p. 298 | SWINE ABOMINATION by M. E. Cornell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 21, 1868

SWINE ABOMINATION.

By M. E. Cornell

The term swine may be said to be a synonym of “scavenger.” A scavenger is one that gathers up and carries off the filth. No animal in existence collects and consumes so much filth as the swine. Outside and inside, and in all its habits, the hog is the filthiest of the filthy. Wallowing in the most filthy places, and eating the most abominable garbage in existence, and being filled with scrofula and all corruption, the swine has become the representative of all abomination and uncleanness.

Look at that herd of swine. See how they scratch themselves against every stump, stone, and fence-corner. Now see them running, and squealing as they go, to cool themselves in the mud and water. They are burning with scrofula and itch, which they have during life.

Says Watson:

“In such detestation was the hog held by the Jews, that they would not so much as pronounce its name, but called it ‘The strange thing.’ * In impurity and grossness of manners, this creature stands almost unrivaled among the order of quadrupeds.”

Says the Religious Encyclopedia:

“It was avarice, a contempt of the law of Moses, and a design to supply the neighboring idolaters with victims, that caused whole herds of swine to be fed on the borders of Galilee. Whence the reason is plain of Christ’s permitting the devils to throw the swine into the lake of Gennesareth. Matt. viii, 32.”

The heathen nations could eat the swine and offer them in sacrifice to their gods, but God’s people were forbidden to even touch them.

“Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch: they are unclean to you.” Lev. xi, 8.

“Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean; and between unclean fowls, and clean; and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beasts, or by fowls, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.” Lev. xx, 25.

The prophet Isaiah speaks of a people that provoked God to his face, “which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels.” Chap. lxv, 4.

“They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together saith the Lord.” Chap. lxvi, 17.

Here we see that swine’s flesh is classed with the abomination and the mouse, and both are abominable things.

Dr. Clarke says the sentence in Matt. vii, 6, should be transposed thus:

“Give not that which is holy to dogs, Lest they turn again and rend you: Neither cast ye your pearls before swine, Lest they trample them under their feet.”

Here dogs and swine are classed together, both are unclean, and neither is fit to be food for man. Here it is custom to eat the hog, and in China, they eat rats and puppies! Where is the difference?

Can Bible believers use swine’s flesh for food? Can they eat such to the glory of God? Both reason and the Bible are against its use. The law of distinction between clean and unclean beasts was not ceremonial, but founded in nature. We are forbidden to eat swine, because it is unclean and not fit to eat. It is unhealthy food. Much of it is full of the trichina, or pork worm. Only think of eating thousands and millions of boiled and fried worms! It is certainly safest and best to abandon the use of pork forever. A word to the wise is sufficient.

“Our knowledge of the trichina” (tre-ki-na), says a writer in Moore’s Rural New Yorker, “dates from 1835. It was first described by Prof. Owen of England from species of muscle sent to him by a London anatomist.

“It appears that what has been called the ‘sausage poison,’ in Germany, causing the death of hundreds, is now proved to be the trichina spiralis infection. The symptoms were the same as the recent cases of this wonderful infection. ‘One instance occurred in Hettstadt in 1864. One hundred and three persons, mostly men in the prime of life, partook, on a festive occasion, of the German sausage, duly smoked and fried. The trichina disease appeared in several of these individuals the next day, and eighty-three out of the above number evidently died from the malady.

“It would be satisfactory to know whether trichina, and the disease caused by them, have always existed; but upon these points we must confess our entire ignorance. We know that a species of tapeworm is derived from ‘measly’ pork, and that the hog was pronounced an ‘unclean’ animal by the Jewish Lawgiver.

“The trichina is normally present in the rat, and is occasionally found in other animals, but its evil effects in the human family are due entirely to the use of pork. A pound of meat may contain 600,000 worms, and the hog affected to this extent appears to be in good condition, and finds a ready sale. We have remarked on the strange vitality of the trichina. It will remain alive after the meat has become putrid or frozen. When taken into the human stomach, the cyst dissolves and liberates the worm. In two days it increases to two or three times its former size; and in about a week the female trichina brings forth its living young, each month produces from 100 to 200, and perhaps repeating the operation several times before it dies, or is expelled from the body. The minute young worms penetrate the intestines, and in a very short time find their way to the muscles, where they rest, and after a short period cease to grow. They then become invested with the cyst, &c. It is estimated that 30,000,000 may exist in an adult subject.

“No breed of swine is exempt from trichina.”

M. E. CORNELL.