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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
curtains and closing shutters, as though its rays were ruinous to life
and health. It is not God who has brought upon us the many woes
to which mortals are heirs. Our own folly has led us to deprive
ourselves of things that are precious, of blessings which God has
provided and which, if properly used, are of inestimable value for
the recovery of health. If you would have your homes sweet and
inviting, make them bright with air and sunshine. Remove your
heavy curtains, open the windows, throw back the blinds, and enjoy
the rich sunlight, even if it be at the expense of the colors of your
carpets. The precious sunlight may fade your carpets, but it will
give a healthful color to the cheeks of your children. If you have
God’s presence and possess earnest, loving hearts, a humble home
made bright with air and sunlight, and cheerful with the welcome of
unselfish hospitality, will be to your family, and to the weary traveler,
a heaven below.
Many have been taught from childhood that night air is posi-
tively injurious to health and therefore must be excluded from their
rooms. To their own injury they close the windows and doors of their
sleeping apartments to protect themselves from the night air which
they say is so dangerous to health. In this they are deceived. In the
cool of the evening it may be necessary to guard from chilliness by
extra clothing, but they should give their lungs air.
On an autumn evening we were once traveling in a crowded car,
where the atmosphere was rendered very impure by the mingling
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of so many breaths. The exhalations from lungs and bodies caused
a most sickening sensation to come over me. I raised my window
and was enjoying the fresh air, when a lady, in earnest, imploring
tones, cried out: “Do put down that window. You will take cold and
be sick, for the night air is so unhealthy.” I replied: “Madam, we
have no other air, in this car or out of it, but night air. If you refuse
to breathe night air, then you must stop breathing. God has provided
for His creatures air to breathe for the day, and the same, made a
little cooler, for the night. In the night it is not possible for you to
breathe anything but night air. The question is: Shall the night air
we breathe be pure, or is it improved after it has been breathed over
and over? Is it for our health to breathe the polluted night air of this
car? The exhalations thrown off by the lungs and bodies of men
steeped in tobacco and alcohol, pollute the air and endanger health;