Fullness of Bread

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 8, 1872

Fullness of Bread.

THE style in which some professed Christians live in obedience to the dictates of tyrant fashion, and the imaginary necessities of their station in Society, is thus described by Mrs. Gordon (Sir David Brewster’s daughter) in Woman’s Work for May, 1872:

“One difference between us and the world ought to be moderation. It is startling to notice that ‘fullness of bread’ was part of the iniquity of Sodom (see that striking verse, Eze. 16 : 49), and to compare with it the increase of food and of meals in our own country. Fifty years ago few people thought of taking seven meals a day! Yet how common is it now to have tea, bread and butter in the early morning, then breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, tea, coffee, and cake in the evening, and wine and water before going to bed! Then look at the unnecessary variety of dishes for a small party, for whom soup and fish, a joint, a couple of chickens, a pudding and a tart, would be ample variety of food; but, in addition, several entrees of meat, as well as sweet dishes, besides game, and varieties of cheese, &c., are rapidly becoming ‘essential’ even in middle-class houses. Is there not much in this ‘fullness of bread’ to make us tremble? It is certain that those who indulge in it, however Christian in other respects, are not obeying the command, ‘Let your moderation be known unto all men’ (Phil. 4 : 5), and also that their eating will produce weakness and not ‘strength.’ What a frightful thing a dinner-party is as managed in some establishments. This family must be asked because we owe them a dinner, while another may be left out because we haven’t dined there this year, and so on. Then there is the absolute necessities of having as many courses, wines, and delicacies of the season as Mrs. Grundy had at her last dinner-party; and all this accompanied by so much worry and fuss that I believe many feel what I once heard an outspoken lady say—‘her only happy moment was when she saw the last of her guests depart.’”