Passions
by Ellen White
But even health reformers can err in the quantity of food. They can eat immoderately of
a healthy quality of food. Some in this house err in the quality. They have never taken
their position upon health reform. They have chosen to eat and drink what they pleased and
when they pleased. They are injuring their systems in this way. Not only this, but they
are injuring their families by placing upon their tables a feverish diet which will
increase the animal passions of their children and lead them to care but little for
heavenly things. The parents are thus strengthening the animal, and lessening the
spiritual, powers of their children. What a heavy penalty will they have to pay in the
end! And then they wonder that their children are so weak morally! 2T 365
The slightest insinuations, from whatever source they may come, inviting you to indulge
in sin or to allow the least unwarrantable liberty with your persons, should be resented
as the worst of insults to your dignified womanhood. The kiss upon your cheek, at an
improper time and place, should lead you to repel the emissary of Satan with disgust. If
it is from one in high places who is dealing in sacred things, the sin is of tenfold
greater magnitude, and should lead a God-fearing woman or youth to recoil with horror, not
only from the sin he would have you commit, but from the hypocrisy and villainy of one
whom the people respect and honour as God's servant. He is handling sacred things, yet
hiding his baseness of heart under a ministerial cloak. Be afraid of anything like this
familiarity. Be sure that the least approach to it is evidence of a lascivious mind and a
lustful eye. If the least encouragement is given in this direction, if any of the
liberties mentioned are tolerated, no better evidence can be given that your mind is not
pure and chaste as it should be, and that sin and crime have charms for you. You lower the
standard of your dignified, virtuous womanhood, and give unmistakable evidence that a low,
brutal, common passion and lust has been suffered to remain alive in your heart and has
never been crucified. 2T 458
Appetite and passion are overcoming thousands of Christ's professed followers. Their
senses become so blunted on account of familiarity with sin that they do not abhor it, but
view it as attractive. The end of all things is at hand. God will not much longer bear
with the crimes and debasing iniquity of the children of men. Their crimes have indeed
reached unto the heavens and will soon be answered by the fearful plagues of God upon the
earth. They will drink the cup of God's wrath unmixed with mercy. 3T 473
I have seen that there is danger that even the professed children of God will be
corrupted. Licentiousness is binding men and women as captives. They seem to be infatuated
and powerless to resist and overcome upon the point of appetite and passion. In God there
is power; in Him there is strength. If they will take hold upon it, the life-giving power
of Jesus will stimulate everyone who has named the name of Christ. Dangers and perils
surround us; and we are only safe when we feel our weakness and cling with the grasp of
faith to our mighty Deliverer. It is a fearful time in which we live. We cannot cease
watchfulness and prayer for a moment. Our helpless souls must rely on Jesus, our
compassionate Redeemer. 3T 473
There is a solemn responsibility upon all, especially upon ministers who teach the
truth, to overcome upon the point of appetite. Their usefulness would be much greater if
they had control of their appetites and passions, and their mental and moral powers would
be stronger if they combined physical labour with mental exertion. With strictly temperate
habits, and with mental and physical labour combined, they could accomplish a far greater
amount of labour and preserve clearness of mind. If they would pursue such a course, their
thoughts and words would flow more freely, their religious exercises would be more
energised, and the impressions made upon their hearers would be more marked. 3T 486
Tobacco is a slow, insidious poison, and its effects are more difficult to cleanse from
the system than those of liquor. What power can the tobacco devotee have to stay the
progress of intemperance? There must be a revolution in our world upon the subject of
tobacco before the axe is laid at the root of the tree. We press the subject still closer.
Tea and coffee are fostering the appetite which is developing for stronger stimulants, as
tobacco and liquor. And we come still closer home, to the daily meals, the tables spread
in Christian households. Is temperance practised in all things? Are the reforms which are
essential to health and happiness carried out there? Every true Christian will have
control of his appetite and passions. Unless he is free from the bondage and slavery of
appetite he cannot be a true, obedient servant of Christ. It is the indulgence of appetite
and passion which makes the truth of none effect upon the heart. It is impossible for the
spirit and power of the truth to sanctify a man, soul, body, and spirit, when he is
controlled by appetite and passion. - 3T 569
All are required to do what they can to preserve healthy bodies, and sound minds. If
they will gratify a gross appetite, and by so doing blunt their sensibilities, and becloud
their perceptive faculties so that they cannot appreciate the exalted character of God, or
delight in the study of his Word, they may be assured that God will not accept their
unworthy offering any sooner than that of Cain. God requires them to cleanse themselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.
After man has done all in his power to insure health, by the denying of appetite and gross
passions, that he may possess a healthy mind, and a sanctified imagination, that he may
render to God an offering in righteousness, then he is saved alone by a miracle of God's
mercy, as was the ark upon the stormy billows. Noah had done all that God required of him
in making the ark secure, then God performed that which man could not do, and preserved
the ark by his miraculous power. 4ASG 148
I have often heard people say: "Oh! this is only sweet cider; it is perfectly
harmless, and even healthful." Several quarts, perhaps gallons, are carried home. For
a few days it is sweet; then fermentation begins. The sharp flavour makes it all the more
acceptable to many palates, and the lover of sweet wine or cider is loath to admit that
his favourite beverage ever becomes hard or sour. Persons may become just as really
intoxicated on wine and cider as on stronger drinks, and the worst kind of inebriation is
produced by these so-called milder drinks. The passions are more perverse; the
transformation of character is greater, more determined and obstinate. A few quarts of
cider or wine may awaken a taste for stronger drinks, and in many cases those who have
become confirmed drunkards have thus laid the foundation of the drinking habit. For some
persons it is by no means safe to have wine or cider in the house. They have inherited an
appetite for stimulants, which Satan is continually soliciting them to indulge. If they
yield to his temptations they do not stop; appetite clamours for indulgence and is
gratified to their ruin. The brain is benumbed and clouded; reason no longer holds the
reins, but they are laid on the neck of lust. Licentiousness, adultery, and vices of
almost every type are committed as the result of indulging the appetite for wine and
cider. A professor of religion who loves these stimulants, and accustoms himself to their
use, never grows in grace. He becomes gross and sensual; the animal passions control the
higher powers of the mind, and virtue is not cherished. 5T 356
Health is a blessing of which few appreciate the value; yet upon it the efficiency of
our mental and physical powers largely depends. Our impulses and passions have their seat
in the body, and it must be kept in the best condition physically and under the most
spiritual influences in order that our talents may be put to the highest use. COL 346
Many of the young are eager for books. They read everything they can obtain. Exciting
love stories and impure pictures have a corrupting influence. Novels are eagerly perused
by many, and, as the result, their imagination becomes defiled. In the cars, photographs
of females in a state of nudity are frequently circulated for sale. These disgusting
pictures are . . . hung upon the walls of those who deal in engravings. This is an age
when corruption is teeming everywhere. The lust of the eye and corrupt passions are
aroused by beholding and by reading. The heart is corrupted through the imagination. The
mind takes pleasure in contemplating scenes which awaken the lower and baser passions.
These vile images, seen through defiled imagination, corrupt the morals and prepare the
deluded, infatuated beings to give loose rein to lustful passions. Then follow sins and
crimes which drag beings formed in the image of God down to a level with the beasts,
sinking them at last in perdition. Avoid reading and seeing things which will suggest
impure thoughts. Cultivate the moral and intellectual powers. Let not these noble powers
become enfeebled and perverted by much reading of even storybooks. . . . MAR 143
With what care should Christians regulate their habits, that they may preserve the full
vigour of every faculty to give to the service of Christ. If we would be sanctified, in
soul, body, and spirit, we must live in conformity to the divine law. The heart cannot
preserve consecration to God while the appetites and passions are indulged at the expense
of health and life. RH JAN.25,1881
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