Cause in New York
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appearing of Christ. John was a reformer. The angel Gabriel, direct
from heaven, gave a discourse upon health reform to the father and
mother of John. He said that he should not drink wine or strong drink,
and that he should be filled with the Holy Ghost from his birth.
John separated himself from friends and from the luxuries of life.
The simplicity of his dress, a garment woven of camel’s hair, was a
standing rebuke to the extravagance and display of the Jewish priests,
and of the people generally. His diet, purely vegetable, of locusts
and wild honey, was a rebuke to the indulgence of appetite and the
gluttony that everywhere prevailed. The prophet Malachi declares:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.”
Here the prophet describes the character of the work. Those who are
to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ are represented
by faithful Elijah, as John came in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the
way for Christ’s first advent. The great subject of reform is to be
agitated, and the public mind is to be stirred. Temperance in all things
is to be connected with the message, to turn the people of God from
their idolatry, their gluttony, and their extravagance in dress and other
things.
The self-denial, humility, and temperance required of the righteous,
whom God especially leads and blesses, is to be presented to the people
in contrast to the extravagant, health-destroying habits of those who
live in this degenerate age. God has shown that health reform is as
closely connected with the third angel’s message as the hand is with
the body. There is nowhere to be found so great a cause of physical and
moral degeneracy as a neglect of this important subject. Those who
indulge appetite and passion, and close their eyes to the light for fear
they will see sinful indulgences which they are unwilling to forsake,
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are guilty before God. Whoever turns from the light in one instance
hardens his heart to disregard the light upon other matters. Whoever
violates moral obligations in the matter of eating and dressing prepares
the way to violate the claims of God in regard to eternal interests. Our
bodies are not our own. God has claims upon us to take care of the
habitation. He has given us, that we may present our bodies to Him a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. Our bodies belong to Him who
made them, and we are in duty bound to become intelligent in regard