[Points: The brain can never remain idle—idle brain full of devilish thoughts—unemployment—so-called students—students and young men to be kept engaged in a wide variety of extra-curricular activities—duty of young men.]
The brain of man can never remain idle. Even when he is engaged in some physical labour, the brain is full of thoughts and ideals about how to do the work well. So if it is not occupied with faithful thoughts, all sorts of mischievous and devilish ideas will crowd in to fill the vacancy. And this will turn him to an agent of the Devil, not only to his own ruin but also to great harm to the society he belongs to.
We find the truth of this in the lives of many of the unemployed men, and so called students around us. So long as a person is-gain fully employed, his thoughts concern mainly his occupation--that is, how to do it well and thereby prosper in life and bring happiness to his family. But when a man is unemployed, the future seems dark and gloomy to him. Gradually despair fills his mind and he falls an easy prey to the prompting of Satan. He takes to wicked means to achieve what he cannot gain by fair means. We also see everywhere how public peace is disturbed by the mischievous activities of un employed young men and of boys who are students only in name. This is why unemployment is regarded as a curse and every state considers its removal to be one of its principal duties. And this is also the reason why our educational experts think so much, about how our young men may be kept away from undesirable activities. To suit their varied interests and varied energies academic curricula have been diversified. A wide variety of hobbies, excursions, cultural functions, social service works, etc. have been introduced to direct and guide their extra-curricular activities along fruitful channels.
But the success of these attempts depends a good deal on the young men themselves. Unless they become conscious of the evil effects of idleness, all attempts to save them from Satan will go in vain.
