Cause in New York
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understanding, the light that has shone upon the soul, which has not
been appreciated and cherished, will witness against them in the day
of God. Truth has been given to save those who would believe and
obey. Their condemnation is not because they did not have the light,
but because they had the light and did not walk in it.
God has furnished man with abundant means for the gratification
of natural appetite. He has spread before him, in the products of the
earth, a bountiful variety of food that is palatable to the taste and
nutritious to the system. Of these our benevolent heavenly Father says
that we may “freely eat.” We may enjoy the fruits, the vegetables, the
grains, without doing violence to the laws of our being. These articles,
prepared in the most simple and natural manner, will nourish the body,
and preserve its natural vigor without the use of flesh meats.
God created man a little lower than the angels and bestowed upon
him attributes that will, if properly used, make him a blessing to the
world and cause him to reflect the glory to the Giver. But although
made in the image of God, man has, through intemperance, violated
principle and God’s law in his physical nature. Intemperance of any
kind benumbs the perceptive organs and so weakens the brain-nerve
power that eternal things are not appreciated, but placed upon a level
with the common. The higher powers of the mind, designed for ele-
vated purposes, are brought into slavery to the baser passions. If our
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physical habits are not right, our mental and moral powers cannot be
strong; for great sympathy exists between the physical and the moral.
The apostle Peter understood this and raised his voice of warning to
his brethren: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
There is but little moral power in the professed Christian world.
Wrong habits have been indulged, and physical and moral laws have
been disregarded, until the general standard of virtue and piety is
exceedingly low. Habits which lower the standard of physical health
enfeeble mental and moral strength. The indulgence of unnatural
appetites and passions has a controlling influence upon the nerves of
the brain. The animal organs are strengthened, while the moral are
depressed. It is impossible for an intemperate man to be a Christian,
for his higher powers are brought into slavery to the passions.
Those who have had the light upon the subjects of eating and
dressing with simplicity in obedience to physical and moral laws, and