The Evils of Inactivity
Physical exercise and labor combined have a happy influence upon
the mind, strengthen the muscles, improve the circulation, and give
the invalid the satisfaction of knowing his own power of endurance;
whereas, if he is restricted from healthful exercise and physical labor,
his attention is turned to himself. He is in constant danger of thinking
himself worse than he really is, and of having established within him
a diseased imagination which causes him to continually fear that he is
overtaxing his powers of endurance. As a general thing, if he should
engage in some well-directed labor, using his strength and not abusing
it, he would find that physical exercise would prove a more powerful
and effective agent in his recovery than even the water treatment he is
receiving.
The inactivity of the mental and physical powers, as far as useful
labor is concerned, is that which keeps many invalids in a condition of
feebleness which they feel powerless to rise above. It also gives them a
greater opportunity to indulge an impure imagination—an indulgence
which has brought many of them into their present condition of feeble-
ness. They are told that they have expended too much vitality in hard
labor, when, in nine cases out of ten, the labor they performed was
the only redeeming thing in their lives and was the means of saving
them from utter ruin. While their minds were thus engaged they could
not have as favorable an opportunity to debase their bodies and to
complete the work of destroying themselves. To have all such persons
cease to labor with brain and muscle is to give them ample opportunity
to be taken captive by the temptations of Satan.—
Testimonies for the
Church 4:94, 95
(1876).
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