Chapter 24—Manual Training
“Study...to work with your own hands.”
At the creation, labor was appointed as a blessing. It meant de-
velopment, power, happiness. The changed condition of the earth
through the curse of sin has brought a change in the conditions of
labor; yet though now attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, it
is still a source of happiness and development. And it is a safeguard
against temptation. Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence,
and promotes industry, purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of
God’s great plan for our recovery from the Fall.
The youth should be led to see the true dignity of labor. Show them
that God is a constant worker. All things in nature do their allotted
work. Action pervades the whole creation, and in order to fulfill our
mission we, too, must be active.
In our labor we are to be workers together with God. He gives
us the earth and its treasures; but we must adapt them to our use and
comfort. He causes the trees to grow; but we prepare the timber and
build the house. He has hidden in the earth the gold and silver, the iron
and coal; but it is only through toil that we can obtain them.
Show that, while God has created and constantly controls all things,
He has endowed us with a power not wholly unlike His. To us has been
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given a degree of control over the forces of nature. As God called forth
the earth in its beauty out of chaos, so we can bring order and beauty
out of confusion. And though all things are now marred with evil, yet
in our completed work we feel a joy akin to His, when, looking on the
fair earth, He pronounced it “very good.”
As a rule, the exercise most beneficial to the youth will be found
in useful employment. The little child finds both diversion and devel-
opment in play; and his sports should be such as to promote not only
physical, but mental and spiritual growth. As he gains strength and
intelligence, the best recreation will be found in some line of effort
that is useful. That which trains the hand to helpfulness, and teaches
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