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Importance of Strictly Temperate Habits
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vegetable diet. The simplicity of his dress—a garment woven of
camel’s hair—was a rebuke to the extravagance and display of the
people of his generation, especially of the Jewish priests. His diet
also, of locusts and wild honey, was a rebuke to the gluttony that
everywhere prevailed.
The work of John was foretold by the prophet Malachi: “Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to
the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.”
Malachi
4:5, 6
. John the Baptist went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah,
to prepare the way of the Lord, and to turn the people to the wisdom
of the just. He was a representative of those living in the last days, to
whom God has entrusted sacred truths to present before the people,
to prepare the way for the second appearing of Christ. And the same
principles of temperance which John practiced should be observed
by those who in our day are to warn the world of the coming of the
Son of man.
God has made man in His own image, and He expects man to
preserve unimpaired the powers that have been imparted to him for
the Creator’s service. Then should we not heed His admonitions,
and seek to preserve every power in the best condition to serve Him?
The very best we can give to God is feeble enough.
Why is there so much misery in the world today? Is it because
God loves to see His creatures suffer?—Oh, no! It is because men
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have become weakened by immoral practices. We mourn over
Adam’s transgression, and seem to think that our first parents showed
great weakness in yielding to temptation; but if Adam’s transgression
were the only evil we had to meet, the condition of the world would
be much better than it is. There has been a succession of falls since
Adam’s day.—
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 37-39
.
A Warning Regarding the Effect of Wine
—The history of
Nadab and Abihu is also given as a warning to man, showing that
the effect of wine upon the intellect is to confuse. And it will ever
have this influence upon the minds of those who use it. Therefore
God explicitly forbids the use of wine and strong drink.—
The Signs
of the Times, July 8, 1880
.
Nadab and Abihu would never have committed that fatal sin,
had they not first become partially intoxicated by the free use of