p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 47. (12/1/1909)

Earlier text: A Trip Among the Angoni Tribes of Nyasaland

The Health Habit

By Maria L. Edwards, M.D.

Article I

By Maria L. Edwards, M.D.

Certainly there is not a single individual whose eyes shall read these lines, but that will appreciate the truthfulness of the statement that health is the most DESIRABLE and the most ESSENTIAL of all earthly blessings,—desirable because of the bodily comfort and mental cheer that accompany it, essential because of the unlimited possibilities that are open to the possessor of good health, while without it there are always restricted possibilities, more or less suffering, and endless inconvenience.

We are said to be creatures of habit, and doubtless different experiences of each one have convinced him of the fact; and it is just as possible to form habits of health or habits of sickness, and as proper so to designate them as it is to speak of habits of thought or muscular action.

Habit is defined as “aptitude gained by practice,” without restricting that aptitude to any set of organs or functions. Habit is not formed by once or even twice doing a certain way, but by repeatedly and regularly performing an act or following a certain course. A man who went swimming, or had an attack of pneumonia, but once, could not be said to have formed the habit of going swimming or being sick; but if he should go once a week or even once a month, we could truthfully say that he had the habit of going swimming; or if he contracted pneumonia every winter, he would not hesitate to tell the doctor that he had the pneumonia habit every winter.

Bad habits always, for some reason, seem easier to acquire than good ones; and for that reason, doubtless, our mothers used to teach us this little rhyme:

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with its face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”

They meant by this to warn us that an undesirable, even a hated habit could readily and almost unconsciously be acquired by us.

Habits of virtue accompany a virtuous character, while habits of vice accompany a vicious character. Just so habitual compliance with the laws of health, as written in our members, produces the habit of health, while repeated violation of the laws of health produces the habit of disease. But when we stop to consider, we are sure that all have physically sinned (violated nature’s laws) and come short of perfect health, just as Paul says of our spiritual life, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

I recall a group of children from seven to nine years of age, myself one of them, who were once comparing notes as to the particular trouble of which each one’s mother complained. One child reported the headache habit, another a stomach that refused to do its work, a third a pain and drawing in the back of the neck, and so on; but what most impressed me at the time was the readiness and the accuracy with which each report was given, showing that the particular habit of sickness was well understood even by the younger members of each family. In later years and with riper experience I have found that the members of any group of similar size can as readily point out the complaint or physiological habit that bars from them the much-coveted condition called health.

Back of each complaint there is somewhere a cause; or in other words, back of each wrong habit that any of our bodily members have formed, there has been a physical wrong-doing.

To illustrate: Back of the tobacco heart has been a long and continuous practice of tobacco-using; back of the poor little deformed feet seen in China, has been the painful process of bandaging, extending over a period of years; back of the drug habit or the physical dependence upon drugs, is the habit of taking drugs. And so we might go through the list; but back of any physical condition there has been a time when the forks in our path started us on the road that has led to the habit. The practise of staying awake, whether for pleasure, financial gain, or for pain, during the hours that are intended by nature for sleep, produces the physical habit called insomnia, which is both trying and very difficult to overcome. The prolonged use of peppers and hot spices from which the stomach defends itself by pouring out a quantity of mucus, precedes the physical habit that is termed, catarrh of the stomach.

If we could come to consider the headache, the sour stomach, the nervous irritability, etc., as indications that we have gone astray from the path of physical rectitude which it is necessary for us to follow in order to be in perfect health, then could we more readily and more cheerfully shun these pitfalls in the future.

Two Angels

By P. Prince

Man hath two attendant angels, Ever waiting at his side, With him wheresoe’er he wanders, Whereso’er his feet abide: One to warn him when in danger, And rebuke him if he stray; One to leave him to his nature, And so let him go his way.

Two recording spirits, reading All his life’s minutest part, Looking in his soul, and listening To the beatings of his heart, Each with pen of fire electric, Writes the good and evil wrought; Writes with truth that adds not, errs not, Purpose, action, word, and thought.

One, the teacher and reprover, Marks each heaven-deserving deed, Graves it with the lightning’s vigor, Seals it with the lightning’s speed; For the good that man achieveth— Good beyond an angel’s doubt— Such remains for aye and ever, And can not be blotted out.

One, severe and silent watcher, Noteth every crime and guile, Writes it with a holy duty, Seals it not, but waits awhile; If the evil-doer cry not, “God, forgive me!” ere he sleeps, Then the sad, stern spirit seals it, And the gentler spirit weeps. —P. Prince.

Partial Contents for 1910

By Editor

THE weekly visits of this children's 8-page paper are looked forward to by all—the wee ones, the youth, and even the grown-ups—for every number contains well-illustrated Bible, animal, bird, and moral stories of interest to all.

Particular Parents who know the value of clean, wholesome books and papers, will be pleased with “Our Little Friend,” for it cultivates a taste for the good in reading, because of the excellence of its contents.

Partial Contents for 1910

Our Little Friend

is read by thousands of children

Uncle Ben’s Clover-Field Series, Birds of the Bible, Noble Men of Ancient Times, Women of Note in Bible Times, Simple Lessons in Present Truth, How to Care for Our Bodies, What a Boy Can Do, Some Things a Girl Can Do, Children of the Reformation, Stories of Missionaries, Some Recent Inventions, Some of Nature’s Wonders, Heroes of History and Some of Their Achievements, Simple Talks on Ethics, Help One Another Band, Mothers’ Helpers, Fathers’ Minute Men, Animals, Birds, Insects, Fishes, Children of Various Nations, Etc.

The Gift Season will soon be here. Allow us to suggest that you make that little friend of yours happy by having this paper sent to him for a year—a constant weekly reminder of your love for him. After January 1, 1910, the subscription price will be 60 cents a year, but until then, subscriptions, including the double holiday number, will be but 50 cents. Clubs of five or more to one address, 45 cents each.

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Bibles.—Remember that we are headquarters for anything in the Bible line. We shall be pleased to send you our catalog of Bible selections on application. Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.

Life and Health

A PRACTICAL health journal, published with a view of meeting hygienic needs in every home; teaching how to care for the health and how to preserve life; prescribing simple home treatments to assist nature in throwing off diseases rather than adding more poison by using drugs or unnatural stimulants as remedies: teaching how to avoid disease as far as possible, how to manage in the home when sickness does come, and how to combat the disease by simple remedies which nature provides.

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Colds.—By G. H. Heald, M.D. A treatise on the causes, prevention, and cure of colds. White leatherette binding. 58 pages, 25c.

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Mob Law

By Editor

One of the worst manifestations of mob law which this country has known occurred in Cairo, Ill., November 11. The man lynched was a Negro who had murdered a white girl twenty-two years old. Ten thousand people cheered wildly when the mob fired 500 bullets into his body and dragged it for a mile and then burned it. Then this seemed only to whet the blood lust within them, for the mob battered its way through the steel bars of the jail, dragged out a white man “suspected of wife murder,” and hanged him. Governor Deneen had sent half a regiment of troops to Cairo, but the mob reached there first. When the troops arrived they found only the charred remains of the Negro, and the lifeless body of the white man. The despatch states, “For pure, uncontrolled ferocity, the work of the Cairo mob has been exceeded only once in the history of Illinois.” The sheriff did all that was in his power to keep his prisoner, but it was impossible, for he himself was captured and held a prisoner by the mob. Presumably the man would speedily have been brought to justice and executed for his crime. It would seem as tho normal men and women could wait for law—designed to protect all classes—to take its course. Doubtless there were many professed Christians in the mob; professed followers of Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;” whose Word declares that there is a judgment in which every one shall be punished for “the deeds done in the body.” We sympathize with the friends and relatives of the murderer’s victim; we can understand how naturally their hearts would burn for revenge; but we are free to say that that mad mob of 5,000 men augurs ill for future justice, and is a mighty evidence of the pitiable lack of control among humanity at the present time. Mob law is of the devil; and it matters not what the provocation or who controls such a mass of men, the leader of it all is his satanic majesty. “The good can well afford to wait.” Their case is in the hands of the great eternal God; and tho His mills seem to grind slowly, with exactness they grind all. It seems that the last victim of its madness was a man who was only “suspected” of crime. It had not been proved against him. Supposing he were innocent? Every one of the mob that put him to death and followed their blood lust in doing it, was a murderer.

King Leopold and the Kongo.

By Editor

A despatch from Brussels dated November 13 declares that more and more the Belgians are convinced that the crime of the Kongo is the crime of King Leopold alone. How much money he has made out of the Kongolese no one knows. It is estimated, however, that his personal profits can not have been less than $50,000,000, before the Belgian government annexed the state and paid him $10,000,000 for his private territory. The Berlin Congress handed it over to him in 1885 for his administration. It was supposed at first that his rule over the natives was benevolent. He set aside out of the territory a tract more than ten times the size of Belgian containing the best rubber-vines in the Kongo, and every human being and every scrap of wealth in this vast domain were as much the king’s private property as his personal adornments. In 1903, however, Roger Casement, the British consul, let light in upon the question, and told of the terrible crimes that were committed against the natives in demanding so much rubber or loss of their hands. All this we have referred to before. We hope that the cruel reign is over, and that the Kongo natives have even now, in their stripped and barren country, opportunity to live in peace.

Missions Article Continued Next Week

By Editor

We were compelled to leave out a part of our missions article. It will appear next week.

Live by Faith

Live by Faith.—That man who will triumph with Christ in these days of peril, will be he who breaks through all feelings of apathy and indifference, and seeks God by living faith, because he needs God. Thousands will wait for some special feeling, some wave of enthusiasm, the testimony or influence of some great man, some outward manifestation of power, no one of which may ever come to them, and if it did might not be perceived. Thus waiting they will be swept into the great flood of sin and infidelity. Faith is not feeling. “Faith is ours to exercise, but feeling is God’s to give.” Faith will cleave to God whether feeling is present or not. Have faith in God; “have it to thyself before God.” His coming will vindicate it all.

Our Next Issue

By Editor

One of the most agitated subjects of interest in the world at the present time perhaps is SPIRITUALISM. It has been before the public abundantly during the last year, and interest in it has very little abated. Just now the world’s greatest medium, Eusapia Paladino, has been brought to the United States from Italy; a woman whose spiritistic manifestations have bewildered and confounded some of the greatest investigators, scientists, and statesmen of Europe. All we need say is that the subject of our next issue will be SPIRITUALISM IN ITS DIFFERENT PHASES, and especially what the Word of God says upon it.

Our Bible Band

By Editor

To all Our Bible Banders, to all would-be Bible Banders, and to all our readers: Listen:

1. Our Bible reading course will cover the entire Bible in chronological order, as far as that can be done conveniently and without confusion.

2. In thus reading the Book we will get better connections and obtain a better general view of the Bible than reading it as the books of the Bible now stand. It will better connect the prophets with the history of their times than our past plans.

3. Schedules will be furnished to members as heretofore. Old Bible Band members will retain their cards.

4. In addition to the schedule of the daily readings, we propose to send a silk book-mark to every one who will join our band and comply with conditions. These book-marks, 9 x 2¼ inches, will have printed on one side the names of the books of the Bible, with the probable date of their writing, and their human authorship, and on the other side important facts and dates of use to every Bible student and teacher. These book-marks are in five colors, green, blue, pink, crushed strawberry, and gold.

5. The price of schedule and book-mark will be only ten cents. This, counting all our time and material, will not leave us clear; therefore we ask our Bible Band members that whenever possible they will club together and so give us opportunity to send as many to one address as possible.

6. It seems to us that every Bible lover will wish to go with us this year, and will also desire the explanatory notes in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, which will be fuller and stronger in this reading course than ever before.

7. Please act promptly.

A New Tract

By Editor

A New Tract.—One of the recent publications of the Pacific Press is No. 92 of the “Apples of Gold Library,” entitled “The Law of Rest in the Healing of Disease,” by G. D. Ballou. The little tract is 24 pages. Price of single tract, including postage, 2 cents; 1½ cents each in quantities. We give, of course, the regular discount to tract societies. The great truth pointed out in the tract is that a recognition of the law of rest would solve many of the ills to which humanity are subject, especially functional diseases. The very fact that the human heart and mind can rest upon something, permits nature to bind up the broken fibers. It explains how healing is wrought many times through the Emmanuel Movement, Christian Science, fake healers, quack doctors, etc., etc. The little tract is part of a book on the essentials of health, which will be issued soon by the author. The tract may be obtained here, and at the usual rates of tract societies. It ought to receive a good circulation.

He Was Elected.

Referring to what the Western Watchman said of Judge Gaynor of New York (see page 9), it is worth while to note (1) that the Watchman's editorial was printed by the hundred thousand and used as a campaign document against Judge Gaynor's race for the mayoralty; (2) that Gaynor was elected while all the rest of his ticket was defeated; (3) yet still the Watchman takes credit to itself for defeating Tammany, when all its power was directed against the one who was elected. It is all politics, isn't it? And the Catholic Church is in politics still.

Hypnotism and Death.

Hypnotists in New Jersey, November 9, put a man in a hypnotic trance. When they tried to bring him to his senses he was dead. For hours different hypnotists took turns trying to restore him, whispering in his ear, calling in his ear, clapping their hands, frantically telling him that he was living, that his heart was beating, that his trance was over, while the surgeons stood impatiently waiting in order that they might ascertain the true cause of his death. The autopsy showed a broken artery.

Diamonds

Diamonds.— The cost to mine diamonds in South Africa is from fifty cents to $2.50 per carat; while the price asked varies from $5.50 to $8.50 per carat, making a tremendous profit.