NO BALANCE-WHEEL by J. Clarke

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 27, 1859

NO BALANCE-WHEEL.

By J. Clarke

The wise man says that "through idleness of the hands, the house droppeth through;" and the common sense of mankind does unite in deprecating the slothful idler, whose time is wasted and lost, while he burdens himself and society with a load, an encumbrance; while an industrious man is prized and valued above the worth of fine gold.

Industry may well be lauded as one of the most excellent of virtues, more especially when well directed by the mind of wisdom, in the accomplishment of benevolent designs, and in performance of the common and humbler every-day employments of life; and when purity of motive, and sweetness of temper, accompany this, life becomes an offering of sweet savor to God.

Our national maxims are all of a tendency to excite the public mind to exertion; and the writings of Franklin on this particular head, are become as "household words," and most American readers are familiar with his proverbs, illustrating the tendency of idleness, and the rewards of economy and industry.

Indeed, such have been the prospects held out before the young men of our country, and such the success of those who pursue a steady course of patient, well-directed industry, that the public mind has been stimulated to unparalleled efforts, and now we behold its fruits: a century or less has sufficed to improve a continent; an enlightened nation of twenty-five millions, now draw their sustenance from the soil, so suddenly changed from a dreary wilderness, to a smiling landscape, varied with cities, towns and villages, canals and roads; fiery chariots roll with winged speed, through tunneled mountains, and over foaming cataracts, forests are levelled and changed into fruitful fields, while mechanical skill erects the noble edifice, and the comfortable cottage, and executes the nice and curious labor-saving machinery, while the well adjusted system of education gives impetus to mental improvement, and fosters the arts and sciences. Meanwhile, commerce and manufactures have not failed to keep pace with the growth of our young and thriving commonwealth.

But the question arises in the reflective mind, as we see the almost maniacal efforts, and the nervous strife for wealth, as we behold the ceaseless efforts put forth by our countrymen in pursuit of gold, as we take note of the sickly countenances, the broken constitutions, and the premature old age of many of our people, when we count the tons of drugs and medicines consumed in the land, and other evidences of the decay of the physical man, we are led to inquire, What is wrong? Is there no balance-wheel in our political machinery?

We look around, and after careful observation we must conclude that the wise men of the world have omitted this important part of the machine, the balance-wheel. They have urged forward improvement: work, work, night and day, ceaseless toil, the poor laborer has toiled and swotn for his employer, with only this Yankee maxim ringing in his ears, "Go ahead!" No balance-wheel! No wonder the machinery is worn and heated! No wonder the motion is irregular! No wonder it needs repair! No wonder the engineers tremble as they behold its terribly swift rotations! They see its destruction is sure, unless its motion can be regulated.

Alas! woful mistake! Worldly wisdom failed to see the effect of unhealthy action, and the necessity of a proper balancing power, in their early instructions, and Young America is now fast approaching the vortex of the Maelstrom, which threatens to engulf her, for want of a balance-wheel, and that balance-wheel is, "Rest."

Rest! O, how sweet to the tired laborer, as he wearily seeks his couch beneath the protection of night, (which was fortunately arranged by the good Creator,) for his unmerciful employer often grudges even this.

Rest! The machine must be cooled; constant friction heats and softens, and the engineer who knows this gives his engine time to cool. So the Creator in the beginning set apart a special day for this purpose of rest. The Sabbath was made for man. God foresaw that a strict command was necessary to check the full tide of worldliness in man's heart, and that regular rest-days were indispensable to his health of body and mind.

Satan is a hard master; he overworks his subjects, and drowns them in perplexities and cares, when he finds he cannot drive them to some other extreme. And while he administers more opiates to the idler, he goads on the ambitious and the industrious to unhealthy, immoderate exertion, until they richly merit the appellation, "greedy of filthy lucre."

God has appointed the seventh day, [Gen. ii, 2, 3,] unconditionally, as a perpetual memorial of his work, thus showing that no less than this seventh day would suffice (works of mercy excepted) for the wants of man; but that he is willing and desirous that a greater proportion of time should be applied to rest, may be inferred from the appointment of festivals among the Israelites, which amount in all, (Sabbaths included,) to more than one third of the time.

(Not that I would put these festivals on a par with the weekly Sabbath, by any means; for these festivals have all expired by limitation at the death of Christ, while the weekly Sabbath points back to the work of creation, and cannot expire until it ceases to be a fact that God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh.)

There are times, as with the farmer in harvest, when every effort must be made to secure the crop, and there are times, too, in the prosecution of most kinds of business, when rest may be obtained from exciting, wearing labor.

To prove the necessity of rest, to the best development of mind, ask the lawyer if he will attempt to make a plea immediately after a walk of thirty or forty miles. Ask him if his memory, or imagination, or reason, or judgment, or taste, would act under such circumstances. Ask the messengers if they can present the third angel's message in its force and beauty, when they are worn with fatigue, in caring for the pecuniary matters of the tent. Notice the decision of the apostles in appointing deacons for the administration of secular matters, that all the power of their minds might be brought to bear upon the work of their ministry.

The brain, the center of mental power, may be compared to a flower, of which the spinal marrow is the stem merely, and when the brain labors, the whole man labors; therefore when the mind is fatigued, the whole body must rest; for such is the sympathy between the brain and the lower parts of the frame, that one cannot labor while the other rests; nor one rest while the other labors; thus, fatigue of brain tires the body, and when the body is wearied, the brain also is dull and sluggish.

Rest is necessary not only to the professional man, but to the laborer. All need full, liberal appropriation of time for rest. He who would appreciate and fully comprehend the arguments as set forth in defense of present truth, of the third angel's message, needs the most vigorous exercise of the powers of his mind: a dull, stupid, apathetic state of mind, consequent upon wearing, constant fatigue, unfits the mind to act, to reason, to investigate, or to judge.

Rest is necessary to the brother or sister who would overcome; for Satan is ever ready to infuse his venom, when the physical or bodily powers are overworked, and overtasked. Then is the time for fretfulness, and anger, for discouragement, and low spirits, and all the evils following in the wake of their besetments.

J. CLARKE.