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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
formed, will never be lost. You are then prepared to be placed in any
circumstance in life, and you will be fitted for the position. You will
learn to love activity. If you enjoy useful labor, your mind will be
occupied with your employment, and you will not find time to indulge
in dreamy fancies.
Knowledge of useful labor will impart to your restless and dissat-
isfied mind energy, efficiency, and a becoming, modest dignity, which
will command respect. You know but very little of yourself; you know
not the deceptions of your own heart. The heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked. Search your heart carefully, and take
time for meditation and prayer. Unless you see the defects in your
character and with genuine sincerity correct your errors, you cannot
be a disciple of Christ.
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You love to think and talk about young men. You interpret their
civilities as a special regard for yourself. You flatter yourself that
you are more highly esteemed than you really are. Your conversation
should be upon subjects that will profit, that will refine and elevate.
You are not, my dear child, cultivating habits of frankness and sincerity.
Your heart is not right. Your influence is not good upon the young, for
you have not the mind of Christ; yet you flatter yourself that you have
made great advancement in the Christian life.
A reformation must commence in your father’s family. You bear
the stamp of your father’s character. You should endeavor to shun
his errors and his extremes. If you are truly a disciple of Christ you
will see important work to do at your home. Every family may be a
perpetual school. The elder sisters can exert a strong influence upon
the younger members of the family. The younger, witnessing the
example of the older, will be led more by the principle of imitation
than by oft-repeated precepts. The eldest daughter should ever feel it
a Christian duty devolving upon her to aid the mother in bearing her
many toilsome burdens. Hours are worse than lost that are spent in
bed, in sleep, or in gloomy musings, while the shoulders of some in
the family are bowed to carry the heavy, toilsome load.
The elder daughters may assist in the education of the younger
members of the family. Here is an excellent opportunity for you,
kindly, diligently, and having the fear of the Lord before you, to teach
those less advanced than yourself. You may gain the affections of those
you try to help. You may here have one of the best of schools in which