Proper Dietary
67
Saving Much Suffering
119. You need to carry out the health reform in your life; to deny
yourself and eat and drink to the glory of God. Abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul. You need to practice temperance in
all things. Here is a cross which you have shunned. To confine yourself
to a simple diet, which will preserve you in the best of condition of
health, is a task to you. Had you lived up to the light which heaven
has permitted to shine upon your pathway, much suffering might have
been saved your family. Your own course of action has brought the
sure result. While you continue in this course, God will not come into
your family, and especially bless you, and work a miracle to save your
family from suffering. A plain diet, free from spices, and flesh meats,
and grease of all kinds, would prove a blessing to you, and would save
your wife a great amount of suffering, grief, and despondence....—
Testimonies for the Church 2:45, 46, 1868
Inducements to Simple Living
In order to render to God perfect service, you must have clear
conceptions of His requirements. You should use the most simple
food, prepared in the most simple manner, that the fine nerves of the
brain be not weakened, benumbed, or paralyzed, making it impossible
for you to discern sacred things, and to value the atonement, the
cleansing blood of Christ, as of priceless worth. “Know ye not that
they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run
that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is
temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown;
but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight
I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring
it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to
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others, I myself should be a castaway.”
If men, for no higher object than a wreath or perishable crown as
a reward of their ambition, subjected themselves to temperance in all
things, how much more should those be willing to practice self-denial
who profess to be seeking not only a crown of immortal glory, but a
life which is to endure as long as the throne of Jehovah, and riches
that are eternal, honors which are imperishable, and eternal weight of
glory.