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The Adventist Home
in foolish amusements, to the neglect of daily duties which the youth
should be required to do
A Program for Students That God Blessed—We are to educate
the youth to exercise equally the mental and the physical powers. The
healthful exercise of the whole being will give an education that is
broad and comprehensive.
We had stern work to do in Australia in educating parents and youth
along these lines; but we persevered in our efforts until the lesson was
learned that in order to have an education that was complete, the time
of study must be divided between the gaining of book knowledge and
the securing of a knowledge of practical work.
Part of each day was spent in useful work, the students learning how
to clear the land, how to cultivate the soil and to build houses in time
that would otherwise have been spent in playing games and seeking
amusement. And the Lord blessed the students who thus devoted their
[509]
time to learning lessons of usefulness
God has provided useful employments for the development of
health, and these useful employments will also qualify students to be
a help to themselves and to others
In the place of providing diversions that merely amuse, arrange-
ments should be made for exercises that will be productive of good
Missionary Activity Is an Ideal Exercise—There are plenty of
necessary, useful things to do in our world that would make the plea-
sure amusement exercise almost wholly unnecessary. Brain, bone, and
muscle will acquire solidity and strength in using them to a purpose,
doing good, hard thinking, and devising plans which shall train them to
develop powers of intellect and strength of the physical organs, which
will be putting into practical use their God-given talents with which
they may glorify God
It is our duty ever to seek to do good in the use of the muscles and
brain God has given to youth, that they may be useful to others, making
their labors lighter, soothing the sorrowing, lifting up the discouraged,
speaking words of comfort to the hopeless, turning the minds of the
8
The Youth’s Instructor, July 27, 1893
.
9
Letter 84, 1909
.
10
The Review and Herald, October 25, 1898
.
11
Pamphlet Recreation, 47
.
12
Notebook Leaflets from the Elmshaven Library Vol. 1, Education, 97
.