The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-17

! to educate whole community in those
/ habits, and calling their attention 10
those virtues and exercises which
should form healthy population.
/ Their laws relating 10 clean and unclean
beasts, for instance, entering into all
domestic life, and demapding that If a
mouse or raj or piece of dead flesh had
touched any culinary vessel. it should
| be dipped in water and thoroughly
washed before it could be again used,
were intended to raise nation of slaves
into the most civilized and cleanly ma
ton then onthe earth. 1t was found
necessary TO forbid pork altogether TO II
| nation who perhaps We're not SO care
/ tnl thoroughly TO cook all their meat
rs we are. Their fastings, festivals,
clean and uncleAn animals, their week
| ly day of rest, and whole domestic ar
/ rHngements were wonderfully de-
1 vised system for directing the attention
/ of the whole community to the cuItlTA-
| ton of the most perfect health of body,
as one OF the first OF religious duties.
/ About generation ago, DR.. Comhe,
! a physician, OF Edinburgh, who in
early life had nearly died for want OF
/ sufficient care, went everywhere over
Great Britain and America, lecturing
I the constitution OF man, calling atien-
/ ton this subject as Il religious duty,
/ incumben on all. His language was
/ not always correct, and his ideas were
/ somewhat restricted, but they met a
[ great want in the popular mlno, and
( created offs very neglected subject. His
/ lectures gave phrenOloGY start in TINS
| country, and everything connected
/ with physical culture. And though
| some terrible blunders were made, they
! inspired a class of men who have been
experimenting and growing in the con-
sCientious feeling that the cultivation
| of health, bv all suitable exercises and
! repose alternately of each organ, is the
duty of every individuals; one with
out which he cannot perform Alright
any other duty to himself, his family
I or the community.
! There is a sort of idea, popular with
some, that Christianity has done away
I with all this religion OF the body. There
! cannot be Il greater and more pernlclous
mistake. Christianity has stamped a
value upon every human life never be-
! fore conceived, and health is a part OF
life-it is life. When ST. Paul said that
bodily exercise protiteth little, he spoke
of Pharisaic exercises in which Juda-
! ism had degenerated-meref forms with
out lite. But when the same writer ar
gued, as sufficient proof of the sin of
certain immoralities, that he who COM
mitted them sinDed against his own
body, he implied that all DeRlects and
courses of life injurious to health are
Repayment to the very foundations OF
health" WAS The sufficient reason in his
eyes why he should command men to
take food, and even wine Is eDjOlned
on Il sick man for the same reason.
Thou shalt not kill'' embraces more
than most think. Christian science has
0 i i NEaWN FNf
| life, and yet It has not done half its
work yet.
And still there are thousands who
never study be laws of health, TO obey
them as Il religious duty, but eat and
! drink, rise and retire, over-eSercise
themselves, or 70 without exercise,
without any conscientious scruples, ex-
| cppi so far as pain or the doctor reform
their ha bits per force.
But the cultivation of the highest at
tainHb BILE degree of health is not only a
positive part OF religion, but one OF the
most important parts OF religion. In
deed, the example set by each affects
the family: and the whole community,
and national customs, duration of lie,
happiness and physical progress or de-
generacV, SO long rs the family or race
shall last-dU are bound up in this
comprehensive principle, culuvatlng
the most perfect health as tundamen-
ais and races are crowded out OF exist
ence, and the superior multiply and fill
the earth. This is the way in which in
the cOu rse of ages the types and ideas OF
all races steadily improve. We live IN
anREe OF science, and that science which
produced the best races of men will
populate the world OF the future and
give il dominion.
Besides, the intellectual vigor of
race responds, other things being
equal, with the cultivation OF bodily
health of every part. No doubt sickly
folks have usually the most delicate
and sensitive nervous organization.
They often perceive more acutely, ana
determine exactly the direction IN
which men ought TO act. Indeed, in all
motion, there are two things to be con-
sidered, force and direction. Now,
granting that persons not robust may
be more delicate and exact in the dlrec-
tion they give 10. their energies, yet
lacking the wholesome energy and
manly vigor, most OF what they pro-
pose dies fruitless for want OF energy,
perseverance and intellectual force,
generally TO make its power felt. But
a diseased body is not usually SO
healthy in its tastes, affections and Inn
pulses. They are morbid, perverted,
erratic, and lead 10 all sorts of wrong
and mistaken judgments.
Nor is even this the worst. Morality
depends much upon health. All sorts
of depraved impulses are stimulated by
gross feeding and want of exercise.
The early riser, the temperate man in
his food the active and energetic man
in exercise, will be found generally
possessed of the best moral Judgment
all his instincts and impulses leading
him to noble, humane, honorable and
elevated course of action. This rever-
ence for the health of the body is there
fore most comprehensive in its bearing
on individuals, families and races. To
so regulate tue alternate exercises and
repose OF all our bodily faculties, as to
! use them for the end for which they
I were designed by the great and all
wise Creator, Is an object worthy the
most patient study ana religious care OF
every human being.