30
Counsels on Diet and Foods
keep in the most healthy condition possible.—
The Review and Herald,
February 10, 1910
True Reform Is Heart Reform
39. Those who would work in God’s service must not be seeking
worldly gratification and selfish indulgence. The physicians in our
institutions must be imbued with the living principles of health reform.
Men will never be truly temperate until the grace of Christ is an abiding
principle in the heart. All the pledges in the world will not make you
or your wife health reformers. No mere restriction of your diet will
cure your diseased appetite. Brother and Sister-----will not practice
temperance in all things until their hearts are transformed by the grace
of God.
Circumstances cannot work reforms. Christianity proposes a ref-
ormation in the heart. What Christ works within, will be worked out
under the dictation of a converted intellect. The plan of beginning out-
side and trying to work inward has always failed, and always will fail.
God’s plan with you is to begin at the very seat of all difficulties, the
heart, and then from out of the heart will issue the principles of righ-
teousness; the reformation will be outward as well as inward.—
Special
Testimonies for Ministers and Workers 9:54
40. Those who elevate the standard as nearly as they can to the
order of God, according to the light God has given them through His
word and the testimonies of His Spirit, will not change their course of
action to meet the wishes of their friends or relatives, be they one or
two or a host, who are living contrary to God’s wise arrangement. If
[36]
we move from principle in these things, if we observe strict rules of
diet, if as Christians we educate our tastes after God’s plan, we shall
exert an influence which will meet the mind of God. The question is,
“Are we willing to be true health reformers?”—
Letter 3, 1884
[
For context see 720
]
A Question of Primary Importance
41. I am instructed to bear a message to all our people on the
subject of health reform; for many have backslidden from their former
loyalty to health reform principles.