Diet and Morals
57
You have set for your children a table of unwholesome food,
cooked in an unhealthful manner. You have placed flesh-meats before
them, and what is the result? Are they refined, intellectual, obedient,
conscientious and religiously inclined? You know this is not the case,
but entirely contrary. Your manner of living has strengthened the ani-
mal of your nature, and weakened the spiritual. You have transmitted
to your children a miserable legacy; a depraved nature rendered still
more depraved by your gross habits of eating and drinking. Your table
[29]
has completed the work of making them what they are. The sin lies
at your door. You know that they are not religiously inclined, that
they will not submit to restraint, but are inclined to disobedience, and
to disrespect your authority. Your eldest son especially is corrupt,
partaking to a great degree of the animal. Scarcely a trace of the divine
can be seen in his organization. You have brought up your children
to indulge their appetite when they please and as they please. Your
example has taught them that they live to eat; that the gratification of
appetite is about all that is worth living for. There is a work for you
to do, Bro. H. You have been like a man asleep or paralyzed. It is
time that you make a mighty effort to save the younger members of
your family. The influence of your eldest son is only evil over them.
Correct your table. A depraved, stimulating diet is strengthening the
animal passions of your children. Of all the families I am acquainted
with, yours most needs to dispense with flesh-meats and grease, and
learn to cook hygienically.
Testimonies for the Church 2:63-64
The system must be nourished. Yet we do not hesitate to say that
flesh-meat is not necessary for health or strength. If used it is because
a depraved appetite craves it. Its use excites the animal propensities
to increased activity, and strengthens the animal passions. When the
animal propensities are increased, the intellectual and moral powers
are decreased. The use of flesh of animals tends to cause a grossness of
body, and benumbs the fine sensibilities of the mind.... The intellectual,
the moral, and the physical powers are depreciated by the habitual
use of flesh-meats. Meat-eating deranges the system, beclouds the
intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities. We say to you, dear brother
and sister, your safest course is to let meat alone.