8
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene
The violation of physical law, with its consequent suffering and
premature death, has so long prevailed that these results are regarded
as the appointed lot of humanity; but God did not create the race
in such a feeble condition. This state of things is not the work of
Providence, but of man. It has been brought about by wrong habits,—
by violating the laws that God has made to govern man’s existence. A
continual transgression of nature’s laws is a continual transgression
of the law of God. Had men always been obedient to the law of the
ten commandments, carrying out in their lives the principles of those
precepts, the curse of disease now flooding the world would not exist.
“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye
are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in
your spirit, which are God’s.” [
1 Corinthians 6:19
.] When men take
any course which needlessly expends their vitality or beclouds their
intellect, they sin against God; they do not glorify him in their body
and spirit, which are his.
Yet despite the insult which man has offered him, God’s love is
still extended to the race; and he permits light to shine, enabling man
to see that in order to live a perfect life he must obey the natural laws
which govern his being. How important, then, that man should walk
in this light, exercising all his powers, both of body and mind, to the
glory of God!
We are in a world that is opposed to righteousness, or purity of
character, and especially to growth in grace. Wherever we look, we see
defilement and corruption, deformity and sin. How opposed is all this
[9]
to the work that must be accomplished in us just previous to receiving
the gift of immortality! God’s elect must stand untainted amid the
corruptions teeming around them in these last days. Their bodies must
be made holy, their spirits pure. If this work is to be accomplished, it
must be undertaken at once, earnestly and understandingly. The Spirit
of God should have perfect control, influencing every action.
The health reform is one branch of the great work which is to fit
a people for the coming of the Lord. It is as closely connected with
the third angel’s message as the hand is with the body. The law of ten
commandments has been lightly regarded by man; yet the Lord will not
come to punish the transgressors of that law without first sending them
a message of warning. Men and women cannot violate natural law by