52
Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods
your nature. Neither of you can afford a feverish diet; for it is at the
expense of the health of the body, and the prosperity of your own souls
and the souls of your children.
You place upon your table food which taxes the digestive organs,
excites the animal passions, and weakens the moral and intellectual
faculties. Rich food and flesh-meats are no benefit to you....
I entreat you for Christ’s sake, to set your house and hearts in order.
Let the truth of heavenly origin elevate and sanctify you, soul, body
and spirit. “Abstain from fleshy lusts, which war against the soul.”
Brother G., your eating has a tendency to strengthen the baser passions.
You do not control your body as it is your duty to do in order to perfect
holiness in the fear of God. Temperance in eating must be practiced
before you can be a patient man.
Testimonies for the Church 2:697
Brother P. might now be a strong man, possessing influence with
God’s people in Maine, and esteemed highly in love for his works’
sake. But he inclines to the idea that his backwardness is a special
virtue, rather than a sin of which he must repent. He has been very slow
to learn the lessons which God has intended to teach him. He has not
[27]
been an apt scholar, and has not had a growth and experience in present
truth, which would qualify him to bear the weight of responsibility
that he might now bear, had he diligently improved upon all the light
given. I was shown a time when Brother P. began to make an effort
to subdue himself and restrain his appetite; then he could more easily
be patient. He had been easily excited, passionate, irritable, depressed
in spirit. His eating and drinking had very much to do in keeping him
in this state. The lower passions bore sway, predominating over the
higher powers of the mind. Temperance would do much for Brother P.,
and more physical exercise and labor is necessary for his health. As he
made efforts to control himself, he began to grow, but did not receive
that blessing in his efforts to improve that he would have received had
they been made at an earlier period.
Testimonies for the Church 4:35-36
The world should be no criterion for us. It is fashionable to indulge
the appetite in luxurious food and unnatural stimulus, thus strengthen-