Morning journal and courier., 1884-05-10
Health and Morality.

Professor Brewer Talks CT Various l
Points Connected with the Subject OF i
Right Living.
ssThe subjecs, The Relation of Health to |
Morality is not new one.'' said Professor |
William FL. Brewer to an audience of about |
one hundred young men in the Y. NJ. G. A.
hall last evening. SIT is an adage as old as
the Bible that sickness is a punishment for
sin and health the reward of morality. The
sickness and suffering of the race are largely
the result of the sins of individuals. The
early ideas on this subject were, however,
sadly perverted, and the traditions of these
perversions have been serious obstacles to
health reform. The idea spread that to the
efficacy of prayer must be due the cures of
diseases. This question caused much dis
cussion in the papers, and the people arrayed
on either side were moved by religious feel
ings so strong that they hardly knew what
they were talking about.
s'The study of hygiene is an old one Hy-
giene relates to the health of the individual
The study of sanitary laws for the lettering
| of the health of communities is comparatively
modern. The spread of knowledge on this
subject involves new duties on the Christian
portion of the country.
ttIn the first place, it is our duty to be
healthy Just as far as is in our power. Every
mans health is largely in his own hands. He
| has given him constitution that may be bet
| ter or worse than the average. He is respon-
sible for the way he uses 1t. The young are
very careless of their health. They do not
appreciate what ills they may coupe to, and
| ID thav 10 Rnk
| ing away ones health is sin, just as suicide
is sin. There is no moral difference between
the two. In one case it is man stealing
| big lump all at once, in the other it is man
| pilfering little day by day. It is true that
| great deal of suffering that excites pity
| in hospitals, insane asylums and almshouses
| is the result of the misdoing of the persons
who are afflicted 1t is frequently very long
drawn out misdoing. [ am not uncharitable
| when I say that four-ffths of the suffering of
the sick is the result of moral sin showing it
self in physical way. 1t is not always the
sin of those who move our pity, but of some
of their ancestors.
''Disease has good deal to do with reEg-
ious experience. People who are not well
are ilI-natured, cross, disagreeable Certain
| diseases cause low spirits, melancholy and
depression. A dissipated life is very IN
| wholesome, morally and physically. Did you
ever know barkeeper to live to be healthy
| old man? Everybody knows that deIirium
| tremens come from drinking, but few know
tina. many other diseases come from that
Even consumption is brought on by dissi-
pated life. People are all the time going
down who are responsible for their death,
who have shortened their lives by unWhole-
| some living.
| been materially lessened by the increase of
knowledge of sanitary laws. Modern sani-
| tary science came in with the cholera in
| Europe in 1882. People saw the need of
| combined, intelligent effort to suppress it.
Health boards weresestablished and they have
/ gone along hand in hand with attempts to
make mems lives more comfortable and
| higher in the scale of morals. As the sani-
tary authorities had to visit the homes of the
lowest and most miserable people it
| led to knowledge of the way
they live that would never have
| been gained in any other way. That
led the way to Christian effort against chol-
era, scarlet fever and other diseases of that
kind, against which man iudividu-
ally can do very little. A man
| can't keep them out of his family. The
| community must make the effort. In con-
| tagious diseases the individual can do some
thing, but his neighbors must do more"
| Prof. Brewer spoke, by request, of the
| germ theory of disease. and explained what
| progress had been made in investigating the
| theory, and the lecture closed with a strong
| plea for the Christian sanitarian to have re-
| gard for the future generation.