God wishes us to have the mastery over ourselves.

But He cannot help us without our

consent and co-operation. The divine Spirit works through the powers and faculties given
to man. Of ourselves, we are not able to bring the purposes and desires and inclinations
into harmony with the will of God; but if we are "willing to be made willing," the Saviour
will accomplish this for us, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to
the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5. {AA 482.3}

Some have sneered at health reform, and have said it was all unnecessary, that it was an
excitement which tended to divert minds from present truth. They have said that matters
were carried to extremes. Such do not know what they are talking about. While men and
women professing godliness are diseased from the crown of the head to the sole of the
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, a reason for the hope that is
in him, with meekness and fear? How soon would such a one become confused and
agitated, and by his diseased imagination be led to view matters in an altogether wrong
light, and by a lack of that meekness and calmness which characterized the life of Christ,
be caused to dishonor his profession while contending with unreasonable men?
Salt must be mingled with the substance to which it is added; it must penetrate, infuse
it, that it may be preserved. So it is through personal contact and association that men are
reached by the saving power of the gospel. They are not saved as masses, but as
individuals. Personal influence is a power. It is to work with the influence of Christ, . . .
and to stay the progress of the world's corruption. . . . It is to uplift, to sweeten the lives
and characters of others by the power of a pure example united with earnest faith and
love. . . . {CC 224.3}
The polluted stream represents the soul that is separate from God. . . . Through sin, the
whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted; the
faculties of the soul are degraded. There is an absence of pure religion, of heart holiness.
The converting power of God has not wrought in transforming the character. . . . {CC
224.4}

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 ensure 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. {CD 49.4}

If the Bible were studied as it should be, men would become strong in intellect. The
subjects treated upon in the Word of God, the dignified simplicity of its utterance, the
noble themes which it presents to the mind, develop faculties in man which cannot
otherwise be developed. In the Bible a boundless field is opened for the imagination. The
student will come from a contemplation of its grand themes, from association with its
lofty imagery, more pure and elevated in thought and feeling than if he had spent the time
in reading any work of mere human origin, to say nothing of those of a trifling character.
{1MCP 92.3}

You have indulged in novel and story reading until you live in an imaginary world.
The influence of such reading is injurious to both the mind and the body; it weakens the
intellect and brings a fearful tax upon the physical strength. At times your mind is
scarcely sane because the imagination has been overexcited and diseased by reading
fictitious stories. The mind should be so disciplined that all its powers will be
symmetrically developed. A certain course of training may invigorate special faculties
and at the same time leave other faculties without improvement so that their usefulness
will be crippled. The memory is greatly injured by ill-chosen reading, which has a
tendency to unbalance the reasoning powers and to create nervousness, weariness of the
brain, and prostration of the entire system. If the imagination is constantly overfed and
stimulated by fictitious literature, it soon becomes a tyrant, controlling all the other
faculties of the mind and causing the taste to become fitful and the tendencies perverse.
{4T 497.2}

When persons are addicted to the habit of self-abuse, it is impossible to arouse their
moral sensibilities to appreciate eternal things or to delight in spiritual exercises. Impure
thoughts seize and control the imagination and fascinate the mind, and next follows an
almost uncontrollable desire for the performance of impure actions. If the mind were
educated to contemplate elevating subjects, the imagination trained to reflect upon pure
and holy things, it would be fortified against this terrible, debasing, soul-and-body-
destroying indulgence. It would, by training, become accustomed to linger upon the high,
the heavenly, the pure, and the sacred, and could not be attracted to this base, corrupt, and
vile indulgence. {2T 470.1}

God does not bid the youth to be less aspiring. The elements of character that make a
man successful and honored among men--the irrepressible desire for some greater good,
the indomitable will, the strenuous exertion, the untiring perseverance--are not to be
crushed out. By the grace of God they are to be directed to objects as much higher than
mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.

And De 30:19-20.

Indulgence in unlawful things has become a power to deprave mankind, to dwarf the
mind and to pervert the faculties. Just such a state of things as exists today existed before
the flood and before the destruction of Sodom. Dissipation is on the increase in our
world. Handbills on which indecent pictures are printed are posted up along our streets to
allure the eyes and deprave the morals. These presentations are of such a character as to
stir up the basest passions of the human heart through corrupt imaginings. These corrupt
imaginings are followed by defiling practices like those in which the Sodomites indulged.
But the most terrible part of the evil is that it is practiced under the garb of sanctity. Our
youth will be defiled, their thoughts degraded, and their souls polluted unless they are
barricaded with the truth.--Letter 1, 1875. {TSB 120.1}