100
Counsels on Diet and Foods
and loss of sleep! Inability to enjoy food, a sleepless night, hours of
suffering,—all for a meal in which taste was gratified!
Thousands have indulged their perverted appetites, have eaten a
good meal, as they called it, and as the result, have brought on a fever,
or some other acute disease, and certain death. That was enjoyment
purchased at immense cost. Yet many have done this, and these self-
murderers have been eulogized by their friends and the minister, and
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carried directly to heaven at their death. What a thought! Gluttons in
heaven! No, no; such will never enter the pearly gates of the golden
city of God. Such will never be exalted to the right hand of Jesus, the
precious Saviour, the suffering Man of Calvary, whose life was one
of constant self-denial and sacrifice. There is a place appointed for all
such among the unworthy, who can have no part in the better life, the
immortal inheritance.
Effect of Improper Eating Upon the Disposition
205. Many spoil their dispositions by eating improperly. We should
be just as careful to learn the lessons of health reform as we are to
have our studies perfectly prepared; for the habits that we adopt in this
direction are helping to form our characters for the future life. It is
possible for one to spoil his spiritual experience by an ill-use of the
stomach.—
Letter 274, 1908
Appeals for Reform
206. Where wrong habits of diet have been indulged there should
be no delay in reform. When dyspepsia has resulted from the abuse of
the stomach, efforts should be made carefully to preserve the remaining
strength of the vital forces, by removing every overtaxing burden. The
stomach may never entirely recover health after long abuse; but a
proper course of diet will save further debility, and many will recover
more or less fully. It is not easy to prescribe rules that will meet every
case; but with attention to right principles in eating, great reforms may
be made, and the cook need not be continually toiling to tempt the
appetite.
Abstemiousness in diet is rewarded with mental and moral vigor;
it also aids in the control of the passions.—
The Ministry of Healing,
308, 1905