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Impairment Through Indulged Appetite
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holic liquors. There are not a few who pass directly from the dens
of infamy to the sleep of death; they close their life record among
the associations of dissipation and vice. What will the awakening be
at the resurrection of the unjust!
The eye of the Lord is open upon every scene of debasing amuse-
ment and profane dissipation. The words and deeds of the pleasure
lovers pass directly from these halls of vice to the book of final
records. What is the life of this class worth to the world, except as a
beacon of warning to those who will be warned, not to live like these
men, and die as the fool dieth.—
The Signs of the Times, January 6,
1876
.
The Christian Controls His Appetite
—No Christian will take
into his system food or drink that will cloud his senses, or that will so
act upon the nervous system as to cause him to degrade himself, or
to unfit him for usefulness. The temple of God must not be defiled.
The faculties of mind and body should be preserved in health, that
they may used to glorify God.—
Manuscript 126, 1903
.
[19]
With Ceaseless Vigilance
—Men’s natural appetites have been
perverted by indulgence. Through unholy gratification they have
become “fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” Unless the Chris-
tian watches unto prayer, he gives loose reign to habits which should
be overcome. Unless he feels the need of constant watching, cease-
less vigilance, his inclinations, abused and misguided, will be the
means of his backsliding from God.—
Manuscript 47, 1896
.
Indulged Appetite Inimical to Christian Perfection
—It is im-
possible for those who indulge the appetite to attain to Christian
perfection.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:400
.
The Spirit of God cannot come to our help, and assist us in
perfecting Christian characters, while we are indulging our appetites
to the injury of health, and while the pride of life controls.—
The
Health Reformer, September, 1871
.
True Sanctification
—It [sanctification] is not merely a theory,
an emotion, or a form of words, but a living, active principle, en-
tering into the everyday life. It requires that our habits of eating,
drinking, and dressing be such as to secure the preservation of phys-
ical, mental, and moral health, that we may present to the Lord our
bodies—not an offering corrupted by wrong habits, but—“a living