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Testimonies for the Church Volume 9
worldly ambition, pride, and love of self. Occasionally their feelings
are stirred, but they do not fall on the Rock, Christ Jesus. They
do not come to God with hearts that are broken in repentance and
confession. Those who experience the work of true conversion in
their hearts will reveal the fruits of the Spirit in their lives. Oh, that
those who have so little spiritual life would realize that eternal life
can be granted only to those who become partakers of the divine
nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust!
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The power of Christ alone can work the transformation in heart
and mind that all must experience who would partake with Him
of the new life in the kingdom of heaven. “Except a man be born
again,” the Saviour has said, “he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3
. The religion that comes from God is the only religion that
can lead to God. In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the
divine Spirit. This will lead to watchfulness. It will purify the heart
and renew the mind, and give us a new capacity for knowing and
loving God. It will give us willing obedience to all His requirements.
This is true worship.
God requires of His people continual advancement. We need
to learn that indulged appetite is the greatest hindrance to mental
improvement and soul sanctification. With all our profession of
health reform, many of us eat improperly. Indulgence of appetite is
the greatest cause of physical and mental debility, and lies largely at
the foundation of feebleness and premature death. Let the individual
who is seeking to possess purity of spirit bear in mind that in Christ
there is power to control the appetite.
Flesh Foods
If we could be benefited by indulging the desire for flesh foods,
I would not make this appeal to you; but I know we cannot. Flesh
foods are injurious to the physical well-being, and we should learn
to do without them. Those who are in a position where it is possi-
ble to secure a vegetarian diet, but who choose to follow their own
preferences in this matter, eating and drinking as they please, will
gradually grow careless of the instruction the Lord has given regard-
ing other phases of the present truth and will lose their perception of
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what is truth; they will surely reap as they have sown.