Diet in Preparation for Eternal Life

There is probably no class of people in the world that has so broad a comprehension of the value of healthful living as Seventh-day Adventists. The objective of proper living with most people is limited to the field of utility for this life only. Science has taught that a proper diet is good for health, for endurance, for restoration to normal in sickness and for economical reasons. When an athlete finds what diet is best in helping him to win, he adheres to it assiduously while in training and in action. If a student can find the diet that will help him most to pass the coming examination, he will adopt it for the time being at least. If an as­pirant to a shapely form is convinced that choosing certain foods will trim down her avoir­dupois_' she will restrict and starve herself to attain her end.

There are some people who have gone a step beyond these materially minded people, and have espoused the cause of dieting to improve their intelligence. They restrict themselves on certain foods or emphasize the use of others, in order that they may attain more prominence in their daily business or profession. Still others comprehend the fact that a proper regimen will improve their moral nature. They adopt ab­stemious habits in order to approach more nearly to their ideal of manhood or womanhood.

Each and every one of these aspirations is laudable, and the process by which they are at­tained is more or less logical. But is there not a higher motive than any or all of these consid­erations put together? What of eternity and its contemplation and possibilities for enjoy­ment.

The more we study nature and the more we know of nature's God, the more we are im­pressed with the working out of the law of cause and effect in the domain of nature. The never-failing outcome of matters is most im­pressive if we note the steps by which the result arrives. Even a seed catalogue dares to proph­esy the very date when we may eat roasting ears, but it states conditions upon which such prognostications are based; such as good seed, proper soil, adequate sunshine, care in watering, awl freedom from weeds. The reason most of us do not enjoy those good roasting ears at the promised date is not that there is any lack of accuracy in the conditions themselves, but that there is lack of compliance with staid rules.

We see great enthusiasm each spring about victory gardens. But it does not take many weeks to observe an increasing lack of anima­tion on the part of many enthusiasts. What's the matter? Has nature failed to do her part? Have the rules of the game changed since the seed was planted? Has there been a strike in the solar system, and has Old Sol taken a few days off?

Look where you will in nature, and you will observe the eternal integrity of the laws of God. They never change, and they never will change. An opportunity is given us in this world, lim­ited though it be in time and space, to learn to adapt ourselves to these laws. If a lifetime is not long enough, how long would we want? It would seem to be a great hazard to risk eternity upon the use we make of the brief life in this world, but the God who made man knows what is in him and whether he will 'prove true throughout eternity. This is why being true to oneself, to one's God, and to principle, is so important. Can we play with fire and not get burned? Can we temporize with conditions in this life, and develop traits, inclinations, habits, that can be thrown off at the gates of the eternal city? I tell you, nay.

"Life is real! Life is earnest !

And the grave is not its pool;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the sou/."

But you will ask, "What has this to do with eternity?" Everything. The laws of nature are the laws of God. All that is enduring in this life will be enduring in the hereafter. The laws by which we live here will be the laws by which we shall live hereafter. Transgression of these laws hereafter would be as fatal as they are here. Six thousand years seems a long time to hold up the workings of eternity because of one side step from rectitude. The conception that an overshadowing ego could direct the af­fairs of the universe better than a correlating Father, led to disruption. The interpolation of a negative into the eternal principle that the day that those who step aside from absolute conformity to eternal principle shall "surely die," brought destruction, misery, and death to the family on earth.

Departure from the principles of eternity en­tered human conception and experience through the atrium of appetite. She [Eve] "saw that the tree was good for food." The floodgates of eter­nal justice gave way to the onrush of self-exal­tation, and a holocaust has devastated the earth for six millenniums. Have we had enough of it? Are we ready to throw up our hands and allow another to take over? Are we ready to accept absolutely and eternally a better way?

A diminutive replica of this great drama of sin is being enacted amongst the nations of earth today. An overmastering ego has con­ceived the idea that absolutism among men is the only workable plan of government, as op­posed to autonomy which was fast winning way in the world, at least theoretically. The most disastrous war ever waged is in progress in an effort to determine which form of govern­ment shall maintain. At times there has seemed to be a question as to which principle would prevail. There may be a question among men, but with the Eternal there is no question which one, right or wrong, will triumph. The fight, however, is not national or world wide or even universal, but individual. Each man is the con­testant; each soul, the wager; the individual monscience, the battlefield. The question at -stake is, Am III willing to abide by eternal prin­ciple?

We are having a second World War. There may be others. Will there be a repetition of this experience with sin? No. Why? Because all who are counted worthy to enter that better world will have settled it here on all -points. They will have said, "As for me I will serve the Lord." That means absolute con­formity to the eternal principles of life.

A nebulous field of comprehension and conviction as to absolute conformity to law is ex­tant. False sentiment conceives of the field of law as one of restricted opportunity and priv­ilege. Far from it. Eve's temptation, intel­lectually, was, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." It is hard for mortals, inured to evil, to comprehend that a knowledge of sin is not necessary or even desirable for existence, or for happiness. It is difficult for humans to comprehend what absolute conformity to abso­lute law would be, and that this and this only will be the basis for eternal life and eternal ^-happiness. It is still more difficult to conceive and to believe that such a condition is the pass­word to heaven, and that there will be no sec­ond chance, no priority, no side-stepping in ob­taining that state. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is per­fect," through Jesus Christ, of course.

It is again difficult to comprehend that condi­tions that maintained before sin entered must characterize those who are to be translated into an eternal existence. When and where shall that condition be accomplished?

Now what does this mean as to regimen in eternity? Sin entered human experience through appetite. For seventeen hundred years the regimen of eternity maintained amongst early generations and man's life averaged nearly a thousand years, as recorded. Then came de­cline. An effort, during the wilderness wander­ings, to bring a people back to the diet of heaven was unsuccessful. It failed because the people failed.

A third time the test is being made to deter­mine who will be willing to endure this supreme test of appetite. Will it be modified hereafter, if mankind fails to adopt it? Even to ask such a question is absurd. What must happen? Let another answer:

"The work of health reform is the Lord's means for lessening suffering in our world and for purifying His church." "Again and again I have been shoWn that God is trying to lead us back, step by step, to His original design,—that man should subsist upon the natural products of the earth. Among those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, meat eating will eventually be done away ; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view, and endeavor to work steadily toward it"— C. 0. H., pp. 443, 450.

There is no more explicit, pointed, or abun­dant instruction given in the Spirit of prophecy than that on this topic of healthful living. There is no teaching that is so widely neglected and transgressed by the denomination as is this. Does the Lord mean what He says about it? Shall this reform be made before, or after, we enter the new earth? Will the Lord tolerate es­tablishing shambles "over there" any more than He would tolerate -them in His temple in the days of Christ? In short, shall we become mas­ters of our appetites here in this world, or hope for priority over some of our bad habits in the by and by?

It would seem from the absolute dearth of teaching on this subject from our clergy that the matter is a thing of the past, and that as a denomination we have no conviction on the sub­ject. Is this true, or must a soul-searching movement permeate the denomination to con­vince us that there has been no change in God's eternal purpose in this matter?