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Temperance
he seeks to stimulate in every possible way.—
Counsels on Diet and
Foods, 150
.
Satan’s Scheme to Wreck the Plan of Salvation
—Satan had
been at war with the government of God, since he first rebelled. His
success in tempting Adam and Eve in Eden, and introducing sin
into the world, had emboldened this arch foe; and he had proudly
boasted to the heavenly angels that when Christ should appear, taking
man’s nature, He would be weaker than himself, and that he would
overcome Him by his power.
He exulted that Adam and Eve in Eden could not resist his
insinuations when he appealed to their appetite. The inhabitants
of the old world he overcame in the same manner, through the
indulgence of lustful appetite and corrupt passions. Through the
gratification of appetite, he had overthrown the Israelites.
He boasted that the Son of God Himself, who was with Moses
and Joshua, was not able to resist his power, and lead the favored
people of His choice to Canaan; for nearly all who left Egypt died
in the wilderness; also, that he had tempted the meek man, Moses,
[14]
to take to himself glory which God claimed. David and Solomon,
who had been especially favored of God, he had induced, through
the indulgence of appetite and passion, to incur God’s displeasure.
And he boasted that he could yet succeed in thwarting the purpose
of God in the salvation of man through Jesus Christ.—
Redemption;
or the Temptation of Christ, 32
.
His Most Effective Temptation Today
—Satan comes to man,
as he came to Christ, with his overpowering temptations to indulge
appetite. He well knows his power to overcome man upon this
point. He overcame Adam and Eve in Eden upon appetite, and
they lost their blissful home. What accumulated misery and crime
have filled our world in consequence of the fall of Adam. Entire
cities have been blotted from the face of the earth because of the
debasing crimes and revolting iniquity that made them a blot upon
the universe. Indulgence of appetite was the foundation of all their
sins.
Through appetite, Satan controlled the mind and being. Thou-
sands who might have lived, have prematurely passed into their
graves, physical, mental, and moral wrecks. They had good powers,
but they sacrificed all to indulgence of appetite, which led them to