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Fundamentals of Christian Education
Intemperance in eating and drinking, intemperance in labor, intem-
perance in almost everything, exists on every hand. Those who make
great exertions to accomplish just so much work in a given time, and
continue to labor when their judgment tells them they should rest, are
never gainers. They are living on borrowed capital. They are expend-
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ing the vital force which they will need at a future time. And when the
energy they have so recklessly used is demanded, they fail for want of
it. The physical strength is gone, the mental powers fail. They realize
that they have met with a loss, but do not know what it is. Their time
of need has come, but their physical resources are exhausted. Every
one who violates the laws of health must some time be a sufferer to a
greater or less degree. God has provided us with constitutional force,
which will be needed at different periods of our lives. If we recklessly
exhaust this force by continual overtaxation, we shall sometime be
losers. Our usefulness will be lessened, if not our life itself destroyed.
As a rule the labor of the day should not be prolonged into the
evening. If all the hours of the day are well improved, the work
extended into the evening is so much extra, and the overtaxed system
will suffer from the burden imposed upon it. I have been shown that
those who do this, often lose much more than they gain, for their
energies are exhausted, and they labor on nervous excitement. They
may not realize any immediate injury, but they are surely undermining
their constitutions.
Let parents devote the evenings to their families. Lay off care and
perplexity with the labors of the day. The husband and father would
gain much if he would make it a rule not to mar the happiness of his
family by bringing his business troubles home to fret and worry over.
He may need the counsel of his wife in difficult matters, and they may
both obtain relief in their perplexities by unitedly seeking wisdom of
God; but to keep the mind constantly strained upon business affairs
will injure the health of both mind and body.
Let the evenings be spent as happily as possible. Let home be a
place where cheerfulness, courtesy, and love exist. This will make
it attractive to the children. If the parents are continually borrowing
trouble, are irritable and faultfinding, the children partake of the same
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spirit of dissatisfaction and contention, and home is the most miserable
place in the world. The children find more pleasure among strangers,
in reckless company, or in the street, than at home. All this might