第20章 精神的醉汉
§1
第20章 精神的醉汉
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Chap. 20 - Mental Inebriates
§3
我们的孩子应该阅读什么呢？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。他们本来有权利聆听上帝圣言的真理，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。这些宝贵的青年十分需要用最好的材料来建造自己的品格——就是敬爱上帝，认识基督。但是许多人并没有聪明地认识在耶稣里的真理。他们沉湎于煽情的小说，生活在虚幻的世界中，不能胜任人生的实际职责。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，都是要么心神不宁，要么喜欢空想的，除了最平常的话，无法进行交谈。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，他们觉得索然无味了。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。{FE 162.1}[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 Gods word, of becoming acquainted with the reasons of our faith; but they have grown to mature years destitute of true piety. 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. 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. 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. {FE 162.1}[1]
§5
我很熟悉一些因错误的读书爱好而丧失了心灵健康的人。他们生活在病态的想象中，夸大每一小小的委屈。心理健康而明智的人所不在意的事，在他们都是难当的试炼和无法克服的障碍。他们生活在连绵不断的阴影之中。{FE 162.2}[2]
§6
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. {FE 162.2}[2]
§7
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。早年所养成的习惯，已经随着年龄的增长而根深蒂固。他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。对身体方面的影响也不会更好些。他们的神经系统因这种阅读的热情而不堪重累。一些青年，甚至是成年人，由于滥读之故而瘫痪了。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。{FE 163.1}[3]
§8
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. 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. 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. {FE 163.1}[3]
§9
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。她们手里若没有一本新奇的小说或登有故事的刊物，就确实不快乐。她们渴求刺激就如酒徒渴求醉人的酒一样。这些青年没有表显出献身的精神，没有以属天的光照耀她们的同伴，引她们到知识的泉源。她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。{FE 163.2}[4]
§10
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. {FE 163.2}[4]
§11
我看见青年男女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。{FE 164.1}[5]
§12
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. {FE 164.1}[5]
§13
不节制的读书习惯和不节制的饮食习惯一样，都会对大脑产生有害的影响。{FE 164.2}[6]
§14
Intemperate habits of reading exert a pernicious influence upon the brain as surely as does intemperance in eating and drinking. {FE 164.2}[6]
§15
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。祂告诉我们要躲避的罪恶；祂向我们说明救恩的计划，指出通往天国的道路。祂为了我们的益处，感动古圣先贤写下教训，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。{FE 164.3}[7]
§16
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. He tells us the sins to shun; He explains to us the plan of salvation, and points out the way to heaven. 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. {FE 164.3}[7]
§17
我们是有限的，但我们要有一种无限的意识。必须运用心智默想上帝和祂拯救我们的奇妙计划。这样就会提拔心灵超越纯粹是地上凡俗的事，专注在那使人高尚的永恒的事上。我们是在上帝的世界，在按着祂自己的形像造了人类的伟大的宇宙创造主面前的思想，会把人心带入广阔尊贵的默想园地。想到上帝的眼目正在注视着我们，祂爱我们，这么关怀我们，竟然舍了祂的爱子要救赎我们，使我们不致悲惨地灭亡，这种思想是伟大的；凡敞开自己的心接受和默想这种主题的人，决不会满足于琐细煽情的题目。{FE 164.4}[8]
§18
We are finite, but we are to have a sense of the infinite. The mind must be brought into exercise in contemplating God, and His wonderful plan for our salvation. The soul will thus be lifted above the mere earthly and commonplace, and fixed upon that which is ennobling and eternal. The thought that we are in Gods world, in the presence of the great Creator of the universe, who made man after His own likeness, will lead the mind into broad, exalted fields for meditation. The thought that Gods eye is watching over us, that He loves us, and cared so much for us to give His dearly beloved Son to redeem us, that we might not miserably perish, is a great one; and he who opens his heart to the acceptance and contemplation of themes like these, will never be satisfied with trivial, sensational subjects. {FE 164.4}[8]
§19
圣经若是得到了应有的研究，人们就会变得智力强大。上帝的道中所涉及的主题，其表达方式的尊贵纯朴，它向人心呈现的高尚主题，能够开发人里面的才能，是其它方式无法开发的。在圣经中，一个无限的园地开放，供人想象。学生默想它伟大的题旨，与它崇高的意象联络后，在思想感情上就会比花时间阅读纯粹出于人的作品更加纯洁高尚，那些微不足道的事就不用提了。年轻的心智若是忽视智慧的最高来源——上帝的道，就不会达到最高尚的发育。我们这么少的人具有优良的心智、坚定稳固的高尚品德，原因就是不敬畏上帝，不爱上帝，没有照着所应当的在生活中实行宗教原则。{FE 165.1}[9]
§20
If the Bible were studied as it should be, men would become strong in intellect. The subjects treated upon in the word of God, the dignified simplicity of its utterance, the noble themes which it presents to the mind, develop faculties in man which cannot otherwise be developed. In the Bible, a boundless field is opened for the imagination. The student will come from a contemplation of its grand themes, from association with its lofty imagery, more pure and elevated in thought and feeling than if he had spent the time in reading any work of mere human origin, to say nothing of those of a trifling character. Youthful minds fail to reach their noblest development when they neglect the highest source of wisdom,--the word of God. The reason why we have so few men of good mind, of stability and solid worth, is that God is not feared, God is not loved, the principles of religion are not carried out in the life as they should be. {FE 165.1}[9]
§21
上帝希望我们利用每一方法培养和加强我们的智力。我们受造是为了比现在的人生更崇高更尊贵的人生。今生是为不朽的来生作准备的。我们在哪里可以找到比在圣经中展开的庄严真理更宏大的默想题材，更有趣的思想主题呢？这些真理要为人做一番奇工，只要人愿意听从它们所教导的。但人们多么少研究圣经啊！每一件不重要的事都优先于圣经得到考虑。我们若是多得圣经，若是更好地理解真理，就会成为一班远为开明聪颖的人。来自光明世界的天使站在恳切寻求真理的人身旁，要感动和光照他的心智。悟性暗昧的人可以藉着熟悉圣经得着亮光。——《基督徒节制和圣经卫生》123-126页，1890年。{FE 165.2}[10]
§22
God would have us avail ourselves of every means of cultivating and strengthening our intellectual powers. We were created for a higher, nobler existence than the life that now is. This time is one of preparation for the future, immortal life. Where can be found grander themes for contemplation, a more interesting subject for thought, than the sublime truths unfolded in the Bible? These truths will do a mighty work for man, if he will but follow what they teach. But how little the Bible is studied! Every unimportant thing is dwelt upon in preference to its themes. If the Bible were read more, if its truths were better understood, we should be a far more enlightened and intelligent people. Angels from the world of light stand by the side of the earnest seeker after truth, to impress and illuminate his mind. He who is dark of understanding may find light through an acquaintance with the Scriptures.--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, pp. 123-26, 1890. {FE 165.2}[10]