THE GOSPEL IN THE DIET QUESTION.
By David Paulson, M.D.
WHEN we see a streak of lightning we think of the thunder, because we have always associated it in our minds with the lightning. "Train up a child in the way he shall go," for he will unconsciously associate his training with every act of his life. Yet parents say, "I prayed with Johnny day after day, but it did not seem to do any good." Children may not have been trained to lie or steal, but are they trained to know that every act of their life should be done to the glory of God? For just as soon as they learn this lesson on one plane, God will lift them up to another, and then they will have it again, only in a broader way. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31. So there is such a thing as eating and drinking from principle. In Eccl. 10:17 we may get the principle more in detail: "Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season," for strength, and not for drunkenness! that is, do not eat at irregular times, and God has left it with us to find out how that is. Then we are to eat for strength; but the world has perverted that so as to eat for drunkenness; and since we are to eat for strength and not for drunkenness, it is our duty to learn what kind of food will give us strength. We get our strength from God, but we get it largely through the food, air, and water, and the Bible is the means whereby we learn how to use this strength. How appropriate that we should ask God to bless the food before we partake of it, for His power is in it! But it is only by the miracle of digestion that we can get His strength out of it. The Bible does not tell us in detail what kind of food to eat, but it does bid us to eat for strength, and the responsibility is laid upon us to discover what kind of food contains nourishment and what does not. If we eat for strength the food will taste good, but if we eat it simply because it tastes good we are eating for drunkenness. It is an important principle that if we simply aim to have a good time we will get misery; but if the purpose be to make others happy we will be sure to reap a good time for ourselves also. We throw a rubber ball on the floor and it rebounds; so with happiness; by making some3one else happy we will be happy ourselves. If we eat a thing just because it tastes good, we eat for drunkenness. But if we eat for the glory of God, so out of this food we may get strength to help others, we are eating from principle. Prov. 23:1: "When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee." If we sit to eat with a man that is not a ruler, does not the same admonition hold good, even if it be the humble meal in our own home? But suppose we long for his "savory meals," for they are deceitful food? There are thousands of natural flavors that God has put into the foods that He has bidden us to eat. But to multitudes the sense of taste has become so blunted that they fail to recognize these natural flavors, and the perverted taste is only stimulated by the agents, such as mustard, pepper, ginger, etc., that tend to destroy the natural taste of food. What a substitute for God's own delicate flavors in natural food! How appropriate that the Bible should warn us not to long for such savory meats, for how deceitful they are! Little by little the sense of taste, instead of being educated to enjoy the wonderful gifts God has stored up in foods, becomes so chloroformed, so to speak, that nothing short of the most irritating things can arouse it. Yet these very substances contain none of the nutritive properties of foods. We can not be too diligent in considering the food question. Many would probably look at the piece of bread and think of some better method of slicing it, or perhaps wonder how the frosting on the top of the cake is made. They will wish they could make it as pretty as that at home. And this is about as deeply as many consider the diet question. People may know a great many things about Pike's Peak, the depth of the Dead Sea, etc., and yet know practically nothing about the very things God told them to learn about. "Thou puttest a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to craving desire." Prov. 23:2, Jewish translation. If a man eats for drunkenness he is committing suicide. But possibly such a man may say, "I haven't any faith at all in this truth." But suppose he says he does not believe in the law of gravitation, it does not alter the law at all. God says if a man eats for drunkenness he is committing suicide, and that settles the question. Many eat a thing largely because it has enough bulk to fill the stomach, but with little regard as to whether it is garbage or not. He who treats his digestive organs in this way insults God, and must reap in his own organism the sure result; for God is not mocked. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption."