Our Duty to Preserve Health
207
day in outdoor labor, and felt free to do this, it would be a blessing to
them; they would be able to discharge more successfully the duties of
their calling. If they have not time for complete relaxation, they could
be planning and praying while at work with their hands, and could
return to their labor refreshed in body and spirit.
Some of our ministers feel that they must every day perform some
labor that they can report to the conference. And as the result of trying
to do this, their efforts are too often weak and inefficient. They should
have periods of rest, of entire freedom from taxing labor. But these
cannot take the place of daily physical exercise.
Brethren, when you take time to cultivate your garden, thus gaining
the exercise needed to keep the system in good working order, you are
just as much doing the work of God as in holding meetings. God is
our Father; He loves us, and He does not require any of His servants
to abuse their bodies.
[241]
Another cause of ill-health and of inefficiency in labor, is indi-
gestion. It is impossible for the brain to do its best work when the
digestive powers are abused. Many eat hurriedly of various kinds of
food, which set up a war in the stomach, and thus confuse the brain.
The use of unhealthful food, and overeating of even that which is
wholesome, should alike be avoided.
Many eat at all hours, regardless of the laws of health. Then gloom
covers the mind. How can men be honored with divine enlightenment,
when they are so reckless in their habits, so inattentive to the light
which God has given in regard to these things?
Brethren, is it not time for you to be converted on these points of
selfish indulgence? “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all,
but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every
man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they
do it to obtain corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore
so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any
means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
[
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
.]