Life Sketches of Ellen G. White

The Dignity of Labor

God ordained that the beings He created should work. Upon this their happiness depends. No one in the Lord's great domain of creation was made to be a drone. Our happiness increases and our powers develop as we engage in useful employment. LS 87.1

Action gives power. Entire harmony pervades the universe of God. All the heavenly beings are in constant activity; and the Lord Jesus, in His life work, has given an example for every one. He went about “doing good.” God has established the law of obedient action. Silent but ceaseless, the objects of His creation do their appointed work. The ocean is in constant motion. The springing grass, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, does its errand, clothing the fields with beauty. The leaves are stirred to motion, and yet no hand is seen to touch them. The sun, moon, and stars are useful and glorious in fulfilling their mission. LS 87.2

At all times the machinery of the body continues its work. Day by day the heart throbs, doing its regular, appointed task, unceasingly forcing its crimson current to all parts of the body. Action, action, is seen pervading the whole living machinery. And man, his mind and body created in God's similitude, must be active in order to fill his appointed place. He is not to be idle. Idleness is sin. LS 87.3