Your ShelfYour Projects

THE TEMPERATE MAN

7%

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Nov 7, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 45.

Read the full edition

THE TEMPERATE MAN.

By A. J. Sanderson, M.D.

EVERY prosperous age has been an age of excesses and careless living. This has been the repeated story of history since the world began; consequently every age of prosperity has been followed by a period of decline. What is true of nations is true of man. In fact, it is only true of nations as it is true of their individual members. Warriors have conquered large territory, and then fallen a prey to the demon intemperance. It seems to be one of the depravities of human nature that when it comes to possess much, it uses to excess, and this always destroys the capacity to keep.
On the other hand, the temperate man will not only reserve the waste, but will acquire power to receive. Such a person is sure to accumulate in some way, either for himself or for others. Our forefathers were temperate men. It was their simple, sturdy, industrious life that laid the foundation for the greatness of our country; and the principles of true temperance can alone give assurance for the future.
The standard of temperance is a somewhat variable quantity. Almost every man has some standard to fit his special tastes. Most people are temperate in some things, while in others they go, either willingly or ignorantly, into excesses. Once when riding on a train, I overheard two men discussing the matter, and one was very strong in his conviction and practise that to be temperate was to be able to use just so much stimulant and not take any more.
The question, however, is not settled by individual opinion. Nature provides her standard; and those who adopt it, she blesses abundantly, while those who only partially adhere to it, she deals with patiently and kindly. Nature is not an arbitrary ruler. While no sin against her can go unpunished, she deals liberally with the wayward, and when they reform, will heal their wounds with even miraculous power.
Nature's standard of temperance is the natural use of all her functions and forces, and the banishment from the body and life of all foreign elements. Everything she has given us is to be enjoyed. She gives liberally, and tells us to use freely, but not to excess. She holds before us no hard and fast lines. Her ways are so liberal that we can adapt ourselves to them under any necessary conditions. A man may go to a country where it is necessary almost completely to change his diet and manner of dress; yet nature is just as close to him as before. Still, we can not depart from her ways with safety. When we take questionable food, when we follow a mode of life that is artificial and not real, we are outside of her protection.
The temperate man is temperate in all things,—in eating, in drinking, in work, in rest, in recreation, in dress, in his social life, and in the use of the functions of the mind. The temperate man excludes from his diet everything which does not contribute to the building up of the body. Only pure food is selected. All poisonous and deteriorated articles are excluded, as well as stimulants, condiments, and the indigestible. That which is taken is for the needs of the body. He does not exceed the maximum, nor take less than the minimum quantity necessary to support life with all its God-given energies. In selecting, preparing, combining, and eating food, he has due consideration for the needs and requirements of the system. His tastes are educated to enjoy that which his intellect chooses; and the latter will never run at cross-purposes with his natural tastes. The temperate man uses water for his drink. He uses the purest, and uses it freely, and at times when the upper part of the alimentary canal is not being used for digestive purposes.
Every man should have an object in life, to which he devotes all his energies. He has no time to lose or "pass away." His muscles and nerves are his agents for doing work. For the temperate man they work efficiently for this object. They have been well fed. They do not have to contend with poisons or foreign matter introduced into the system, or developed there, tho such elements often occur in the alimentary canal of an intemperate eater, entirely disarranging and perverting nerve functions.
The temperate man is never so anxious to make money or accumulate any possession that all his forces are enslaved to the passion. He never follows an occupation that makes it impossible to take proper exercise. The muscular system is used sufficiently to keep the blood freely circulating to all parts of the body. He will in some way bring the sweat to his brow, and not allow the eliminating activities of the skin to be forced upon other organs. He may make the head save the muscles from unnecessary work; but he will also make the muscles do sufficient work to keep up their nutrition, and to give the nervous system its corresponding growth.
The temperate man takes sufficient rest to allow the rebuilding of all the wastes of the body—a work which is largely carried on during sleep. When we take away from the minimum quantity of sleep which nature requires, we make our life so much shorter and more useless. The temperate man regulates his recreation according to the amount of work he does. Recreation is not for pastime, but for reconstruction. The manner and mode of securing recreation is guided by the form of work which has made recreation necessary, and by the opportunities which he has during recreation to contribute to the development of his life.
The temperate man clothes the body according to its requirements. It is clothed evenly, and the limbs are more thoroughly protected than the trunk. It is not overburdened with heavy wear, and yet there is sufficient to protect from sudden atmospheric changes. The material of his clothing is that which is best calculated to keep the skin healthy and the circulation good. There is never any constriction about the clothing that will prohibit the free use of all the muscles or hinder a free circulation in any blood-vessel.
The temperate man is social. He is of use in the world wherever he is placed. He makes society better wherever he goes. His healthy life has a healthy influence upon everybody around him. But his social functions are not exercised merely to please. His interest in everybody is to make them better; and the soul's power which influences always reacts upon himself. Any form of life which is artificial, and which does not contribute to the purposes for which he lives, is always excluded. The social life never interferes with his work or his rest.
The temperate man cultivates the functions of the mind as naturally as he cares for those of the body. Systematic exercise and rest for the brain pave the way for its strength, and for the accumulation of knowledge. The wise direction of all the forces of his physical life prepares the way for true greatness.
The mind directs every care which he takes of his body, but it never interferes with its working. Thousands are suffering from meddlesome dealing with the forces of our physical life. They become so anxious that everything shall be just right, or every wrong shall be properly corrected, that nature has no chance to follow out her own lines, but is in the condition of a child cared for by an overanxious, zealous mother. The mother who undertakes to make her child grow according to her own mind rather than according to its nature, will continually hamper and harass it in every way, and will very likely warp its life all out of shape; and the man who undertakes to make his own life or his physical functions work according to a theory of his own, instead of carefully observing and following the various instincts and self-written laws with which every organ is provided, will often find his various physical functions in a similar unfortunate condition.