Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1871-08-26
Bad Air VS.. Religion.

Many farmer and housekeeper won
ders why it is they must needs take a
nap every Sunday in serman-time.-
When the parson gets comfortably into
the second or third head of his discourse
and his congregations have settled into
the easiest positions to listen, gentle
sleep begins to steal over their faculties,
and the good man is surprised at finding
his argument less cogent than it seemed
when prepared in the solitude of his
study. At home, the busy matron nev-
err thinks Of mapping at eleven o'clock in
the morning, and the man Of business
would consider his sanity or common
sense sadly called in question should
friend propose a half hours nap at that
hour of the day. Nevertheless, they
both sleep like kittens in their pews, and
logic, rhetoric and eloquence are alike
wasted in the vain attempt to rJuse
their sluggish souls. The question Of
poet, so often sung IN our assemblies,
My drowsy powers why sleep ye -"
is exactly in point, aud we propose an
answer: because we are all breathing
carbouic acid gas-deadly poison be-
cause the sexton didn't let the foul air
of last Sundays congregation out of the
doors and windows, and the fresh, pure
air of Heaven in.
Look aronnd at the audience; that fe-
verish flush isn't heat; it's poison. The
lady nodding over there, her nose and
cheeks like scarlet rose, is not too
warm, tor the thermometer doesn't stand
over seventy degrees; she is partially
snffocated; what she wants is fresh air.
That Woodworking mechanic and farmer
doesn't sleep because he watched with a
sick child last night, but simply for want
of oxygen to keep the flame of intellect
ual and physical activity bright and
bnrning.
Nobody can rise on wings of faith in
poisonous atmosphere. Oxygen and
religion cannot be separated in this un-
righteous manner. We cannot live in
conformity to spiritual laws, while in
open violation to the physical.
Is your sexton man of intelligence
sufficient to understand the necessity
and reason of ample ventilation ? Does
he know every human being vitiates, at
the least estimate, four cubic feet of gas
every minnie? Linger when the con-
gregation leaves, and see if he shuts ev-
cry door and window tight to keep in
the heat till evening service. Then see
how thin the lamps burn in the vi;iated
air; how hard the minister tries to raise
himself and his listeners to the height
Cf some great argument, and how stupid
they are-nothing but bad air.
Now for the remedy, which costs la
Dor and money both, for ventilation is a
question of dollars and cents. Saturday,
the sexton should be instructed to open
all the doors and windows, to let out all
the dead and foul air, and let in such as
is fresh 1t takes no more coal on Sun
day morning to heat the church to sew
eniy degrees because of this publication.
Again Sunday noon let the openings
the church be thrown wide-watmh
and bad air will alike disappear, and,
though extra coal may be required to
raise the temperature the minister will
preach so much belt in consequence,
and the hearers will listen with such in.
creased relish to the sacred word, that
the loss of the pocket will be infinitely
compensated by the gain of the soul.
Educational Monthty.