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Messages to Young People
keeps them from many of the snares of him who “finds some mischief
still for idle hands to do.”
A stagnant pool soon becomes offensive; but a flowing brook
spreads health and gladness over the land. The one is a symbol of the
idle, the other of the industrious....
Christ’s Example
The path of toil appointed to the dwellers on earth may be hard and
wearisome, but it is honored by the footprints of the Redeemer, and he
is safe who follows in this sacred way. By precept and example, Christ
has dignified useful labor. From His earliest years He lived a life of
toil. The greater part of His earthly life was spent in patient work in
the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. In the garb of a common laborer
the Lord of life trod the streets of the little town in which He lived,
going to and returning from His humble toil; and ministering angels
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attended Him as He walked side by side with peasants and laborers,
unrecognized and unhonored....
Judicious labor is a healthful tonic for the human race. It makes
the feeble strong, the poor rich, the wretched happy. Satan lies in
ambush, ready to destroy those whose leisure gives him opportunity
to approach them under some attractive disguise. He is never more
successful than when he comes to men in their idle hours.
The Lesson of Contented Industry
Among the evils resulting from wealth, one of the greatest is
the fashionable idea that work is degrading. The prophet Ezekiel
declares: “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride,
fullness 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 the terrible results of
idleness, which enfeebles the mind, debases the soul, and perverts the
understanding, making a curse of that which was given as a blessing.
It is the working man or woman who sees something great and good in
life, and who is willing to bear its responsibilities with faith and hope.
The essential lesson of contented industry in the necessary duties
of life, is yet to be learned by many of Christ’s followers. It requires