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Exercise and Air
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and yet nearly all the passengers sit as indifferent as though inhaling
the purest atmosphere. God has wisely provided for us, that in the
night we should breathe night air, and in the day, the air of the day.
If we fail to answer the plan of God, and the blood becomes impure,
our wrong habits have made it thus. But the air of night, breathed in
the night, will not of itself poison the current of human life.” Many
are suffering from disease because they refuse to receive into their
rooms at night the pure night air. The free, pure air of heaven is one
of the richest blessings we can enjoy.
Another precious blessing is proper exercise. There are many
indolent, inactive ones who are disinclined to physical labor or
exercise because it wearies them. What if it does weary them? The
reason why they become weary is that they do not strengthen their
muscles by exercise, therefore they feel the least exertion. Invalid
women and girls are better pleased to busy themselves with light
employment, as crocheting, or embroidering, or making tatting,
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than to engage in physical labor. If invalids would recover health,
they should not discontinue physical exercise; for they will thus
increase muscular weakness and general debility. Bind up the arm
and permit it to remain useless, even for a few weeks, then free it
from its bondage, and you will discover that it is weaker than the one
you have been using moderately during the same time. Inactivity
produces the same effect upon the whole muscular system. The
blood is not enabled to expel the impurities as it would if active
circulation were induced by exercise.
When the weather will permit, all who can possibly do so ought
to walk in the open air every day, summer and winter. But the
clothing should be suitable for the exercise, and the feet should be
well protected. A walk, even in winter, would be more beneficial
to the health than all the medicine the doctors may prescribe. For
those who can walk, walking is preferable to riding. The muscles
and veins are enabled better to perform their work. There will be
increased vitality, which is so necessary to health. The lungs will
have needful action, for it is impossible to go out in the bracing air
of a winter’s morning without inflating the lungs.
Riches and idleness are thought by some to be blessings indeed.
But when some persons have acquired wealth, or inherited it un-
expectedly, their active habits have been broken up, their time is