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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
You have had much sympathy for yourself. You have called your
mind to yourself and have dwelt upon your poor feelings. My sister,
eat less. Engage in physical labor, and devote your mind to spiritual
things. Keep your mind from dwelling upon yourself. Cultivate
a contented, cheerful spirit. You talk too much upon unimportant
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things. You gain no spiritual strength from this. If the strength
spent in talking were devoted to prayer, you would receive spiritual
strength and would make melody in your heart to God.
You have been controlled by feeling, not by duty and principle.
You have given up to homesick feelings and injured your health by
indulging a spirit of unrest. Your habits of life are not healthful. You
need to reform. Neither of you is willing to work as others work, or
to eat as your brethren eat. If it is in your power to get things, you
have them. It is your duty to economize.
In contrast with your case was presented that of Sister S. She
is in feeble health, and has two children to support with her needle
at the very low prices which are paid for her work. For years she
received scarcely a farthing of help. She suffered with ill health, yet
she carried her own burdens. Here was an object of charity indeed.
Now look at your case. A man with a small family and a good capital
of strength, yet constantly involved in debt and leaning upon others.
This is all wrong. You have lessons to learn. With Sister S, economy
is the battle of life. Here you are with a man’s strong energies, and
yet are not self-sustaining. You have a work to do. You should have
uniformity of diet. Live at all times as simply as your brethren live.
Live out the health reform.
Jesus wrought a miracle and fed five thousand, and then He
taught an important lesson of economy: “Gather up the fragments
that remain, that nothing be lost.” Duties, important duties, rest upon
you. “Owe no man anything.” Were you infirm, were you unable
to labor, then your brethren would be in duty bound to help you.
As it is, all you needed from your brethren when you changed your
location was a start. If you felt as ambitious as you should, and you
and your wife would agree to live within your means, you could be
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free from embarrassment. You will have to labor for small wages
as well as for large. Industry and economy would have placed your
family, ere this, in a much more favorable condition. God wants you