upon what you eat and
drink. Just eat that which is for the best, and go right away, feeling
clear in the sight of Heaven, and not having remorse of conscience.
We do not believe in removing temptations entirely away from either
children or grown persons. We all have a warfare before us and must
stand in a position to resist the temptations of Satan, and we want to
know that we possess the power in ourselves to do this.
And while we would caution you not to overeat, even of the best
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quality of food, we would also caution those that are extremists not
to raise a false standard and then endeavor to bring everybody to it.
There are some who are starting out as health reformers who are not
fit to engage in any other enterprise, and who have not sense enough
to take care of their own families, or keep their proper place in the
church. And what do they do? Why, they fall back as health reform
physicians, as though they could make that a success. They assume
the responsibilities of their practice, and take the lives of men and
women into their hands, when they really know nothing about the
business.
My voice shall be raised against novices undertaking to treat
disease professedly according to the principles of health reform.
God forbid that we should be the subjects for them to experiment
upon! We are too few. It is altogether too inglorious a warfare for us
to die in. God deliver us from such danger! We do not need such
teachers and physicians. Let those try to treat disease who know
something about the human system. The heavenly Physician was
full of compassion. This spirit is needed by those who deal with
the sick. Some who undertake to become physicians are bigoted,
selfish, and mulish. You cannot teach them anything. It may be they
have never done anything worth doing. They may not have made life
a success. They know nothing really worth knowing, and yet they