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Good Health Needed to Achieve Success, October 7
I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the
broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the
strong, and feed them in judgment.
Ezekiel 34:16
, NKJV.
Since the mind and the soul find expression through the body, both mental and
spiritual vigor are in great degree dependent upon physical strength and activity;
whatever promotes physical health promotes the development of a strong mind and
a well-balanced character. Without health no one can as distinctly understand or
as completely fulfill his or her obligations to oneself, to other persons, or to the
Creator. Therefore the health should be as faithfully guarded as the character. A
knowledge of physiology and hygiene should be the basis of all educational effort.
Though the facts of physiology are now so generally understood, there is an
alarming indifference in regard to the principles of health. Even of those who have
a knowledge of these principles, there are few who put them in practice. Inclination
or impulse is followed as blindly as if life were controlled by mere chance rather
than by definite and unvarying laws.
The youth, in the freshness and vigor of life, little realize the value of their
abounding energy. A treasure more precious than gold, more essential to advance-
ment than learning or rank or riches—how lightly it is held! how rashly squandered!
How many men and women, sacrificing health in the struggle for riches or power,
have almost reached the object of their desire, only to fall helpless, while others,
possessing superior physical endurance, grasped the longed-for prize! Through
morbid conditions, the result of neglecting the laws of health, how many have been
led into evil practices, to the sacrifice of every hope for this world and the next!
In the study of physiology, pupils should be led to see the value of physical
energy and how it can be so preserved and developed as to contribute in the highest
degree to success in life’s great struggle.
Children should be early taught, in simple, easy lessons, the rudiments of
physiology and hygiene.... They should understand the importance of guarding
against disease by preserving the vigor of every organ and should also be taught how
to deal with common diseases and accidents. Every school should give instruction
in both physiology and hygiene, and, so far as possible, should be provided with
facilities for illustrating the structure, use, and care of the body.—
Education, 195,
196
.
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