50
Counsels on Diet and Foods
and struggles, will not bring them the blessing they long for. Self must
be entirely surrendered. They must do the work that presents itself,
appropriating the abundance of the grace of God which is promised to
all who ask in faith.
“If any man will come after Me,” said Jesus, “let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Luke 9:23
. Let us follow
the Saviour in His simplicity and self-denial. Let us lift up the Man
of Calvary by word and by holy living. The Saviour comes very near
to those who consecrate themselves to God. If ever there was a time
when we needed the working of the Spirit of God upon our hearts and
lives, it is now. Let us lay hold of this divine power for strength to
live a life of holiness and self-surrender.—
Testimonies for the Church
9:165, 166, 1909
[59]
85. As our first parents lost Eden through the indulgence of ap-
petite, our only hope of regaining Eden is through the firm denial of
appetite and passion. Abstemiousness in diet, and control of all the
passions, will preserve the intellect and give mental and moral vigor,
enabling men to bring all their propensities under the control of the
higher powers, and to discern between right and wrong, the sacred and
the common. All who have a true sense of the sacrifice made by Christ
in leaving His home in heaven to come to this world that He might by
His own life show man how to resist temptation, will cheerfully deny
self and choose to be partakers with Christ of his sufferings.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those who
overcome as Christ overcame will need to constantly guard themselves
against the temptations of Satan. The appetite and passions should
be restricted and under the control of enlightened conscience, that
the intellect may be unimpaired, the perceptive powers clear, so that
the workings of Satan and his snares may not be interpreted to be the
providence of God. Many desire the final reward and victory which are
to be given to overcomers, but are not willing to endure toil, privation,
and denial of self, as did their Redeemer. It is only through obedience
and continual effort that we shall overcome as Christ overcame.
The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands,
when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have had moral
power to gain the victory over every other temptation of Satan. But
those who are slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian char-
acter. The continual transgression of man for six thousand years has