Faith and Works

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Faith and works are the two oars with which we are to make our way in the Christian life. The Lord calls upon all who think they know what faith is, to be sure that they are not pulling with only one oar, and their little bark going round and round, making no progress at all. Faith without intelligent works is dead. Faith in the healing power of God will not save unless it is combined with good works.

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Many are made sick by the indulgence of their appetite. They eat what suits their perverted taste, thus weakening the digestive organs, and injuring their power to assimilate the food required to sustain life. The stomach is often made to do at one meal the work of two or three meals. So many varieties are introduced into the stomach that fermentation is the result. This condition brings on acute disease, and death frequently follows. Sin indeed lies at the door, which is the mouth.

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Let all heed the instruction which has been given on this subject. Let them strive to bring appetite under the control of reason. Mothers and fathers, God calls upon you to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. When you do for yourselves what as faithful servants of God you should do, you will be prepared to lead your children step by step in safe, healthful paths, and in ways of righteousness. Wake up to your responsibilities!

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When speaking to persons on the subject of health, they often say, «We know a great deal better than we do.» They do not realize that they are accountable for every ray of light in regard to their physical well-being, and that their every habit bears the inspection of God. He made the human body. We are his property, bought with a price — and what a price!

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Every organ, every fiber of our being, is to be sacredly guarded from every harmful practise, if we would not be among the number that Christ represents as walking in the same dishonorable path as did the inhabitants of the world before the flood. Those in this class will be appointed to destruction, because they have persisted in carrying lawful habits to extremes, and have created and indulged habits that have no foundation in nature, and that become warring lusts.

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Our habits of eating and drinking show whether we are of the world or among the number that the Lord by his mighty cleaver of truth has separated from the world. These are his peculiar people, zealous of good works.

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The mass of the inhabitants of this world are destroying for themselves the true basis of the highest earthly interest. They are destroying their power of self-control, and making themselves incapable of appreciating eternal realities. Willingly ignorant of their own structure, they lead their children in the same path of selfish indulgence, causing them to suffer the penalty of the transgression of nature’s laws. They go to distant countries to seek a better climate, but their stomach will create for them a malarious atmosphere wherever they may locate. Thus they bring upon themselves sufferings that no one can alleviate.

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God calls upon us to stand upon the broad platform of temperance in eating, drinking, and dressing. Parents, will you not awaken to your God-given responsibilities? Study the principles of health reform, and teach your children that the path of self-denial is the only path of safety.

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Obedience to the laws of life must be made a matter of personal duty. We must answer to God for our habits and practises. The question for us to answer is not, «What will the world say?» but, «How shall I, claiming to be a Christian, treat the habitation God has given me? Shall I work for my highest temporal and spiritual good by keeping my body as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? or shall I sacrifice myself to the world’s ideas and practises?»

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It is our duty to study the laws that govern our being, and to conform to them. Ignorance in these things is sin. We cannot do as we please with our bodies; for they are God’s property. «Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.»