Basic HTML Version
140
Temperance
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 expending 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.
Everyone who violates the laws of health must sometime 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 sometimes be losers. Our usefulness will be lessened, if
[140]
not our life itself destroyed.—
Fundamentals of Christian Education,
153, 154
.
Evening Labor
—As a rule, the labor of the day should not be
prolonged into the evening.... 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
constitution.—
Counsels on Health, 99
.
Temperance in Study
—Intemperance in study is a species of
intoxication, and those who indulge in it, like the drunkard, wander
from safe paths, and stumble and fall in the darkness. The Lord
would have every student bear in mind that the eye must be kept
single to the glory of God. He is not to exhaust and waste his physical
and mental powers in seeking to acquire all possible knowledge of
the sciences, but is to preserve the freshness and vigor of all his
powers to engage in the work which the Lord has appointed him in
helping souls to find the path of righteousness.—
Counsels to Parents,
Teachers, and Students, 405, 406
.
Intemperance in Seeking Riches
—One of the most fruitful
sources of shattered constitutions among men is a devotion to the
getting of money, an inordinate desire for wealth. They narrow their
lives to the single pursuit of money, sacrifice rest, sleep, and the
comforts of life to this one object. Their naturally good constitutions
are broken down, disease sets in as a consequence of the abuse of
their physical powers, and death closes the scene of a perverted