Healthful Living

Chapter 12—The Influence of Disease Upon the Mind and Morals

Mental Depression

220. A diseased body affects the brain. With the mind we serve the Lord.—Spiritual Gifts Volume 4a, 146. HL 54.1

221. All should guard the senses, lest Satan gain victory over them; for these are the avenues to the soul.—Testimonies for the Church 3:507. HL 54.2

222. The brain nerves which communicate to the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man, and affect his inmost life. Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system, lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.—Testimonies for the Church 2:347. HL 54.3

Moral Insensibility

223. In consequence of the brain's being congested, its nerves lose their healthy action, and take on morbid conditions, making it almost impossible to arouse the moral sensibilities.—The Health Reformer, October 1, 1871. HL 54.4

224. It should ever be kept prominent that the great object to be attained through this channel is not only health, but perfection and the spirit of holiness, which cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds.—Testimonies for the Church 1:554. HL 54.5

225. Mental and moral power is dependent upon the physical health.—The Health Reformer, November 1, 1871. HL 54.6

226. Physical and moral health are closely united.—How to Live 2:32. HL 55.1

God Misrepresented

227. The children of God cannot glorify him with sickly bodies or dwarfed minds. Those who indulge in any species of intemperance, either in eating or drinking, waste their physical energies and weaken moral power.—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 53. HL 55.2

228. Those whose moral faculties are beclouded by disease, are not the ones rightly to represent the Christian life, to show forth the joys of salvation or the beauties of holiness. They are too often in the fire of fanaticism or the water of cold indifference or stolid gloom.—The Signs of the Times, June 15, 1882, par. 2. HL 55.3

229. While men and women professing godliness are diseased from the crown of their head to the soles of their feet, while their physical, mental and moral energies are enfeebled through gratification of depraved appetite and excessive labor, how can they weigh the evidences of truth, and comprehend the requirements of God? If their moral and intellectual faculties are beclouded, they cannot appreciate the value of the atonement or the exalted character of the work of God, nor delight in the study of his word. How can a nervous dyspeptic be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh him for a reason of the hope that is in him, with meekness and fear?—Testimonies for the Church 1:488. HL 55.4

230. Perfection and the spirit of holiness cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds.—Testimonies for the Church 1:554. HL 55.5