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Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene
He knew that all who would be fitted to meet Christ in peace, must
possess a pure and holy character.
The strength of the temptation to indulge appetite can be measured
only by the inexpressible anguish of our Redeemer in that long fast
in the wilderness. He knew that the indulgence of perverted appetite
would so deaden man’s perceptions that sacred things could not be
discerned. Adam fell by the indulgence of appetite; Christ overcame
by the denial of appetite. And our only hope of regaining Eden is
through firm self-control. If the power of indulged appetite was so
strong upon the race, that, in order to break its hold, the divine Son of
God, in man’s behalf, had to endure a fast of nearly six weeks, what
a work is before the Christian! Yet, however great the struggle, he
may overcome. By the help of that divine power which withstood the
fiercest temptations that Satan could invent, he too may be entirely
successful in his warfare with evil, and at last may wear the victor’s
crown in the kingdom of God.
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