Untitled article by Dudley Marvin Canright

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, March 24, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 15

CONVERSATIONS ON IMPORTANT SUBJECTS. NO. 6.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

Minister. Now brethren, we are prepared to go on with our investigation. The eating of meat I believe was the subject under discussion.

Bro. A. Well, I don't think for my part that I could labor as hard as I do, without such hearty victuals as pork, beef, &c.

Min. But my dear brother, you are greatly mistaken about meat being such hearty food. Graham flour, peas, beans, and such like, are much more hearty than meat.

Bro. B. Pshaw! you can't make me believe that.

Min. I think I can, if you will believe facts. The object in eating food is to supply the waste which takes place in the system by nature and by work; also to build up the system, is it not?

Bro. A. Certainly. And when it does this we feel stronger for eating. That is the reason why I think meat is so hearty, because I feel strong after eating it.

Min. But does not a man feel strong also after drinking liquor?

Bro. A. Why—yes, I believe he does.

Min. Do you therefore believe that liquor is hearty food, and builds up the system?

Bro. A. Well no, not exactly. I believe that it is only a stimulant, and it only makes him feel better for the time being, without actually building up his system any.

Min. Very well, then it will not do to go by your rule only, that is to eat everything that makes us feel stronger for the time being. May not meat have the same effect, in a great degree, that liquor does? Is it not more a stimulant than a nutriment?

Bro. A. I don't think that it does. I know meat does me good.

Bro. B. You ministers, who do not labor hard, can live on lighter food, but we farmers must have hearty victuals. It looks to me, that pork was designed for farmers and working men.

Min. But Bro. B., the Jews were farmers, and God did not allow them to eat pork. I have a few facts here which I wish to read to you, from Dr. Cole's Philosophy of Health. It is a table showing the amount of nutriment contained in vegetable and animal food. He says that 100 parts of wheat contain 85 parts of nutriment. That in a hundred pounds there would be 15 pounds of waste matter, where there would be 85 pounds which would go to nourish and strengthen and build up the system. I will read the table clear through. Barley 83, oats 79, oat meal 90, rice 90, peas 96, beans 96, potatoes 25. Animal food, beef, about 25, veal 25, mutton 25, lamb 25, chicken 22, codfish 20, oysters 13, white of eggs 20, yolk of eggs 46.

Now let us examine the table. Here is a pound of wheat and there is a pound of meat. The pound of wheat contains 85 parts of nutriment, and the meat only 25 parts, which is less than one third as much nourishment as the wheat. Peas contain nearly four times as much as the same amount of pork. Hence, if one man eats a pound of meat, and the other a pound of flour, the latter will derive more than three times as much benefit from his meal as the other does from his. Now which is the most hearty food of the two?

Bro. A. Well, it would seem according to that, that a grain or vegetable diet would be the most hearty.

Bro. D. Now I think that I can convince you, Bro. A., that a vegetable diet is the most hearty food. You, living largely on meat, find that you must have your three meals a day regularly.

Bro. A. Oh! yes, I never can come to the two-meal system, I can hardly get along on three a day. I think that four would be better. If I should eat only two meals a day, I know that I should be so faint that I could not stand it.

Bro. D. Now I am a farmer as well as you, and do I not work as hard as you?

Bro. A. Oh! yes, I guess you do.

Bro. D. Very well. Now you know that I have eaten only two meals a day for a year and a half past. I do not feel faint and languid as you say you do. The reason is very obvious to my mind. I live on graham flour, corn meal, beans, fruit, &c. When I eat a meal of this, my system receives real strength and nourishment from it. This strength thus received, lasts me for several hours; hence I can easily do with two meals a day. But the meat which you eat, acts more as a stimulant than as a nutriment. It acts upon your nerves, and makes you feel stronger than you really are, for a short time, and then it is all gone; and you feel faint and weak, and need something more to eat. Are not these facts?

Bro. A. Well it does look some so, and I don't know but that you are about half right.

Min. Yes, this alone is sufficient, and is enough to show that meat is not such hearty food as has been supposed, nor so hearty as the grain and vegetable diet.

Bro. B. But we poor folks cannot afford to adopt the health reform. To carry out the health reform, we should have plenty of fruit, berries and sauce, the best of graham flour, &c. This costs a good deal.

Min. Can not afford it! Why my dear brother, you are just the one that cannot afford to do without it. Let us look at the figures a moment. We have just seen that one pound of wheat contains more than three times as much as one pound of meat. One pound of salt pork will cost twenty-one cents. This pound will contain twenty-five parts nutriment. Now for twenty-one cents, you can obtain three pounds of flour, which contains two hundred and fifty-five parts nutriment, which is ten times as much nutriment as you will get in your pork, for the same money. What do you think of that, Bro. B.?

Bro. B. I declare, I had not supposed that was so. I guess I must think of that a little more.

Min. But why should we eat meat any way? It contains nothing that the system can use but what may be found in grains and vegetables. For instance, you take the small pig that weighs ten pounds, you shut him up and feed him on milk, meal, corn and such like, and after feeding him thus for several months, he at length weighs several hundred pounds. You now kill him and put his flesh on the table and eat it. What is that flesh made of? Of course it is made of the meal and corn which he has eaten, which you now have to take second-hand, after going through what seems to me, not a very cleansing process, namely the dirt and filth of a pig sty, and swine's flesh for a filter. Now why not take it first-hand, clean and pure, just as the Lord made it. It certainly would have all the properties of nutrition that it now has. I can see no reason in first letting the hog eat our food for us.

Bro. D. But there is another good reason why we should not eat flesh, and that is, we partake of the nature of the food we eat. Hence if we live on the flesh of low, gross animals, such as the swine, we partake more or less of their nature, which is not very elevating to humanity.

Min. Yes, this is shown to be a fact by observing the natives who live on different kinds of food. The Indians, who live principally on wild meat, are savage and bloodthirsty. While those nations who subsist chiefly on vegetables, are remarkable for their mildness and humanity. The Esquimaux, who lives largely on fat, are a low, groveling race of people; so we might mention other circumstances. But one of the strongest reasons why we should not eat animal food now, is that the system takes on a greater or less amount of the disease which may be in the flesh which is eaten. We all know that it is dangerous to life to eat the flesh of any animal which has died from disease. Persons have lost their lives by so doing. Now all animals are more or less diseased; and it is hard to find a perfectly healthy creature. Animals are growing more and more diseased. Scrofula, tumors, liver complaint, consumption, and numerous other diseases are as common among animals as men.

Bro. A. But we need not eat the animals thus diseased. We can be careful to eat those only which are healthy.

Min. But you cannot always tell. A creature may look perfectly healthy, and yet have some foul disease about it. This is true of meat that is all diseased and brought into market. The parts which are directly diseased are cut off and thrown away. The meat may look fair and good, yet that disease is all through it more or less. Those who buy meat in public market, do not know what they are eating. They run a great risk. Facts show that thousands die yearly from this cause. Who has not seen gargety cows sold for beef? oxen with a wolf on the jaw? hogs nearly dead with scrofula? and all such diseases.

Bro. B. Yes, I have seen that, and I think that it is a perfect shame that men will do so.

Bro. A. So have I. I would not eat their flesh for anything. I am very particular what I eat.

Bro. D. But if you go to a public house, or to the house of a friend, and meat is set before you, how do you know what that meat is, or where it came from? It may come from just such a class of creatures as this.

Bro. A. Well I don't know as I could tell in that case. The safest way I believe is not to eat it.

Min. Do you then blame us who do not eat meat, who have to travel around all the time, and do not know where the meat comes from that is set before us?

Bro. B. Oh! no. I should be afraid to eat it myself.

Min. Then you must allow that we take a consistent course in this respect.

Bro. A. But you promised to tell us why the health reform was so important down here just before the coming of the Lord.

Min. Very well, we will now consider that point: In Rev. xiv, 6-16, there are three messages brought to view, which we understand to be given just before the coming of Christ, to prepare the world for that event. The first message announces the fact that the hour of his judgment is come. The second declares that Babylon has fallen, which we understand to mean the fallen state of professors of religion in the land. The third one warns us not to worship the beast nor his image, and says that all who do, shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation. This is the last message, as we believe. Hence the wrath threatened will be the last judgment God will ever bring upon the world.

Bro. A. Oh! certainly, we believe that. The first verse of the fifteenth chapter tells us what that wrath is. "And I saw another wonder in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God." This is the same as the unmixed wrath of God, mentioned in the third message. But what are the seven last plagues?

Min. They are minutely described in chapter xvi. In verse 1 of this chapter we plainly see that the seven last plagues are poured out upon the very class mentioned in the third angel's message, namely, those who worship the beast and have his mark. But what is the nature of these plagues? A plague signifies a pestilential disease that sweeps over countries, such as the cholera and small pox, fevers, &c. The first plague is a noisome and grievous sore which falls upon men. This shows that it is an evil disease which will pass over the earth and destroy men. Now the saints are to be here on the earth while these plagues are being poured out, as may be seen by verse 16. Now these diseases and plagues will sweep off and destroy the wicked, and they will not destroy the people of God. Now is it not reasonable that God's people should make some preparation to be ready to stand when these diseases come?

Bro. B. Well I had not thought of that point before, but how shall we get ready?

Min. That is what I want to show you. We believe that that is the design of the health reform. To illustrate: suppose that the small pox comes into this village. Who are those that it will attack first, and who will suffer the hardest from it? Those who have eaten most largely of flesh meats, rich food, spices, &c. While those who have lived upon the plain vegetable diet, will be the last ones to take it, and will suffer the least from it. Again, if a man is exposed to it, what is the proper course to take, that he may have it lightly? Experience shows that he should immediately lay aside the use of all greasy and fatty substances; also, salt, spices, rich food and such like, and that he should adopt a simple, plain diet, perhaps eating nothing but graham bread and cold water. By taking this course he may have it very lightly.

Bro. B. But why is this so?

Bro. D. Because there is little or nothing in his system for disease to feed upon. Thus he has it lightly.

Min. That is the way I understand it, too. So we believe it will be when the seven last plagues come. The people of God will be prepared for them, their systems will be cleansed from all impurity, so that they will not readily take on disease. But the wicked will be eating and drinking, and feasting upon all unwholesome articles of food, which will prepare them to be swept off by the plagues like diseased sheep. Talk to them about these things which will come upon the world, and about the health reform, and they will make light of it. It looks foolish to them. But the people of God know what is coming, and it is but reasonable that they should prepare for it.

Sr. C. Do you think then that we can save ourselves from these plagues by adopting the health reform?

Min. No. Noah could not have saved himself by preparing the ark. It was a miracle that he was saved after that; but he could not have been saved without having done his part of the work. So with us. We must do all we can to prepare for the time of trouble, and then God will send us help and save us. If we neglect to do this, God will not help us, and we shall perish.

Sr. C. But when we see the plagues coming, shall we not have time enough to change our diet then?

Min. I fear not; for we find that it takes several months to make the change that the health reform requires. There will be no time then for this. Hence those who put it off and neglect it now, will find that it is too late to do it then. The antediluvians could not build an ark after it began to rain.

Bro. D. The health reform is good even now; but I too understand that the great object of this reform is to prepare us for the time of trouble.

Bro. A. I had not viewed it thus before.

Min. Well that is the way that I understand it. But we have talked long enough for this time, so we will have an intermission.