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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
of animals tends to cause a grossness of body and benumbs the fine
sensibilities of the mind.
Will the people who are preparing to become holy, pure, and
refined, that they may be introduced into the society of heavenly
angels, continue to take the life of God’s creatures and subsist on
their flesh and enjoy it as a luxury? From what the Lord has shown
me, this order of things will be changed, and God’s peculiar people
will exercise temperance in all things. Those who subsist largely
upon flesh cannot avoid eating the meat of animals which are to a
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greater or less degree diseased. The process of fitting animals for
market produces in them disease; and fitted in as healthful manner
as they can be, they become heated and diseased by driving before
they reach the market. The fluids and flesh of these diseased animals
are received directly into the blood, and pass into the circulation
of the human body, becoming fluids and flesh of the same. Thus
humors are introduced into the system. And if the person already
has impure blood, it is greatly aggravated by the eating of the flesh
of these animals. The liability to take disease is increased tenfold by
meat eating. The intellectual, the moral, and the physical powers are
depreciated by the habitual use of flesh meats. Meat eating deranges
the system, beclouds the intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities.
We say to you, dear brother and sister, your safest course is to let
meat alone.
The use of tea and coffee is also injurious to the system. To a
certain extent, tea produces intoxication. It enters into the circulation
and gradually impairs the energy of body and mind. It stimulates,
excites, and quickens the motion of the living machinery, forcing
it to unnatural action, and thus gives the tea drinker the impression
that it is doing him great service, imparting to him strength. This is a
mistake. Tea draws upon the strength of the nerves and leaves them
greatly weakened. When its influence is gone and the increased
action caused by its use is abated, then what is the result? Languor
and debility corresponding to the artificial vivacity the tea imparted.
When the system is already overtaxed and needs rest, the use of
tea spurs up nature by stimulation to perform unwonted, unnatural
action, and thereby lessens her power to perform and her ability
to endure; and her powers give out long before Heaven designed
they should. Tea is poisonous to the system. Christians should let