Character and Conduct Part 14

MARCH 24

"As there is a will of G.o.d for our higher nature--the moral laws--as emphatically is there a will of G.o.d for the lower, the natural laws. If you would know G.o.d's will in the higher, therefore, you must begin with G.o.d's will in the lower: which simply means this--that if you want to live the ideal life, you must begin with the ideal body. The law of moderation, the law of sleep, the law of regularity, the law of exercise, the law of cleanliness,--this is the law or will of G.o.d for you. This is the first law, the beginning of His will for you. And if we are ambitious to get on to do G.o.d's will in the higher reaches, let us respect it as much in the lower; for there may be as much of G.o.d's will in minor things, as much of G.o.d's will in taking good bread and pure water, as in keeping a good conscience or living a pure life. Whoever heard of gluttony doing G.o.d's will, or laziness, or uncleanness, or the man who was careless and wanton of natural life? Let a man disobey G.o.d in these, and you have no certainty that he has any true principle for obeying G.o.d in anything else: for G.o.d's will does not only run into the church and the prayer-meeting and the higher chambers of the soul, but into the common rooms at home down to wardrobe and larder and cellar, and into the bodily frame down to blood and muscle and brain."

_The Ideal Life_, HENRY DRUMMOND.

The Duty of Physical Health

MARCH 25

"Excess is not the only thing which breaks men in their health, and in the comfortable enjoyment of themselves; but many are brought into a very ill and languis.h.i.+ng habit of body by mere sloth; and sloth is in itself both a great sin, and the cause of many more."

Bishop SOUTH.

"There is no true care for the body which forgets the soul. There is no true care for the soul which is not mindful of the body.... The duty of physical health and the duty of spiritual purity and loftiness are not two duties; they are two parts of one duty,--which is the living of the completest life which it is possible for man to live. And the two parts minister to one another. Be good that you may be well; be well that you may be good. Both of those two injunctions are reasonable, and both are binding on us all."

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

The Duty of Physical Health

MARCH 26

"Moreover, health is not only a great element of happiness, but it is essential to good work. It is not merely wasteful but selfish to throw it away.

"It is impossible to do good work,--at any rate, it is impossible to do our best,--if we overstrain ourselves. It is bad policy, because all work done under such circ.u.mstances will inevitably involve an additional period of quiet and rest afterwards; but apart from this, work so done will not be of a high quality, it will show traces of irritability and weakness: the judgment will not be good: if it involves co-operation with others there will be great possibility of friction and misunderstandings."

Lord AVEBURY.

"When we are out of sorts things get on our nerves, the most trifling annoyances a.s.sume the proportions of a catastrophe. It is a sure sign that we need rest and fresh air."

Lord AVEBURY.

"O Almighty and most merciful G.o.d, of Thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech Thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that Thou wouldest have done; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

_The Book of Common Prayer._

Physical Morality

MARCH 27

"The preservation of health is a _duty_. Few men seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality. Men's habitual words and acts imply the idea that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as they please. Disorders entailed by disobedience to Nature's dictates they regard simply as grievances, not as the effects of a conduct more or less flagitious. Though the evil consequences inflicted on their dependants, and on future generations, are often as great as those caused by crime, yet they do not think themselves in any degree criminal. It is true that in the case of drunkenness the viciousness of this bodily transgression is recognised, but none appear to infer that if this bodily transgression is vicious, so, too, is every bodily transgression. The fact is that all breaches of the laws of health are _physical sins_."

HERBERT SPENCER.

"... Health is not merely a matter of the body. 'Anger, hatred, grief, and fear are among the influences most destructive of vitality.' And, on the other hand, cheerfulness, good-humour, and peace of mind are powerful elements of health."

Lord AVEBURY.

Invalids

MARCH 28

"If you are an invalid, do your best to get well; but, if you must remain an invalid, still strive for the unselfishness and serenity which are the best possessions of health. There are no sublimer victories than some that are won on sick-beds."

"We have sometimes known some men or women, helpless so that their lives seemed to be all dependent, who yet, through their sickness, had so mounted to a higher life and so identified themselves with Christ that those on whom they rested found the Christ in them and rested upon it.

Their sick-rooms became churches. Their weak voices spoke gospels. The hands they seemed to clasp were really clasping theirs. They were depended on while they seemed to be most dependent. And when they died, when the faint flicker of their life went out, strong men whose light seemed radiant found themselves walking in the darkness; and stout hearts, on which theirs used to lean, trembled as if the staff and substance of their strength was gone."

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

"Pain is no evil unless it conquers us."

GEORGE ELIOT.

Invalids

MARCH 29

"It may be that G.o.d used to give you plentiful chances to work for Him.

Your days went singing by, each winged with some enthusiastic duty for the Master whom you loved.... You can be idle for Him, if so He wills, with the same joy with which you once laboured for Him. The sick-bed or the prison is as welcome as the harvest-field or the battle-field, when once your soul has come to value as the end of life the privilege of seeking and of finding Him."

PHILLIPS BROOKS.

"To be well enough to work is the wish of my natural heart; but if that may not be, I know that 'they also serve who only stand and wait.' G.o.d will not require healthy men's labour from you or me; and if we are poor in power and opportunity to serve Him, our widow's mite will weigh against the gold ingots of His chosen apostles."

_Memoir of George Wilson._

"The widow's mite? Well, when they laughed at S. Theresa because she wanted to build a great orphanage and had only three ducats to begin with, she answered, 'With three ducats Theresa can do nothing, but with G.o.d and her three ducats there is nothing which Theresa cannot do.'"

F. W. FARRAR.

Lessons of Suffering

MARCH 30

"To have suffered much is like knowing many languages. You have learnt to understand all, and to make yourself intelligible to all."

"We have all met some great sufferers, whose cheerfulness and good-humour are not only a lesson to us who enjoy good health, but who seem to be, as it were, raised and consecrated by a life of suffering."