Simple Diet
331
a task to you. Had you lived up to the light which heaven has permitted
to shine upon your pathway, much suffering might have been saved
your family. Your own course of action has brought the sure result.
While you continue in this course, God will not come into your family,
and especially bless you, and work a miracle to save your family from
suffering. A plain diet, free from spices, and flesh-meats, and grease
of all kinds, would prove a blessing to you, and would save your wife
a great amount of suffering, grief, and despondency....
In order to render to God perfect service, you must have clear
conceptions of His requirements. You should use the most simple
food, prepared in the most simple manner, that the fine nerves of the
brain be not weakened, benumbed, or paralyzed, making it impossible
for you to discern sacred things, and to value the atonement, the
cleansing blood of Christ, as of priceless worth. “Know ye not that
they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run
that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is
temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown;
but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight
I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring
it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway.”
If men, for no higher object than a wreath or perishable crown as
a reward of their ambition, subjected themselves to temperance in all
things, how much more should those be willing to practice self-denial
who profess to be seeking not only a crown of immortal glory, but a
life which is to endure as long as the throne of Jehovah, and riches that
are eternal, honors which are imperishable, an eternal weight of glory.
Will not the inducements presented before those who are running in
the Christian race, lead them to practice self-denial and temperance in
all things, that they may keep their animal propensities in subjection,
keep under the body, and control the appetite and lustful passions?
Then can they be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust.
The Ministry of Healing, 298-299
Persons who have accustomed themselves to a rich, highly-
stimulating diet, have an unnatural taste, and they can not at once