Character the Child of Education

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To obey nature’s laws is a duty we owe to ourselves, to our fellow-men, and to God. To preserve the powers unimpaired, one must observe strict temperance in the use of all that is good, as well as total abstinence from everything that is injurious or debasing. Many are considered learned in the sciences who do not understand the laws that govern their own being. Intemperance is seen everywhere, and how few realize the fearful results that are sure to follow. Education on this line is sadly needed; for intemperance is on the increase, in spite of the effort put forth to prevent it. We should gain knowledge in regard to what and how to eat and drink, that we may have both mental and physical health, and thus he fortified against this great evil.

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The home is the place where this education must begin. The youth should be taught the great evil of intemperance. A desire should be created in their minds to make the most of their God-given powers. They should be taught that all their habits, tastes, and inclinations are to be in harmony with the laws of life, that the very best physical conditions may be secured, and that they may have mental clearness to discern between the evil and the good. They should be made to understand that right physical habits promote mental superiority, intellectual power, physical strength, and that longevity depends on immutable laws; that there is no happen so, no chance about this matter.

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Those who have the youth under their care are in a large degree responsible for the stamp of character and the training given them, but as the youth go out into the world, on themselves rests the responsibility of carefully heeding the instruction that has been given, if they would fill positions of usefulness. No one can turn from the light and knowledge that he has received, sacrificing principle either to fashion or to taste, without great loss. God will not interfere to preserve man from the consequences of a violation of nature’s laws. «Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.» There is much real truth in the proverb, «Every man is the architect of his own fortune.»

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Many a person who might have accomplished great and lasting good for his fellow-men has been ruined through intemperate habits. Some do not understand their danger until it is too late, but others refuse to control the appetite, though they know that it means their being utterly unfitted for the solemn realities of life, and that the end is destruction.

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It is often in the home that intemperance begins. By the use of rich, unhealthful food the digestive organs are weakened, and a craving is created for food that is still more stimulating. Thus the appetite is educated to crave continually something stronger. The demand for stimulants becomes more frequent and more difficult to resist. The system becomes more or less filled with poisons; and as it becomes more and more debilitated, the greater is the desire for these things, until the will is overcome, and there seems to be no power to check the unnatural craving. One step in the wrong direction prepares the way for another. Many who would not be guilty of placing on their table wine or liquor of any kind, will load their table with food that creates such a thirst for strong drink that to resist the temptation is almost impossible. A wrong course of eating and drinking destroys the health and paves the way for drunkenness. Gluttony degrades, as well as intoxication by strong drink.

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The use of tobacco is closely associated with the use of liquor. It is a slow but terrible poison. Its effects are more difficult to clear from the system than the effects of strong drink. It binds its victim in even stronger bands of slavery than does the intoxicating cup.

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The people of to-day are suffering because of the wrong habits of past generations, and yet in many things they do not heed the laws of health as well as their forefathers heeded them, though they have far less moral and physical strength to combat the tide of intemperance that rises before them. The people must be educated to see the cause of all this evil. Reform must begin in the home life. Instead of the home being the place where intemperance is fostered, it must be the school where the principles of true temperance are thoroughly learned, the place from which influences reach out to keep and save mankind from the ruin of intoxicating liquor.

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When all intemperate habits are put away, when the eating and drinking are such as to give health instead of disease, then the appetite for intoxicating liquor will not be found. Then the demand for the accursed stuff will be forever at an end.