Influence of Food on the Home Life
By Lauretta E. Kress
Sunshine, Air, and Non-Stimulating Foods — Helping to Answer Our Prayers — Spirituality and Indigestion By LAURETTA E. KRESS, M. D. THE Creator never designed that man should experience suffering or sorrow. In the beginning, man was made perfect, with the possibility of developing a holy character, and living forever. Every needed provision for the development of such a character and the maintenance of life was made. Man’s home was to be the open air, with the canopy of heaven as a ceiling. The sunshine and the pure air were among the means to be used by the Creator in ministering to him life. His occupation consisted in dressing and training the vines of the garden. Activity was necessary to quicken the circulation of the blood, by means of which life ministered by air, sunshine, and food, could be carried to the brain, keeping it in a healthy condition, susceptible to divine influences and promptings, thus making character building and eternal prolongation of life possible. His food consisted of seeds, nuts, and fruits. In these products there lurked no evil. Only life and energy were stored up in them. They were also perfectly adapted to man’s needs. Out of them a maximum amount of life might be obtained, with a minimum amount of work on the part of the digestive organs. To the lower creatures, the green herbs of the field were given for food. These also we find perfectly adapted to their needs, but they were not the most suitable for man. SUNSHINE, AIR, AND PROPER FOOD
God intended that man should constantly partake of His life through sunshine, air, and food. Therefore the development of his character and the continuance of his life depended upon a constant recognition of these means by which God had chosen to communicate it to him. To despise any one of these could result only in loss. Man was persuaded by the tempter that altogether too much stress was laid upon the matter of eating. He asked, Has God said you shall not eat of everything you want? The woman acknowledged that they were warned to eat only the good. Ah, he said, this is only a fad, a craze. “Ye shall not surely die.” It is a food to be desired, having a wonderfully vivifying and stimulating effect on the mind. By eating it, “ye shall be as gods.” PROBABLY MOMENTARY STIMULATION
Eve was persuaded to test the matter. “She took, . . . and did eat.” She probably experienced no sensation of death, but may have felt momentary stimulation. She could now speak from her own personal experience, and no doubt she affirmed that it was really a food “to be desired to make one wise.” She persuaded her husband to partake of the new delicacy. This deception became a part of Eve. It was woven into her character, and transmitted as an inheritance to her posterity, so that by natural instinct alone we can no longer discern accurately between the good, and the good and evil in combination, and like her we too often ignorantly choose the latter. Men and women under this deception act as though they were afraid of the pure air, and prefer to live in an atmosphere laden with organic impurities, tobacco smoke, etc. The bright sunshine is regarded as an enemy carrying destruction in its beams, instead of health. The food originally given to man is despised, as being insufficient to make one strong and wise; and anything, even to the slimy, germ-covered oyster, is taken in preference to the food containing only life. The result of this departure from the original plan was predicted by the Creator, to persuade man to choose again the good. To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception,” and “thy husband . . . shall rule over thee.” There is but one remedy for the race, and that is, a return to the original plan. Pure air, plenty of sunshine, agreeable work, and the simple food products of the earth prepared in as natural a form as possible, free from grease and condiments, will do much toward lessening woman’s sorrows, and making a loving, considerate man out of the rash and impetuous husband. Preaching has its place, but to throw the seed on ground not prepared for it is useless. Truths are frequently powerless, as far as transformation of character is concerned, when thrown upon minds corrupted by blood laden with impurities. SOMETHING TO DO IN ANSWERING OUR PRAYERS
Henry Ward Beecher, in one of his sermons, gave an admirable illustration of physiological theology, in the following words: “It is not enough for you to pray that God will give you self-control. You are to study it, both according to the law of moral truth and the law of physical truth. If men would go to their physicians, they frequently would find an answer to prayer in the revelations of truth concerning their structure. “I have known men who prayed for the grace of good temper in vain, until their physician told them to stop eating meat; for they were of a peculiar temperament that could not endure such stimulation. So long as they ate animal food, they could not control themselves, they were so irritable; but as soon as they began living on a diet of grains and fruits, they were able to keep their temper. They sought, in prayer, relief from their irritableness. Their physician, by the aid of science, revealed to them the cause of that irritableness, and their prayer was answered. They were not unwise in praying, but they were wise when, to prayer, they added medical advice.” SPIRITUALITY AND INDIGESTION
It is quite in vain for you to pray for a tranquil spirit, or a genial, hopeful spirit, when your organs of digestion are out of order. Not that one who is sick should not pray for health; but prayer is to be joined to diet. It is vain for you to pray that God will give you patience, and then run heedlessly into those very circumstances where experience shows that the causes which lead to impatience will be omnipotent. Is it wise for me to ask that I may not be torn by briers, and then run into the thickest hedge? Is it wise for men to pray that God will give them all the fruit of the Spirit, and then associate with men that will contaminate them? Have I a right to pray that God will purify my heart, and then let my ears drink in all the vile sayings and wicked speeches and vulgar insinuations of corrupt men? Can a man take fire in his hand, and not be burned? Has a man a right to pray that he may be honest, and then deliberately go into temptation? Has a man a right to pray that he may be a truth seeker, and then take no pains to seek the truth? It is folly for a man to pray for common morals even, and still more to pray for spiritual graces, and then take no heed of the way, humanly speaking, by which these things are achieved. Just as soon might a man pray for a knowledge of numbers, and then shut his arithmetic; or pray that he might be a practiced civil engineer, and sit in his chamber, as to pray for Christian graces, and then do nothing. You must study these things. They are dependent on certain causes, and study is one of those causes. And the presumption of your prayer’s being answered is measured by the degree in which it leads you to study the conditions that tend to bring about that for which you pray. You are to work for it not without prayer, and you are to pray for it not without works. In a home where simple foods are simply prepared, and where its inmates eat to live, happiness and good cheer are usually found.