Reasons for Reform
435
Our Saviour warned His disciples that just prior to His second
coming a state of things would exist very similar to that which preceded
the flood. Eating and drinking would be carried to excess, and the
world would be given up to pleasure. This state of things does exist at
the present time. The world is largely given up to the indulgence of
appetite; and the disposition to follow worldly customs will bring us
into bondage to perverted habits,—habits that will make us more and
more like the doomed inhabitants of Sodom. I have wondered that the
inhabitants of the earth were not destroyed, like the people of Sodom
and Gomorrah. I see reason enough for the present state of degeneracy
and mortality in the world. Blind passion controls reason, and every
high consideration is, with many, sacrificed to lust.
To keep the body in a healthy condition, in order that all parts of
the living machinery may act harmoniously, should be a study of our
life. The children of God can not glorify Him with sickly bodies or
dwarfed minds. Those who indulge in any species of intemperance,
either in eating or drinking, waste their physical energies and weaken
moral power.
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 59
Health reform means something to us, and we must not belittle it
by narrow views and practices. We must be true to our convictions of
right. Daniel was blessed because he was steadfast in doing what he
knew to be right, and we shall be blessed if we seek to honor God with
full purpose of heart.
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 75
God has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us in
these last days, that by walking in the light we may escape many of
the dangers to which we shall be exposed. Satan is working with
great power to lead men to indulge appetite, gratify inclination, and
spend their days in heedless folly. He presents attractions in a life of
selfish enjoyment and of sensual indulgence. Intemperance saps the
energies of both mind and body. He who is thus overcome has placed
himself upon Satan’s ground, where he will be tempted and annoyed,
and finally controlled at pleasure by the enemy of all righteousness.