第90章 合宜的精神粮食
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第90章 合宜的精神粮食
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Chapter 90—Proper Mental Food
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我们的孩子应该阅读哪些书籍呢？这是一个严肃的问题，需要有一个严肃的回答。我看见在基督徒家庭中，青少年的心受了报刊杂志上连载故事的不良影响，心里甚觉不安。我看到那些爱好小说的人受到了小说的熏陶。他们本来有权利听聆上帝圣言的真理，了解我们信仰的缘由。但他们还没有学会真实的敬虔，就长大成人了。{MYP 279.1}[1]
§4
What shall our children read? is a serious question, and demands a serious answer. I am troubled to see, in Christian families, periodicals and newspapers containing continued stories that leave no impress of good upon the mind. I have watched those whose taste for fiction has been thus cultivated. They have had the privilege of listening to the truths of God’s Word, of becoming acquainted with the reasons of our faith; but they have grown to mature years destitute of true piety.?{MYP 279.1}[1]
§5
这些可爱的青年十分需要用最好的材料来建造自己的品格——就是敬畏上帝，认识基督。但是许多人并没有真正认识在耶稣里的真理。他们沉湎于刺激性的小说，生活在虚幻的世界中，不能胜任人生的职责。{MYP 279.2}[2]
§6
These dear youth need so much to put into their character building the very best material—the love and fear of God and a knowledge of Christ. But many have not an intelligent understanding of the truth as it is in Jesus. The mind is feasted upon sensational stories. They live in an unreal world, and are unfitted for the practical duties of life.?{MYP 279.2}[2]
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【读小说的后果】
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我看到一些在这种状况中成长的孩子，不论在家中，还是在外面，都是恍惚不宁的，谈吐庸俗的。本来可用于更高追求的天赋，却降格为热中于低级琐碎，甚至是卑劣堕落的题材，直到他们满足于这种题材，无法领会更高的题材了。宗教的思想和谈论，他们则觉得索然无味了。{MYP 279.3}[3]
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【Results of Reading Fiction】
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I have observed children allowed to come up in this way. Whether at home or abroad, they are either restless or dreamy, and are unable to converse, save upon the most commonplace subjects. The nobler faculties, those adapted to higher pursuits, have been degraded to the contemplation of trivial or worse than trivial subjects, until their possessor has become satisfied with such topics, and scarcely has power to reach anything higher. Religious?thought and conversation has become distasteful.?{MYP 279.3}[3]
§11
他们所觉得津津有味的精神食物，会产生污染的影响，导致不洁和淫欲的念头。我想到这些人因忽略认识基督的机会而蒙受重大损失时，就深感惋惜。我们永生的盼望寄托在基督身上。他们浪费了多少宝贵的时间。他们原可利用这些时间来学习真良善的典范——基督。{MYP 280.1}[4]
§12
The mental food for which he has acquired a relish is contaminating in its effects, and leads to impure and sensual thoughts. I have felt sincere pity for these souls as I have considered how much they are losing by neglecting opportunities to gain a knowledge of Christ, in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. How much precious time is wasted, in which they might be studying the Pattern of true goodness.?{MYP 280.1}[4]
§13
我很熟悉一些因错误的读书爱好而丧失了心灵健康的人。他们生活在有害的思想中，夸大每一小小的痛苦。心理健康而明智的人所不在心的事，在他们都是难当的试炼和无法克服的难题。他们生活在连绵不断的阴影之中。{MYP 280.2}[5]
§14
I am personally acquainted with some who have lost the healthy tone of the mind through wrong habits of reading. They go through life with a diseased imagination, magnifying every little grievance. Things which a sound, sensible mind would not notice, become to them unendurable trials, insurmountable obstacles. To them, life is in constant shadow.?{MYP 280.2}[5]
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凡养成阅读刺激性小说习惯的人，正在削弱自己的智力，使自己无法进行活跃的思考和研究。一些年老体衰的人始终未能摆脱不节制之阅读习惯所造成的影响。{MYP 280.3}[6]
§16
Those who have indulged the habit of racing through exciting stories, are crippling their mental strength, and disqualifying themselves for vigorous thought and research. There are men and women now in the decline of life who have never recovered from the effects of intemperate reading.?{MYP 280.3}[6]
§17
早年所养成的习惯，已经随着年龄的增长而根深蒂固。人们虽然决心胜过这些恶习，但只能取得部分的成功。许多人一直未能恢复他们心智原有的活力。他们想成为真正基督徒的努力，都只停留在愿望上。他们继续以这类文学作品作为自己的精神粮食，决不可能真正地基督化。{MYP 280.4}[7]
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The habit, formed in early years, has grown with their growth and strengthened with their strength; and their efforts to overcome it, though determined, have been only partially successful. Many have never recovered their original vigor of mind. All attempts to become practical Christians end with the desire. They cannot be truly Christlike, and continue to feed the mind upon this class of literature.?{MYP 280.4}[7]
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对身体方面的影响也不会更好些。他们的神经系统因这种过分的阅读而不堪重累。一些青年人，甚至是成年人由于滥读之故而崩溃了。心灵受到不断的刺激，脑筋精密的组织逐渐衰弱，终于瘫痪了。{MYP 280.5}[8]
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Nor is the physical effect less disastrous. The?nervous system is unnecessarily taxed by this passion for reading. In some cases youth, and even those of mature age, have been afflicted with paralysis from no other cause than excess in reading. The mind was kept under constant excitement until the delicate machinery of the brain became so weakened that it could not act, and paralysis was the result.?{MYP 280.5}[8]
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【精神的醉汉】
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人一旦养成了对刺激性故事的爱好，道德的感官就麻木了，若不经常食用这种无价值、不卫生的食物，心灵就不得满足。我见过一些自命为基督徒的少女。她们在手里若没有一本新奇的小说或登有故事的刊物，就十分不安。她们渴求刺激就如酒徒渴求醉人的酒一样。这些青年人没有表显出献身的精神，没有以属天的光照耀她们的同伴，引他们到知识的泉源。他们没有深刻的宗教经验。如果此等读物不常摆在他们面前，他们也许有矫正的机会。但他们渴求这类读物，非要获得不可。{MYP 281.1}[9]
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【Mental Inebriates】
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When an appetite for exciting, sensational stories is cultivated, the moral taste becomes perverted, and the mind is unsatisfied unless constantly fed upon this trashy, unwholesome food. I have seen young ladies, professed followers of Christ, who were really unhappy unless they had on hand some new novel or story-paper. The mind craved stimulation as the drunkard craves intoxicating drink. These youth manifested no spirit of devotion; no heavenly light was shed upon their associates to lead them to the fount of knowledge. They had no deep, religious experience. If this class of reading had not been constantly before them, there might have been some hope of their reforming; but they craved it, and would have it.?{MYP 281.1}[9]
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我看见青年人如此糟蹋自己的人生，不能获得那预备他们承受天国永生的经验，甚感痛心。称他们为精神的醉汉是再合适不过的。{MYP 281.2}[10]
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I am pained to see young men and women thus ruining their usefulness in this life, and failing to obtain an experience that will prepare them for an eternal life in heavenly society. We can find no more fit name for them than “mental inebriates.”?{MYP 281.2}[10]
§27
不加节制的读书习惯和不加节制的饮食习惯一样，都会对大脑产生有害的影响。{MYP 281.3}[11]
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Intemperate habits of reading exert a pernicious influence upon the brain as surely as does intemperance in eating and drinking.?{MYP 281.3}[11]
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防止恶习滋长的最好方法乃是占领阵地。需要百倍警惕，高度重视心田的耕耘，将圣经真理的宝贵种子撒在其中。主凭着祂的大慈怜已经在圣经中向我们显示了圣洁生活的定律。……{MYP 282.1}[12]
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【The Remedy】
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The best way to prevent the growth of evil is to preoccupy the soil. The greatest care and watchfulness is needed in cultivating the mind and sowing therein the precious seeds of Bible truth. The Lord, in His great mercy, has revealed to us in the Scriptures the rules of holy living....?{MYP 282.1}[12]
§32
为了我们的益处，祂感动古圣先贤圣人写下教训，指出我们道路上的危险，以及如何躲避这些危险。凡顺从祂命令而研究圣经的人，决不会在这些事上无知。在末日的危险中，教会的每一个成员都应明白自己信仰和盼望的缘由。这些缘由是不难明白的。我们如果愿意在主耶稣基督的恩典和知识上长进，就有足够的材料占据我们的心灵。——《基督徒的节制和圣经的卫生》1890年版123—126页{MYP 282.2}[13]
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He has inspired holy men to record, for our benefit, instruction concerning the dangers that beset the path, and how to escape them. Those who obey His injunction to search the Scriptures will not be ignorant of these things. Amid the perils of the last days, every member of the church should understand the reasons of his hope and faith—reasons which are not difficult of comprehension. There is enough to occupy the mind, if we would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 123-126.?{MYP 282.2}[13]
§34
一个基督徒在公开犯罪之前，心中是先经过一番长久的思想过程，这种过程是世人所不知道的。人心并不是从纯洁圣善的景况一下子落到败坏堕落和犯罪的地步的。那些照着上帝形象而造的人堕落到与禽兽无异或与魔鬼一般的地步，是需要相当长久的时间的。心理的定律是，人所注意的事物，必要影响他的品格。人能因放纵不正当的思想，而使自己的心受污秽所影响，以致他原先所憎恶的罪却变成他所爱好的事了。——《先祖与先知》459页{MYP 282.3}[14]
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【First Steps in Sin】
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A long preparatory process, unknown to the world, goes on in the heart before the Christian commits open sin. The mind does not come down at once from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic. By beholding, we become changed. By the indulgence of impure thoughts, man can so educate his mind that sin which he once loathed will become pleasant to him.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 459.?{MYP 282.3}[14]