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Dignity Of Labor
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purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God’s great plan for
our recovery from the Fall.
Manual Labor Versus Games
The public feeling is that manual labor is degrading, yet men
may exert themselves as much as they choose at cricket, baseball,
or in pugilistic contests, without being regarded as degraded. Satan
is delighted when he sees human beings using their physical and
mental powers in that which does not educate, which is not useful,
which does not help them to be a blessing to those who need their
help. While the youth are becoming expert in games that are of no
real value to themselves or to others, Satan is playing the game of
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life for their souls, taking from them the talents that God has given
them, and placing in their stead his own evil attributes. It is his effort
to lead men to ignore God. He seeks to engross and absorb the mind
so completely that God will find no place in the thoughts. He does
not wish people to have a knowledge of their Maker, and he is well
pleased if he can set in operation games and theatrical performances
that will so confuse the senses of the youth that God and heaven will
be forgotten.
One of the surest safeguards against evil is useful occupation,
while idleness is one of the greatest curses; for vice, crime, and
poverty follow in its wake. Those who are always busy, who go
cheerfully about their daily tasks, are the useful members of society.
In the faithful discharge of the various duties that lie in their pathway,
they make their lives a blessing to themselves and to others. Diligent
labor keeps them from many of the snares of him who “finds some
mischief still for idle hands to do.”
A stagnant pool soon becomes offensive, but a flowing brook
spreads health and gladness over the land. The one is a symbol of
the idle, the other of the industrious.
Manual Training Among the Israelites
In God’s plan for Israel every family had a home on the land with
sufficient ground for tilling. Thus were provided both the means
and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life.