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Christ’s Object Lessons
and of steadfast purpose opens the door to a thousand temptations.
Evil companions and vicious habits deprave mind and soul, and the
result is ruin for this life and for the life to come.
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Whatever the line of work in which we engage, the word of God
teaches us to be “not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving
the Lord.” “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,”
“knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheri-
tance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
Romans 12:11
;
Ecclesiastes 9:10
;
Colossians 3:24
.
Health
Health is a blessing of which few appreciate the value; yet upon it
the efficiency of our mental and physical powers largely depends. Our
impulses and passions have their seat in the body, and it must be kept
in the best condition physically and under the most spiritual influences
in order that our talents may be put to the highest use.
Anything that lessens physical strength enfeebles the mind and
makes it less capable of discriminating between right and wrong. We
become less capable of choosing the good and have less strength of
will to do that which we know to be right.
The misuse of our physical powers shortens the period of time
in which our lives can be used for the glory of God. And it unfits
us to accomplish the work God has given us to do. By allowing
ourselves to form wrong habits, by keeping late hours, by gratifying
appetite at the expense of health, we lay the foundation for feebleness.
By neglecting physical exercise, by overworking mind or body, we
unbalance the nervous system. Those who thus shorten their lives and
unfit themselves for service by disregarding nature’s laws, are guilty of
robbery toward God. And they are robbing their fellow men also. The
opportunity of blessing others, the very work for which God sent them
into the world, has by their own course of action been cut short. And
they have unfitted themselves to do even that which in a briefer period
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of time they might have accomplished. The Lord holds us guilty when
by our injurious habits we thus deprive the world of good.
Transgression of physical law is transgression of the moral law; for
God is as truly the author of physical laws as He is the author of the
moral law. His law is written with His own finger upon every nerve,
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