It is not entirely the amount of work done, but the continuity of strain that wears upon the body. Even a brief rest interrupts this strain; it unclogs the wheels of action. Our bodies are not designed for continuous toil. An alternation of labor and rest diminishes the waste of life. The benign process of repair cannot go on, to any extent, during strenuous labor, but by interposing frequent though brief periods of rest, we lessen the amount of exhaustion, refresh the jaded nerves, and the remaining labor is more easily endured. 285. Benefits of Rest. There is too little repose in our American nature and in our modes of life. A sense of fatigue is the mute appeal of the body for a brief respite from labor, and the appeal should, if possible, be heeded. If this appeal be not met, the future exertion exhausts far more than if the body had been even slightly refreshed. If the appeal be met, the brief mid-labor rest eases the friction of toil, and the remaining labor is more easily borne. The feeling that a five-minute rest is so much time lost is quite an error. It is a gain of physical strength, of mental vigor, and of the total amount of work done. The merchant burdened with the cares of business life, the soldier on the long march, the ambitious student over-anxious to win success in his studies, the housewife wearied with her many hours of exacting toil, each would make the task lighter, and would get through it with less loss of vital force, by occasionally devoting a few minutes to absolute rest in entire relaxation of the strained muscles and overtaxed nerves. 286. The Sabbath as a Day of Physiological Rest. The divine institution of a Sabbath of rest, one day in seven, is based upon the highest needs of our nature. Rest, to be most effective, should alternate in brief periods with labor. It is sound physiology, as well as good morals and manners, to cease from the usual routine of six days of mental or physical work, and rest both the mind and the body on the seventh. Those who have succeeded best in what they have undertaken, and who have enjoyed sound health during a long and useful life, have studiously lived up to the mandates of this great physiological law. It is by no means certain that the tendency nowadays to devote the Sabbath to long trips on the bicycle, tiresome excursions by land and sea, and sight-seeing generally, affords that real rest from a physiological point of view which nature demands after six days of well-directed manual or mental labor.