Reasons for Reform
463
of health reform, do not harm others by opposing the light God has
given on this subject.
Manuscript 3, 1897
I was awakened at 11:30 last night, and commenced writing. We
were in a meeting where important instruction in many lines was being
given. Among those assembled were physicians, editors, publishers,
ministers, and a large number of other persons. We were considering
many things in regard to health reform. The matters of exercise and
reformatory methods in regard to the foods we eat were under discus-
sion. Some were advocating a flesh-meat diet. Speaking in support of
this diet, they said that without it they were weak in physical strength.
But the words of our Teacher to us were, “As a man thinketh, so
is he.” The flesh of dead animals was not the original food for man.
Man was permitted to eat it after the flood because all vegetation had
been destroyed. But the curse pronounced upon man and the earth
and every living thing has made strange and wonderful changes. Since
the flood the human race has been shortening its period of existence.
Physical, mental and moral degeneracy is rapidly increasing in these
latter days.
The educational work in the medical missionary line is a great
advance step toward awakening man to his moral responsibilities. Had
the ministers taken hold of this work in accordance with the light that
God has given them in various lines, there would have been a most
decided reformation in eating, in drinking, and in dressing. But there
are those who have stood directly in the way of the advance of health
reform. They hold the people back by their indifferent or depreciatory
remarks and their supposed pleasantries and jokes. They themselves
and a large number of others have been sufferers, even unto death, but
all have not yet learned wisdom.
The Lord would vindicate the word He has given to His servants.
Had all united to walk in the light, from the time the light was first
given on this subject, there would have been an army of sensible
arguments employed to vindicate the work of God. But it has been by
most aggressive warfare that any advancement has been made. The
souls and bodies of the people have been fast becoming corrupted,
a mass of disease. This would not have been the case, if those who