The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-08-23

A0tAcEHs
Mrs. Stowe writes truthfully as beau
tifully on the Christianiztng influences
of bodily health in the atlantic Month
y. We copy her concluding para
graphs:
"EerJcct spiritual religion cannot ex-
ist without perfect physical religion.
Every flaw and defect. in the bodily
system is just so much taken from tho
spiritual vitality: we are commanded
to glorify God, not simply in our
spirits, but in our bodies and spirits.
The only example of perfect man that
the world ever saw impresses us, more
than anything else, by an atmosphere
of perfect healthiness. There is a clear
ness, II liveliness, in the character of
Jesus, q nuturalneSS in his evolution of
the sublimesttruthsu under the strain of
the most absorbing and intense excite
lnent, that could come only from one
perfectly trained and developed body,
bearing as pure and sacred shrine the
One Perfect Spirit. Jesus of Nazareth,
journeying on foot from city to city, al
ways calm, yet always fervent, always
steady, yet glowing with white heat of
sncred enthusiasm, able to walk and
teach all day and afterwards to con-
shaken nerves, sedntely patient,
serenely reticent, perfectly selt-con-
trolled, walked the earth tho only
man that perfectly glorified God in
his body no less than his spirit. It is
worthy of rcmark, that in choosing his
disciples he chose plain men from tho
lnboring classes, who had lived the
most obediently to the simple, unper-
verted laws of nature. lie chose men
of good and pure bodies-Simple,
natural, child-like, healthy men, and
baptized their souls with the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit.
"Tho Hygienic bearings of the New
Testament have never been sufficiently
understood. The bases of them lie in
the solemn declaration, that our bodies
are to be temples of the Holy Spirit,
and that all abuse OF them is OF the
nature of sacrilege. Reverence for the
physical system, as the outward shrine
and temple of the spiritual, is the Pc
Culiarity of the Christian religion. The
doctrine of the resurrection of the body
and its physical Immortality, sets the
last crown Ofhonor upon it. That bodily
system which God declared worthy to
be gathered back from the dust of
the grave, and recreated as the SOULS
immortal companion, must necessarily
be dear and precious in the eyes of its
Creator. The one passage in the New
Testament in which it is spoken of dis
paragingly, is where Paul contrasts it
with the brighter glory OF what is to
come: 'He shall change our ViIc bodies,
that they may be fashioned like his
glorious body From this passage has
come abundance of reviling OF the
men are full of abuse of it, as the clog,
the load, the burden, the chain. 1t is
spoken of as pollution, as corruption
in short, one would think that the Crea-
tor had initiated the cruelty of some
Oriental deSpots who have been known
,N...
body. Accordingly the memoirs of
these pious men nro also mournful re-
cords of slow suicide, wrought by the
persistent neglect of the most neces-
snry and important laws of tho
bodily system; and the body,
outraged and dOwn-trodden, has turn
ed traitor to the soul, aud played the
adversary with fearful power. Who
can tell tho countless temptations to
which flow in from II neglected, diSord-
cred, deranged nervous System-temp-
tatiUnS TO anger, to irritability, to sell
tishness, to every kind of sin of nppe-
tite and passion? No wonder thnt the
from such companion.
"But that human body which God
declares expressly was made to be the
temple of the Holy Spirit, which he
considers worthy to be perpctunted by
resurrection and an immortal exist
enco, cannot be intended to be IL clog
and hindrance to spiritual advance
ment. a perfect body, working in per-
feet tune and time, would open glimp-
ses of happiness to the soul approach
ing tho joys we hope for in heaven. 1t
is only through the images of things
which our bodily senses have taught us,
that we can form any conception of that
future bliss; and the more perfect these
senses, the more perfect our conceptions
must be.
"The conclusion of the whole matter,
and the practical application of this SER
mon is: first, that all men set them
selves to form the idea OF what perfect
health is, and resolve to realize il tor
themselves and children; second, that
| with view to this, they study the re-
ligion of the body in such simple and
popular treatises as those of George
Combe, DIR. Dio Lewis, and 9TH
ers, and with simple and hon.
est hearts, practice what they there
learn; third, that the training of the
bodily system should form IL regular
part of our commOn-schOol education,
every commOn-schOOl being provided
with II well-instructed teacher of gym
nastics, and the growth and develop
ment OF each pupils body being as
much noticed and marked as is now the
| growth of his mind. The same course
| should be continued and enlarged in
! SOAlCHGS anu 4elIlitIS winch
should have professors of Hygiene ap-
| pointed to give thorough instruction
concerning the laws of health.
"And when this is all done, we may
hope that crooked spines, pimplcd filces,
sallow wcomplexions,s STOPPING shoulders,
and all other signs indicating an unde-
velOped physical vitality, will, in tho
course of few generations, disappear
| from the earth, and men will have
bodies which will glorify God, their
| great Architect.
"The soul of man has got as far as it
can without the body. Religion herself
stops and looks back, waiting for the
body to overtAke her. The souls great
enemy and hindrunce can be made her
best friend and most powerful help;
and it is high time that this era was be-
gun. We old sinners, who have lived
carelessly, and almost spent our day of
grace, may not gain much of its good;
but the children, shall there not be a
more perfect day tor them? Shall there
not come day when the little child,
ciples as the type of the greatest
In tho kingdom of heaven, shall be the
type no less of our physical than our
spiritual advancement, when men and
women shall arise, keeping through
long and happy lives the simple, un-
perverted appetites, the joyous fresh
ness of spirit, the keen delight in mere
existence, the dreamless sleep and hap
py waking of early childhood?"
A WRITER in the Macon (Ga.) Tele-
graph, speaking in advance of tho pro-
ceedings in the Wigwam, said:
"The idea that we submitted all to
| arbitration of the sword and when tho