AUTO-INTOXICATION, OR HOW A MAN MAY POISON HIMSELF by David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 22, 1901

AUTO-INTOXICATION, OR HOW A MAN MAY POISON HIMSELF

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

(Continued)

SOURCES OF POISON WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE BODY

Indigestion and Fermentation in the Alimentary Canal.—The battle for life does not always have to be waged against substances taken into the body from without. See Diagram 4, in last week's REVIEW. Frequent poisons that seriously threaten life are developed within the body. Sometimes the alimentary canal becomes a paradise for germs, which are an active cause of auto-intoxication. The carbohydrates (starch family) furnish the medium for those particular microbes that produce acid fermentation, which, although more uncomfortable and painful, is less harmful than protein decomposition. The proteins of the food are seized upon by germs that produce putrefaction and decomposition. In this case, there is not likely to be any acids or gas present, and so the only intimation the person has that he is being thus poisoned, may be a sense of lassitude, dull headache, etc.; and a continuation of this condition will certainly lay the foundation of a long train of physical evils.

One of the first great sources of moral poisoning and spiritual stumbling is moral dyspepsia, or the failure to digest spiritual food.

Undigested Spiritual Food.—Physical food undigested becomes an immediate source of poison to the body; and so divine truth unappropriated, unassimilated, by the soul, becomes at once a source of moral poisoning to the spiritual nature. That which, if received by the soul, would have nourished it and made it strong, if unassimilated becomes a source of present poisoning and future contamination. See branch 2 of Diagram 5, last week. Spiritual food must be masticated and digested. The work of mastication is done by the mind, while the work of digestion is done in the heart, by faith—the great spiritual digestive agent. “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Heb. 4: 2. The words of God are of no profit to those who fail to mix faith with their hearing. The Christian who undertakes to walk by sight is doomed to the ills and woes of spiritual indigestion. “The just shall live by faith.”

Looked at from another standpoint, this question of spiritual indigestion is one of “theory versus practice.” The man who has in his mind a theory of truth, but fails to give it a suitable expression in his life, is a man in whose spiritual life truth fails of proper digestion. Theory is but an ingenious apology for our failure to possess that which we profess. On the other hand, the practice of truth constitutes an unerring symptom of the healthy activities of mind and soul in their work of receiving, digesting, assimilating, and expending the nutrition and energy that divine truth has stored in it for the nourishment and activity of man's moral nature. However great the truth recognized by the intellectual man, and received by him intellectually, if unbelief reigns in his heart, that truth, with its divine energy and transforming power, can never become a part of his character. On the other hand, it will remain, with him, a source of moral condemnation, poisoning, and final destruction. Faith is absolutely essential to the reception and appropriation of things divine in human experience. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.”

Tissue Breakdown.—Another active tributary to this stream of poison is broken-down tissue, produced by the normal activities of the body. Every particle of heat that is formed, every movement of a muscle, and, in fact, every thought we think, occasions a certain amount of tissue waste, which, if not properly removed, would soon overwhelm bodily activity (see branch 3, in Diagram 4, last week), even as the ashes of the stove, if allowed to accumulate, invariably tend to smother the fire. One of the most important of these products is carbon dioxide, which is thrown off by the lungs. If respiration is interfered with for only a few moments, human life is greatly endangered by the accumulations of these poisons within the system. Urea, uric acid, and other organic poisons are eliminated by the kidneys in sufficient quantities to occasion death in about thirty hours if their elimination should entirely cease.

Backsliding, and Moral Disintegration, or Failure to Walk in the Light.—On the diagram (No. 5, in last week's issue) the third source of moral poisoning is shown to be failure to walk in the light. “If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” Matt. 6: 23. If we fail to walk in it, the heavenly light we have received, with its divine power to illuminate the soul, to lead from darkness into light, becomes a veritable source of moral darkness. As the food within the body, undigested, is left to ferment and putrefy, dealing out poisons to the body; just so the light of life, unreceived, not lived up to, by the soul of man, becomes the very source of darkness and death within him. The Creator allows the creature to choose his own course, and form his own destiny. Heaven sheds light upon earth. If light is not wanted, and man loves darkness rather than light (John 3: 19), then the unwelcome light becomes to him darkness; and thus sinful man is allowed to have his choice at the expense of the enlightenment of his mind and the salvation of his soul. The consequence of neglecting and rejecting light is spiritual darkness and moral death.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8: 12. Jesus spoke of the light of life. Both in a physical and in a spiritual sense, light is life, while darkness is death. While the sun shines, the plant manufactures starch; but during the night even the plant itself begins to prey upon the starch it has made during the day. In the light we live, grow, and develop. In darkness, we retrograde, decay, and backslide. Paul said: “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” God designed that the Christian

should live, and act, as in the noontide blaze of divine light and power from the throne above.

Abnormal Production of Normal Secretions.—Even the very fluids that are secreted by the body for the purpose of transforming the food elements so that they can be properly utilized, as well as those secretions which otherwise assist the body in a variety of ways, sometimes become either so exaggerated in quantity or so perverted in quality that they actually become sources of poison. See branch 4, in Diagram 4, last week. This is well illustrated by the poisonous saliva produced in some of the lower animals when diseased or irritated. The excessive secretion of gastric juice, as in hyperpepsia; the absorption of an excessive quantity of bile, as in jaundice, are examples familiar to all. The pouring out of large quantities of mucus, whether in catarrhal conditions of the nasal cavity or of the stomach, furnishes still another illustration; while the excessive formation of other more obscure secretions, which are manufactured by the thyroid glands, produces some of the most serious conditions of the human body.

Fanaticism, or Perversions of Spiritual Life.—The fourth source of trouble to the soul, as we have noticed, is fanaticism, or perversion of the normal spiritual life. See branch 4, in Diagram 5, last week. When the liver secretes too much bile, although a normal and useful secretion of the body, the patient is said to be suffering from jaundice. The secretion of too much gastric juice in the stomach gives rise to a condition termed hyperpepsia. These fluids of the body are all normal and useful fluids, but when secreted in excessive and abnormal quantities, become a source of mischief and trouble. And so in the spiritual experience. The many fruitful fields of emotion, thought, and exercise of the soul are all useful and helpful, but when perverted, or when the mind is allowed to run at length upon some particular phase of spiritual experience, or some single Bible truth, the result is very often the development of that state of mind and soul so generally known as “fanaticism.”

Fanaticism is simply the abnormal production on the part of the soul of what would, under other circumstances, be a normal, helpful, and perhaps useful exercise. The person who has a tendency to extremes is affected with fanaticism in one of its milder forms. These things are sources of great hindrance, and are a detriment to spiritual progress and moral development. Just as the saliva, so useful in normal quantities, becomes poisonous to the body when secreted in abnormal quantities, so the useful exercises of prayer, Bible study, testifying, etc., which are essential and helpful to the development of the soul, if allowed to become abnormal, become deterrents to the soul's progress.

Fanaticism frequently has its origin in some physical cause, mental weakness, or hereditary peculiarity. The confirmed dyspeptic is liable to be a little erratic in his religious experience at some point. Many a one has lost his mind for fear of the unpardonable sin or the burning hell. This mental condition was largely produced by the ever-present burning of a sour stomach, from which no relief was found day or night. Soul and body are closely united, and what influences the one reacts upon the other. In a large majority of cases it will be found that the religious fanatic has a physical basis for his trouble. Still other instances are no doubt the result of mental weakness, the mind having become undermined by physical disease, excessive worry, or disappointment. Others have hereditary tendencies, which lend their influence readily to fanaticism; and fanaticism on one point exerts a deteriorating influence upon all the motives, plans, and actions of the soul.

Contaminated Air.—One great source of poison to the body is impure air. See branch 5, Diagram 5, last week. Of all persons in the world, the Christian should be thoroughly awake to the importance of proper ventilation. There is no other requirement of the body half as imperative as the demand for air. A person may live for weeks entirely deprived of food, and for days without even a drop of water; but life ceases in a few minutes when air is absolutely excluded from the human system. If a person eliminates enough poison through the lungs every few minutes to destroy his life, unless relieved of it, is it not equally dangerous for one in a poorly ventilated room to inhale a large percentage of this same poison-laden air? The day of God alone will reveal how many victims consumption has claimed simply because it found an easy foothold in lungs that were already crippled by constantly breathing contaminated air. The average person throws off enough poison at each breath to contaminate half a barrel of air, to such a degree that it ought not to be breathed again. A proper system of ventilation should provide an inlet and outlet for three thousand cubic feet of air each hour for each person in the room. The prevailing spirit of the age is a demand for labor-saving devices. Why should we not be as anxious to introduce life-saving devices, and do all in our power to add to our comforts on this sin-cursed earth, by promoting and cultivating health?

Worldly Atmosphere.—A worldly atmosphere, or association with unconsecrated men and women, is one of the surest means of producing leanness of soul and darkness of mind. See branch 5, Diagram 5, last week. The Christian who would grow in grace, and maintain a high degree of spiritual resistance, must constantly seek the company of those who fear God and reverence His name. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” 1 Cor. 15: 33. The demands of fashion and society, and the general spirit of worldliness, which is gaining ground in the hearts of many professed Christians, constitute an atmosphere that is blighting and making shipwreck of the Christian experience of a large number who have been beguiled into yielding to these temptations to engage in pleasure, amusement, and other digressions that invariably accompany the exposure of one's self to the influence of a worldly atmosphere.