The Health Reform as Connected with the Third Angel’s Message.
By R. F. Cottrell
The health reform is important to the people who believe the truth, and would be prepared for the trying times that lie between us and the coming of Christ. When people believe the message that warns of the time of trouble and the pouring out of the seven last plagues, they are then prepared to be interested in a reform that will strengthen their bodies and minds to endure the trial. The saying of the negro, that in being wise as serpents and harmless as doves, the mixture should be three parts of dove to one of serpent, sounds pretty well; but when we throw aside the idea of serpents and doves, and think only of wisdom and harmlessness, we shall discover that there is as great a demand for the former as for the latter. We do not found the health reform upon the law of Moses. If we did, we should go as far as that went and no farther—we should reject pork and other things declared to be unclean by the law, and eat beef and other kinds of flesh said to be clean. But we go farther, and say that even these are not the healthiest kinds of food; and from the fact that almost all these animals are diseased, more or less, and growing worse and worse in this respect, we take the ground that, viewed from the standpoint of health, the wisest course for us to pursue is to return to grains, fruits, and vegetables, the only diet given to man in the beginning, and that which is best adapted to promote health and strength. But although we are not bound by the law of Moses, yet “whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning”; and we may justly conclude that those things that were declared unclean and abominable, are not in their very nature as good and wholesome as those which were called clean. God did not act arbitrarily or by caprice in this matter. The subject of health reform should be handled judiciously. It will not do to press it upon those who are not yet convinced of the leading truths of the message. If men are so blind that they cannot see their obligation to moral law, they will need the compelling power of disease, or some strong appeal to self-love and self-preservation, to cause them to correct their habits and refrain from their violation of the physical law.