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Chapter 1—Importance of Strictly Temperate
Habits
Examples From Old and New Testament
—When the Lord
would raise up Samson as a deliverer of His people, He enjoined
upon the mother correct habits of life before the birth of her child.
And the same prohibition was to be imposed, from the first, upon
the child; for he was to be consecrated to God as a Nazarite from
his birth.
The angel of God appeared to the wife of Manoah, and informed
her that she should have a son; and in view of this He gave her the
important directions: “Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink
not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing.”
Judges
13:4, 14
.
God had important work for the promised child of Manoah to
do, and it was to secure for him the qualifications necessary for this
work, that the habits of both the mother and the child were to be so
carefully regulated. “Neither let her drink wine or strong drink,” was
the angel’s instruction for the wife of Manoah, “nor eat any unclean
thing: all that I commanded her let her observe.” The child will
be affected for good or evil by the habits of the mother. She must
herself be controlled by principle, and must practice temperance and
self-denial, if she would seek the welfare of her child.
In the New Testament we find a no less impressive example of
the importance of temperate habits.
John the Baptist was a reformer. To him was committed a great
work for the people of his time. And in preparation for that work, all
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his habits were carefully regulated, even from his birth. The angel
Gabriel was sent from heaven to instruct the parents of John in the
principles of health reform. He “shall drink neither wine nor strong
drink,” said the heavenly messenger; “and he shall be filled with the
Holy Ghost.”
Luke 1:15
.
John separated himself from his friends, and from the luxuries of
life, dwelling alone in the wilderness, and subsisting upon a purely
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