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Why Abstain From Meat?

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 2, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 44.

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Why Abstain From Meat?

By D. H. Kress

D. H. KRESS, M. D.
“It was because the Lord desired to make the children of Israel his representatives that he provided them with a special bill of fare. They were placed under careful restrictions in regard to their diet. The people were to be holy, and the Lord knew that the use of flesh-meats would be a hindrance to their advancement in spiritual life. The food provided for them was of a nature to promote physical, mental, and moral strength. If the Israelites had been given the diet to which they had been accustomed while in Egypt, they would have exhibited the unmanageable spirit that the world is exhibiting to-day. The human family as it is to-day, is an illustration of what the children of Israel would have been if God had allowed them to eat the food and follow the habits and customs of the Egyptians.”
In these days, just as truly as anciently, God desires a people that will represent him to the world. But to bring this about, he must again provide for them a special and separate bill of fare from the world. God knows that flesh eating still proves a hindrance to advancement in spiritual life, therefore attention has been called to the need of reforms in eating and drinking. If they should continue to eat the food to which they were accustomed in the world, they would exhibit the same unmanageable spirit that the world is exhibiting. All who refuse to accept these reforms in diet, will sooner or later become unmanageable and rebellious.
It is being fully demonstrated in the world to-day that the food God in the beginning provided for man is of a nature to promote physical, mental, and moral strength. Athletes are calling the attention of the athletic world to this truth. Men of mental and intellectual strength who have accomplished much through the adoption of food reform are speaking with no uncertain voice to the intellectual world in favor of these simple foods.
Men of spiritual and moral strength in the past and present testify by precept and example that the acquirement of Christian virtues is made easier by the adoption of simple, non-stimulating foods. Daniel and his three companions, men of both intellectual and moral worth, though dead, still speak in favor of these reforms. Moses, Caleb, and Joshua, men in whom dwelt an excellent spirit, fully co-operated with God in urging upon a rebellious people the need of abandoning the flesh of animals as food.
The leading doctors, physiologists, and scientists of to-day are calling attention to the advantages, physically, mentally, and morally, of a fleshless diet. They express their convictions based on science, personal experience, and laboratory experiments, as follows:—
Sir Henry Thompson, M. D., F. R. C. S., says: “It is a vulgar error to regard meat in any form as necessary to life. All that is necessary to the human body can be supplied by the vegetable kingdom. I know that much of the prevailing meat diet is not merely a wasteful extravagance, but a source of serious evil to the consumer.”
Alex. Haig, M. D., F. R. C. P., says: “That it is easily possible to sustain life on the products of the vegetable kingdom needs no demonstration for physiologists, even if a majority of the human race were not constantly engaged in demonstrating it; and my researches show not only that it is possible, but that it is infinitely preferable in every way, and produces superior powers both of mind and of body.”
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, in one of his sermons said: “I have known men who prayed for the grace of good temper in vain until their physician told them to stop eating meat; for they were of a peculiar temperament that could not endure such stimulation. So long as they ate animal food, they could not control themselves, they were so irritable; but as soon as they began living on a diet of grains and fruits, they were able to keep their temper. They sought in prayer relief from their irritableness. Their physician, by the aid of science, revealed to them the cause of that irritableness, and their prayer was answered. They were not unwise in praying, but they were wise when to prayer they added medical advice.”
Professor Gauthier, a noted French authority, from his laboratory observations of the influence of flesh on animals, says: “A flesh diet is a more important factor in determining a savage or violent disposition in any individual than the race to which he belongs. It is well known that the white rats of our laboratories, as long as they are fed on bread and grains, are very gentle, but when given flesh to eat, become quarrelsome and destructive.”
And Dr. Baron Liebig, another world-recognized authority, says: “The ingestion of flesh produces in the carnivorous races a ferocious and quarrelsome disposition which distinguishes them from herb eaters.”
From these statements it will be seen that God had the physical and spiritual good of Israel in view in withholding from them flesh-meats. He heard their prayers while in Egypt, and desired to save them from Egypt’s diseases and immorality, and purposed to do so by saving them from habits which were responsible for them.
He himself established for the good of mankind the relation that exists between sin and disease, between cause and effect. The effects are right, the causes are wrong. The effects are permitted to call attention to the causes. Our great burden therefore should not be to seek the removal of effects, but to ascertain and seek the removal of the causes which produce the effects.
The people to-day, as anciently, desire and seek God’s blessing of physical and spiritual health, but too often they are unwilling to co-operate with him in the removal of the obstacles which withhold these good things from them.
The history of Israel has been written for the benefit of all, and especially for the benefit of those upon whom the ends of the world are come, that they should not lust after evil things as they also lusted, and as a result be overthrown in the wilderness.
It certainly seems that the time has come when God’s professed people should cut loose from everything that defiles God’s temple, and put on the whole armor, that they may be able to stand, “and having done all, to stand.”
Wahroonga, N. S. W.