Year: 1866

The law of health requires activity for,


as soon as man is inactive in body and


mind he begins to have thousand name


less ills and aches, thousand sleepless


nights and tormented days. 1t is quite


enough, in many cases, for the physician,


when he comes to see the patient, to look


upon the person, to justify him in saying,


even without examining the tongue or feel


ing the pulse, ga violent attack Of laziness


has undermined your health" and the


remedy in such cases is moderate doses of


work, long continued.


And not only is work necessary to hap


piness and health, but it is of the utmost


moral benefit. In riding, it is sometimes


the case that you move just slow enough
to carry the dust with you, and you ride


in your own dirt. 1t is exactly so on the
great road oflife. Men go just fast enough
to keep their cares, and troubles, and dust
along with them; while if they would
drive little faster, their dust would roll
far behind them, and they would keep
themselves clean. 1t is good to be active


enough to leave behind you the tempta-
tons by which you are surrounded. More


than half of what men call temptations


are nothing but the protests Of violated


natural faculties of the mind whose law is
offended. If you will not give those fac
ulties activity, they will be active of them
selves; and if you do not regulate them,
ought you to be surprised if they are un-
regulated Half Of what men ordinarily
call temptations are nothing but the at
tempt of the mind to be active according
toits own law, unregrlated and unsuper-
vised. By simple occupation man fore
stalls more than half his temptations
Men who are normally industrious, who
have an even temperament and good
constitution, who have a pleasing avoca-
ton, who are kind and benevolent in dis
position, who have been taught to be de-


vout toward God, whose life flows on
peacefully, and who are content and satis-
fed, have great reason for gratitude and
thankfulness. Such men are sometimes
afraid that they can not be children of
grace. Under such circumstances give
yourself no anxiety. You are complying
with the great fundamental conditions of
existence, and you are reaping the remun-
erations of obedience, and your happiness
in oyermeasure is the result of the right
carriage of the mind in the situation in
which you are placed in life. Blessed are
the men that work SO that Satan can not
find them, nor tempt them, not harry them.


Moreover, in work there usually is mod
Grafton. 1t sobers us. The body needs
discipline and trial, and work gives them.
There should be bodily work therefore,
The mind needs exercise in every faculty,
and work gives it. There should be men
tai work therefore. The steeds in our
stable, if we keep them up too many days,
and feed them too high, are, when wetake
them out, more fit for capering than for
work. And as it is with steed, SO it is
with each faculty. 1t needs the steady
ing power of labor to keep down his tenn
per, and bring it within the limits of mod
Grafton. -rel -.r. e.. -5.--lF


Work, then, is important as means OF
moral benefit, of health, and of happiness.
And God from all eternity has said,
be the indolent, and blessed be
the active" 1t is as plain as though it
had been proclaimed from Mount Sinai.
And if there has arisen in the mind ofany
the notion that there is normal state in
which AMMAN shall be relieved from work,
either in this world or the next, it is false.
There is no such, conception consistent
with the creative idea of God. Man was
created according to plan the primal
of which was work. Work is |
not only philosophically but practically the
condition of human life. 1t is the actual
law of existence in this world. The pop
ulation of the globe, eomprehensively con-
sidered, are not a population lifted above
the necessity of .laboring. Men work for
a living, literally. Their life is paid for
by the price of labor. They work for the
liberty of living. Where, in tropical eli
mates, there is no necessity for work, Ma
ture takes out of the full measure of mans
life as much as they lack in activity. 1nl
the tropics men will not work, and they
are only half men. In the temperate
zones they do work, and they are fullmen.
In the frigid zones they can not work, and
again they are only half men. Such are
the general facts but whenever the law OF
wholesome work is obeyed, there man
hood is developed, whether you look at
latitudes or, classes in society, And i'll
NAV be laid down as not only a philoso-
phieal statement, but practical law of
the human family, that work is,always an
indispensable condition of proper exist
ence. r1.4us