Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-11-18

TREATMENT OF THE HUMAN BODY.
BY REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.

uc HuIuttH DOuy Is WOIlIly VI HOuOi
care and respect. The corrupt uses to
which it may be put justify the frequent
expressions that abound in Sacred Writ,
and still more abound in sacred poetry.
We are not disposed to rebuke the hymn
ist who speaks of these "vile bodies" "
There are certain strains of feeling, and
there are certain experiences, that justify
US speaking this way. But, nevertheless,
a mans body, because it is subject to in
trinity, because it goes again to dust, be-
cause it is the seat of passion, because it is
that part of your human nature which al
lies you with the creation beneath us, and
with the material world, is not therefore
despicable; and we are not in any way
whatever to join ourselves to those men,
now happily few, who teach US to destroy
it, or to hedge it up.
How many thousands of men have there
been who sought to deny the body its
natural appetites; who thought themselves
to be honoring God by refusing to eat, to
drink, or sleep their appointed time; who
sat over against their body, if | may so
say, as they would over against an enemy,
and suspected it, and watched it, and
fought it, crucifying it, circumventing it.,
and by every means in their power seek
ing to dishonor it, upon the supposition
that it was the spirit which had the only
thing mysteriously Joined to the spirit,
corrupt and corrupting.
do not deny, yea, Ivehemently assert,
that our natural bodies and passions are a
reason for watchfulness and for careful
ness; but we are not by any means to be
carried to the very opposite extreme, and
%<~h holt tlo& +l,at .aL H~I L.th f,el
ioned so cunningly, that which God hath
so honored, in that Christ assumed the hu-
man body, and which he hath declared to
be the temple of the Holy Ghost" and
sacred, is to be dishonored, even in our
thoughts. On the contrary. we are to re-
ceive it and administer it, as what indeed
it is, a thing most sacred and honorable
before God.
1t may be nourished, therefore, without
the slightest fear that the indulgence of
natural and innocent enjoyments at the
table are wicked. We may beautify the
body without the slightest fear, SO that it
may be held within the bounds and re-
straints, that we are in any wise SHINING.
We may make the beautifying of the body
an instrument of regulated, moderate and
appropriate pleasure, without in the slight
est degree transgressing the necessity of
of self-denial. We are not to put out the
light of the eye because the eye may see
some things that ought not to be seen. We
are not to stop up the avenues of the ear
because the ear may chance to hear some
things that ought not to be heard. We
are not to pluck out the tongue because
the tongue may speak things that had bet
ter die in silence.
There are dangers of the body to be
guarded against. Nevertheless, there is
a right of use and right of enjoyment.
The human body was made to enjoy and
as the body is Gods temple, it is not
wrong to beautify it. TheI.altar of the
temple was made of gold and silver; and
the windows were made comely; and the
cornices and pillars, and all the imple-
ments, were made of the most precious
stuff. 1t is not counted in our day sin
to bring flowers into Gods temple. There
be many who have supposed that the body
was thing not to be decorated; that if
one lwould be worthy of the Christian
name he should be plain; that he should
in some sense stigmatize the body, and
humble it. There have been sects that
inculcated this as one of the articles of
their creed. And for one, | should have
no objections to it, where. under circum-
stances of universal vanity and folly, it
required that a body of men should be set
apart to hear testimony against any par
ticular excess. 1t may, for the time
being, under such circumstance, be right.
But the generic doctrine is, that the hui
man body, being Gods temple, and being
in itself wholly adapted to high and inn
portant ends, it is not wrong to make it
noble with beauty, and to extract from it
regulated and appropriate enjoyments.
In other words, the doctrine of the ascetic
was a doctrine not only against nature,
but just as much against grace. 1t does not
please God that a man should garb him
self in things less than beautiful; and it
does not displease God by that which taste
wraps around this frail body.
Men say, "How foolish, for creatures
that are of day, and that are going to
the grave, to be spending their thoughts
upon this mortal body!" But did not God
make it +? and did not God adopt it? and
did not God command us to honor it and
to honor him by it? And is this squan-
dcring of thought?
A wanton or careless abuse of the hui
man body, by reason of which its uses are
perverted, or defeated, is sin against
OOu ) temple. III OtneT WOIus, IL VIC
have right to use the body in its proper
functions, and to extract from it a great
amount OF enjoyment, both physical and
mental, of the tastes as well as of the appe-
tites so, on the other hand, we are not so
to use it as that by its use we shall destroy
its comliness. its usefulness, its beauty, its
excellence.
There be many who seem to think of
their body as of livery steed. 1t is not
theirs, and it is of little consequence. So
they drive it without humanity And
there be thousands of men who feel that
they have right to extract rs rapidly as
possible whatever the body has in it OF
strength, or skill, or pleasure. There are
multitudes of persons who do not think
there is question of right or wrong in
matters of health. Nevertheless, he that
destroys the health that God gave him
has by so much abused Gods temple.
1t is not your own body, you have no
right, therefore, to take the foundation
from under it. You have no right to fill
it with false gods. You have no right te
extinguish the altar-fre in it. You have