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

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 5, 1901

SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson W. S. Sadler

AUTO-INTOXICATION, OR HOW A MAN MAY POISON HIMSELF

HOW THE SOUL PROTECTS ITSELF AGAINST SPIRITUAL INACTIVITY, DOCTRINAL ERRORS, SATANIC DECEPTIONS, AND OTHER MORAL POISONS

How does the spiritual nature protect itself from encroachments from without and from evil influences within? To answer this question necessitates the study of what we might term moral elimination, or the process whereby the spiritual economy is able sometimes to maintain its existence in the face of overwhelmingly adverse circumstances and unfavorable conditions. How are the morals kept pure? How does the soul protect itself from the surrounding darkness of sin and iniquity? As the incessant elimination of physical poisons through the lungs, skin, and kidneys is absolutely necessary to the maintenance of bodily activities, just so there are certain functions of the soul by whose incessant activity the spiritual nature is purified and kept pure. These constitute the process which, for lack of better terms, we here call spiritual elimination.

With this brief introduction, let us consider the various means by which the spiritual nature protects itself from external and internal influences of a demoralizing and deteriorating nature. See Diagram 5, in the REVIEW of January 8.

1. By Prayer, or Spiritual Respiration.—Death will result quicker from the cessation of respiration than from any other cause; and so prayer, which might be regarded as the respiration of the soul, is one of the vital points in the Christian’s experience. Cease to pray, and you will backslide quicker than from any other known cause. “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thess. 5:17. Pray without ceasing, because it is necessary for the health of the soul that the Christian should ever be breathing out his will and his mind, and breathing in God’s will and Christ’s mind. Our attitude should ever be that of the Master, as He prayed in Gethsemane, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Prayer is an attitude of submission to God, dependence upon God, and confidence and trust in God. Prayer is one of the great channels by which the moral, or spiritual, nature of man is enabled to maintain its purity and resist error. Let the entire being be so consecrated and surrendered to the divine Mind that we shall be able to move in harmony with God,—in harmony with the divine order, in business, in society, at church, and at home.

If prayer be regarded as the breathing of the soul, it is evident that it can not be suppressed nor neglected for a moment without working serious injury to the moral being. It is well to ask, “What would Jesus do if He were here?” but a still more practical truth is found in the admonition, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” By means of incessant prayer, unbroken communion with God, it is possible for the humblest Christian to fortify himself against Satan’s temptation, to overcome his sophistries, and to detect his deceptions. We should ever be found in an attitude of prayer, surrendering our will, and taking God’s will, yes, praying without ceasing.

2. By the Ministry of the Holy Spirit, or Spiritual Oxidation.—All food taken into the stomach for digestion and subsequent assimilation must ultimately be oxidized,—that is, burnt up, converted into heat, force, energy, etc.,—to be utilized in the activities of mind and body. Interference with this process of oxidation is sure to result in conditions of impaired nutrition and physical disease. And so it is with the nourishment of the soul; our spiritual food must not only be masticated, digested,—accepted,—but it must be assimilated; it must actually become a part of the soul. It must be acted upon by the Spirit of God; it must have its energy and power liberated by this divine process. The Holy Spirit is the fire of the spiritual economy. David wrote, “While I was musing, the fire burned.” Truth not acted upon by the Holy Spirit becomes to the soul a foreign substance, a spiritual poison. With mind and will surrendered to the purpose of God, thus allowing the Holy Spirit to act upon all the light we receive, we make it a part of us. Without this, spiritual food of the deepest nature and the richest quality will prove in the end the condemnation of our soul.

In 1 Thess. 5:19 we are bidden, “Quench not the Spirit.” The effect of worldliness and selfishness is to quench the Spirit of God, and thus to extinguish the fires of the soul, to put out the burnings of the spiritual nature; and in this state great truths and glorious light fall unappreciated and unappropriated; moral malnutrition and ultimate starvation stare us in the face. How cold, how careless, and how indifferent to his own soul’s welfare and the salvation of his fellow beings does such a one become—all because of failure to heed the vital and solemn injunction, “Quench not the Spirit.”

3. By the Word of God, or Spiritual Illumination.—The word of God in revelation and nature is one of the great means by which the soul may resist error, and keep itself pure. The soul that drifts away from revelation is soon filled with darkness and doubt. Without revelation, the greatest scientists become skeptics, just as, without science, the most pious souls become superstitious. True science and true religion go hand in hand. The revelation of God to man is the means by which inferior and diseased spiritual food is detected; errors and deceptions are found out, and the moral diet is kept pure. Revelation is the great signboard of heaven on earth, dispelling doubt and perplexity from the mind of the weary pilgrim who questions at the crossroads of life, “Which way shall I go?”

By the Spirit of God within, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it,” together with the signboards of revelation and the waymarks of prophecy, the sincere Christian is enabled to avoid the many bypaths, which would allure him into the way of sin and destruction. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” John 15:3. “Wherewithal,” asked the psalmist, “shall a young man cleanse his way?” Then comes the answer, “By taking heed thereto according to thy word.” The word of God is the power, and the only power, that can stem the

tide of moral defilement in the world to-day, in the forms of skepticism, Spiritualism, Christian science, infidelity, higher criticism, etc.

4. By Working for Others, or Spiritual Exercise.—Christian work, Christian Help work, personal work, working for others,—these are the avenues through which the soul lives, acts, and works. The soul that works only for self can hardly be said to work at all; for selfishness is incompatible with the exercise, growth, and perfection of the spiritual nature. Physical exercise is the most efficient means of maintaining a high degree of physical health; and moral exercise is none the less essential and indispensable to the maintenance of spiritual health and soul activity. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27. Religion is kept pure by visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction; and the man or woman who is engaged in this work will find little difficulty in keeping unspotted from the world.

The soul that heartily engages in unselfish effort to raise the fallen, rescue the perishing, and care for the dying, is a soul in whose arteries the divine life will pulsate with throbs of health and energy. Christ said: “I came . . . not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me;” also, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Let a Christian fail regularly and faithfully to take this exercise,—his moral exercise,—and his soul is sure to be filled with doubts, darkness, and despair. There is but one condition on which spiritual happiness and moral prosperity may be the lot of fallen man; and that is the condition that he is willing to spend and be spent unselfishly for the good of his fellow men. The same all-wise Creator that said to Adam, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” says also, to every Christian, Thou shalt earn thy strength of soul and peace of mind by the spirit of self-sacrifice, by which thou shalt unselfishly labor to uplift thy fallen brother.

5. By Trials and Tribulation.—In the study of physical auto-intoxication, we learned that fever is the safety valve, arranged by divine foresight to save the man from death in case of a great influx of poison into the system, coupled with crippled elimination; and so the loving Creator has arranged for the soul of man a similar provision in case the dangers from error without and darkness within become too great,—in case the privilege of prayer is neglected and the operation of the Holy Spirit is quenched. In this time of serious danger, God sends tribulations and sometimes fiery trials. 1 Peter 4:12. If man will not exchange his will for the divine will; if he persists in smothering the spirit of prayer; if he refuses to allow the Holy Spirit to burn within to consume the dross of selfishness and sin, God does not leave him alone to perish. He now puts the much-loved soul into a fiery furnace. Very often it would seem that He allows the hand of the arch-deceiver to kindle the fire that is to purify the Christian’s soul. But bear in mind that this is more precious than the trial of gold that perisheth, even though it be by fire. And remember that the trial of our faith worketh patience; “patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us.” Rom. 5:3–5.