170
Counsels on Health
that he is weary and exhausted; but you tell him to go to work again
and he will obtain relief. This is the way you treat the stomach. It is
thoroughly exhausted. But instead of letting it rest, you give it more
food, and then call the vitality from other parts of the system to the
stomach to assist in the work of digestion.
Many of you have at times felt a numbness around the brain. You
have felt disinclined to take hold of any labor which required either
mental or physical exertion, until you have rested from the sense of
this burden imposed upon your system. Then, again, there is this sense
of goneness. But you say it is more food that is wanted, and place a
double load upon the stomach for it to care for. Even if you are strict
in the quality of your food, do you glorify God in your bodies and
spirits, which are His, by partaking of such a quantity of food? Those
who place so much food upon the stomach, and thus load down nature,
could not appreciate the truth should they hear it dwelt upon. They
could not arouse the benumbed sensibilities of the brain to realize
the value of the atonement and the great sacrifice that has been made
for fallen man. It is impossible for such to appreciate the great, the
precious, and the exceedingly rich reward that is in reserve for the
faithful overcomers. The animal part of our nature should never be left
to govern the moral and intellectual.
[159]
And what influence does overeating have upon the stomach? It
becomes debilitated, the digestive organs are weakened, and disease,
with all its train of evils, is brought on as the result. If persons were
diseased before, they thus increase the difficulties upon them and
lessen their vitality every day they live. They call their vital powers
into unnecessary action to take care of the food that they place in their
stomachs.