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Physician, an Educator
83
“They which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:24
. In the warfare in which we are engaged, all
may win who will discipline themselves by obedience to right prin-
ciples. The practice of these principles in the details of life is too
often looked upon as unimportant—a matter too trivial to demand
attention. But in view of the issues at stake, nothing with which we
have to do is small. Every act casts its weight into the scale that
determines life’s victory or defeat. The scripture bids us, “So run,
that ye may obtain.”
Verse 24
.
With our first parents, intemperate desire resulted in the loss of
Eden. Temperance in all things has more to do with our restoration
to Eden than men realize.
Pointing to the self-denial practiced by the contestants in the
ancient Greek games, the apostle Paul writes: “Every man that
striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it
to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore
so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by
any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a
castaway.”
Verses 25-27
.
The progress of reform depends upon a clear recognition of
fundamental truth. While, on the one hand, danger lurks in a narrow
philosophy and a hard, cold orthodoxy, on the other hand there is
great danger in a careless liberalism. The foundation of all enduring
reform is the law of God. We are to present in clear, distinct lines
the need of obeying this law. Its principles must be kept before the
people. They are as everlasting and inexorable as God Himself.
One of the most deplorable effects of the original apostasy was
the loss of man’s power of self-control. Only as this power is re-
gained can there be real progress.
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The body is the only medium through which the mind and the
soul are developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is
that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling
and degrading of the physical powers. His success here means the
surrender to evil of the whole being. The tendencies of our physical
nature, unless under the dominion of a higher power, will surely
work ruin and death.