p. 12 | How to Live a Century by B. F. Richards

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 1, 1899

How to Live a Century

By B. F. Richards

HOW TO LIVE A CENTURY. No. 5.

"CAN I not do as I please with my own?" is asked. Perhaps you can, but wait a moment. Who told you you were the rightful owner of this wonderfully constructed piece of machinery called the body? Where are your papers to prove your ownership? When, where, and of whom did you buy it? Can you tell the amount of the purchase price? and do you hold the receipt for the money paid?

"Ye are not your own." "Ye are bought with a price." "I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art MINE." "Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money," are the words of the rightful Owner. His title to the property in question is beyond dispute. He holds the deed, and has had it faithfully recorded in the books of heaven. Millions of angels witnessed the transaction, and know of the price paid, so let us settle it forever that we do not own the body we now occupy.

We are simply tenants, dwelling in property that belongs to another; therefore the greater becomes the necessity of giving more attention and concern to it, so that we can keep it in good repair, habitable and presentable.

The apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans, chapter 12, first verse, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your BODIES a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." The owner of property is always pleased when it is brought before him in a presentable condition; therefore present your body sound, well, healthy, holy, and let the Owner look upon it.

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile [destroy] the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 1 Cor. 3:16, 17. This is another reason for giving the body the best of care, for it is a temple in which the holy God would dwell. He would come home and help us keep house. If we destroy His property, His house, or temple, He will destroy us.

How we can defile the body is the next thing for us to consider. "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." Dan. 1:8. Here we find that the knowledge Daniel had of his body taught him that if he ate or drank unwholesome or improper food he would defile his body; therefore he made up his mind that he would not do it; and as Daniel had a body subject to disease and death, the same as we have, whatever would defile his body will do the same for ours.

In the conversation that took place between Daniel and Melzar, the reader can easily see that the steward insisted that Daniel would be

obliged to eat the food ordered by the king, and if he would not, and should in time get sick, the king would ask what he had been eating, and if the king should learn that Daniel with his three brethren had not eaten the food prescribed, he would cut Melzar's head off; but Daniel reasoned with Melzar and said: "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse [peas, beans, and grains] to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat; and as thou seest, deal with thy servants." What a fair test this is—a trial for ten days! Daniel is willing to leave the question of diet to the honest judgment of the steward; a test case is to be made, and Melzar alone must decide and settle the question whether the grains and vegetables that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah proposed eating contained sufficient nutriment to keep the bodies of those men strong, hearty, robust, and well, without resorting to the flesh of dead animals, or drinking the king's wine.

A careful selection had been made in the young men of Babylon, for we read in the fourth verse, "Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans." The brightest and smartest young men in the land are called to join the king's class; the opening day for the school has come; the four Hebrew captives are placed in the same classes, and given the same studies as the bright young men of Babylon received. No partiality is shown; but when the time for eating and drinking came, the four Hebrews were permitted to adhere to their vegetarian principles, but the others were placed at the king's table, where they ate his meats and drank his wine. This regimen was continued for ten days, and read the verses which tell the result: "So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat." Dan. 1:14, 15.

Melzar became satisfied after the examination that the vegetarians had the best food, so he permitted them to continue as they had been living, till the close of the school. When the whole school was brought before the king for final examination, the text says: "And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm." Verses 1:19, 20.

Daniel, with his three companions, lived on the foods originally provided by the Lord when He first told man what he was to eat. "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." Gen. 1:29.

Those schoolboys believed that He who made and prescribed their diet knew what was best for them. So they took Him at His word, and we have seen the result by the decision rendered: Countenances fairer and fatter in flesh; in matters of wisdom and understanding ten times better. What a victory this was! Melzar saw it, so did the king; but do you, dear reader, see it?

Benjamin Franklin once said: "A vegetable diet promotes clearness of ideas, quickness of perception, and is much to be preferred by those who labor with the mind."

Dr. De Neville says: "Four classes of substances are necessary for the maintenance of life,—the albuminoids, the carbohydrates, the fats, the minerals. Now meat contains but three of these, while the vegetables contain all four. Vegetable food is also necessary for our intellectual life; the phosphorus contained in vegetable food is almost double the amount contained in animal food. . . . Those who believe that meat gives the rose color to the cheeks and lips are in error. As Professor Mussa has shown, the amount of iron oxide contained in vegetable food is much greater than that found in meat."

Linnæus, the distinguished botanist, who lived in the eighteenth century, when speaking on the natural dietetic character of man, says that his organization, when compared with that of other animals, shows that fruits and esculent vegetables constitute his most suitable food. And says Sir Henry Thompson, "It is a vulgar error to regard meat in any form as necessary to human life."

B. F. RICHARDS.