Wholesome Advice to Young Students

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In the night season I was instructed that as a people who believe the truth and are labourers together with God, we must not forget that we are mortal. The Lord has not willed that useful men and women should be cut off in the midst of their efforts to obtain an education in missionary lines. There is not that care and consideration for the students that should be exercised. They should be educated to be careful of their health and strength. They should be so instructed to observe the physical laws that they will be able in body and intellect to testify to the value of health reform. There are exposures and dangers that should be carefully guarded against, that the life which is a God given talent may not be treated capriciously.

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Let students count the cost, and know when they begin to build whether they will be able to finish. Let not God be dishonoured by breaking down the man in the process of educating him. For a broken down, discouraged man is a burden to himself. To think that in any work that he may plan to do, God will sustain him, while he piles upon himself studies, and subjects himself to exposures that imperil health and life, and violate the laws of nature, is contrary to the light that God has given.

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Nature will not be imposed upon. She will not forgive the injuries done to the wonderful, delicate machinery. The pale, weak student is a continual reproach to health reform. Far better would it be for some to go out doors and work in the soil. Exercise is good. God designs that all parts of the human machinery shall be worked. There should be regular hours for working, regular hours for eating. Without studying the exact cost of every article of food and providing the cheapest kind, procure those articles of food that are best for making steam to run the living machinery. There is no extravagance in providing the articles of food that the system can best take in and digest, and send vitality to every part of the living organism that all may be nourished.

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This is the first duty of every student. No one is to measure out what he supposes his fellow-student is capable of doing. Let every student reason soundly for himself what he can endure. Each has an individuality that no one can handle as successfully as himself. No one can submerge his identity in another. He must know himself and give himself a favourable chance to come forth with an unbroken constitution, with a clear mind, with well-balanced nerves, and good a digestion. With these he will be well fitted to do the work he has qualified himself to do. If he disqualifies himself by imprudence in eating hurriedly because he has little time to spend, he is unfitting himself for ever doing sound, wholesome work.

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This matter is worthy of consideration. We should keep the words of Christ ever before us: «Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.» The first and highest and most acceptable missionary work that a student can do is to obey God in all he does, in every action of the wonderful machinery God devised in the formation of man. He is not to treat himself indifferently, he is to know himself, and work with an intelligent knowledge of what he can do, and do safely, and what he should avoid in eating and working. The Lord give you all understanding is my prayer, that you as labourers together with God may not give the impression, by an appearance of ill-health, that you have mistaken your vocation. Unless human agents use wisdom in the exercise of brain, bone, and muscle, and treat themselves as under the jurisdiction of God, as God’s property, as God’s husbandry, as God’s building, they will make grievous mistakes, and lie down in an untimely grave. We are all the children of the light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. A disordered stomach means a disordered mind.

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You need, each student, to take yourself in hand, and let no one whip up your tired nerves and muscles to meet their individual measurement. You are God’s workmanship, and under a full sense of your accountability to God, you are to treat yourself aright. Give yourself proper time to sleep. They who sleep give nature time to build up and repair the weary waste of the organism.

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Study carefully the first chapter of Ephesians and let your understanding become enlightened. If you would build for time and for eternity, obey the laws of health. Place yourself in right relation to God as His property, caring for the wonderful husbandry and building of God. In no wise is this to be neglected. You can do the very best home missionary work by taking care of God’s temple, not defiling it by gross indulgence of human passions, not imperilling it by neglect, by undue wear and over-work. Do not presume to over-tax this wonderful machinery, lest some part give way, and bring your work to a standstill.

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I am pained as I have presented to me students who are being educated to work for the salvation of souls and bodies of those perishing around them, but who will themselves perish before they can accomplish that for which they are striving so earnestly. Will all teachers and students learn before they go any farther how to treat themselves that they may intelligently co-operate with God, to bear His message, to do His work, and not be cut off at the very time when they are most needed. Mrs. E. G. White.