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

own powers. She has not encouraged a noble
independence. She should, for years back, have
been educating herself to bear burdens. She is not
in health. She is predisposed to torpidity of the
liver and is not inclined to exercise. She has not the
faculty of setting herself to work unless she sees
that she must. She eats nearly double the amount
which she ought to eat. All that she takes into her
stomach, above that which her system can convert
into good blood, becomes waste matter, to burden
nature in the disposal of it. Her system is clogged
with a mass of matter which hinders her in her
work, clogs the machinery, and weakens the life
forces.
Taking more food into the system than it can
convert into good blood causes a depraved quality
of blood and taxes the vitality to a much greater
degree than labor or physical exercise. This
overeating causes a dull stupor. The brain nerves
are called upon to aid the digestive organs, and are
thus constantly overtaxed, weakened, and
benumbed. This leaves a sense of dullness in the
head, and makes your wife liable to a shock of
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