Year: 1866

The law of health requires activity; for,
as soon as a man is inactive in body and
mind he begins to have thousand name
less ills and aches, thousand sleepless
nights and tormented days. lt is quite
enough, IT,. many cases, Tor the physician,
when he comes to see the patient, to look
upon the person, to justify him in saying,
even Notwithstanding the tongue or feel
ing the pulse, "A violent attack OF laziness
has undermined your health;" and the
remedy in such cases is moderate doses OF o
work, long continued"


And not only is work necessary to hap
piness and health, but 1t 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 of life. Men 90 just fast enough
to keep their cares, and troubles, and dust
along with thpm while ii they would
drive little faster their dust would roll
tar behind them, and they would keep
themselves clean. 1t is good to be active
enough to leave behind you the temptations
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 faculties activity,
they will be active of themselves; anu II
.
surprised il they are unreg,lated! Half
OF what men ordinarily call temptations
are nothing but the attempt of the mind to
be active according to its own law, unregu-
lated and unsupervised. By simple Occu-
patton man 1OTestalls more than half his
temptations. Men who are normally in
dustriOus, who have an even temperament
and good constitution, who have pleas
ing avOcation, who are kind and benevolent
in disposition, who have been taught to be
r devOut toward God, whose life flows on
peacefully, and who are eeHtent and satis-
fled, have great reason for gratitude aud
thankfulness. Such men are sometimes
afraid that they cannot 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 remunerations of
obedience, and your happiness in over
measure is the result 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, nor
hurry them.


Moreover, in work there usually is mod
Grafton. 1t sobers us. The body needs dis
cipline 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 ment-


al work therefore. The steeds in our sta
BILE, if we keep them up too many days. and
feed them too high, are, when we take them


out more iiJ for eapering than for work.
| And as it is with steed, so it is with each
| faculty. 1t needs the steadying power of


labor to keep down its temper, and bring it


within the limits of due moderation.
Work, then, is important as means of
moral benefit, of health and Of happiness.
And God from all eternity has said, 'Cursed
| be the indOlent, and blessed be the active"
1t is as plain as though it had been pro-
claimed from Mount Sinai. And if there


has arisen in the mind OF any the notion


that there is a normal state in which man


shall be relieved from work, either in this


world or the next, it is false. There is no


such conception consistent with the crea-


tive idea of God. Man was created accord
ing to aplan, the primal element OF which


was to work. Work is not only philoso-
phically but practically the condition of
human life. 1t is the actual law of exist


ence in this world. The population of the
| globe, prehensively considered, are not
| a population lifted above the necessity of


laboring. Men work for living literally.
! Their life is paid for by the price Of labor.
| They work for the liberty of living. Where,


in tropical climates, there is no necessity


for work, Nature takes out OF the full meas
| ul0 VI uaL Ille as Inucn us Illey ldck III
| activity. In the tropics men will not work,


and they are only half men. In the tenn
| perate zones they do work, and they are


full men. In the frigid zones they cannot
| work, and again they are only half men.


Such are the general facts; but wherever


the law of wholesome work is obeyed, there


manhood is developed, whether GU look at


latitudes or classes in society. And it may


be laid down as not only a philosophical


Statements but practical law of the hu-


man family, that work is always an indis-


Pensable condition of proper existence.-
! Henry Ward Beecher. l2 '.i ut