Human Appetites. (rewritten)

It is worth keeping in mind that the main human appetites and propensities, in their particular forms, are really different expressions of desire. So if it matters that our desires be rightly governed, then it matters just as much that the specific appetites and propensities desire takes on, in the proper circumstances, be rightly governed too. The same is true of the affections. Like the appetites and propensive principles, the affections have desire as one of their essential and leading elements, and they also can run into excess.

(1) — The appetites are good when they remain in their proper place. But when they are not rightly regulated — when they are not kept to their proper occasions and objects — they become a source of serious harm. I believe it is generally understood that excessive indulgence of the appetites, the “lower passions,” as they are sometimes called, is the real source of inward moral impurity. This is a state of mind that, sadly, most people probably know from experience better than any explanation could describe. The way people speak about the appetites shows clearly what they think about this. Whenever the appetites move beyond their proper sphere and measure, people describe them as low, degrading, and polluting, and compare those who indulge them in that way to swine wallowing in the mud.

Our own consciousness also bears witness to this. When the appetites are fully subdued and kept in their place, the person who experiences them — at least as far as the appetites are concerned — feels pure in heart. But when this is not the case, there is not only guilt, but degradation. There is an inward awareness of what may be called, figuratively, a stain or blot on the mind. The soul knows, by its own experience, that it is not what it is at other times. 

A holy soul may be compared to a mirror into which God may look and see the features of his own character reflected. But when the soul yields to the improper influence of the appetites, that mirror becomes stained and darkened, and God is no longer seen in it.

Indulgence in Food and Drink

A person may become impure, as in point of fact many do become impure, by the inordinate indulgence of the appetite for food and drink. The Savior ate and drank without prejudice to his holiness, because he did so in fulfillment of the laws of nature. The truly devoted followers of the Savior will endeavor to imitate his example in this respect. "I felt no disposition," says the pious Brainerd, "to eat and drink for the sake of the pleasure of it; but only to support my nature, and to fit me for divine service." It may perhaps be properly added, that even heathenism, which thus utters a voice to teach and reprove an imperfect Christianity, can furnish us a lesson on this subject. It is said of Hannibal, the celebrated Carthaginian commander, that in the use of food and drink he consulted merely the real wants of the physical system, without any regard to the suggestions of sensual pleasure. In the language of the Roman historian, "CIBI POTIONISQUE DESIDERIO NATURALI, NON VOLUPTATE, MODUS FINITUS." This fact, among other striking traits of character, is obviously mentioned as a ground of commendation by the historian, who, heathen as he was, as well as the celebrated subject of his remarks, seems to have had a clear perception of the intentions of nature.

Happy would it be, if such views and practices more generally prevailed. But it is a painful truth that multitudes of persons, and some even of those who claim to be the Savior's followers, pollute themselves by taking food, not for the sake of the food and in the fulfillment of the intentions of nature, but for the sake of the pleasure which it gives; making the pleasure the ultimate and oftentimes the sole object. In other words, they eat and drink for their lust's sake. They do not eat and drink, because it is necessary to support nature; an important object, which, when properly kept in view, has a tendency to limit the quality and quantity of the articles taken, but in order that they may gratify their selfish propensities. Such are the persons, that are properly denominated impure;  and they feel themselves to be so. The superabundance of the flesh, nourished by meats and drinks stimulating in their nature, and inordinate in quantity, seems to spread a coat of its dark and unseemly accretion over the mind itself. The amount of impurity, which results from this source, is immense; and will abundantly account for the lamentations of many persons over their spiritual leanness.

— The Interior or Hidden Life (1844) Part 2, Chapter 3.