NEARLY all the great religious reformers were also health reformers. John Wesley, who stirred England as no other man ever did, wrote a health book, and taught health principles in season and out of season with the same mighty power with which he taught spiritual truth. Can any of us afford to do less to-day? The following are a few of the many practical health ideas that Wesley advocated:
Wesley's Health Principles
“Abstain from all mixed, all high-seasoned food. Use plain diet, easy of digestion; and this as sparingly as you can consistent with ease and strength. All pickled or smoked or salted food, and all high-seasoned, is unwholesome.”
What he said to the early Methodist preachers applies equally well to any preacher to-day: “Are you temperate in all things? Take one instance, of food—do you use only that kind and that degree which is best for both the body and soul? Do you see the necessity of this? Do you eat no flesh suppers? No late suppers? These naturally tend to destroy the best health. You may know if you do by a load in the stomach, by drowsiness or heaviness, and in a while, by weak or bad nerves.”
He was also an enthusiastic advocate of fresh air. “When the nerves perform their office languidly, good air is the first requisite. The patient should rise early, and as soon as the dew is off the ground, take a walk.”
At a time when the use of stimulants was almost universal, he gave this teaching: “Strong and more especially spirituous liquors are a certain though slow poison. Experience shows there is very seldom any danger in leaving them off all at once.”
Every one knows of the deplorable consequences that result from the stoppage of the city sewer, but some have not yet learned that stagnation of the human sewerage system is of equally serious consequences to human health and happiness.
John Wesley was a man who had such a compelling message to humanity that he could hold spell-bound outdoor audiences ranging from635five thousand to twenty thousand people. But he had such a full appreciation of the dangers arising from autointoxication that he gave his people this practical advice: “Costiveness cannot long consist with health. Therefore care should be taken to remove it at the beginning, and when it is removed, to prevent its return by soft, cool, open diet; or take daily, two hours before dinner, a small teacupful of stewed prunes, or live upon bread made of wheat flour with all the bran in it.”
Wesley did not recommend his followers to dispense with physicians, for he said: “In uncommon or complicated diseases, where life is in immediate danger, let every one apply, without delay, to a physician that fears God. From one who does not, be his fame ever so great, I should expect a curse, rather than a blessing.” How does it happen that so few are observing these principles to-day? Does it not indicate backsliding, and that the time is ripe for another John Wesley?
Sylvester Graham and His Message
Seventy-five years ago, Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian clergyman, stirred not only that denomination, but the whole country, by his mighty proclamation of health truths. God must have seen that the gospel of health was important for that denomination, or He would not have raised up such a mighty man with such a mighty message. Graham anticipated by many years the conclusions of such modern investigators as Chittenden, Prof. Irving Fisher, and Horace Fletcher. He was interested in fundamental health truths instead of fads, and foundation principles never become out of date.
The Graham health movement swept over the entire country between the years of 1830 and 1840. He taught the people that distilled spirits, wine, beer, cider, tobacco, opium, coffee, tea, pepper, mustard, and every other kind of artificial stimulants and narcotics, should be totally abandoned, and that food should be taken in the natural and simple state, and plainly prepared, or cooked with no other seasoning than a very little salt, and eaten in moderate quantities, at regular periods, and well masticated, and that the bowels should be kept regular by unbolted wheat meal bread and fruit.
“Let the last meal of the day be simple and light, and at a good distance from bedtime. Never sleep on a full stomach.”
If that was orthodox Presbyterian doctrine seventy-five years ago, why is it not true to-day? Who will dare say that a similar message is not needed now?
A Bright Light at Oberlin
Two generations ago, God established Oberlin College for the Congregational Church. It was one of the most remarkable missionary training centers that the world has seen since the days of Luther. It was located in the heart of what was then the wilderness of Ohio. It was born in prayer. It was reared in adversity, as every divinely planted institution has been, and for years it proved to be a chosen instrument to forward both health and educational reform.
The founders of that institution stood firmly for great health and temperance ideals. They pledged themselves, by a solemn covenant, that in view of “the degeneracy of the church and the deplorable condition of our perishing world, we will, by industry, economy, and Christian self-denial, obtain as much as we can, above our necessary personal or family expenses, and faithfully appropriate the same for the spread of the gospel.”
“That we may have time and health for the Lord's service, we will eat only plain and wholesome food, renouncing all bad habits, and especially the smoking and chewing of tobacco, . . . and deny ourselves all strong and unnecessary drinks, even tea and coffee, as far as practicable, and everything expensive, that is simply calculated to gratify the palate.”
Our Sanitarium, Takoma Park, Washington, D.C.,
One of Thirty-Four Similar Institutions
Throughout the World
“That we may add to our time and health money for the service of the Lord, we will renounce all the world's expensive and unwholesome fashions of dress, particularly tight dressing and ornamental attire.”
The bread served on their tables was made from unbolted wheat flour. Good cream was preferred to butter. Flesh meat and fish in all forms were banished from their tables. Pastry was regarded as an abomination. Spices and fiery condiments were ruled out.
Young men and women whose hearts were aching for the divine touch, flocked to this wilderness educational headquarters as the people in ancient times came down to the river Jordan to listen to the teaching of John the Baptist. Thousands of students went out with their souls on fire with the gospel of Christ and saturated with reform truths, which they imparted to others wherever they went.
Like all reformers, they met with opposition; for remember, if you have no opposition, you are no reformer. The devil only lets us off easy when we let him off easy. When you hold aloft the standard of reform, you may be certain that “the enemy shall come in like a flood.” Isa. 59: 19.
No doubt God committed those vital health and temperance truths to the stewardship of these three great denominations, first of all because they needed them, and second because the world needed them as a part of their preparation to enable them to live through the perils of the last days, when sickness and suffering shall become almost universal.
A Personal Appeal
If you happen to be a member of one of these denominations, and are trampling underfoot some or all of these health reform truths, ask yourself why you are doing it. Remember the inspired words, “Keep that which is committed to thy trust.” 1 Tim. 6: 20.
If you are a member of some other church, or belong to no church at all, ask yourself if it is wisdom for you to continue to treat health reform principles as a joke, when you can read in your Bible, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” 1 Cor. 3: 17. Let the Spirit of God burn into your heart the startling significance of the following words: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? . . . Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” 1 Cor. 6: 19, 20.
You may say: “Nobody thinks that way these days. I never hear my minister talk from that verse.” What good will such an excuse do you when you are brought face to face with your Maker at the bar of God? He may say: “You lived in a land of Bibles. You knew that I raised up mighty health prophets to emphasize the importance of these truths. You were not dependent upon either your minister or public opinion.”
He “That Striveth for the Mastery”
The time has arrived when the words of Paul should come home to us with a new force, “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate [not in a few things but] in all things.” Paul did what many spiritual leaders fail to do. “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” In other words, he did not eat what he liked, when he knew it was not best for him. He did not drink what his appetite craved, just because it had become a habit. He did not trust his bodily instincts, for he knew them to be more or less perverted. He determined to be a reformer, even if he had to subdue and discipline some of his tastes, bodily instincts, and passions. Why did he endure all this painful experience? Let him answer: “Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Cor. 9: 25, 27.
Why Are They Outcasts?
There is the real reason why a thousand men and women to-day are outcasts who a few years ago were active Christian workers. And there you have also the story of tens of thousands more who are on the same road, who will come up in the day of Judgment and say, Lord, Lord, have we not preached in Thy name, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? No one will deny that; but O, the crushing disappointment of that hour when the Master shall declare to such: “I never knew you”! I never had a chance to come in and save you from yourself—to make you another Elijah or John the Baptist, a free man both spiritually and physically. So “depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7: 21, 23.
If you want to be saved then, you must give the Lord a chance to save you now. And remember that the God who wrote the Ten Commandments, is the same God who arranged the laws of life and health in your body; and it is just as great an insult to the Creator to despise one as it is to trample on the others. “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.”
