Signs of the Times, Book 1 - Ellen G. White

the appetite of the Hebrews for flesh-meats, would weaken their moral
powers, and induce such an irritable disposition that the vast army would
become insubordinate, that they would lose the high sense of their moral
obligations, and refuse to be controlled by the wise laws of Jehovah.
Violence and rebellion would exist among them, making it impossible for
them to be a pure and happy people in the land of Canaan. God knew what
was best for the children of Israel, therefore he deprived them in a great
measure of flesh-meats.
Satan tempted them to consider this unjust and cruel. He caused them to
lust after forbidden things, because he saw that through the indulgence of
perverted appetite they would become carnally-minded and could be easily
brought to do his will; the lower organs would be strengthened, while the
intellectual and moral powers would be weakened.
Satan is no novice in the business of destroying souls. He well knows
that if he can lead men and women into wrong habits of eating and drinking,
he has gained, in a great degree, the control of their minds and baser
passions. In the beginning man ate of the fruits of the earth, but sin brought
into use the flesh of dead animals as food. This diet works directly against
the spirit of true refinement and moral purity. The substance of that which is
taken into the stomach, passes into the circulation, and is converted into flesh
and blood.
Those who subsist largely upon flesh-meats inflame the stomach
thereby, the blood becomes torpid and impure, head-aches and indispositions
follow. The system is filled with humors; fevers, scrofula and cancers are the
consequences. Especially is this true of those who eat swine's flesh. Yet so
great is the tendency to ignore these evils, that few can be brought to realize
the true effects of this sort of diet upon the human system.
God requires that his people should be temperate in all things. The
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