Instruction to be Given on Health Topics
261
there is rarely any excuse for eating animal food; it is not necessary to
take the life of any of God’s creatures to supply our ordinary needs.
In certain cases of illness or exhaustion it may be thought best to use
some meat, but great care should be taken to secure the flesh of healthy
animals. It has come to be a very serious question whether it is safe to
use flesh-food at all in this age of the world. It would be better never
to eat meat than to use the flesh of animals that are not healthy. When
I could not obtain the food I needed, I have sometimes eaten a little
meat; but I am becoming more and more afraid of it.
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 121
A great amount of good can be done by enlightening all to whom
we have access, as to the best means, not only of curing the sick, but
of preventing disease and suffering. The physician who endeavors to
enlighten his patients as to the nature and causes of their maladies, and
to teach them how to avoid disease, may have uphill work; but if he is
a conscientious reformer, he will talk plainly of the ruinous effects of
self-indulgence in eating, drinking, and dressing, of the over-taxation
of the vital forces that has brought his patients where they are. He will
not increase the evil by administering drugs till exhausted nature gives
up the struggle, but will teach the patients how to form correct habits,
and to aid nature in her work of restoration by a wise use of her own
simple remedies.
In all our health institutions, it should be made a special feature
of the work to give instruction in regard to the laws of health. The
principles of health reform should be carefully and thoroughly set
before all, both patients and helpers. This work requires moral courage;
for while many will profit by such efforts, others will be offended. But
the true disciple of Christ, he whose mind is in harmony with the mind
of God, while constantly learning, will be teaching as well, leading the
minds of others upward, away from the prevailing errors of the world.
The Ministry of Healing, 125-126
Education in health principles was never more needed than now.
Notwithstanding the wonderful progress in so many lines relating to
the comforts and conveniences of life, even to sanitary matters and
to the treatment of disease, the decline in physical vigor and power