Relation of Diet to Health and Morals
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Our Youth Lack Self-Control
The youth of today are a sure index to the future of society; and
as we view them, what can we hope for that future? The majority are
fond of amusement and averse to work. They lack moral courage to
deny self and to respond to the claims of duty. They have but little
self-control and become excited and angry on the slightest occasion.
Very many in every age and station of life are without principle or
conscience; and with their idle, spendthrift habits they are rushing into
vice and are corrupting society, until our world is becoming a second
Sodom. If the appetites and passions were under the control of reason
and religion, society would present a widely different aspect. God
never designed that the present woeful condition of things should exist;
it has been brought about through the gross violation of nature’s laws.
The character is formed, to a great extent, in early years. The habits
then established have more influence than any natural endowment, in
making them either giants or dwarfs in intellect; for the very best
talents may, through wrong habits, become warped and enfeebled. The
earlier in life one contracts hurtful habits, the more firmly will they
hold their victim in slavery, and the more certainly will they lower
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his standard of spirituality. On the other hand, if correct and virtuous
habits are formed in youth, they will generally mark the course of the
possessor through life. In most cases, it will be found that those who in
later life reverence God and honor the right, learned that lesson before
there was time for the world to stamp its image of sin upon the soul.
Those of mature age are generally as insensible to new impressions
as is the hardened rock; but youth is impressible. Youth is the time
to acquire knowledge for daily practice through life; a right character
may then be easily formed. It is the time to establish good habits, to
gain and to hold the power of self-control. Youth is the sowing time,
and the seed sown determines the harvest, both for this life and the life
to come.
Responsibility of Parents
Parents should make it their first object to become intelligent in
regard to the proper manner of dealing with their children, that they
may secure to them sound minds in sound bodies. The principles of