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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
When the minds of ministers, schoolteachers, and students are con-
tinually excited by study, and the body is allowed to be inactive, the
nerves of emotion are taxed, while the nerves of motion are inactive.
The wear being all upon the mental organs, they become overworked
and enfeebled, while the muscles lose their vigor for want of employ-
ment. There is no inclination to exercise the muscles by engaging in
physical labor because exertion seems to be irksome.
Ministers of Christ, professing to be His representatives, should
follow His example, and above all others should form habits of strictest
temperance. They should keep the life and example of Christ before
the people by their own lives of self-denial, self-sacrifice, and active
benevolence. Christ overcame appetite in man’s behalf, and in His
stead they are to set others an example worthy of imitation. Those
who do not feel the necessity of engaging in the work of overcoming
upon the point of appetite will fail to secure precious victories which
they might have gained and will become slaves to appetite and lust,
which are filling the cup of iniquity of those who dwell upon the earth.
Men who are engaged in giving the last message of warning to the
world, a message which is to decide the destiny of souls, should make
a practical application in their own lives of the truths they preach to
others. They should be examples to the people in their eating, in their
drinking, and in their chaste conversation and deportment. Gluttony,
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indulgence of the baser passions, and grievous sins are hidden under the
garb of sanctity by many professed representatives of Christ throughout
our world. There are men of excellent natural ability whose labor does
not accomplish half what it might if they were temperate in all things.
Indulgence of appetite and passion beclouds the mind, lessens physical
strength, and weakens moral power. Their thoughts are not clear. Their
words are not spoken in power, are not vitalized by the Spirit of God
so as to reach the hearts of the hearers.
As our first parents lost Eden through the indulgence of appetite,
our only hope of regaining Eden is through the firm denial of appetite
and passion. Abstemiousness in diet and control of all the passions will
preserve the intellect and give mental and moral vigor, enabling men
to bring all their propensities under the control of the higher powers
and to discern between right and wrong, the sacred and the common.
All who have a true sense of the sacrifice made by Christ in leaving
His home in heaven to come to this world that He might by His own