Necessity of Doing Our Best
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us who in theory know better than to use incorrect language, yet in
practice they make frequent mistakes. The Lord would have us careful
to do our best, making wise use of our faculties and opportunities. The
Lord has endowed men with gifts whereby they are to bless and edify
others, and it is our duty to so educate ourselves that we may be best
fitted for the great work committed to us.
Education comprehends far more than many suppose. Mind and
body must both receive attention; and unless our youth are versed in
the science of how to care for the body as well as the mind, they will
not be successful students. It is essential that students exercise their
physical powers in such a way that their physical strength shall not be
disproportionate to their mental development, and therefore a judicious
system of physical culture should be combined with school discipline,
that there may be a harmonious development of all the powers of
mind and body. Nothing that pertains to physical perfection should be
looked upon as of little importance. In eating, drinking, and dressing,
the laws of health should be diligently followed, and in regulating the
hours for sleep, there should be no haphazard work. No student should
form the habit of sitting up late at night to burn the midnight oil, and
then take the hours of day for sleep. If they have been accustomed
to doing this at home, they should seek to correct their habits and go
to rest at a seasonable hour, and rise in the morning refreshed for the
day’s duties. In our schools the lights should be extinguished at half
past nine.
The student who desires to put the work of two terms into one,
should not be permitted to have his own way in this matter. To under-
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take to do double work means with many, overtaxation of the mind,
and a neglect of proper physical exercise. It is not reasonable to sup-
pose that the mind can grasp and digest an oversupply of mental food,
and it is as great a sin to overfeed the mind as it is to load the digestive
organs, giving the stomach no periods of rest. The brain is the citadel
of the whole man, and wrong habits of eating, dressing, or sleeping,
affect the brain, and prevent the attaining of that which the student
desires,—a good mental discipline. Any part of the body that is not
treated with consideration will telegraph its injury to the brain. There
should be exercised much patience and perseverance in instructing the
youth how to preserve their health. They should become well informed
on this matter, that every muscle and organ may be so strengthened