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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
those ideas at-----. Close application to severe labor is injurious to
the growing frames of the young; but where hundreds have broken
down their constitutions by overwork alone, inactivity, overeating,
and delicate idleness have sown the seeds of disease in the system of
thousands that are hurrying to swift and sure decay.
The reason the youth have so little strength of brain and muscle
is because they do so little in the line of useful labor. “Behold, this
was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and
abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she
strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty,
and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as
I saw good.”
There are but few of the youth of this degenerate age who can even
endure the study necessary to obtain a common education. Why is this?
Why do the children complain of dizziness, headache, bleeding at nose,
palpitation, and a sense of lassitude and general weakness? Should this
be attributed mainly to their close study? Fond and indulgent parents
will sympathize with their children because they fancy their lessons
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are too great a task, and that their close application to study is ruining
their health. True, it is not advisable to crowd the minds of the young
with too many and too difficult studies. But, parents, have you looked
no deeper into this matter than merely to adopt the idea suggested by
your children? Have you not given too ready credence to the apparent
reason for their indisposition? It becomes parents and guardians to
look beneath the surface for the cause of this evil.
In ninety-nine cases out of one hundred the cause, searched out
and revealed to you, would open your understanding to see that it was
not the taxation of study alone that was doing the work of injury to
your children, but that their own wrong habits were sapping the brain
and the entire body of its vital energy. The nervous system has become
shattered by being often excited, and thus has been laid the foundation
for premature and certain decay. Solitary vice is killing thousands and
tens of thousands.
Children should have occupation for their time. Proper mental
labor and physical outdoor exercise will not break the constitutions
of your boys. Useful labor and an acquaintance with the mysteries of
housework will be beneficial to your girls, and some outdoor employ-
ment is positively necessary to their constitution and health. Children