Health is Wealth
It is said that we do not properly value a thing until we have lost it. It is only when a friend dies, that we find out how much he was to us. So it is with health. When we are young and strong and have good health, we think little about it. It seems natural to us to be always well and we cannot imagine what it is like to be ill. So we are often careless about our health, and without thinking, we spoil our health by bad habits and doing silly things. It is only when we have lost our good health that we find that it was one of God’s best gifts to us.
Good health is necessary for happiness and success. There have been weak and ailing people who have been happy and have done good work, in spite of bad health; but not many. As a rule, bad health means misery and failure.
How can we keep our health? Only by knowing and carefully obeying the laws of health.
First, we must eat only good, plain wholesome food, and just enough of it: not too much and not too little. People often ruin their health by eating rich and fancy dishes, or by eating too much.
Secondly, we must breathe plenty of fresh air. Living in close and stuffy rooms, breathing foul air, and not being enough out of doors, will soon spoil a person’s health
Thirdly, we must have regular bodily exercise. If we do not like the ploughman and the coolie, get exercise in our daily work, we must get it in outdoor games, athletic sports, riding walking, or swimming.
Fourthly, we must have plenty of sleep. Late hours and early rising will soon spoil our nerves and ruin our health. Early to bed and early to rise certainly make a man healthy-whether or not they make him wealthy and wise.
Fifthly, we must work. Honest, regular interesting work, so long as it is not too heavy, will do much to keep us healthy.
Lastly, we must avoid bad habits, like drinking opium smoking, and secret vices which ruin a man’s body and soul.
