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The Most Profitable Investment, March 21
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psalm 139:14
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Only one lease of life is granted us here, and the inquiry with every one
should be, How can I invest my life that it may yield the greatest profit?
Life is valuable only as we improve it for the benefit of our fellow creatures
and the glory of God. Careful cultivation of the abilities with which the
Creator has endowed us will fit us for usefulness here and eternal life in
the world to come.
That time is well spent which is directed to the establishment and
preservation of sound physical and mental health.... It is easy to lose health,
but it is difficult to regain it....
We can ill afford to dwarf or cripple a single function of mind or body
by overwork or by abuse of any part of the living machinery. So sure as
we do this, we must suffer the consequences. It is our first duty to God
and our fellow beings to develop all our powers. Every faculty with which
the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of
perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which
we are capable. The grace of Christ is needed to refine and purify the mind;
this will enable us to see and correct our deficiencies, and to improve that
which is excellent in our characters. This work, wrought for ourselves in
the strength and name of Jesus, will be of more benefit to society than any
sermon we might preach. The influence of a well-balanced, well-ordered
life is of inestimable value....
There are few as yet who are aroused sufficiently to understand how
much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their characters, their
usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny. The appetite should ever
be in subjection to the moral and intellectual organs. The body should be
servant to the mind, and not the mind to the body. All should understand in
regard to their own physical frames, that with the psalmist they may be able
to exclaim, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
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The Review and Herald, September 23, 1884
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