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Patriarchs and Prophets
to resort to manual labor for his support, still he should be taught to
work. Without physical exercise, no one can have a sound constitution
and vigorous health; and the discipline of well-regulated labor is no
less essential to the securing of a strong and active mind and a noble
character.
Every student should devote a portion of each day to active labor.
Thus habits of industry would be formed and a spirit of self-reliance
encouraged, while the youth would be shielded from many evil and
degrading practices that are so often the result of idleness. And this is
all in keeping with the primary object of education, for in encouraging
activity, diligence, and purity we are coming into harmony with the
Creator.
Let the youth be led to understand the object of their creation, to
honor God and bless their fellow men; let them see the tender love
which the Father in heaven has manifested toward them, and the high
destiny for which the discipline of this life is to prepare them, the
dignity and honor to which they are called, even to become the sons
of God, and thousands would turn with contempt and loathing from
the low and selfish aims and the frivolous pleasures that have hitherto
engrossed them. They would learn to hate sin and to shun it, not merely
from hope of reward or fear of punishment, but from a sense of its
inherent baseness, because it would be a degrading of their God-given
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powers, a stain upon their Godlike manhood.
God does not bid the youth to be less aspiring. The elements of
character that make a man successful and honored among men—the
irrepressible desire for some greater good, the indomitable will, the
strenuous exertion, the untiring perseverance—are not to be crushed
out. By the grace of God they are to be directed to objects as much
higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are
higher than the earth. And the education begun in this life will be
continued in the life to come. Day by day the wonderful works of God,
the evidences of His wisdom and power in creating and sustaining
the universe, the infinite mystery of love and wisdom in the plan of
redemption, will open to the mind in new beauty. “Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
.
Even in this life we may catch glimpses of His presence and may taste
the joy of communion with Heaven, but the fullness of its joy and