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184
Temperance
which they should give their children counteracted by the food placed
before them. This food either weakens or strengthens the organs
of the stomach and has much to do in controlling the physical and
moral health of the children, who are God’s blood-bought property.
What a sacred trust is committed to parents to guard the physical and
moral constitutions of their children so that the nervous system may
be well balanced, and the soul not be endangered!—
Testimonies for
the Church 3:568
.
Children Also to Understand Physiology
—Parents should
seek to awaken in their children an interest in the study of physiol-
[185]
ogy. From the first dawn of reason the human mind should become
intelligent in regard to the physical structure. We may behold and
admire the work of God in the natural world, but the human habita-
tion is the most wonderful. It is therefore of the highest importance
that among the studies selected for children, physiology occupy an
important place. All children should study it. And then parents
should see to it that practical hygiene is added.
Children are to be trained to understand that every organ of the
body and every faculty of the mind is the gift of a good and wise
God, and that each is to be used to His glory. Right habits in eating
and drinking and dressing must be insisted upon. Wrong habits
render the youth less susceptible to Bible instruction. The children
are to be guarded against the indulgence of appetite, and especially
against the use of stimulants and narcotics.—
Counsels to Parents,
Teachers, and Students, 125, 126
.
Prepared to Meet Temptation
—Children should be trained
and educated so that they may calculate to meet with difficulties, and
expect temptations and dangers. They should be taught to have con-
trol over themselves, and to nobly overcome difficulties; and if they
do not willfully rush into danger, and needlessly place themselves
in the way of temptation; if they avoid evil influences and vicious
society, and then are unavoidably compelled to be in dangerous
company, they will have strength of character to stand for the right
and preserve principle, and will come forth in the strength of God
with their morals untainted. The moral powers of youth who have
been properly educated, if they make God their trust, will be equal
to stand the most powerful test.—
The Health Reformer, December,
1872
.