p. 12 | A Reform Needed by C. A. Frederick

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 30, 1902

“A Reform Needed”

C. A. FREDERICK

SUCH is the title of a Testimony to this people in the REVIEW AND HERALD of May 27. Is it true that there should be a reform among Seventh-day Adventists?—So says the Lord. Then how eagerly should we devour what follows, and with the spirit of repentance bring our daily practice into harmony with his will. Listen to the opening paragraph in that warning:—

“If Seventh-day Adventists practiced what they profess to believe, if they were sincere health reformers, they would indeed be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. And they would show a far greater zeal for the salvation of those who are ignorant of the truth.”

What an arraignment! If we practiced what we profess to believe, we should show a far greater zeal in the work the Lord has placed upon us to perform. And what is the thing that many are doing which interferes with zeal, and in which we are warned that there is a “reform needed”? Listen again:—

“Greater reforms should be seen among the people who claim to be looking for the soon appearing of Christ. Health reform is to do among our people a work which it has not yet done. There are those who ought to be awake to the danger of meat eating, who are still eating the flesh of animals, thus

endangering the physical, mental, and spiritual health. Many who are now only half converted on the question of meat eating will go from God’s people, to walk no more with them.”

How plain and direct, and how terrible the consequences of disobedience! Many who ignore the loving admonition of Christ will “go from God’s people, to walk no more with them.” And what does that mean? Well may God’s people stop and consider. Again:—

“In all our work we must obey the laws which God has given, that the physical and spiritual energies may work in harmony. Men may have a form of godliness, they may even preach the gospel, and yet be unpurified and unsanctified. Ministers should be strictly temperate in their eating and drinking, lest they make crooked paths for their feet, turning the lame—those weak in the faith—out of the way. If while proclaiming the most solemn and important message God has ever given, men war against the truth by indulging wrong habits of eating and drinking, they take all the force from the message they bear.”

Are you pursuing such a course, my brother? are you violating this injunction, and “teaching men so” by your example? Are you, by wrong habits, taking all the force from the message you bear? God now calls upon both priests and people to humble themselves before him, and earnestly and prayerfully begin this reform that is needed. What is the result if we refuse? We shall turn the lame out of the way, the thing our Saviour is warning us against doing. How shall we answer God if we refuse to do and teach this truth? Hear again:—

“Those who indulge in meat eating, tea drinking, and gluttony are sowing seeds for a harvest of pain and death. The unhealthful food placed in the stomach strengthens the appetites that war against the soul, developing the lower propensities. The diet of flesh meat tends to develop animalism. A development of animalism lessens spirituality, rendering the mind incapable of understanding truth.”

“A harvest of pain and death” is being sown “because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you.” Num. 11:18–20. And whosoever shall see the sword coming, and refuse to sound the warning, will there not be blood upon his garments? My brethren, we must get nearer to God, and refuse not when he calls. Our Lord will place his power upon us when we draw near to him in obedience to all his requirements, and fit us physically for his soon coming. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”