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Health and Efficiency
Health is an inestimable blessing and one more closely related to
conscience and religion than many realize. It has a great deal to do
with one’s capability for service and should be as sacredly guarded
as the character, for the more perfect the health the more perfect
will be our efforts for the advancement of God’s cause and for the
blessing of humanity.
There is an important work to be done in our schools in teaching
the youth the principles of health reform. The teachers should exert a
reformatory influence in the matter of eating, drinking, and dressing,
and should encourage their students to practice self-denial and self-
control. The youth should be taught that all their powers are from
God; that He has a claim upon every faculty; and that by abusing
their health in any way they slight one of God’s choicest blessings.
The Lord gives them health to use in His service, and the greater
their physical strength, the stronger their powers of endurance, the
more they can do for the Master. Instead of abusing or overtaxing
their physical powers, they should jealously guard them for His use.
Youth is the time to lay up knowledge in those lines that can
be put into daily practice throughout the life. Youth is the time
to establish good habits, to correct wrong ones, to gain and hold
the power of self-control, to accustom oneself to ordering all the
acts of life with reference to the will of God and the welfare of
one’s fellow creatures. Youth is the sowing time that determines the
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harvest of this life and the life beyond the grave. The habits formed
in childhood and youth, the tastes acquired, the self-control gained,
are almost certain to determine the future of the man or woman.
The importance of caring for the health should be taught as a
Bible requirement. Perfect obedience to God’s commands calls
for conformity to the laws of the being. The science of education
includes as full a knowledge of physiology as can be obtained.
No one can properly understand his obligations to God unless he
understands clearly his obligations to himself as God’s property. He
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