Bible Hygiene

THE APPETITE IN HUMAN HISTORY

THE history of the human appetite is indeed a sad one. The Creator designed that the appetite should be man’s servant, not his master. It was to be subordinate to the moral and intellectual faculties. This truth is seen in God’s first prohibitory declaration to man: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” ¹ BHY 186.1

God made man upright, and endowed him with powers of mind far above those of any other creature living upon the earth. He placed him upon probation, that he might form a character for the glory of the Creator, and for his own happiness. The first great moral lesson which the innocent pair of Eden were to learn, was self-control. God appeals to man’s nobler powers. He graciously gives him all he needs for the delights of taste, and for the support of life. And it was for man’s moral good, to say the least, that his eating from the tree of knowledge was prohibited. Of all the trees of the garden he might freely eat, save one. In this prohibition, the Creator places the appetite under the watchcare and guardianship of the moral and intellectual powers. BHY 186.2

When man came from the hand of his Creator, he was declared to be “very good.” He was put upon probation, that he might develop a perfect character. But he failed to do this. He basely yielded to the tempter, and lost his innocence; and the entire race, for six thousand years, have felt, in soul, body, and spirit, the taint of sin. The weight of accumulated guilt and ruin, resulting from continual transgression of moral and physical law, has rested upon it. Sickness, pain, sorrow, and death are the legitimate fruits of transgression. BHY 186.3

Man alone is responsible for the moral and physical wretchedness under which the race suffers. There was no necessity for Eve to yield to the tempter; and Adam is quite as inexcusable. The surroundings of our parents in Eden were delightful. The Infinite Hand had spread out before them a feast of pleasure in the stately trees, the climbing vines, and the beautiful shrubs and flowers. Eden also abounded with that which was “good for food.” God had caused every good fruit-tree to grow, affording variety, and an inexhaustible supply. He welcomed man to eat freely of them all, excepting one only; but of the fruit of that one tree he warned him not to partake, on pain of death. Thus surrounded with beauty and plenty, and thus warned by the beneficent Author of his happy existence, man basely yielded, and plunged the race in consequent ruin. BHY 187.1

Eve was flattered with the idea that eating the forbidden fruit would raise her to a higher and happier life. Appetite, curiosity, and ambition triumphed over reason. But Infinite Wisdom immediately devised the scheme of redemption, which placed man on a second probation, by giving him another trial, with the great Redeemer to help him in the work of forming a perfect character. And, to say the very least, it is reasonable to suppose that, in the second probation, men would be tested just where God tested our first parents in Eden, and that the indulgence of the appetites and passions would be the greatest moral evil in this world during the period of human probation. BHY 187.2

We are not left to mere supposition in forming an opinion upon this subject. The sacred record shows, in the clearest manner possible, that God has tested his people since the fall just where he tested man before the fall, and that among the most flagrant sins of the fallen race, resulting in the greatest amount of human woe, has been the indulgence of appetite. BHY 187.3

Gluttony and drunkenness were the prevailing sins of Sodom. It is said of the people of Lot’s time, “They did eat, they drank.” Appetite ruled them, or their eating and drinking would not have been mentioned. For their sins they were visited with destruction by fire and brimstone. It is also said of the people in the time of Noah, “They did eat, they drank.” ¹ BHY 187.4

For the first twenty-five hundred years after the fall, sacred history is exceedingly brief. For example, the life and wonderful translation of holy Enoch are told in a few lines. While, doubtless, the almost numberless good deeds and careful acts of obedience in the long life of this wonderful man would furnish to some modern writers material for volumes, the whole matter is summed up in these few words: “All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.” ² BHY 188.1

We could not reasonably suppose that very much could be said upon any one subject when the annals of twenty-five hundred years, embracing many of the greatest events in the world’s history, are crowded into fifty short chapters of the Bible. But when God was about to establish the tribes of Israel in the good land of promise, that they should be to him “a peculiar treasure” above all people, “a holy nation,” the sacred historian speaks more fully, and again the fact appears that God tests his people since the fall just where he tested man before the transgression in Eden. BHY 188.2

In the providence of God the sons of Jacob went down into Egypt, where they sojourned in a strange land for hundreds of years. There they were humbled by slavery, but were delivered from it by the special hand of Providence, and in the most triumphant manner. The entire providential experience of the Israelites, both in their servitude and in their miraculous deliverance, was designed to lead them to revere, and trustingly obey, the God of their fathers. BHY 188.3

The history of their departure from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea before them, and the destruction of their pursuers, is one of thrilling interest to all Bible Christians. These manifestations were designed to remove their infidelity, to draw them very near to God, and deeply to impress them with the fact that the Divine Hand was leading them. BHY 188.4

God brought another test upon them in the gift of the manna. The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” ¹ The habits of the Hebrews in Egypt had become such that a change to the simple manna was a very great one. But this change, God being judge of what was best for them, was necessary to their physical, mental, and moral well-being. God designed to bring a whole nation near to himself, and give opportunity for the development of perfect character. He tested the Hebrews on appetite, as he did man in Eden, and murmuring and rebellion resulted. Had they proved faithful to God, he would have taken them through the wilderness in the brief period of eleven days, and would have triumphantly planted in the land of promise the mighty host of Israel, whom he had borne “on eagles’ wings” from Egypt. But they did not sustain the trial of their faith, and, in consequence of yielding to the clamors of appetite, they fell all along the way in the wilderness, so that only two of the adults who left Egypt were permitted to reach Canaan. I repeat it: the history of the human appetite is a sad one. BHY 189.1

We here leave the Old Testament record upon this subject, after noting that in the Jewish age there were men of God who controlled appetite, as did the holy Daniel, who refused to defile himself with the king’s meat and wine. Please read the first chapter of the history of this bold representative of pure hygiene. BHY 189.2

The mission of John the Baptist was to prepare the way for the first advent of Christ. In the address of the angel to Zacharias relative to John, there is a brief chapter on hygiene: “Thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink.” ¹ It is said of this plain, temperate, yet mighty man of God: “The same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.” ² BHY 189.3

“The locust was a fruit, a bean-like pod, with a seed in it similar to the Carob, or husk, on which the prodigal son fed.” — Butterworth. BHY 190.1

“Locust, akris, Gr., may either signify the insect called the locust, which still makes a part of the food in the land of Judea, or the top of a plant. Many eminent commentators are of the latter opinion.” — Clarke. BHY 190.2

At the very opening of the Christian age, the mission of Jesus is heralded by John, who sets an example of self-denial and temperance. The teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy apostles are in perfect accordance with the proposition that God, in all dispensations of probationary time, tests man just where he tested the innocent pair in Eden. “Take heed to yourselves,” said the Son of God, “lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” ³ And the words of Paul, addressed to the Christian church, make proper eating and drinking a matter of grave importance: “Whether, therefore, ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” ⁴ The apostle argues in another place, that if there were no resurrection of the dead, there would be no future existence, and his laborious and abstemious life would bring him no future reward. He says, “What advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.” ⁵ However much the apostle regarded it important to live temperately in order to a life of usefulness and happiness here, it is evident that he looked forward to the resurrection of the dead for the great reward of self-control. He says, in another place, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” ¹ BHY 190.3

But many of the professing Christian churches of this day treat this matter as though God had become discouraged in trying to lead men and women to a life of self-denial and self-control, and had changed his plan, no longer testing them upon the point of appetite, as formerly. BHY 191.1

It is a humiliating fact that the moral powers of the majority of those who profess to be true followers of Christ, have become so far weakened by the indulgence of appetite and passion, that the most successful way to move them to acts of benevolence is through appeals to the appetite. Hence the almost universal custom of holding church festivals. These gluttonous feasts strengthen morbid appetite and inflame passion, and in the same degree weaken the moral powers, and benumb the finer sensibilities of the soul. The slave of appetite is moved less by such worthy and stirring considerations as the glories of the eternal world, the reward of philanthropic deeds in this life, and the final righteous retributions of a just God, than he is if treated with roast turkey, oysters, ice-cream, and the like. These charm his soul, and apparently open the closed avenues to his feelings of benevolence and to his purse, — a result which the worthy consideration of heaven, earth, and hell failed to produce. BHY 191.2

If God is now testing professed Christians upon appetite, as he tested Adam and Eve and the Hebrews, then the case, with the exception of a decided minority, is a lost one. With the majority, the moral and intellectual powers are the servants, while the appetite is master. This was the condition of our first parents as they stood in Paradise lost, — the condition of the Hebrews who perished in the wilderness under the wrath of God. And in the light of the Scriptures these modern epicures are not walking in the favor of God any more than were the perishing Hebrews, or Adam and Eve when they coveted the fruit which God had forbidden. BHY 191.3

There are multitudes who are slaves to the expensive, health-destroying, filthy habit of tobacco-using. Ninety-nine out of one hundred of these will acknowledge the evils of the practice. Then why not abandon the use of tobacco? — Simply because the nobler powers are enslaved by appetite. We have not a word of censure for men who call in question the piety of those professed followers of Christ who are controlled by appetite and passion. Such do not truly represent the religion of the Bible. The religion of our Lord Jesus Christ is entirely another thing. The Redeemer of the world was tempted on all points as we are, yet without sin. When tested in the wilderness, he conquered, not on his own account, but for us. And Christians are to overcome as he overcame. That our adorable Redeemer might be able to succor his tempted followers, and help them to overcome, he, in the forty days’ fast in the wilderness, endured the keenest pangs of appetite. In him it is possible for the glutton, the drunkard, and the poor inebriate of every stamp, to overcome. With those who are ruled by appetite, and who have not the help of Christ, the work of reform is exceedingly doubtful. And we can hardly conceive of anything more insulting to Heaven, than the profession of the pure religion of the divine Son of God by men whose reason and conscience are ruled by appetite and passion. BHY 192.1