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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
Scriptures, to feed upon the heavenly manna. The mind is enfeebled
and loses its power to contemplate the great problems of duty and
destiny.—
Testimonies for the Church 7:165
(1902).
Fiction and Sensual Thoughts—The mental food for which he
[the fiction reader] has acquired a relish is contaminating in its effects,
and leads to impure and sensual thoughts. I have felt sincere pity
for these souls as I have considered how much they are losing by
neglecting opportunities to gain a knowledge of Christ, in whom
our hopes of eternal life are centered. How much precious time is
wasted, in which they might be studying the Pattern of true goodness.—
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 123, 1890
. (
Messages to
Young People, 280
.)
Mind Sinks Into Imbecility (words of caution to an invalid
housewife)—For years your mind has been like a babbling brook,
nearly filled with rocks and weeds, the water running to waste. Were
your powers controlled by high purposes, you would not be the invalid
that you now are. You fancy you must be indulged in your caprice of
appetite and in your excessive reading.
I saw the midnight lamp burning in your room while you were
poring over some fascinating story, thus stimulating your already
overexcited brain. This course has been lessening your hold upon
life and enfeebling you physically, mentally, and morally. Irregularity
has created disorder in your house, and if continued, will cause your
mind to sink into imbecility. Your God-given probation has been
abused, your God-given time wasted.—
Testimonies for the Church
4:498
(1880).
Mental Inebriates—Readers of frivolous, exciting tales become
unfitted for the duties of practical life. They live in an unreal world. I
have watched children who have been allowed to make a practice of
reading such stories. Whether at home or abroad, they were restless,
dreamy, unable to converse except upon the most commonplace sub-
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jects. Religious thought and conversation was entirely foreign to their
minds. With the cultivation of an appetite for sensational stories, the
mental taste is perverted, and the mind is not satisfied unless fed upon
this unwholesome food. I can think of no more fitting name for those
who indulge in such reading than mental inebriates. Intemperate habits
of reading have an effect upon the brain similar to that which intem-