Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-05-16
HEALTH AND RELIGION.
A Boston Preacher on tho Physical
Degeneraoy Of the Times.
From sermon Of w. II. Ii. Murray

From sermon OF W. II. II. Murray.
Ill health thwarts all the Divine
intention touching maternal intlu-
ence. Let the mother of house
hold be taken sick, and what a
change comes over the family! what
an interruption of wise customs,
what irregularities, what letting
down Of rules, what unruly babies,
what neglect, what confusion follow!
The family affairs now move on like
a ship that is not stecred. The
hand has deserted the helm, and,
undirected by the authority Of one
controlling will, the poor vessel
veers, backs, sways, and sails in ir-
regular and fruitless circles. Then
it is that you perceive how large is
the sphere that mother fills, how
potent and salutary is her influence,
how necessary is her bodily pres
ence. Now, you cannot, any Of you,
say that this illustration is exagger-
ated. And in the light of it, which
reveals everything in its due pro-
portion, / ask you to note and tell
me, if there is any natural blessing
greater, any duty more imperative,
than that of health. Now, consider
the multitudes of mothers that are
sickly, women dragging themselves
around with only half the vital force
and strength they absolutely need
in order to discharge the duties of
their position,-consider that lack
of health means loss of influence,
and of influence, too, worth more
thon gold to us all, and declare if 1t
is not time for us to confess tina.
good health has spiritual connec-
tion that we mast not any longer ig-
more. l hope to live to see the day
when any indiscretion, any care
lcssness, touching the preservation
of health shall be publicly and pri-
vately regarded as SIN.
| will not, | dare not, trust my
self to speak of that other subject
lying close to this, that darker
fringe on the borders on the borders
Of this piece of sackcloth. A mist
of doubt, of fear, Of shivering APP
prchension rises before me as /
| write,-a mist peopled with infan-
tile faces, faces half formed, faces
that belong to what must be name
less, tor we know not what yet to
call them,-faces Of the unborn;
horrid mist, | say, peoplcd with in
firmities, with diseases, with com
plants that float in shadow now,
yet destined to be clothed in flesh
and blood, whose voices shall serve
only to prolong the moan and suf-
tering Of the ages; mist full of
cries and agonies, in which the
weakness and inability of the pres
cnt are repeated in the person of
weakly offspring. Shall God never
deliver the world from these? Must
the ages forever go groaning along,
piling up in horrible repetition that
which sheuld never be repeated? Is
the present forever to curse the fu-
ture with its fatal gift of sickness?
Have we any right before God or
man to burden the shoulders of five
generations with the slow operating
penalty of our carelessness and in
discretion? Have we no cemeteries.
What nobler use is there known to
reasoning, to thoughtful beings than
to make their peaceful slopes and
quiet recesscs the burial places of
our weakness forever. | honor the
man and woman who, knowing that
in them are diseases and weakness
es that should never be repeated,
can fold their iniirities about them,
as the ancient Romans wrapped
themselves in their nantes when
about to die, and say to their taints
of blood and passions, Come, ye
evil ministries that thwart Gods
good design in birth,-c me, lie
down with us, and let the curse He
visited through us on our rash pa
rents be buried forever in cur
graves.
l speak for those who sleep in
cradles to-day, and for the multitude
unknown as yet to life--the children
of the future. l speak for those
who know not and will never know
who pleaded for them, but whose
lives will take tone and character
from decisions made here to-day
If no force can be found in the
Scripture to counteract the physical
degeneracy of the age, for one, l
say, better for the race were it re-
manded back into primeval barbar-
ism. If men and women can 90 on
committing slow suicide, as hun
dreds are now doing; if a man, for
the sake of adding one or two thous-
and to his income, can deliberately
run the risk of fever, insanity, or
death; if 4 woman, by dress and
diet, and manner of life can outrage
every rule and principal of health;
If these things can be done until
they become the fashion and the
habit, and no one else will join me
in saying it, then will stand alone,
and at every opportunity character
ize it by its right name; and it shall
be called before men, as it is known
to be in the judgment Of high Heav-
en-, dark, deep, and damning sin,
"a sin which God does not wink
at, as he did formerly, when the
rules and conditions Of health were
not so well ascertained as now, but
which he Furnishes, as your pains
and aches ana infirmities testify
What right have you, sir, to take
that pure blood in your veins, which
God designed to be a source of
strength and happiness to you, and
make it thick with impurities, and
a source of weakness and corrup-
ton? What right have you to over
tax those muscles; to make those
nerves like SO many red-hot wires
under the skin; to destroy the ex-
quisite mechanism of the stomach,
whose structure no one can under
stand and not be amazed; to take
that brain, that reflection Of God,
where judgment and reason, imag-
ination and all the affections, live,
and by over work reduce it to it's
minimum Of power, infame it with
fpverS. or reduce il to IFS flacciI |