The human intellect must gain expansion and vigor and acuteness and activity. It must be taxed to
do hard work, or it will become weak and inefficient. Brainpower is required to think most
earnestly; it must be put to the stretch to solve hard problems and master them, else the mind
decreases in power and aptitude to think. The mind must invent, work, and wrestle, in order to give
hardness and vigor to the intellect; and if the physical organs are not kept in the most healthful
condition by substantial, nourishing food, the brain does not receive its portion of nutrition to work.
Daniel understood this, and he brought himself to a plain, simple, nutritious diet, and refused the
luxuries of the king’s table. The desserts which take so much time to prepare are, many of them,
detrimental to health. Solid foods requiring mastication will be far better than mush or liquid foods.
I dwell upon this as essential….
The intellect is to be kept thoroughly awake with new, earnest, wholehearted work. How is it to be
done? The power of the Holy Spirit must purify the thoughts and cleanse the soul of its moral
defilement. Defiling habits not only abase the soul, but debase the intellect. Memory suffers, laid on
the altar of base, hurtful practices….
When teachers and learners shall consecrate soul, body, and spirit to God, and purify their thoughts
by obedience to the laws of God, they will continually receive a new endowment of physical and
mental power. Then will there be heart-yearnings after God, and earnest prayer for clear perception
to discern….
Diligent study is essential, and diligent hard work…. A well-balanced mind is not usually obtained
in the devotion of the physical powers to amusements. Physical labor that is combined with mental
taxation for usefulness is a discipline in practical life, sweetened always by the reflection that it is
qualifying and educating the mind and body better to perform the work God designs us to do in
various lines…. The mind thus educated to enjoy physical taxation in practical life becomes
enlarged and, through culture and training, well disciplined and richly furnished for usefulness, and
acquires a knowledge essential to be a help and blessing to themselves and to others.—
Fundamentals of Christian Education, 226-229.