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Review and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 49.

THE CHURCH OF GOD

Review and Herald

Dec 4, 1900

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 4, 1900

THE CHURCH OF GOD.

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE.
The church on earth is God's temple, and it is to assume divine proportions before the world. This building is to be the light of the world. It is to be composed of living stones laid close together, stone fitting to stone, making a solid building. All these stones are not of the same shape or dimension. Some are large, and some are small, but each one has its own place to fill. In the whole building there is not to be one misshapen stone. Each one is perfect. And each stone is a living stone, a stone that emits light. The value of the stones is determined by the light they reflect to the world.
Now is the time for the stones to be taken from the quarry of the world and brought into God's workshop, to be hewed, squared, and polished, that they may shine. This is God's plan, and he desires all who profess to believe the truth to fill their respective places in the great, grand work for this time. He desires each worker to stand forth as did Daniel, every phase of the character under divine ministration, that day by day he may be prepared to fill his place in the temple of God.
It is God's design that his church shall ever advance in purity and knowledge, from light to light, from glory to glory. "Whereunto," asks he who is the first and the last, "shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?" He could not employ any of the kingdoms of the world as a similitude. In society he found nothing with which to compare it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power. But in Christ's kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is to be abolished. This kingdom is to be established to uplift and ennoble fallen humanity. Christ makes his church a beautiful temple for God. "Where two or three are gathered together in my name," he declared, "there am I in the midst of them." His church is the court of holy life, filled with varied gifts and endowed with the Holy Spirit. Appropriate duties are assigned by Heaven to the church on earth, and the members are to find their happiness in the happiness of those whom they help and bless.
Through the ages of moral darkness, through centuries of strife and persecution, the church of Christ has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, to the present time, the pure doctrines of the Bible have been unfolding within her borders. The church of Christ, enfeebled and defective as she may appear, is the one object on earth on which he bestows in a special sense his love and regard. The church is the theater of his grace, in which he delights to make experiments of mercy on human hearts.
The church is God's fortress, his city of refuge, which he holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of her sacred trust is treachery to him who has bought her with the precious blood of his only begotten Son. In the past, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth, and God has taken them into covenant relation with himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth his holy angels to minister to his church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against it.
Christ speaks of the church over which Satan presides as the synagogue of Satan. Its members are the children of disobedience. They are those who choose to sin, who labor to make void the holy law of God. It is Satan's work to mingle evil with good, and to remove the distinction between good and evil. Christ would have a church that labors to separate the evil from the good, whose members will not willingly tolerate wrong-doing, but will expel it from the heart and life.
To-day, as in the past, all heaven is watching to see the church develop in the true science of salvation. Christ has bought the church with his blood, and he longs to clothe her with salvation. He has made her the depositary of sacred truth, and he wishes her to partake of his glory. But in order that the church may be an educating power in the world, she must co-operate with the church in heaven. Her members must represent Christ. Their hearts must be open to receive every ray of light that God may see fit to impart. As they receive this light, they will be enabled to receive and impart more and more of the rays of the Sun of Righteousness.
There is need of a higher grade of spirituality in the church. There is need of heart purification. God calls his people to their posts of duty. He calls upon them to purge themselves from that which has been revealed as the bane of the churches — an exalting of the men placed in positions of trust. There is earnest work to be done. Upon their knees men are to seek God in faith, and then go forth to speak the word with power sent down from on high. Such men come before the people direct from the audience-chamber of the Most High, and their words and works promote spirituality. When they come in contact with wrong principles, they plant their feet firmly upon the words, "It is written."
This age is one of peculiar temptation, especially to the self-sufficient ones, who feel no special need of guarding the avenues of the soul. Unless they heed the warnings God has given, they will most surely be drawn away from the principles of the truth. They will stand among those who dishonor the faith by giving heed to seducing spirits. They plead for the indulgence of appetite. They take no delight in contemplating the character of the Saviour. The rebuke of Christ is upon them, because in thought and action they are corrupt.
There are those in the church who, unless thoroughly converted, will crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. I appeal to every church-member to inquire, Am I doing all I can to honor my Redeemer? Truth held in unrighteousness is the greatest curse that can come to our world. But the truth as it is in Jesus is a savor of life unto life. It is worth possessing, worth living, worth defending. Christ calls upon us to enter the narrow pathway, where every step means a denial of self. He calls upon us to stand upon the platform of eternal truth, and contend, yes, contend earnestly, for the faith once delivered to the saints. Paul wrote to Timothy: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." "Hold fast the form of sound words, . . . in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
As we near the time when principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places will be fully brought into the warfare against the truth, when Satan's deceptive power will be so great that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect, our discernment must be sharpened by divine enlightenment, that we may not be ignorant of Satan's devices. The whole treasure of heaven is at our command in the work of preparing the way of the Lord. By giving us the co-operation of the holy angels, God has made it possible for our work to be a wonderful, yes, a glorious, success. But success will seldom result from scattered effort. The united influence of all the members of the church is required.
The church to-day needs men who, like Enoch, walk with God, revealing Christ to the world. Church-members need to reach a higher standard. Heavenly messengers are waiting to communicate with those who have sunk self out of sight, whose lives are a fulfilling of the words, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Of such men and women must the church be composed before her light can shine forth to the world in clear, distinct rays. Our views of the Sun of Righteousness are clouded by self-seeking. Christ is crucified afresh by many who through self-indulgence allow Satan to gain control over them. The church needs men of devotion to bear to the world the message of salvation, pointing sinners to the Lamb of God,—men who, by their works of righteousness and their pure, true words, can lift their fellow men out of the pit of degradation.
With pity and compassion, with tender yearning and love, the Lord is looking upon his tempted and tried people. For a time the oppressors will be permitted to triumph over those who keep God's holy commandments. All are given the same opportunity that was granted to the first great rebel to reveal the spirit that moves them to action. It is God's purpose that all shall be tested and tried, that he may see whether they are loyal or disloyal to the laws that govern the kingdom of heaven. To the last, God permits Satan to reveal himself as a liar, an accuser, and a murderer. Thus the final triumph of his people is made more marked, more glorious, more full and complete. The words of the prophet will then be fulfilled, "The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." The song of the Lord's people will then be: "The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high above the people."

A PRAYER.

By Agnes L. Carter

We pray, “Have mercy on our weakness.” Rather, O gracious God, have mercy on our strength That will not yield unto the living Father, Although we know thy will must win at length.
Oh, who is bold enough to meet unaided The foes we can not conquer all alone? Or dare, unless by God’s sure presence shaded, To face a might so far beyond his own?
Thy pity waits upon our weakness ever; Our doubting meets thy patient love at length: Thy merciful compassion faileth never; But, O kind Lord, have mercy on our strength.
Show us our helplessness, the dreary yearning, The restless fear we proudly try to hide, Until at last our spirits, to thee turning, Shall in thy perfect good be satisfied.
—Agnes L. Carter.

WHERE ARE THEY THAT KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND THE FAITH OF JESUS?

By Hart Hall

HART HALL.
(Los Angeles, Cal.)
There is probably no text in the word of God more familiar to us as a Sabbath-keeping people than Rev. 14:12. It is used by us in our publications, in our sermons, in our Bible readings and conversations, as referring to ourselves as a denomination; but it is not easy always to persuade others to our belief. The public at large, and even friends and relatives of our earnest converts, do not agree with us in our applications of the text. And why? The difficulty is not hard to explain. It is because they do not see in us the commendatory characteristics referred to in the text. If, in their opinion, we are not laboring under false pretenses by assuming the application, we are at least traveling the journey of life under a misnomer. “You profess to keep the commandments, but where,” they say, “is the patience of the saints revealed in your people—the very first qualification of the text?” “Where is the faith of Jesus manifested among you? and where are the mighty works which are the natural concomitant of such faith?”
And, brethren, are we able to say, “Here they are, behold them”? Are not these interrogations in many cases the natural inquiries of the honest, truth-seeking mind? The Spirit of Prophecy has stated that “the burden of our message is not only the commandments of God, but the faith of Jesus.”
The faith of Jesus is not yet a distinctive feature of our denomination; and until it is, we as a denomination are not the people referred to in the Third Angel’s Message. We may be sometime by the grace of God and our own diligence, but we are not now.
The world is being engulfed in a great flood of moral and spiritual darkness. To even the casual observer the condition of things is appalling. Satan has come down with great power, knowing that he has but a short time. And we know that when God proposes to do a great work in the earth, it is Satan’s plan to parry the force of that work by some of his counterfeiting energy. God’s work for this time must be done, he is waiting patiently to do it, and the time is already far spent.
Satan is bringing rapidly to the front his deceptions, his counterfeits, and his infidelity; while God’s great work, which is to shake the world and lighten it with its glory, is yet in comparative seclusion. And why is it that God’s work is so behind? The answer is given: “The Lord can do little for his people because of their limited faith.”
And why is their faith so limited? “The ministers have not presented Christ in his fullness to the people, neither in the churches nor in the new fields, and the people have not an intelligent faith.”
So, then, a summary of the case is that God’s work is hindered by the failure of the ministers to preach Christ in his fullness. Paul’s success in the work of God lay in his determination to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And unto us who are saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor. 1:18. But to these sentinels upon the walls of Zion it is too narrow and confining a theme. They must broaden out into wider fields and greener pastures.
And all this in a time when the seven last plagues are about to fall, and the Lord is admonishing us to “get ready.”
Some one inquires, “How shall we obtain a better faith than we now have?” “Faith cometh by hearing . . . the word of God.” When we feed upon the word of God so that it becomes to us, as it did to Job, more than our necessary food; when we meditate upon it day and night, as David did; when we pray, as Daniel did, for it to come to pass,—then we shall begin to believe it in a way that will be faith; for faith is belief. We shall receive it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God. And receiving it as his word, his message, we shall be so burdened with its import that we shall be always communing with him about it. We shall talk it over with God until his message shall be our message, his work our work, his faith in his word our faith in his word. And that is the faith of God, that is the faith of Jesus. And when we deliver this message of his in his way, he will be speaking directly through us; and that is the testimony of Jesus,—the spirit of prophecy, which everyone of the remnant seed will have who keep the commandments of God. Rev. 12:17; 19:10; Eph. 1:17.
The faith of the prophets has brought fire from heaven, caused the clouds to withhold rain and to give it again. It has parted the Red Sea, stopped the rushing waters of the Jordan, stayed the sun and moon in their courses, and filled dead flesh with life again.
All nature, and even the God of nature, has responded, and will respond now, to the call of faith. Is this our faith? If it is not, it is because, as the Lord has told us, “the need of faith should be kept before the church; for the knowledge of our privileges has become almost extinct.”
Do we long for the faith and power of Elijah to attend our labor? “When we have men as devoted as Elijah, and possessing the faith which he had, we shall see that God will reveal himself to us as he did to holy men of old. When we have men who, while they acknowledge their deficiencies, will plead with God in earnest faith, as did Jacob, we shall see the same results. Power will come from God to man in answer to the prayer of faith.”
Let us awake and heed the Saviour’s earnest admonition to “have the faith of God.” Mark 11:22, margin. “For this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

IN THE FIRELIGHT.

By Nixon Waterman

The smoldering backlog is nearly in two, And the forestick is burned to the core; The embers are blushing a tremulous hue, While the wind in the chimney goes “Woo-oo-oo!” And sadly, at window and door, Is sighing that summer is o’er. And a faint little whispering, eerie and queer, Brings news I am waiting to know— The forces of winter are marshaling near, It says, in that strange little language we hear When the fire is talking of snow.
My babies are blissfully dreaming in bed, Close-wrapped is each innocent form; With tender caress their “Good nights” have been said, And with blankets soft-tucked round each dear little head, And cuddled so cosy and warm, They fear not the breath of the storm. In front of the fireplace, beaming and bright, Are their little shoes, all in a row, Whose travel-worn soles seem to shiver with fright When the wind hoarsely laughs in the chimney at night, And the fire is talking of snow.
On the shadowy mantel the garrulous clock Is sifting the seconds away, And solemnly telling me—“Tock, tick, tock”— It is time I was joining my slumbering flock Where the drowsy-eyed poppy holds sway; But I linger to prayerfully say, “Good angels, be near to those treasures of mine When the tempest shall bitingly blow; Through all their sweet dreaming, bright blossoms entwine; Bring roses and lilies and summer and shine, While the fire is talking of snow.”
—Nixon Waterman.

S. O. JAMES

By S. O. James

If we follow the Good Shepherd and heed his voice, we can not say, “I am doing too much,” nor fret because we are doing so little.

S. O. JAMES

DISCOURAGEMENTS

By J. C. Frauer

J. C. FRAUER.
(Battle Creek, Mich.)
Of the Saviour the Father had said, “He shall not fail nor be discouraged.” Isa. 42:4. To any child of God it ought to be evident that in God’s vocabulary there can be no such word as fail, and hence no such word as discouragement; for the two are so closely linked together that the former must exist before the latter can be possible. To realize this fact in regard to our Saviour can but help us to become more like him; “for by beholding we are changed.”
Victory is on our side, and was from the beginning an assured fact. We need but to appropriate it to ourselves, by placing ourselves on the right side, which is the Lord’s side, and failure and discouragement will trouble us no more. This will suggest to some minds the query, Can there be any such thing as a discouraged Christian? With all my failures and discouragements vividly before my mind, I must answer, emphatically: No; “ye have not so learned Christ.”
So, then, I reach this conclusion: If Christ could not fail nor be discouraged, on account of his connection with the Father, no more can I, if I retain that same relation to my Saviour, in whom all fullness dwells.

The Sealing Message.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

S. N. Haskell.
In the seventh chapter of Revelation we have a special message to the people of God. It begins when four angels take their position to hold the four winds, that “the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.” They are held until another angel from the “sun rising” goes forth to seal the servants of God. On Feb. 22, 1848, there was a breaking loose of restraint among the Powers of Europe, beginning in France when the king was deposed, his throne burned, and he and his family fled to England for safety. This revolution “was like a lighted match touched to the dry prairie grass after a drought. The flames flashed at once throughout the Continent.”—Judson’s “Europe in the Nineteenth Century,” page 103.
In a pamphlet published by Joseph Bates in January, 1849, in speaking of this time, he says: “See what a rushing and struggling has been, and is now, going on among the people to overthrow and cast down the thrones of the potentates of Europe; namely, Prussia, Hannover, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, Venice, Lombardy, Tuscany, Rome, etc. See the account, in the Boston Times of Oct. 26, 1848, of the flight of the emperor of Austria from Vienna, the capital of his vast dominion; and of the insurrection and siege of that city for eight successive days from the sixth of October. Notice how they, too, in their work of slaughter, when they became victors, tore up the railways, and demolished bridges, to stop all further intercourse. See also a similar state of things in Berlin, under the king of Prussia.”
“Here then I say, is where God’s people that have ‘the seal of the living God’ find out when this sealing message begins; namely, France beginning to let go, or show her disorganized state, and the surrounding nations following her example. Ruler against ruler, neighbor against neighbor, friends becoming each others’ deadly foe; giving the world a specimen of what will be when Daniel 12:1 is fulfilled.”
In a brief period of time many crowned heads of Europe submitted themselves to the people. Finally, unexpectedly, there was a reverse in matters; in about as brief a period of time there was as great a calm as when Christ spoke to the billowy sea. The four angels took their position to hold the four winds. Any one wishing to read a condensed account of the troubles of 1848 will find it in “Europe in the Nineteenth Century,” by Judson.
From that time to the present, Europe and the world have been like the pent-up fire of a volcano bursting forth every now and then. But the angels have held the four winds that the servants of God might be sealed. But what is this special work of sealing the servants of the living God? And what is the seal of the living God? And who are they who are being sealed? These are important questions, upon which the Scriptures give no uncertain sound. “Seal” and “name” are synonymous terms. See Esther 3 : 12; 8 : 8–10; 1 Kings 21 : 8. “Seal” and “sign” are also the same. Rom. 4 : 11. In Ezekiel 9 the same work is referred to, and the term “mark” is used. So we have the terms, “seal of the living God,” “his Father’s name written in their foreheads” (Rev. 14 : 1), “a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” Eze. 9 : 4. These are different expressions referring to the same people and work.
As to what the “sign,” or “seal of God,” is, the Scriptures speak definitely: “Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Again, “And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20 : 12, 20. In Ex. 31 : 13 we read: “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Once more, in verse 17: “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” The Sabbath of the Lord, then, is a sign, or seal, of God. And in 1848 God sent his angels to hold in check the Powers of earth, that the Sabbath reform and kindred truths might be preached, and the servants of God be sealed, throughout the world. This message is the same as the Third Angel’s Message: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,” etc. Rev. 14 : 9. The seal of God “is a mark which angels, but not human eyes, can read; for the destroying angel must see this mark of redemption.”
In the pamphlet already referred to, Elder Bates speaks of a meeting of a company of brethren and sisters at Dorchester, Mass., and in a conversation on the sealing message they did not fully agree, so, as was usual in those days, they sought the Lord in prayer for light. And in answer to their prayer, God gave a Testimony, and the following words were spoken, while in vision: “Where did the light break out? Let thine angels teach us where the light broke out. It commenced from a little, and then thou didst give one light after another. The testimony and commandments are linked together, they can not be separated. It was very small, when it arose, though it rose in strength; it was weak back there; when it came up, it increased. If they will not hear it, they are as accountable as though they did hear it. He was well pleased when his law began to come up in strength, and the waste places began to be built up.
“Out of weakness it has become strong from searching his word. The test upon it has been but a short time. All who are saved will be tried upon it in some way. The truth arises, and is on the increase stronger and stronger. It’s the SEAL! It is coming up! It arises, commences from the rising of the sun. Like the sun, first cold, grows warmer, and sends its rays. “When that truth arose, there was but little light in it, but it has been increasing. Oh, the power of these rays! It grows in strength, the greatest weight and light are on that truth, for it lasts forever when the Bible is not needed. It arose there in the east, it began with a small light, but its beams are healing. Oh, how mighty is that truth! It is the highest after they enter the goodly land, but it will increase until they are made immortal. It commenced from the rising of the sun, keeps on its course, like the sun, but it never sets. The angels are holding the four winds. It is God that restrains the Powers. The angels have not let go, for the saints are not all sealed.”
These words need no comment, as they fully explain the first portion of this chapter. Whiting’s translation of the expression “ascending upon from the east,” reads, “from the sun rising,” referring to the manner of the rise of this work, rather than the location. It began, like the sun rising from the ocean bed, small, and its power feeble, but increased in warmth and power, transcending all other power. Thousands and tens of thousands to-day testify that its cheering rays give joy and health. The Sabbath truth has arisen free from the sectarian shackles of Babylon. It stands forth as a beacon light in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, and in the islands of the sea. Notwithstanding the opposition, the angel from the rising of the sun has gone forth on his mission, sealing the servants of the living God, and thus preparing them for the great day of God’s wrath, when God shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and shake the heavens and the earth.
But who are the ones to be sealed? The answer is given in Rev. 7 : 3: “The servants of our God.” See also Rom. 2 : 28, 29; 9 : 4–7. All who live in the period of time referred to in Revelation 7 and are the servants of God, are the ones to whom the message is sent. They are not the entire redeemed host; for these are referred to in verses 9, 10. The angels, the four living creatures, and all the intelligences in heaven, are interested in every step of the history of God’s people on earth, and will be until the conflict is over. All heaven is interested in the experiences of the people of God, who are now struggling with the powers of darkness to gain the victory. They lie near the great heart of God, and are the objects of his special interest, “the apple of his eye.” Zech. 2 : 8.
Onward from the thirteenth verse of Revelation 7 the one hundred and forty-four thousand are again referred to. Before the remnant is a tribulation which exceeds all the past for severity, but it is of short duration. Every one of them washes his robes and makes them white in the blood of the Lamb. Because of this and their faithfulness in their work, as trophies of grace they will surround the throne of God, and “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”
“The hundred and forty and four thousand,” “were redeemed from the earth.” Rev. 14 : 3, 4. It is grace that brings them near to the throne of God. For “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Rom. 5 : 20. He that has come the farthest, and struggled the hardest with temptations and hereditary tendencies, requires more grace, and will be nearest the throne in glory. So near the throne are they that notwithstanding the sun shines sevenfold brighter than now (Isa. 30 : 26; 60 : 19, 20), yet the glory of God so outshines the brightness of the sun that it will no more shine upon them than a candle would shine on objects in the brightest noonday sun.
“The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” In the earth made new he will lead them to the living fountains, and unfold to them the dark providencesin this life. All will then be made to realize the grand truth, “God never leads his children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as co-workers with him.”—“Desire of Ages.”

FLESH FOODS.

(Concluded.)

FAMILIAR FORMS OF DISEASE FOR WHICH MEAT EATING IS MORE OR LESS RESPONSIBLE.

There are many foods that may ferment in the stomach, and produce annoying gases and distressing acids the very same day they are eaten, and yet they may be comparatively harmless in their effects; while flesh foods, although they do not ferment, readily decay when they remain too long in a disabled stomach. It is because of this that the effects of meat eating are often so deceptive. It is not difficult to convince a man who has a sour stomach of the error of some food combination made at the previous meal. However, it is a difficult matter to convince the average rheumatic, gouty person, or the one suffering with nervous prostration or Bright’s disease, that he is reaping the legitimate harvest of the meat which he ate three months previously, and which produced no distress at the time.
Rheumatism.—Rheumatism may be caused by a failure to properly eliminate the waste products that are naturally being formed within the system. In such a case the malady would certainly be greatly increased by the addition of the waste products of a portion of an animal. Such a person has undertaken a contract which his eliminating organs will not carry out. When a person abuses his stomach to the utmost limit of the law, it sometimes reverses its action, and a severe fit of vomiting is produced. But as the kidneys have no such opportunity, they are forced to continue to submit to all the abuses that are heaped upon them, until finally they give up in utter despair. The result may be some form of Bright’s disease, or at any rate a failure of the kidneys to properly eliminate all the poisons. As these waste substances accumulate in the system, by and by a long train of evils begins to appear.
Four fifths of the cases of nervous trouble undoubtedly arise from dietetic errors of some form. There is little doubt that the foundation for one half the drunkenness in the world is laid at the dining table. When a man begins to break down physically, he will break down in the weakest spot; and what is the weakest spot is largely determined by what he inherited from his parents, and by his surroundings. If the man whose parents were suffering with Bright’s disease before he was born, persists in compelling his kidneys to eliminate not only his own waste products, but large quantities of poisons from tobacco, meat, tea, and coffee, he will almost invariably die from Bright’s disease; when, if he had required his kidneys to perform only a normal amount of work, he might have risen above the law of heredity. See Dr. Haig, on Uric Acid, page 576.
Frequently patients come to our health institutions wildly insane for no other reason than that their chief articles of diet had been meat, beef tea, and similar unnatural foods. A rational change in diet alone, in many such cases, is sufficient to effect, within a few days, a most noticeable change for the better. The same is often true of the worst forms of sleeplessness. The assistant superintendent of a large insane asylum recently made the statement that when a portion of the insane patients were placed upon a rational diet, a noticeable change for the better took place in their condition within a few weeks. It is strange that so many persons have such perverse ideas in reference to the use of flesh foods. A woman in this city was recently advised to eat five pounds of beef daily, to build her up and cure her rheumatism. At the same time she hired a nurse every night to give her massage to secure relief from pain in her joints. The simple philosophy of the whole thing is that the woman was filling her joints with poison, and the nurse was doing her best to rub the poison out.
Diabetes.—Diabetes is another disease that is becoming extremely common. In this disease the starch, after it has been transformed into sugar, instead of being used by the muscles to furnish energy, is rejected and carried off by the kidneys as waste matter. As a consequence, the muscles are weakened, emaciation sets in, and nature, in order to keep the accumulation of sugar at as low a point as possible, induces a severe thirst; so large quantities of water are daily drunk, and as a consequence the secretion of the kidneys is enormously increased. In the majority of cases the cause of this disease is simply that the blood, instead of being a messenger of life to every tissue of the body, is a messenger of death. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean! not one.” Job 14: 4.
When the stomach becomes simply a receptacle for unclean and unnatural foods, the blood partakes of the same quality, the muscle cells become partially chloroformed, as it were, and refuse to use the sugar that is brought to them. The favorite method of treating this condition is to deprive the patient of all foods that produce sugar, and allow him to continue the wrong diet, which originally caused the disease. If all foods that can be transformed into sugar in the system are excluded from the dietary, of course, for the time being, the patient is not likely to eliminate much sugar, but in most cases the disease continues to progress. Putting a man in prison so he does not have an opportunity to steal does not necessarily make him an honest man. Much of the management of sick persons, both physically and spiritually, is simply depriving them of the opportunity to do wrong.
The whole system of curing a man from the outside, by fighting certain things which are merely nature’s danger-signals, is irrational to the last degree. “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly.” Jer. 6: 14. Man must be directed into the current of health, then God carries him on. We do not have to heal a man either physically or spiritually; God will attend to that. It is our duty to get him to work in harmony with the divine order. The rational thing to do for the man who is just beginning to havediabetes is to cut off at once his meat diet, his tea, coffee, tobacco, sweetmeats, pasty mush, and doughy bread; and to have whatever starchy foods he partakes of thoroughly toasted; allowing him gluten, nut products, some of the vegetables, for sake of variety; together with plenty of exercise, if he is not too weak, thus encouraging the muscles to use sugar; and vigorous short applications of cold in various forms to arouse the stupefied muscle cells, which have, as it were, for the time being, gone on a strike.

NATURAL SUBSTITUTES FOR MEAT.

In attempting to reform the world, either physically or spiritually, there is danger of depriving persons of that on which they are leaning, without supplying something better in its place. It would certainly be wrong to deprive a person of the sacredness that he attaches to Sunday-keeping, and then not give him the great truth of Sabbath-keeping. It is likewise wrong to convince persons of the erroneous practice of meat eating, and not call their attention to the good foods which, with a little care, attention, and persevering effort, can readily be put in the place of meat. On account of the so-called stimulating properties in meat, the majority of those who discontinue its use experience what is known as an “all-gone feeling,” which is a distant relative of the terrible sense of depression that steals over the morphine fiend when he is deprived of his darling indulgence, and is very similar to that feeling which many experience in giving up tobacco, and which some experience in dispensing with tea and coffee. Such persons must recognize the fact that, after having borrowed from their future capital by using these unnatural substances, they can not expect immediately to recover from all the painful effects that are left behind. No natural food can furnish absolutely the immediate sense of exhilaration that comes from the use of these unnatural foods; but it can produce that endurance, strength, and continued sense of well-being that those who live upon stimulants can never experience.
The ordinary grains contain about ten per cent of the same food substance which makes up the bulk of meat, and in reference to other food elements in practically the right proportion in which the human system demands this substance.
A pound of peas, beans, or lentils contains more beefsteak than does a pound of meat, and contains other food substances in addition. These legumes can be rendered easy of digestion by cooking them thoroughly, and rubbing them through a colander, thus leaving the woody substance behind; spread moderately thin in a baking tin, and subject to oven heat for a sufficient length of time to form a nice brown crust.
Nuts are likewise rich in the same food substance found in meat, and contain, in addition, a larger amount of fat in a natural state than can be found in any animal food except the fattest pork. And one can have the satisfaction of eating this fat in a natural, emulsified state, and have no dread of swallowing trichinæ, tapeworm, etc.
Copyrighted, 1900, by David Paulson and W. S. Sadler.
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