WHAT YOU NEET TO EAT 8
Those who do
not control their appetites in eating are guilty of intemperance. In those
cases where men lose all sense of their obligation to God, their families, and
to community, it is a slow process. They are not changed from the kind husband
and father at once. It takes time to degrade them to beasts, where they become
mere wrecks of humanity. With many, their first error is in making a god of
their appetite, subsisting mostly on highly-seasoned animal food which produces
a feverish state of the system, especially if pork is used freely. The blood
becomes impure. The circulation is not equalized. Chills and fever follow. The
appetite fails. They think something must be done, and perhaps send for ale,
which stimulates for the time, but as soon as the influence of the ale is gone
they sink as much lower, and a continual use of the ale keeps them stimulated
and over-excited. They think that the ale was of so much benefit to them, they
must continue its use. After a while it loses its influence, then they use a
stronger beverage, until they give themselves up to every excess, and man
formed in the image of his Maker degrades himself lower than the beasts. It
required time to benumb the sensibilities of the mind. It was done gradually,
but surely.
Tobacco, in whatever form it is used,
tells upon the constitution. It is a slow poison. It affects the brain and
benumbs the sensibilities, so that the mind cannot clearly discern spiritual
things, especially those truths which would have a tendency to correct this
filthy indulgence. Those who use tobacco in any form are not clear before God.
In such a filthy practice it is impossible for them to glorify God in their
bodies and spirits, which are his. And while they are using slow and sure poisons,
which are ruining their health, and debasing the faculties of the mind, God
cannot approbate them. He may be merciful to them while, they indulge in this
pernicious habit in ignorance of the injury it is doing them, but when the
matter is set before them in its true light, then they are guilty before God if
they continue to indulge this gross appetite.
God
required the children of Israel to observe habits of strict cleanliness. In any
case of the least impurity they were to remain out of the camp until evening,
then to wash themselves and come into the camp. There was not a tobacco-user in
that vast army. If there had been, he would have been required to choose to
remain out of the camp, or cease the use of the filthy weed. And after
cleansing his mouth from the least of its filthy remains, he might have been
permitted to mingle with the congregation of Israel
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