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Counsels on Diet and Foods
He claims of us to advance His glory. Then, are we not, in the worst
sense, transgressors of God’s law?
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But God is all-pitiful, gracious, and tender, and when light comes
to those who have injured their health by sinful indulgences, and they
are convinced of sin, and repent and seek pardon, He accepts the poor
offering rendered to Him, and receives them. Oh, what tender mercy
that He does not refuse the remnant of the abused life of the suffering,
repenting sinner! In His gracious mercy, He saves these souls as by
fire. But what an inferior, pitiful sacrifice at best, to offer to a pure
and holy God! Noble faculties have been paralyzed by wrong habits
of sinful indulgence. The aspirations are perverted, and the soul and
body defaced.—
Testimonies for the Church 3:164, 165, 1872
Why the Light on Health Reform
20. The Lord has let His light shine upon us in these last days, that
the gloom and darkness which have been gathering in past generations
because of sinful indulgence, might in some degree be dispelled, and
that the train of evils which have resulted because of intemperate eating
and drinking, might be lessened.
The Lord in wisdom designed to bring His people into a position
where they would be separate from the world in spirit and practice,
that their children might not so readily be led into idolatry, and become
tainted with the prevailing corruptions of this age. It is God’s design
that believing parents and their children should stand forth as living
representatives of Christ, candidates for everlasting life. All who are
partakers of the divine nature will escape the corruption that is in the
world through lust. It is impossible for those who indulge the appetite
to attain to Christian perfection.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:399,
400, 1870
21. God has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon
us in these last days, that by walking in the light we may escape
many of the dangers to which we shall be exposed. Satan is working
with great power to lead men to indulge appetite, gratify inclination,
and spend their days in heedless folly. He presents attractions in a
life of selfish enjoyment and of sensual indulgence. Intemperance
saps the energies of both mind and body. He who is thus overcome,
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has placed himself upon Satan’s ground, where he will be tempted