TMK 314.3
(That I May Know Him 314.3)
Through intemperate appetite Adam and Eve lost Eden. If we gain the Paradise of God we must be temperate in all things. Shall any blush with shame to refuse the wine cup or the foaming mug of beer? Instead of this being a dishonorable work, they are doing service to God in the matter of refusing to indulge appetite, resisting temptation. Angels are looking upon both tempter and tempted. While sin is unmanly, indulgence of appetite is weak, cowardly, and debasing; the denial of appetite, honorable. The highest intelligences of heaven watch the conflict going on between the tempter and the tempted. And if the tempted turn away from temptation and in the strength of Jesus conquer, then angels rejoice, and Satan has lost in the conflict.... All who understand the great conflict of Christ upon the point of appetite in the wilderness of temptation will never lend one iota of their influence to brace up intemperance. (TMK 314.3) MC VC