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Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene
animals. It has come to be a very serious question whether it is safe to
use flesh-food at all in this age of the world. It would be better never
to eat meat than to use the flesh of animals that are not healthy. When
I could not obtain the food I needed, I have sometimes eaten a little
meat; but I am becoming more and more afraid of it.
When God led the children of Israel out of Egypt, it was his purpose
to establish them in the land of Canaan a pure, happy, healthy people.
Let us look at the means by which he would accomplish this. He
subjected them to a course of discipline, which, had it been cheerfully
followed, would have resulted in good, both to themselves and to their
posterity. He removed flesh-food from them in a great measure. He
had granted them flesh in answer to their clamors, just before reaching
Sinai, but it was furnished for only one day. God might have provided
flesh as easily as manna, but a restriction was placed upon the people
for their good. It was his purpose to supply them with food better
suited to their wants than the feverish diet to which many of them had
been accustomed in Egypt. The perverted appetite was to be brought
into a more healthy state, that they might enjoy the food originally
provided for man,—the fruits of the earth, which God gave to Adam
and Eve in Eden.
Had they been willing to deny appetite in obedience to his restric-
tions, feebleness and disease would have been unknown among them.
Their descendants would have possessed physical and mental strength.
They would have had clear perceptions of truth and duty, keen dis-
crimination, and sound judgment. But they were unwilling to submit
to God’s requirements, and they failed to reach the standard he had
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set for them, and to receive the blessings that might have been theirs.
They murmured at God’s restrictions, and lusted after the fleshpots of
Egypt. God let them have flesh, but it proved a curse to them.
Again and again I have been shown that God is trying to lead us
back, step by step, to his original design,—that man should subsist
upon the natural products of the earth. Among those who are waiting
for the coming of the Lord, meat-eating will eventually be done away;
flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this
end in view, and endeavor to work steadily toward it. I cannot think
that in the practice of flesh-eating we are in harmony with the light
which God has been pleased to give us. All who are connected with
our health institutions especially should be educating themselves to