The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-06


n NpSM NAeIS LNNeNNeSIuNA> GANrNA VaAA
II Religious DeNelopment---AnA AnSex
II esLIgET aHd IDSLFlDcTJTe Article.
4 "Gost Words"
During the last nneen years, quits
enough has been said about the sancIitJ
4 OF the body; and the protest against the
strange fancy that we honour and please
God by inpoverishing, torturing, and
marring the beauty OF what He ''curi-
\ ously wrought" ;" has run into eXtrava-
gance. A few sensible men.prOclhimet
Il war against the saintliness OF physical
weakness, filth and suffering; and be-
fore long their wholesome doctrine was
kinCessnnIAS reiterated with all the pas
sion OF fHnaticism in every part OF th'
country; the new gospel found lis way
| into iunumerable sermons and lectures,
into the. columns of every newspaper
and the pages of every popular maEa'
zine. EGreat was the company of the
preachers." The "tub' became a means
OF grace, and clean skin the sure
| means of getting a clean heart. Vol
unteer regiments were addressed as
though they were religious orders, des-
tined to regenerate the moral life of the
nation. Cricket, rowing, rnnniDg,and
| Jumping, were to do men more good
accomplish the work which the preach
er and the philosopher had attempted
| In vain. E-
No doubt 1t is a very fine thing for a
man to be able to walk forty
| miles a day, but that does not make
| him saint There is no virtue in be-
| ing sickly; but neither, so far as can
see. Is 1t the highest attribute of piety
| to have the digestion Of an ostrich, or
| the lungs of a raCehorse. Many fool
has had muscles of iron, and nerves OF
steel; and imagine that II Is even pos
! UIl 10 I,a har Of rho mir
Club, and yet to break all the COM
| maudments. -.s
Still ii is true that both the Jewish
| and the Christian Scriptures speak OF
our physical nature with honour. They
never represent the body as the work
of some inferior and perhaps malig-
nant deity, who so contrived II that we
should be constantly tempted To sin.
II is Gods own -"tearfully
and wonderfully made" 1t is the yisi-
BILE temple of the Holy GhOst-the only
visible temple in which God has dwelt
since the glory passed away from the
inner sanctuary ut Jerusalem. Death
| is not to destroy IL. Sown in corrup-
ton, 1t is to be raised in interruption {;
sown in weakness, it is to be raised in
power. The Incarnation and the Proph-
ecy ofthe Resurrection have finally re-
deemed 1t from contempt. That God
was manifest in The flesh is the funda-
mental article OF the Christian creed !;
and when we listen to the desOlate
words, ''dust to dusi, ashes to ashes"
We confidently believe that the time is
coming when '.Hll that are in the
graves" shall hear the voice of the Son
OF God land shall come forth :" that
the gracious form and the kindly face
have not vanished for ever; that the
body, not the same flesh and blood in
deed, but still the body which it has
been pleasant for us to look upon on
earth, will reappear among the shining
splendours OF heaven.
The body, therefore, with its instincts
and wants, is not to be treated as the
enemy of the soul, but as its friend-a
friend ofinferior rank, but still IA friend.
1t asks for warmth and clothing, food
and shelter, and Tor ease and rest after
Iabour; and il should have them all.
Let men say what they will in praise OF
the celestial influence of hunger,
whether voluntary or involuntary, ii is
difficult to see that hunger encourages
any human virtue, or any Christian
grace. As for a hard and severe life, as
rule it is probably as injurious to the
intellect and the heart, as 1t certainly is
to'physical health and beauty. When
the Apostles warned men against
"Heshly lusts," there is no reason to
suppose that they meant to require
Christian people to live life of discOm-
fort and privation.
But that it Is necessary If we are TO
live u pure and devout life, that we
should tirmly control our inferior in
stincts and passions, has been the com
mon faith of nll SAINTS and careless
ness in the discipline of the body is,
perhaps, the real cause of the misera-
bly, ignoble life of many Christian men.
They nave no strong and clear vision
of God, no vivid anticipation of ever
lasting Dlessedness and purity. Their
love for Christ shoulders like half
eXtinguished tire-without heat, with
out brightness, without intensity.
"FleShly lusts" unsubdued are the
true explanation of their moral weak
ness and spiritual sluggishness. II a
man is conscious that his spiritual ma
ture has no elasticity, that his religious
life is dull and heavy, that his prayers
have no heart in them, and his thanks
givingSfno rapture, that his Christian
work is feeble and mechanical, bur
den to himself and no blessing to
others, let him ask whether the flesh
has not mastered the spirit, and set
himself vigorously to assert his free
dom. = ..---.--.-.......--..
Let him ask himself, for instance,
whether he would not be u better man
il he drank less. 1t Is not merely men
who drink till they are drunk that are
guilty Contemporaries; there are many
people who do what is perhaps worse
than that. 1 have heard able medical
men give it as their deliberate opinion
that u man who gets drunk once II
month receives less physical injury
than a man who never loses self-cOm-
mand, but drinks habitually more than
he ought Which suffers most morally,
it may be hard to determine. Unhap-
PLY, drinking which does not end in
positive intoxication Is regarded ns in
nOcent. The men who are guilty of ii
would resent even an Implied censure
on their excesses. They think they
''live freely" but that they are blame
less. Their friends become used 10
their habits mere acquaintance say
that they never seem very bright or
active but charge them with no sin ;
their own consciences are drugged into
silence; but all moral nobleness and
all lofty devotion, inevitably disappear
from their character. 1t will not do to
speak of excessive drinking as vice
OF which only the poor are guilty. No
rank or culture eXempts us from dan
ger. Medical men have assured me
again and again that in houses where
no one would expect 1t, actual drunk
enness Is the real cause of apparently
inex piicable illness. Now and then l
have been shocked at finding that wo-
men, educated women of good family,
and occupying a good social position,
are guilty OF IL. There are circum-
stances which make the temptation to
this vice specially perilous 10 women
whose circumstances exempt them
from the necessity of earning their own
bread. Take the case of Il young girl
whose home before marriage was very
bright and merry one she was sur
rounded with brothers and sisters and
troops OF friends; her mind was occu-
pied with her music, her drawing and
her books two or three times a year
she made long visits TO relatives at