Live Most and Serve Best

Live Most and Serve Best By B. S. Hinckley, Secretary of the Deseret Gymnasium MACE building is the supreme work of the world, and race supremacy rests fundamentally upon a physical basis. "More precious than mines, or rivers, or forests is the health and vitality of the nation." Health is the first objective in any rational scheme of educa- tion. This does not mean health for health's sake. Health is not an end in itself only for the bedridden. As aptly expressed by Pro- fessor Thorndyke, "It is better to be a Socrates with a headache than a perfectly healthy pig." The "temple of the soul" is but a servant ready and trained to serve high purposes and noble ends. Health has come to mean much more than absence from the hospital, much more than disease dodging. Dr. Jesse F. Williams has this to say: "It is satisfying to think of health as that condition of the body that makes possible the highest enjoyment of life, the greatest constructive work, and that shows itself in the best service to the world. It involves keeping the body and the mind at the highest levels, living at one's best." And so he has reduced his definition of health to this single but significant sentence: "Health is that quality of life that renders the individual fit to live most and to serve best." In view of this brief but comprehensive definition, all agencies established for the promotion of health should seek not only to liberate man from disease, physical weakness, inefficiency and de- generacy, but to make his body the robust instrument of a trained and cultured mind devoting its powers to the highest service of mankind. It is every man's religious duty to live up to the high-water mark of his possibilities: to do this he must give intelligent thought to the preservation and cultivation of all his health endowments. There is no way "to beat the game" of life. The sources of health are neither magical nor mysterious, they are, briefly, pure food of the proper kind and quality, fresh air, wholesome exercise, recrea- tion and proper attitude of the mind. In our day it is verv gratifying to feel that the hope William James expressed many years ago is being fulfilled: "I hope that here in America more and more the ideal of the well-trained and vigorous body will be maintained neck and neck with that of the well-trained and vigorous mind as the two co-equal halves of the

816 IMPROVEMENT ERA higher education for men and women alike. The strength of the British Empire lies in the strength of the character of the individ- ual Englishman, taken all alone by himself, and that strength, I am persuaded, is perennially nourished and kept up by nothing so much as by the national worship, in which all classes meet, of athletic outdoor life and sport." Scout Bruce J. Lyman For exceptional bravery and heroism demonstrated in the rescue of Delbert Alyne, Elvis Alyne, and Wesley Oches from drowning. Scout Lyman has been awarded a gold medal for life-saving by the N a t i o n a 1 Court of Honor, Boy Scouts of America. This lad is a mem- ber of Troop 503, Logandale, Nevada — Zion's National Park Council. On September 1 , 1927, Bruce, in company with his brother Neil, was swimming in the Moapa Valley Flood Channel. The recent flood had made a hole 60 feet wide and 200 feet long and between 15 and 20 feet deep. On either side the banks were 10 to 15 feet high, making it im- possible for anyone to get out excepting at the end. At the upper end of this hole of water wa9 filling which formed ; Sib iipl«||BB SbD^&KhsH^B' ifY ' t _JBp " Scout Bruce J. Lyman small stream heavy sand almost vertical wall. The three smaller beys came to the channel to bathe. Bruce asked them if they could swim and, though he received an affirmative answer, he told them the water was deep and advised them to stay up stream, and watched them as they commenced playing in shallow water. Bruce then swam down the west bank of the stream, but soon was greatly surprised to hear cries for help. He saw that the three youngsters had got- ten into deep water and could not swim. He im- mediately started for them and took the nearest one upstream to save him. Al- though he had to swim against the current with his burden, then back to the second boy and against the current again, he persisted in his efforts. As he turned back for the third unfortunate, the lad seemed to have quit struggling and was sinking. Bruce reached him in time to grasp his wrist and tow him to safety. Although the boy was limp and helpless he was not unconscious. The Scout had been too well prepared and too fast for death. The above account was furnished us by Scoutmaster Del. H. Robinson.