Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students - Ellen G. White

Health and Efficiency
Health is an inestimable blessing and one more
closely related to conscience and religion than
many realize. It has a great deal to do with one’s
capability for service and should be as sacredly
guarded as the character, for the more perfect the
health the more perfect will be our efforts for the
advancement of God’s cause and for the blessing
of humanity.
There is an important work to be done in our
schools in teaching the youth the principles of
health reform. The teachers should exert a
reformatory influence in the matter of eating,
drinking, and dressing, and should encourage their
students to practice self-denial and selfcontrol. The
youth should be taught that all their powers are
from God; that He has a claim upon every faculty;
and that by abusing their health in any way they
slight one of God’s choicest blessings. The Lord
gives them health to use in His service, and the
greater their physical strength, the stronger their
powers of endurance, the more they can do for the
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