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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
Call All Powers of Mind Into Use—All the powers of the mind
should be called into use and developed in order for men and women
to have well-balanced minds. The world is full of one-sided men and
women who have become such because one set of their faculties was
cultivated while others were dwarfed from inaction.
The education of most youth is a failure. They overstudy, while
they neglect that which pertains to practical business life. Men and
women become parents without considering their responsibilities, and
their offspring sink lower in the scale of human deficiency than they
themselves. Thus the race is fast degenerating.
The constant application to study, as the schools are now conducted
[51]
[1872], is unfitting youth for practical life. The human mind will have
action. If it is not active in the right direction, it will be active in the
wrong. In order to preserve the balance of the mind, labor and study
should be united in the schools.—
Testimonies for the Church 3:152,
153
(1872).
Means of Improvement Within Reach of All—Young men are
wanted who are men of understanding, who appreciate the intellec-
tual faculties that God has given them and cultivate them with the
utmost care. Exercise enlarges these faculties, and if heart-culture
is not neglected, the character will be well-balanced. The means of
improvement are within the reach of all. Then let none disappoint the
Master, when He comes seeking for fruit, by presenting nothing but
leaves. A resolute purpose, sanctified by the grace of Christ, will do
wonders.—
Manuscript 122, 1899.
Body, Mind, Heart, Under God’s Control—He who truly loves
and fears God, striving with a singleness of purpose to do His will,
will place his body, his mind, his heart, his soul, his strength, under
service to God. Thus it was with Enoch. He walked with God.... Those
who are determined to make the will of God their own must serve and
please God in everything. Then the character will be harmonious and
well-balanced, consistent, cheerful, and true.—
Letter 128, 1897
(
In
Heavenly Places, 190
.)
Faculties of Mind to Rule the Body—True education includes
the whole being. It teaches the right use of one’s self. It enables us to
make the best use of brain, bone, and muscle, of body, mind, and heart.
The faculties of the mind, as the higher powers, are to rule the kingdom
of the body. The natural appetites and passions are to be brought under