Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students - Ellen G. White

of the suffering. The skill with which the carpenter
uses his tools, the strength with which the
blacksmith makes the anvil ring, come from God.
Whatever we do, wherever we are placed, He
desires to control our minds, that we may do
perfect work.
Christianity and business, rightly understood,
are not two separate things; they are one. Bible
religion is to be brought into all that we do and say.
Human and divine agencies are to combine in
temporal as well as spiritual achievements. They
are to be united in all human pursuits, in
mechanical and agricultural labors, in mercantile
and scientific enterprises.
There is a remedy for indolence, and that is to
throw off sluggishness as a sin that leads to
perdition, and go to work, using with determination
and vigor the physical ability that God has given.
The only cure for a useless, inefficient life is
determined, persevering effort. Life is not given us
to be spent in idleness or self-pleasing; before us
are placed great possibilities. In the capital of
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