Diet and Spirituality
65
Unpublished Testimonies, August 25, 1897 (Healthful Living, 75.2)
Our habits of eating and drinking show whether we are of the world
or among the number that the Lord by His mighty cleaver of truth has
separated from the world.
Testimonies for the Church 1:618-619
I saw that the Lord was giving us an experience which would
be of the highest value to us in the future in connection with His
work. We are living in a solemn time, amid the closing scenes of this
earth’s history, and God’s people are not awake. They must arouse and
make greater progress in reforming their habits of living, in eating,
in dressing, in laboring and resting. In all these they should glorify
God and be prepared to give battle to our great foe, and to enjoy
the precious victories which God has in reserve for those who are
exercising temperance in all things while striving for an incorruptible
crown.
I saw that God was fitting up my husband to engage in the solemn,
sacred work of reform which He designs shall progress among His
people. It is important that instructions should be given by ministers
in regard to living temperately. They should show the relation which
eating, working, resting, and dressing, sustain to health. All who
believe the truth for these last days, have something to do in this
matter. It concerns them, and God requires them to arouse and interest
themselves in this reform. He will not be pleased with their course if
they regard this question with indifference.
The abuses of the stomach by the gratification of appetite, are
the fruitful source of most church trials. Those who eat and work
intemperately and irrationally, talk and act irrationally. An intemperate
man cannot be a patient man. It is not necessary to drink alcoholic
liquors in order to be intemperate. The sin of intemperate eating, eating
too frequently, too much, and of rich, unwholesome food, destroys the
healthy action of the digestive organs, affects the brain, and perverts
the judgment, preventing rational, calm, healthy thinking and acting.
And this is a fruitful source of church trials. Therefore in order for the
people of God to be in an acceptable state with Him, where they can
glorify Him in their bodies and spirits which are His, they must with
interest and zeal deny the gratification of their appetites, and exercise