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

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 12, 1900

SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson ✠ W. S. Sadler

FOOD FOR SOUL AND BODY.

There is a physiology of the soul as well as a physiology of the body, and the same great principles govern the nourishment, growth, and disease of both.

Just as surely as there are proper and improper foods for the physical organism, so there is nourishment, both suitable and unsuitable, for the mind and soul. A poorly nourished body will eventually result in an impaired mind, while an impoverished mental diet will have a decidedly reflex influence upon bodily health and vigor. Hundreds of the many thousands of the inmates of insane asylums are there largely as the result of the unhealthful, unnatural, and exciting physical and mental diet upon which they have tried to subsist.

INTOXICATING LITERATURE.

There is “intoxicating literature” for the mind of man, just as there are intoxicating drinks and stimulating foods that act upon the physical nature. Fictitious, flashy, and sensational literature has the same effect upon the mind that alcohol, stimulating foods, etc., have on the body. This sort of mental food leads a man to exhibit symptoms of mental intoxication and moral derangement.

“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him,” is a trait of the divine character which is beautifully illustrated in every morsel of good food we eat; for just as a kind mother puts up for her child a lunch which, in her eyes, is the best that can be procured, each article being wrapped separately, so God has stored away each little particle of nutriment in a grain of wheat, in separate cells, dividing them by the finest tissue, providing in this way the daintiest and most ideal food for man. In the same manner God has stored away in the Bible the most ideal food for mind and soul: the Bible is the great standard of mental and moral food. That is not saying, however, that we are never to partake of any mental food that is not found within the covers of the Bible. On the other hand, all literature that does not conform to the Bible standard can not be regarded as the best and most suitable food for mind and soul.

THE BIBLE THE STANDARD OF PHYSICAL FOOD.

Inspiration is the standard by which all other literature should be judged. In the physical realm we may be guided by principles equally sure and certain. The foundation principles of the diet question are enunciated in Prov. 23:1: “When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee.” If we learn what principles should guide us when we sit down to eat with a ruler, it will not be difficult to determine how we should be guided at all times; for what is good at the king’s table is equally good at the board of the humble peasant. “Consider diligently what is before thee.” This does not mean merely a casual glance at the thickness or the size of the bread slices, or at the ornamental frosting of the cake. Yet this is usually the extent of the consideration given the food by those who sit at the table.

Intelligent human beings often manifest no more real judgment in the selection of their food than do some of the lower animals, who sniff various articles, finally choosing that which promises to yield the greatest gratification to the sense of taste. With most persons it is by far a greater question to determine what articles of diet will appeal the strongest to the palate, rather than to ascertain those containing the most strength and nourishment. The area of taste is about four inches long, but people never stop to consider how the food will suit the rest of the alimentary canal. The nutrition and digestibility of both spiritual and physical food is a question largely ignored to-day, by even the most intelligent persons.

PERVERTED TASTE AN UNSAFE GUIDE.

In the popular mind, the whole diet question has virtually resolved itself into the question, How will the food taste while passing over the first four inches of the alimentary canal? It is true that if man were in the natural state, these four inches ought to be able to determine what should enter the stomach; but the human appetite has become so perverted and depraved that the sense of taste can no longer be regarded a reliable judge of the nature and quality of the food we eat. The first question traveling men ask when they get off the train at the station is, “Where is the best eating-house?” They do not make this inquiry in order that they may obtain food that is the most nutritious, but that they may learn where such dishes as tickle the palate will be provided. Ninety-nine per cent of the people who consider at all what they eat, do so in a very superficial manner. Even a drunkard holds the glass of wine up, and notices how it sparkles, and wonders what its flavor will be.

“Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.” The Jews’ translation reads: “Thou puttest a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to a craving desire.” We have reached a time when the world is full of persons who are almost wholly controlled by their desires. Instead of normal appetites, they possess insatiable longings for things that are not bread. When you see a man who has a “craving desire” that is greater than his self-control, you see a man who is “putting a knife to his throat.” Both the Bible and human experience demonstrate the terrible consequences of slavery to appetite. Paul said, “I keep my body under.” If such a man as Paul had continually to fight his perverted physical tendencies, how necessary it is that every Christian should be on the alert not to transgress in even the slightest degree.

We often find men who, while they themselves smoke and drink, would be horrified at the thought of their promising sons or tender daughters following in their steps. A man should do nothing that he would not be perfectly willing for his son, his daughter, or his sister to imitate.

ONLY THE INJURIOUS ENSLAVES.

The only things to which we become slaves are the things that injure us. God has put up in the little lunch baskets, before spoken of, all the necessary nutriment required by the human system. Nature provides us food in such forms as are best adapted to nourish mind and body. Nature’s food sustains and strengthens both brain and muscle, instead of stirring up “craving desires” and producing perverted appetites. We can well substitute some other article of food for our fruits, or grains, or breads, but those who are slaves to the use of tea, coffee, and flesh-foods do not feel satisfied if these articles fail to constitute a considerable portion of the menu of each meal. Unnatural and stimulating food for the mind acts in identically the same manner. For instance, here is a girl, who, while she thinks she can get along well without reading her Bible each day, will sacrifice principle, duty, and almost anything for an opportunity to slip away by herself to read some cheap novel. The Bible, like a kernel of wheat, contains the highest and most ideal form of nutriment; but it is cast aside in the search for something that will stimulate and excite the emotions of the soul.

MORAL CONDIMENTS.

The average mind of to-day craves something that is seasoned with moral pepper and spread with spiritual mustard, otherwise it is “too tame and tasteless” to suit its pampered and perverted mental and moral appetites. If such persons would take more spiritual exercise, engage in some form of moral gymnastics, the appetite for this cheap, trashy literature would soon disappear, to be replaced by a desire for something more nutritious and wholesome—the word of God. You have no doubt seen young persons who could read a religious novel all night without any apparent fatigue, yet they could not, or would not, read such wholesome things as the story of Joseph, or the Acts of the Apostles, on the pretext that these are too “tame”—too dry and uninteresting. Paul, as well as the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, could do things to stir the whole world; while the authors of many of the popular religious novels of to-day, after all their philosophy, have been unable to accomplish even their own reformation. The mind must be fed on something better than what is being dished out from many of the modern pulpits as religion, even as we must feed our bodies on something better than what is being served in modern hotels and restaurants as food.

“Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.” Prov. 23:3. There is no excuse for our being disappointed by the use of deceitful meats when the Creator has supplied us with such a variety of wholesome and strength-giving foods. Neither is there a reason for starving the mind and soul with cheap and harmful literature when we have before us an open book filled with the principles of life, and light, and health.