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The Blessing of Labor, May 4
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to
work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk
honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of
nothing.
1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12
.
Many look upon work as a curse, originating with the enemy of souls.
This is a mistaken idea. God gave labor to man as a blessing, to occupy his
mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. Adam labored in
the garden of Eden, and he found in mental and physical activity the highest
pleasures of his holy existence. When he was driven from that beautiful home
as the result of his disobedience, and was forced to struggle with a stubborn
soil to gain his daily bread, that very labor was a relief to his sorrowing soul,
a safeguard against temptation.
Judicious labor is indispensable both to the happiness and the prosperity
of our race. It makes the feeble strong, the timid brave, the poor rich, and the
wretched happy. Our varied trusts are proportioned to our various abilities,
and God expects corresponding returns for the talents He has given to His
servants. It is not the greatness of the talents possessed that determines the
reward, but the manner in which they are used—the degree of faithfulness
with which the duties of life are performed, be they great or small.
Idleness is one of the greatest curses that can fall upon man; for vice and
crime follow in its train. Satan lies in ambush, ready to surprise and destroy
those who are unguarded, whose leisure gives him opportunity to insinuate
himself into their favor, under some attractive disguise. He is never more
successful than when he comes to men in their idle hours.
The greatest curse following in the train of wealth is the fashionable
idea that work is degrading. “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister
Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and
in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy”
(
Ezekiel 16:49
). Here are presented before us, in the words of Holy Writ,
the terrible results of idleness. It was this that caused the ruin of the cities
of the plain. Idleness enfeebles the mind, debases the soul, and perverts the
understanding, turning into a curse that which was given as a blessing.—
The
Signs of the Times, May 4, 1882
.
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