The records of every community contain the names of men who lived to a great age; some of them lived to be over a hundred years old. But it is found in the case
of most of these centenarians that the began to care for their health early in life.
Most men and women while young have good health and are strong physically. When warned against doing things that injure the health, they scoff and say, "I am young and strong; it will not hurt me to do this." The God who rules the universe has fixed a law which governs the actions of every man and woman. "whatsoever a man soweth, he declares, "that shall he also reap." if a man sows wheat, he will get a harvest of wheat; if he sows rice he will secure a harvest of rice. The young person who forms bad habits of living is sowing the seeds of disease in his body, and it an absolute certainty that sooner or later he will reap ill-health. Many who read this post have already passed the period of their youth and may already be afflicted with disease. They will naturally ask, since i have neglected to carefully guard my health during the past years, is there any hope that i may have long life? This will depend on how seriously the body have been injured. But there is no one who cannot greatly lengthen the years of his life if he will at once leave off all those habits that injure the health and begin to practice those things that tend to promote long life. There are many instances of men, forty or more years old diseased bodies, who have reformed their habits and lived to the age of seventy-five or eighty years.
To Live Long Life a Man Must be Temperate
Temperance is one of the essentials to long life. The lives of men and women who have reached the century mark have been free from excesses of all kinds they have been temperate in eating and drinking. They have also been mindful of the fact that the principles of temperance apply also to the control of one's passion as well as to the control of appetite. Anger, envy, bitter feelings, all have a harmful influence upon the body and tend to shorten life. Kind thoughts and a contented mind are life lengtheners. The one who thinks and acts in harmony with the infinite one who rules the universe is connected with the source of life. By this means he can prolong the days of his life.
