OUR BODIES A SACRIFICE by Ida M. Poch

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 29, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 29.

OUR BODIES A SACRIFICE.

By Ida M. Poch

PAUL, in his letter to the Romans, after discoursing upon the wisdom and knowledge of God through Christ, states that "for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things." Evidently with these thoughts in his mind he writes, "I beseech you therefore [for that reason], brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Rom. 12:1.

In the olden time, when man offered acceptable sacrifices unto God, certain understood requirements must be complied with. In Lev. 22:19-21 we read that the lamb, to be received with favor by the Lord, must be "without blemish"—it must be perfect, with no defect at all. In every instance of this sort of service we find the same specification. Paul says it is our reasonable service to offer our living bodies. The Lord not only has a right to require it, but he has good reasons for the requirement; if this is true, it is possible for us to render the service. We are besought, earnestly entreated, implored, "by the mercies of God," to render the living, perfect sacrifice. This can but mean that we are by the goodness of God to us besought to refrain from dishonoring the image of our Maker, who intrusted somewhat of his likeness to every human being. By this trust God honored man. It is not strange then that Paul feels that it is reasonable that man should honor God by respecting this trust and the laws which tend to its best preservation.

The likeness to God is not only in mental and moral endowments; for the natural body is capable of expressing every thought and emotion our minds are capable of conceiving. Upon this very body the divinest emotion is dependent for expression. If this medium fails, the thought is dead and the sentiment lost to the world; for there is no other way of expression save through the body.

The perfection of man-made mechanism is an evolution through repeated failures; but not so with God's handiwork. There were no mistakes, and no improvements have been necessary. The same old pattern is still in use. Whenever man has sought to improve upon the original in any instance, there has been serious trouble. It follows then that the nearer we keep to that which in the beginning was pronounced "good," in any particular, the more perfectly we will meet the divine mind.

The infinite mind of God saw where the physical by-paths would be as well as the moral ones, and so marked the path of physical rectitude by as unmistakable guide-posts as those which indicate the moral "narrow way." If we are in danger of leaving the straight way, we are mercifully warned by the much-misunderstood blessing, pain, until, by repeated lapses into sin, the physical conscience is deadened, and this warning voice is hushed.

Ask almost any man who smokes and he will tell you how nature rebelled against the degradation brought upon her by that filthy and injurious habit. What a martyrdom he endured to enslave himself in that fashionable vice! Do you remember, my sister, what torture it was the first time you incased your form in the pitiless steels? Do you remember, will you ever quite forget, the misery of that hour in church when you vainly tried to fix your mind upon the sermon? What a grateful sense of comfort dwelt in the thought that soon you would be at home and then away with the torture, and welcome the loosest gown you had. Who of us that have achieved the feat of existing on the "one oat a day" of God's free fresh air, have not wandered through this experience to some extent at least?

Why is it so hard?—Because so strongly does nature array her forces against this evil practise, so unwilling is she to let us pass the line beyond which lies more and greater misery.

Would we endure as much and as uncomplainingly in a good cause? We are seldom required to yield up our lives in the same sense to the cause of right and good, and even tho we do truly die for truth, it is but to gain life, for "he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it," says the Author of truth. But if oftener we were required to yield up drop by drop our life-blood, would we be as ready to endure equal pain and misery if the object were more worthy of the price? Would we not feel that the service is hard and at least look upon ourselves as martyrs? In the service of right every sacrifice we are called to make is but that at best some little good may give place to a greater; and the very yielding even brings an additional blessing to ourselves. Not so when we yield ourselves to wrong physical or moral habits.

"The way of the transgressor is hard," does not only apply to the transgressor of the moral precepts. O, no, for did not all our physical as well as spiritual weakness come because of disobedience to the voice of God, and following the enemy of all right-doing? The story is familiar to us all.

Then our first parents hid themselves from their God, because spotless purity, which had covered them like a garment, was theirs no longer, and they sought to supply the deficiency by patching leaves together, to cover not only the body, but the shame they felt that they had fallen from their high estate.

So in the beginning clothing grew out of sin, and through that break in the wall, Satan has many times thrust his hand and plucked for himself the harvest of Eve's daughters, and some of her sons. Through this some in humble stations have been blinded to the "mercies of God," and his beseeching voice has fallen upon deaf ears. The sacrifice that should have been perfect has had many a blemish, not spiritual only but physical as well. The body through which the lovely Jesus wishes to express himself and make known the Gospel of his love, not only as it speaks through the care of birds and lilies, but in a special way (he calls the body his temple), has been found so bound and warped and so distorted that it is pitiful to see, even to us, and what must it be to Him who fashioned it? Surely every fiber of the being should be free to thrill and tingle and give forth the message of God's love and infinite wisdom.

O, how have we fallen! By and by, on the other side, when we perfectly express that at which we bungle now, we will have perfect bodies. Why, then, is it not our duty to come a little nearer to perfection here? We dare not say it is not important to remove every restriction so that the life processes may go on without hindrance, for light shines for us and blessing will surely be ours if we walk in it. If all these causes of sickness were laid aside, we could with much greater assurance come to God with the aches and pains to which human flesh is heir, and no doubt many of them would be laid away with the corset and skirt band.

This is not a light thing, for it is but the outward expression of an inner state. Let us study the anatomy and physiology of these wonderful bodies of ours. Let us observe the nicety of the arrangement and the perfect adaptability of each minute portion to its special place and form and use, and we will be led to exclaim, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" Let us have respect for our bodies, even tho they are but clay and we hope to change them for more glorious ones soon.

IDA M. POCH.