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Chapter 2—Conversion the Secret of Victory
Indulgence Is Sin
—The indulgence of unnatural appetite,
whether for tea, coffee, tobacco, or liquor, is intemperance, and
is at war with the laws of life and health. By using these forbidden
articles a condition of things is created in the system which the
Creator never designed. This indulgence in any of the members of
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the human family is sin.... Suffering, disease, and death are the sure
penalty of indulgence.—
Evangelism, 266
.
When the Holy Spirit Works Among Us
—The very first and
the most important thing is to melt and subdue the soul by presenting
our Lord Jesus Christ as the Sin Bearer, the sin-pardoning Saviour,
making the gospel as clear as possible. When the Holy Spirit works
among us, ... souls who are unready for Christ’s appearing are
convicted.... The tobacco devotees sacrifice their idol and the liquor
drinker his liquor. They could not do this if they did not grasp by faith
the promises of God for the forgiveness of their sins.—
Evangelism,
264
.
Man’s Great Need
—Christ gave His life to purchase redemp-
tion for the sinner. The world’s Redeemer knew that indulgence of
appetite was bringing physical debility and deadening the perceptive
faculties so that sacred and eternal things could not be discerned. He
knew that self-indulgence was perverting the moral powers, and that
man’s great need was conversion,—in heart and mind and soul, from
the life of self-indulgence to one of self-denial and self-sacrifice.—
Medical Ministry, 264
.
Man Will Fail in His Own Strength
—The tobacco habit ...
beclouds so many minds. Why do you not give up this habit? Why
not arise and say, I will serve sin and the devil no longer? Say, I
will let alone this poisonous narcotic. You never can do it in your
own strength. Christ says, “I am at thy right hand to help thee.”—
Manuscript 9, 1893
.
Why So Many Fail
—Temptations to the indulgence of appetite
possess a power which can be overcome only by the help that God
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