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Counsels on Health
digestive organs by indulging perverted appetite. The power of the
human constitution to resist the abuses put upon it is wonderful; but
persistent wrong habits in excessive eating and drinking will enfee-
ble every function of the body. Let these feeble ones consider what
they might have been had they lived temperately and promoted health
instead of abusing it. In the gratification of perverted appetite and pas-
sion, even professed Christians cripple nature in her work and lessen
physical, mental, and moral power. Some who are doing this, claim to
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be sanctified to God; but such a claim is without foundation....
Sanctification a Living Principle
We should consider the words of the apostle Paul, in which he
appeals to his brethren, by the mercies of God, to present their bodies
“a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” ... Sanctification is not
merely a theory, an emotion, or a form of words, but a living, active
principle, entering into the everyday life. It requires that our habits of
eating, drinking, and dressing be such as to secure the preservation of
physical, mental, and moral health, that we may present to the Lord
our bodies—not an offering corrupted by wrong habits but—“a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”
Romans 12:1
.
Let none who profess godliness regard with indifference the health
of the body, and flatter themselves that intemperance is no sin and
will not affect their spirituality. A close sympathy exists between the
physical and the moral nature. The standard of virtue is elevated or
degraded by the physical habits. Excessive eating of the best of food
will produce a morbid condition of the moral feelings. And if the food
is not the most healthful, the effects will be still more injurious. Any
habit which does not promote healthful action in the human system
degrades the higher and nobler faculties. Wrong habits of eating and
drinking lead to errors in thought and action. Indulgence of appetite
strengthens the animal propensities, giving them the ascendancy over
the mental and spiritual powers.
“Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (
1 Peter
2:11
), is the language of the apostle Peter. Many regard this warning
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as applicable only to the licentious; but it has a broader meaning. It
guards against every injurious gratification of appetite or passion. It is a
most forcible warning against the use of such stimulants and narcotics