Page 315 - To Be Like Jesus (2004)

Basic HTML Version

Control of Appetite to Begin in Childhood, October 18
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom
and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7
, NKJV.
Not only has disease been transmitted from generation to generation, but parents
bequeath to their children their own wrong habits, their perverted appetites, and
corrupt passions. Men and women are slow to learn wisdom from the history of the
past. The strange absence of principle that characterizes the present generation, the
disregard of the laws of life and health, is astonishing. Although a knowledge of
these things can be readily obtained, a deplorable ignorance prevails.
With the majority, the principal anxiety is “What shall I eat? what shall I drink?
and wherewithal shall I be clothed?” Notwithstanding all that has been said and
written upon the importance of health and the means to preserve it, appetite is the
great law which governs men and women generally.
What can be done to stay the tide of disease and crime that is sweeping our
race down to ruin and to death? As the great cause of the evil is to be found in the
indulgence of appetite and passion, so the first and great work of reform must be to
learn and practice the lessons of temperance and self-control.
To effect a permanent change for the better in society, the education of the
masses must begin in early life. The habits formed in childhood and youth, the
tastes acquired, the self-control gained, the principles inculcated from the cradle,
are almost certain to determine the future of the man or woman. The crime and
corruption occasioned by intemperance and lax morals might be prevented by the
proper training of the youth.
One of the greatest aids in perfecting pure and noble characters in the young,
strengthening them to control appetite and refrain from debasing excesses, is sound
physical health. And, on the other hand, these very habits of self-control are
essential to the maintenance of health....
Especially is youth the time to lay up a stock of knowledge to be put in daily
practice through life. Youth is the time to establish good habits, to correct wrong
ones already contracted, to gain and to hold the power of self-control, and to lay
the plan and accustom one’s self to the practice of ordering all the acts of life with
reference to the will of God and the welfare of our fellow creatures.—
The Review
and Herald, December 13, 1881
.
[308]
311