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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
give scope to its powers. It becomes inactive. Such a youth will never,
never become what God designed he should be. He has established
so many resting places that he becomes like a stagnant pool. The
atmosphere surrounding him is charged with moral miasma.—
Letter
103, 1900
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Mental Effort Restricted When Physical Exercise Neglected—
Those who are engaged in constant mental labor, whether in study or
preaching, need rest and change. The earnest student is constantly
taxing the brain, too often while neglecting physical exercise, and
as the result, the bodily powers are enfeebled and mental effort is
restricted. Thus the student fails of accomplishing the very work
that he might have done had he labored wisely.—
Gospel Workers,
173
(1893).
Equalize Mental and Physical Taxation—Equalize the taxation
of the mental and the physical powers, and the mind of the student will
be refreshed. If he is diseased, physical exercise will often help the
system to recover its normal condition. When students leave college,
they should have better health and a better understanding of the laws of
life than when they enter it. The health should be as sacredly guarded
as the character.—
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 82, 83,
1890
. (
Child Guidance, 343
.)
Exercise Is a Remedial Agent—When invalids have nothing to
occupy their time and attention, their thoughts become centered upon
themselves, and they grow morbid and irritable. Many times they
dwell upon their bad feelings until they think themselves much worse
than they really are and wholly unable to do anything.
In all these cases well-directed physical exercise would prove an
effective remedial agent. In some cases it is indispensable to the
recovery of health. The will goes with the labor of the hands, and
what these invalids need is to have the will aroused. When the will is
dormant, the imagination becomes abnormal, and it is impossible to
resist disease.—
The Ministry of Healing, 239
(1905).
The Do-Nothing System Is a Dangerous One—The do-nothing
system is a dangerous one in any case. The idea that those who have
overtaxed their mental and physical powers, or who have broken down
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in body and mind, must suspend activity in order to regain health is
a great error. There are cases where entire rest for a time will ward