Relation of Diet to Health and Morals
37
them no longer. Their cup of iniquity was full, and he cleansed the
earth of its moral pollution by a flood.
As men multiplied upon the earth after the flood, they again forgot
God, and corrupted their ways before him. Intemperance in every
form increased, until almost the whole world was given up to its sway.
Entire cities have been swept from the face of the earth because of the
debasing crimes and revolting iniquity that made them a blot upon the
fair field of God’s created works. The gratification of unnatural appetite
led to the sins that caused the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
God ascribes the fall of Babylon to her gluttony and drunkenness.
Indulgence of appetite and passion was the foundation of all their sins.
Esau had a strong desire for a particular article of food, and he had
so long gratified himself that he did not feel the necessity of turning
from the tempting, coveted dish. He allowed his imagination to dwell
upon it until the power of appetite bore down every other consideration,
and controlled him. He thought he would suffer great inconvenience,
and even death, if he could not have that particular dish. The more he
reflected upon it, the more his desire strengthened, until his birthright
lost its value and sacredness in his sight, and he bartered it away. He
flattered himself that he could dispose of his birthright at will, and buy
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it back at pleasure; but when he sought to regain it, even at a great
sacrifice, he was not able to do so. He then bitterly repented of his
rashness, his folly, his madness; but it was all in vain. He had despised
the blessing, and the Lord had removed it from him forever.
When the God of Israel brought his people out of Egypt, he with-
held flesh-meats from them in a great measure, but gave them bread
from heaven, and water from the flinty rock. With this they were not
satisfied. They loathed the food given them, and wished themselves
back in Egypt, where they could sit by the flesh-pots. They preferred
to endure slavery, and even death, rather than to be deprived of flesh.
God granted their desire, giving them flesh, and leaving them to eat
till their gluttony produced a plague, from which many of them died.
Example after example might be cited to show the effects of yield-
ing to appetite. It seemed a small matter to our first parents to transgress
the command of God in that one act,—the eating from a tree that was
so beautiful to the sight and so pleasant to the taste,—but it broke their
allegiance to God, and opened the gates to a flood of guilt and woe
that has deluged the world.