48
Counsels on Diet and Foods
eating intelligently, and conforming all their habits to the laws God
has established.
There are rights which belong to every individual. We have an
individuality and an identity that is our own. No one can submerge his
identity in that of any other. All must act for themselves, according
to the dictates of their own conscience. As regards our responsibility
and influence, we are amenable to God as deriving our life from Him.
This we do not obtain from humanity, but from God only. We are
His by creation and by redemption. Our very bodies are not our own,
to treat as we please, to cripple by habits that lead to decay, making
it impossible to render to God perfect service. Our lives and all our
faculties belong to Him. He is caring for us every moment; He keeps
the living machinery in action; if we were left to run it for one moment,
we should die. We are absolutely dependent upon God.
A great lesson is learned when we understand our relation to God,
and His relation to us. The words, “Ye are not your own, ye are bought
with a price,” should be hung in memory’s hall, that we may ever
recognize God’s rights to our talents, our property, our influence, our
individual selves. We are to learn how to treat this gift of God, in
mind, in soul, in body, that as Christ’s purchased possession, we may
do Him healthful, savory service.—
Special Testimonies for Ministers
and Workers 9:58, 1896
[57]
76. The light has been shining upon your pathway in regard to
health reform, and the duty resting upon God’s people in these last
days to exercise temperance in all things. You, I saw, were among
the number who would be backward to see the light, and correct your
manner of eating, and drinking, and working. As the light of truth is
received and followed out, it will work an entire reformation in the life
and character of all those who are sanctified through it.—
Testimonies
for the Church 2:60, 1868
Relation to the Victorious Life
77. Eating, drinking, and dressing all have a direct bearing upon
our spiritual advancement.—
The Youth’s Instructor, May 31, 1894
78. Many articles of food eaten freely by the heathen about them
were forbidden to the Israelites. It was no arbitrary distinction that
was made. The things prohibited were unwholesome. And the fact