Reasons for Reform
437
Testimonies for the Church 6:369-370
Since the laws of nature are the laws of God, it is plainly our duty
to give these laws careful study. We should study their requirements
in regard to our own bodies, and conform to them. Ignorance in these
things is sin.
“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? ...
What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
1 Corinthians 6:15, 19, 20
. Our
bodies are Christ’s purchased property, and we are not at liberty to
do with them as we please. Man has done this. He has treated his
body as if its laws had no penalty. Through perverted appetite its
organs and powers have become enfeebled, diseased, and crippled.
And these results which Satan has brought about by his own specious
temptations, he uses to taunt God with. He presents before God the
human body that Christ has purchased as His property; and what an
unsightly representation of his Maker man is! Because man has sinned
against his body, and has corrupted his ways, God is dishonored.
When men and women are truly converted, they will conscien-
tiously regard the laws of life that God has established in their being,
thus seeking to avoid physical, mental, and moral feebleness. Obe-
dience to these laws must be made a matter of personal duty. We
ourselves must suffer the ills of violated law. We must answer to
God for our habits and practices. Therefore, the question for us is
not, “What will the world say?” but, “How shall I, claiming to be a
Christian, treat the habitation God has given me? Shall I work for my
highest temporal and spiritual good by keeping my body as a temple
for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or shall I sacrifice myself to the
world’s ideas and practices?”
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 120
Let it ever be kept before the mind that the great object of hygienic
reform is to secure the highest possible development of mind and soul
and body. All the laws of nature—which are the laws of God—are
designed for our good. Obedience to them will promote our happiness
in this life, and will aid us in a preparation for the life to come.