Health Reform Thursday

Ignorance of Physical Laws

23. We have special duties resting upon us. We should be acquainted with our physical structure and the laws controlling natural life. While Greek and Latin, which are seldom of any advantage, are made a study by many, physiology and hygiene are barely touched upon. The study to which to give thought is that which concerns natural life, a knowledge of oneself.... It is the house in which we live that we need to preserve, that we may do honor to God who has redeemed us. We need to know how to preserve the living machinery, that our soul, body, and spirit may be consecrated to his service. As rational beings we are deplorably ignorant of the body and its requirements. While the schools we have established have taken up the study of physiology, they have not taken hold with the decided energy they should. They have not practised intelligently that which they have received in knowledge, and do not realize that unless it is practised, the body will decay.... This living machinery should be understood. Every part of its wonderful mechanism should be carefully studied.—Unpublished Testimonies, May 19, 1897. HL 13.5