not the exclusive teaching of these seducing spirits. The hidden danger in the command

to abstain at all contradicts the purpose of God, for these "meats" God hath created to be

received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth . . . . . it is

sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. "It is sanctified." Here is true sanctity as

contrasted with the false sanctity of abstention. In the Word of God we learn that at the

first, the food of mankind was "every herb bearing seed . . . . . and every tree, in the

which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat" (Gen. 1: 29). As

these words apply to the Garden planted by God before the curse came down on earth,

there was no need to provide against poisonous and noxious plants, they did not exist. At

the expulsion of man, he was under a necessity to eat bread in the sweat of his face. The

earth would no longer yield "of itself" but required the labours of husbandry, and "bread"

made from wheat, barley or rye became practically "the staff of life". After the flood, for

reasons not state, but which are implied, flesh meat was added to human diet by Divine

To abstain from flesh meat for humanitarian reasons, or for any feeling of superior

sanctity is therefore to take a step in the direction of apostasy. Later, the apostle said:

The only abstinence commended is that which stoops to yield to the qualms of

another's man's conscience (I Cor. 10: 29). There may be genuine reasons why an

individual should abstain from one form of food or another, because of weakness,

sickness or other infirmity, but even this, justifiable as it may be, can easily become a

"cult" and should be followed with care. How many books and tracts have unwittingly

emphasized the abstinence inculcated in the fourth chapter of first Timothy in an

endeavour to deepen the spiritual life! How few have emphasized the liberality and

largeness of I Tim. 6: 17, "Trust . . . . . in the living God, Who giveth US RICHLY all

things to ENJOY". It is a false sanctity that would rid the believer's vocabulary of these

words and but feeds the vanity of self imposed humility.

Feeding of all kinds, like marriage, is an indication that we are still in the body of this

humiliation. There is no warrant for believing that the spiritual body which will fit the

believer for "heavenly place" in resurrection will be sustained in life by any sort of

digestive process at all, but even so, though it be a reminder of our present humiliation,

we must resist the temptation to a specious refinement that while apparently neglecting

the body, yet ministers to the satisfying of the flesh, for this is a covert attack upon our

completeness and our acceptance in Christ, even as the doctrines of demons was an attack

upon His sole Mediation between God and men.

It must not be forgotten moreover that the word "hypocrite" meant "one who plays a

part on a stage, a player, an actor". So hupekrithesan tragodoi means "tragedies were

performed". Of course, in time the idea of playing a part, feigning, dissembling took on a