p. 37 | Health by Dr. H. S. Lay

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Jul 4, 1865

Health.

By Dr. H. S. Lay

But very few persons, in this degenerate age, realize the moral obligation that they are under to obey the laws of their being, whereby they may preserve and improve their health.

In a moral point of view the mass regard it of but little consequence whether they have health or not. They will even sacrifice it, and by so doing, even life itself, rather than deny the carnal appetites. They view health from a selfish stand-point, not that they may glorify God in their bodies as well as their spirits, which are his, but that they may gratify their morbid appetites and desires.

Said a person not long since in my hearing, something in effect like the following: “Were it not for my anxiety to excel in my business, and become a noted man in my profession, I would never live on healthy and unstimulating food; but would live as others do, though it might shorten my life ten or fifteen years.”

And this is by no means an isolated case. The world is full of people that never dream of its being a sin to be sick; not stopping to think that sickness is generally brought on by gross violation of the laws which God has implanted in our beings. God made man with a capacity to enjoy and retain health, if he would only obey his laws. It was only by disobedience, that sickness, pain and death were ever brought into this world. And God has not only endowed man with this capacity to retain his health when in the possession of it, but has implanted in his organism a living or recuperative force, whereby in the majority of instances he may regain his health after he has injured it by a violation of the laws of his being, if he will but return to, and continue in, the obedience of these laws. But as this requires some self-denial on his part, but few have the moral courage and fortitude to do it; for “the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” I do not deny but that mankind desire health, and in fact are decidedly anxious to be in possession of it, provided they can have it in their own way; but as strange as it may seem they are not so anxious for it as to be willing to comply with the conditions whereby it may be secured. They prefer poor health with the indulgence and gratification of their perverted appetites and desires, to good health and a perfect obedience to the laws of their organism.

Dr. H. S. Lay.

Dansville, N. Y.