The Duty to Preserve Health
By David Paulson
ALL classes of society are vying with one another as to the surest and most rapid method of securing physical decay. Disease has become so frequent that as we meet our friends, the question naturally arises in reference to health, and we almost expect the answer to be, “I am not feeling very well.” Everywhere are faded cheeks marked for the tomb, upon which ought to be seen instead the freshness of youth and the glow of health. Men who should be in the years of youthful activity have grown prematurely old. Providence never intended such a condition; for the word plainly declares, “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” Health is not a matter of luck, or chance, but is maintained in the same way that the student secures his education,—by a process of constant cultivation along lines which are in themselves perfectly simple, if they are faithfully followed. As intelligent Christians, should we not seek in every way to bring our habits into conformity with the requirements of our systems? When we grasp the truth in 1 Cor. 6: 20,—“Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body,”—we shall see that we are in duty bound to glorify God physically the same as spiritually, and we shall appreciate the force of the principle that “the health should be as sacredly guarded as the character.” There are few who argue that a sickly religious experience is as acceptable in God’s sight as a healthy and active one; and the same is equally true of the condition of our bodies. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, . . . that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Rom. 12: 1. In this passage is conveyed the idea that we are to present our bodies in a living, active condition; yet there are many who think that they can glorify God just as well with their bodies in a sickly and miserable state, and that God will accept this service equally as well as that done in health; in fact, many of the Sunday-school books make the idea very prominent that sickness and saintliness go hand in hand. Let us remember that when God speaks to us by His Spirit He does not pour it directly through the skull, but He uses the very avenues that He himself pronounced very good at creation. He appeals to sight, hearing, taste, smell, and feeling; but just in proportion as man chloroforms his nerves by wrong habits of eating and drinking, by indulgence of lust in any form, in just that same proportion he is dwarfing his ability to hear the voice of God, and to appreciate even what he does hear. But God wants to come to His temple, the body, and sit there as a refiner and purifier of the temple, so that man may offer an offering in righteousness. He desires to touch these minds of ours, and to produce most beautiful and harmonious music in our uplifting words and inspiring actions. However, if our senses are so blunted as a result of what Satan has tempted us to do in our daily lives that we do not respond to the sacred touch of the divine Spirit of God, we must be laid aside, and perhaps some who have had far less opportunities will be rewarded by having God walk with them and dwell in them, because they have allowed Him to cleanse them of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Thus, it is not merely an inconvenience to be sick, but it becomes a religious duty to be well; and so, “knowledge must be gained how to eat, drink, and dress so as to preserve health.” He has laid the responsibility upon us by asking us to fulfill certain conditions, so that He can consistently grant us the blessings of health and strength. “God is greatly dishonored by the way man treats his organs, and He will not work a miracle to counteract a perverse violation of the laws of health and life.” This same thought is conveyed in Prov. 28: 9: “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” The divine principles of God’s plans for us, both spiritual and physical, must be recognized, and carried out in the life. This will necessitate a return to the simple habits of our forefathers, and then these misused bodies will feel the spring of a new life, which is untrammeled with vicious and health-destroying habits. The eyes of the people must be directed toward the Man of Calvary, and then they will receive such an endowment of self-control as will enable them to become the master of the soul-and-body-destroying habits that are now imprisoning them with bands of iron. Altogether too many regard the body as a harp of a thousand strings upon which they may play for their own pleasure; whereas the real object should be to use it to produce sweet melody for others, and the man who is the most thoroughly engaged in helping others is touching the right chord.