Feeding of Children
119
It is impossible for those who give the reins to appetite to attain to
Christian perfection. The moral sensibilities of your children cannot
be easily aroused, unless you are careful in the selection of their food.
Many a mother sets a table that is a snare to her family. Flesh-meats,
butter, cheese, rich pastry, spiced foods and condiments are freely
partaken of by both old and young. These things do their work in
deranging the stomach, exciting the nerves, and enfeebling the intellect.
The blood-making organs can not convert such things into good blood.
The grease cooked in the food renders it difficult of digestion. The
effect of cheese is deleterious. Fine-flour bread does not impart to the
system the nourishment that is to be found in unbolted wheat bread.
Its common use will not keep the system in the best condition. Spices
at first irritate the tender coating of the stomach, but finally destroy the
natural sensitiveness of this delicate membrane. The blood becomes
fevered, the animal propensities are aroused, while the moral and
intellectual powers are weakened, and become servants to the baser
passions. The mother should study to set a simple yet nutritious diet
before her family.
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 75-77
Many mothers who deplore the intemperance that exists every-
where, do not look deep enough to see the cause. Too often it may
be traced to the home table. Many a mother, even among those who
profess to be Christians, is daily setting before her household rich
and highly-seasoned food, which tempts the appetite and encourages
overeating. In some families, flesh-meats constitute the principle ar-
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ticle of diet, and in consequence, the blood is filled with cancerous
and scrofulous humors. Then when suffering and disease follow, Prov-
idence is charged with that which is the result of a wrong course.
I repeat: intemperance begins at the table, and, with the majority,
appetite is indulged until indulgence becomes second nature.
Whoever eats too much, or of food which is not healthful, is weak-
ening his power to resist the clamors of other appetites and passions.
Many parents, to avoid the task of patiently educating their children
to habits of self-denial, indulge them in eating and drinking whenever
they please. The desire to satisfy the taste and to gratify inclination
does not lessen with the increase of years; and these indulged youth,