"In the early education of children many parents and teachers fail to understand that the greatest attention needs to be given to the physical constitution, that a healthy condition of body and brain may be secured. It has been the custom to encourage children to attend school when they are mere babies, needing a mother's care. When of a delicate age they are frequently crowded into ill-ventilated schoolrooms, where they sit in wrong positions upon poorly constructed benches, and as the result the young and tender frames of some have become deformed. 3T 143.1"
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
EGW's passage focuses on the physical well-being of children and its impact on their development. This aligns with the principle in 1 Corinthians 6:19, which emphasizes the importance of caring for one's body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. While not a direct quote, the underlying theme of bodily care and its spiritual significance connects the two passages.
"The disposition and habits of youth will be very likely to be manifested in mature manhood. You may bend a young tree into almost any shape that you choose, and if it remains and grows as you have bent it, it will be a deformed tree and will ever tell of the injury and abuse received at your hand. You may, after years of growth, try to straighten the tree, but all your efforts will prove unavailing. It will ever be a crooked tree. This is the case with the minds of youth. They should be carefully and tenderly trained in childhood. They may be trained in the right direction or in the wrong, and in their future lives they will pursue the course in which they were directed in youth. The habits formed in youth will grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength, and will generally be the same in afterlife, only continually growing stronger. 3T 143.2"
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
This is a clear and strong connection. EGW's analogy of bending a young tree directly illustrates the principle of Proverbs 22:6 about the lasting impact of early training. The passage elaborates on the proverb, providing a vivid image of how habits formed in youth shape future character.
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
Both passages deal with the consequences of one's actions, whether in shaping a young person's character or in general life choices. The 'sowing and reaping' principle applies to the idea of shaping a young tree or mind.