Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 - Ellen G. White

are teaching them the art of cookery you are
building around them a barrier that will preserve
them from the folly and vice which they may
otherwise be tempted to engage in. I prize my
seamstress, I value my copyist; but my cook, who
knows well how to prepare the food to sustain life
and nourish brain, bone, and muscle, fills the most
important place among the helpers in my family.
Mothers, there is nothing that leads to such
evils as to lift the burdens from your daughters, and
give them nothing special to do, and let them
choose their own employment, perhaps a little
crochet or some other fancywork to busy
themselves. Let them have exercise of the limbs
and muscles. If it wearies them, what then? Are
you not wearied in your work? Will weariness hurt
your children, unless overworked, more than it
hurts you? No, indeed. They can recover from their
weariness in a good night's rest and be prepared to
engage in labor the next day. It is a sin to let them
grow up in idleness. The sin and ruin of Sodom
was abundance of bread and idleness.
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