SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH by David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 13, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 46.

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SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson and W. S. Sadler

MILK.

(Concluded.)

DIFFICULTY IN PRESERVING HARMONY BETWEEN MILK AND OTHER FOOD ELEMENTS IN THE HUMAN STOMACH.

Many have learned by experience that milk and vegetables are not an ideal combination. The reason for this is clearly set forth in the following statements by Dr. Kellogg: “Milk and vegetables are a bad combination for the reason that the vegetables, being coarse and not easily dissolved, are retained in the stomach for a considerable time. The casein, or cheesy portion, is precipitated upon the woody, indigestible vegetable fiber, and fermentation takes place. The vegetables themselves are slow to undergo fermentation when taken alone, but the adhering casein readily undergoes putrefactive changes. The hydrochloric acid, which exerts an antiseptic influence, ceases to do this after the second hour of digestion; so food retained in the stomach five or six hours readily undergoes decomposition.”

STERILIZATION OF MILK.

Milk may be more or less sterilized by several different methods:—

1. By Pasteurization, which simply means raising the temperature of the milk to 150 or 160° F., for ten or twenty minutes. By this process most of the germs are either killed or temporarily paralyzed, and yet the heat is not sufficient to produce any change in the casein of the milk.

2. By Boiling.—When milk is brought to the boiling point, more germs are killed than by simply subjecting it to a temperature of 150 or 160°; but even this is not sufficient to destroy all the germ growth; for the spores, from which new germs will hatch out, are not destroyed by the boiling temperature. Most mothers would probably think this last process an unreasonable waste of time; and yet, as a result of neglecting to give proper attention to such details, they are often compelled to care for a sick baby, and spend nights walking the floor, wringing their hands in agony, because of their inability to relieve the child’s suffering.

3. Complete Sterilization.—If it is desired to preserve milk for a number of days while on a journey, the best plan is to put it into air-tight bottles, and boil it for fifteen or twenty minutes for three successive days. A large share of the spores will hatch out the second day, and then these germs will be destroyed by this second boiling, and the rest are supposed to be hatched out by the third day, and will be destroyed by the last boiling.

4. Boiling in Solution of Brine.—Ordinary water boils at 212° F., while brine made sufficiently strong to become a saturated solution of salt, does not begin to boil until heated to 230°. If the milk is placed in an air-tight bottle, with an arrangement to prevent the cork from escaping, and then placed in this solution of brine and boiled for half an hour, not only the germs but also the spores will be destroyed. Such milk will keep indefinitely. Milk was recently exhibited that was put through this process ten years ago, at the Sanitarium Laboratory of Hygiene, and was found to be perfectly sweet. The only precaution necessary is not to remove the bottles from the brine while it is hot, as they are liable to burst. Do not remove the bottles from the vessel of brine until the brine has had time to cool.

5. Boiling under Steam Pressure.—Milk may be effectually sterilized by putting it into bottles, as already described, and then placing them in a steam boiler, where, by the application of steam pressure, the temperature can be raised to any desired height. By this process, not only the germs, but their spores as well, can be destroyed in a few minutes. This is the method usually employed when milk is sterilized on an extensive scale.

EFFECT OF BOILING ON DIGESTIBILITY.

Some of the most eminent authorities are beginning to discredit the idea that milk is to any special degree rendered more indigestible by being boiled. In fact, some maintain that the coagulum formed in the first stage of digestion is more flocculent and less bulky in boiled than in unboiled milk. See Schafer’s Physiology, page 126; Foster’s Physiology, page 24.

SUBSTITUTES FOR MILK.

Children who have to be brought up on artificial foods are usually frail and weakly. Possibly the ideal substitute for milk has not yet been produced; but if disease continues to increase among animals as it has for the last few years, it is certainly to be hoped that some substitute for mother’s milk, other than cow’s milk, may be provided, when there must be substitution.

SPIRITUAL LESSONS FROM THE STERILIZATION OF MILK.

In order to keep indefinitely, milk must be thoroughly sterilized. One boiling, while it may serve to destroy the germs, fails to kill the spores; and these, hatching out the next day, again contaminate the milk. In a man’s spiritual experience we have the analogy of this. The Lord recognizes the necessity of dealing with man in different ways. This is clearly brought to view in Job 33. In the fifteenth verse the Lord represents himself as speaking unto man the first time: he speaks to the man alone, from himself. The sixteenth verse says, “He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.” Here he represents himself as sealing these instructions, or speaking the second time by sending some one else to advise the man concerning the error of his way. In the nineteenth verse we read, “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain.” Here we find God speaking the third time, by pain and disease. All this is for the one great purpose expressed in the seventeenth verse, “That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.”

As already learned, if ordinary sterilization is not sufficient, brine may be added to the water, which will raise the boiling point eighteen degrees. So the Lord, if ordinary efforts are not successful in showing us the error of our way or the folly of our purpose, emphasizes the medium of communication—he sterilizes us in brine, as it were. Briny tears may freely flow, thus indicating the trouble of mind and sorrow of soul that we experience as a result of our inability to see the purpose of God clearly expressed at an earlier point in our experience.

The third way of sterilizing milk is under pressure. So our Heavenly Father often finds it necessary to subject his erring children to great pressure. If we fail to yield, the pressure is increased from day to day, until ultimately the greatness of the pressure under which we fail to yield our purpose and plans of sin, will be transformed from a means of correction into one of destruction. The ultimate disclosure, which will be made when the bursting point is reached, will reveal to this world and to the universe nothing but what was really within, to correct which God applied this pressure of adversity, calamity, and trial. Submission to the providence of God and the trial of our faith would have corrected these things, and enabled God finally to present us “faultless before the presence of his glory.” Failure to be thus corrected by the trial of affliction or the pressure of adversity is sure eventually to disclose, to the gaze of men and angels, both the sins and the purposes, although oftentimes secret and hidden, from which God was so earnestly seeking to deliver us.

SPIRITUAL LESSON FROM THE GERM SPORES IN MILK.

In order to keep indefinitely, milk must be thoroughly sterilized each day for three successive days. This is because of the fact that the first sterilizing, while it may destroy all germs present, does not destroy their spores, or eggs, which may be present in the milk; but by the third day these spores have all hatched out, and are then readily destroyed by the boiling temperature.

There is a lesson in this for every struggling Christian. A great effort is made to overcome wrong tendencies of character, and it would seem that the germs of sin had been destroyed. God’s fiery trials, to all appearances, had thoroughly sterilized us; and yet, to our surprise, on the morrow we find these same things creeping out in our experience. What can this mean?—It means that we still have our sinful flesh, and that there are yet the spores of sin in it; and further, that we must ever keep watch for the development of these traits of character, ever be on our guard, ready to suppress them when they appear; for even Paul said that he lived in fear lest, after having preached the gospel to others, he himself should be a castaway. It is one thing to get rid of sin, “the transgression of the law,” and another thing to be rid of sinful flesh, with its liability to transgress. The first deliverance may be effected in a moment, by simple faith in Christ; the second is one for which we wait; namely, the redemption of our bodies.