THINGS THAT HELP TO SPOIL OUR TEMPERS.
By David Paulson
SUPPOSE you go to visit a friend, and find him taking a wet pack. He is lying in bed, wrapped up in blankets so that he can not move hand or foot; a fly settles on his nose, and he begins making faces to try to remove it. You do not like to see him make faces, and wish him to stop. Which is the more rational method of making him stop? Is it to exhort him to summon all his fortitude to keep his face still notwithstanding the annoyance, or is it better for you to drive the fly away? No doubt it would be an excellent moral training for him to use his self-control and keep his countenance placid notwithstanding the irritation, but the simpler and more effective method would be to drive the fly away. Moreover, in nine cases out of ten his power of self-control would be insufficient to enable him to maintain an undisturbed countenance under such circumstances. Likewise, many people are wondering why it is they feel so harsh and unkind toward their neighbors, why they are irritable in their homes, and do not experience a deeper work of grace in their hearts. They are spending all their energies trying to remedy the effect and paying little attention to the cause. God wants us to go back to the cause, to “lay the ax at the root of the tree.” When chloroform is administered to a person, he is not to blame for saying foolish and unwise things; and when the internal organs that should be right in place at the waist are being pushed down, each of the hundreds11of nerves stretched just as severely as the nerves of the ear would be if the ear had weights attached to it, and if the feet are cramped by tight and ill-fitting shoes, need we be surprised if there are aches and pains and irritable nerves? Such an individual certainly needs a special miracle of divine grace wrought, in order to keep the temper sweet and placid. Condiments and spices cause a feverish state of the system; they inflame the delicate coating of the stomach and irritate the nerves. By way of experiment I once sprinkled a little mustard on the back of a person's hand, and then placed a hot bag over it for a few moments; the result was a blister as large as a dollar. It did not get well for a long time, and very likely the scar is still there; yet I did not put half as much mustard on that person's hand as people often put on a single piece of meat which goes directly into the stomach. And when highly spiced food, which is virtually a mustard plaster, is put on the inside of the delicately-lined stomach, creating such a condition of irritation, how can we expect to endure with tranquillity the ordinary annoyances and inconveniences to which the life here below subjects us? The same principle holds good, only to a greater degree, with the child; for just as a child's mind yields so readily to favorable and unfavorable circumstances, so the physical structure of the brain in the early years is in such a plastic condition that it responds in an exaggerated manner to the effects of eating, irritating and indigestible food. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Are not parents mocking God when they put before their children impoverished, stimulating, and irritating food, which inflames the coating of the stomach, and perhaps ferments, creating poisons that are taken up by the blood and carried to the brain, thus resulting in disorder? Wrong diet lies at the very foundation of a large share of the physical, mental, and moral degeneracy which we see all around us. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” I Cor. 10:31. The Bible tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. When we remember how sacred all the vessels connected with the temple were, and remember what a terrible thing it was to defile any of these in any way, then we shall learn a lesson as to how God regards any neglect on our part in sacredly guarding our bodies. Do not try to walk on the angel plane spiritually, and the carnal plane physically.