Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-02-08
RELIGIOUS DYSPEPSIA.

How Peoples Minds, Morals and Re-
Iision are Affected by ther Stom0chs.
BEECHER TAKES A PRACTICAL VIEW OF ETH
cAL MATTERS.
rExtract from sermon in the last n. Y Independent
Filthy: many persons are in bondage on
account of morbid feelings that arise from
states of physical or mental unhealth.-
This is apt to be the case in periods of
great refinement, and in persons of much
| leisure In those times when men live
much out of doors; when there is little
excitement of the nervous system; when
men have bones like flint, and muscles
like Drawn, they are not apt to have these
morbid experiences. But when they live
much in the house, and upon continuous
excitemcnts which make heavy drafts
upon the nervous system, not only does
the body become diseased, but the moral
element also. All disease that affects the
cerebral and nervous system, derangcs the
healthful flow of experience. a man may
have some diseases without any consider
able moral disturbance, hut all those dis
eases which affect the thinking and tho
feeling part, will unquestiOnably derangc
the mental economy. Then, thousand
| feelings come and go that arc no moro
matter for sober judgement than twingcs
of rheumatism, neuralgia, or the toothc-
ache. There arc great many temptations
that are mere nervous temptation. There
are great many visions that are simply
| improper manifestations of the mental
economy. There nrc great many all
ments which men register in thcirjOurnHls
rs the work of the devil, that are nothing
| but the results of a diSordered stomach
Men go to their minister with experiences
that they believe to have hnd n spiritual
origin, which arise merely from abnormal
operations of the nervous system.
Nothing is more certain than that i'll
health develops in some Righteousness of
the most enthusiastic kind, and in others
torments of doubt and dread. No mere
moral remedies can ever reach such cases.
Bodily health will bring soul-health under
such circumstances, and nothing else will.
Long and wasting sickness; exquisite
suffering; bereavements and losses; great
exhaustion from continuous pressure of
cares, from too great lAbors, from watch
| ing with the sick; long, severe, and eX-
hausting study,--in short, any cause
which sucks the brain dry, and leaves it
supcrsensitive, will be apt to induce
whole train of morbid moral symptoms,
the only remedy for which is health.
| know men that are beset with tempta-
tions of the devil, and all manner of spirit
ual troubles, who, if / could send them
! to California by overland route, would
/ soon override the devil; and the moment
their physical health was restored, they
would find that all their spiritual troubles
had vanished, do not wish you to un
derstand, however, that all spiritual diff
culties come from this quarter; this is only
one class of them. Air, sunlight, rccrea-
ton, wholesome food, sound sleep and
| enough of it, and exercise, will gradually
rcinstRte the minds of those who have
become premAturely exhausted and weak
cncd. Then, and not till then, the con-
| science will begin, with regular beat, to
swing its pendulum, and the mind will
keep time with it,
Ministers, think, arc no more foolish
than other people; aud yet they have hith-
| erto been, from kind of professionalism,
/ in danger of prescribing hymns, and chap
( tiers of the Bible, and diductic trentiscs, for
these states of mind, which should have
been treated medically; and think that
every minister ought to have IL doctor
Joined to him; not to give medtcine-thc
4 less that is given of that the better-but to
give advice with regard to regimen and
diet: or, as this cannot always be, every
minister ought to he both a body-doctOr
and soul-doctor. He ought to know
]
health, and of preserving it, to he able to
| give counsel on these points. If you do
not know man as an animal, as we'll as a
moral spirit, you do not know him ut all.
Sixthly: in connection with this health
cause of moral bondage, l must speak of
another,-namely, the want ofan object for
the mind to exhaust its energies upon
Some natures arc feeble, and they do not
seem to suffer much if they have no occu-
patton, though they do seem to suffer if
/ they have one that is very cxacting. There
are some streams that never can run the
mill at night. 1t is necessary to let the
water collect in the pond during the night,
or else they could not run the mill in the
daytime. The brains of some people are
! in the same condition 1t takes all the
mental power they can muster, to enable
them to do a little, and the longer their
rests are, the better they feel. They avoid
good deal of suffering, and they also lose
a great deal of living.
But there are a great many persons of
deep and active feelings, of nervous and
restless temperaments, whose minds act
automatically, spontaneously. They must
have something upon which to expend the
ever increasing activities and energies of
their nature. IF such persons have le-
gitimate occupation to absorb all their
thoughts and feelings properly, they will
be happy, and their religious happiness
will probably hc constant. But if they
have little or nothing to do, their minds
turn back upon themselves, and their feel
ings become sensitive, and morbid, and
| oftentimcs exuuisitcly painful. God made