Controlling the Appetites and Passions
21
With what care should Christians regulate their habits, that they
may preserve the full vigor of every faculty to give to the service
of Christ. If we would be sanctified, in soul, body, and spirit, we
must live in conformity to the divine law. The heart cannot preserve
consecration to God while the appetites and passions are indulged at
the expense of health and life. Those who violate the laws upon which
health depends, must suffer the penalty. They have so limited their
abilities in every sense that they cannot properly discharge their duties
to their fellow men, and they utterly fail to answer the claims of God.
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When Lord Palmerston, premier of England, was petitioned by
the Scotch clergy to appoint a day of fasting and prayer to avert the
cholera, he replied, in effect, “Cleanse and disinfect your streets and
houses, promote cleanliness and health among the poor, and see that
they are plentifully supplied with good food and raiment, and employ
right sanitary measures generally, and you will have no occasion to
fast and pray. Nor will the Lord hear your prayers while these, His
preventives, remain unheeded.”
Says Paul, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (
2 Corinthians 7:1
).
He presents for our encouragement the freedom enjoyed by the truly
sanctified: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”
(
Romans 8:1
). He charges the Galatians, “Walk in the Spirit, and
ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (
Galatians 5:16
). He names
some of the forms of fleshly lust—“idolatry, ...drunkenness, ...and
such like” (
verses 20, 21
). And after mentioning the fruits of the Spirit,
among which is temperance, he adds, “And they that are Christ’s have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (
verse 24
).
Tobacco
James says that the wisdom which is from above is “first pure”
(
James 3:17
). If he had seen his brethren using tobacco, would he not
have denounced the practice as “earthly, sensual, devilish” (
verse 15
)?
In this age of Christian light, how often the lips that take the precious
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name of Christ are defiled by tobacco spittle and the breath is polluted
with the stench. Surely, the soul that can enjoy such uncleanness
must also be defiled. As I have seen men who claimed to enjoy the