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“Our Reasonable Service“, July 5
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1
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The apostle entreats his brethren to consecrate their bodies to God....
When we pursue a course to lessen mental and physical vigor—in eating,
drinking, or in any of our habits—we dishonor God, for we rob Him of
the service He claims of us. When we indulge appetite at the expense of
health, or when we indulge habits which lessen our vitality and mental
vigor, we cannot have a high appreciation of the atonement and a right
estimate of eternal things.
When our minds are beclouded and partially paralyzed by disease we
are easily overcome by the temptations of Satan. Eating of unhealthful
food to gratify the appetite has a direct tendency to unbalance the cir-
culation of the blood, cause nervous debility, and as the result there is
great lack of patience and true, elevated affection. Constitutional strength,
as well as the tone of the morals and the mental faculties, is enfeebled
through the indulgence of perverted appetite....
All the treasures of the world sink into insignificance when compared
to the value of the mental and moral powers. And the healthful action of
these faculties is dependent upon the physical health. Then how important
that we know how to preserve health, that our duty to God and man may
be performed according to His commandments. The laws of God are plain
and distinct. No uncertainty beclouds any of them. None of them need
ever be misunderstood. Those who cannot discern them are benumbed by
their own wrong habits enfeebling their intellect.
God designs to teach us the importance of temperance in all things.
As intemperance caused the fall of our first parents from their holy and
happy estate, by their transgressing the law of God, so temperance in all
things will keep our faculties in as healthy a condition as possible, that no
mist or uncertainty may becloud any of them, that intellect may guide to
right actions in keeping His law.... We must work in harmony with natural
laws if we would discern the binding claims of the law of God spoken
from Sinai.
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