Lessons From the Experience of John the Baptist
[
Testimonies for the Church 3:61-64
(1871).]
For years the Lord has been calling the attention of His people
to health reform. This is one of the great branches of the work of
preparation for the coming of the Son of man.
John the Baptist went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah to
prepare the way of the Lord and to turn the people to the wisdom of
the just. He was a representative of those living in these last days, to
whom God has entrusted sacred truths to present before the people,
to prepare the way for the second 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.”
Malachi 4:5, 6
. Here the prophet
describes the character of the work. Those who are to prepare the way
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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
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