The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-01-19

eucI suppOlU tHo Sy iuudSiuul, HIS III.
stitution is gaining in favor every year,
and know of moth ing more free from
dissipation or more cal culated to re-
cuperate the physical and mental ener-
gies. While there are a good many peo-
pie who have employed this institution,
there is vast number who are
ignorant of its excellence. There
are men with cramped chest and
weak sides and Respondent spirits,
who, through the gymnasium, might
be reused up to exuberancs and
exhilaration of life There are many
Christian people respondent from year to
year, who might, through such an institu-
ton, be benefited in their spiritual rela-
tions. There are Christian people who
seem to think that it is good sign to be
poorly; and because Richard Baxter aud
Robert Hall were invalids, they think that
by tt same sickness they may come to
the same grandeur of character. / W ant
to tell the Christiap people of my congre-
cation that God will hold you res ponsible
for your invalidism if it is your fault and
when through right exercise and prudence
you might be athletic and well. The ef-
feet OF the body uron the soul you &C.
knowledge. Put a man of mild disposi.
tion upon the animal diet of which the
Indian partakes, aud in little while his
blood will change it's. Glem'c cal proper
tions. 1t will become like unto the blood
of the lion, or the tiger. or the bear, while
his disposition will change, AMI become
fierce, cruel and unrelenting. The body
has powerful effect uEon the soul.
There are good people whose ideas of
Heaven are all shut out with clouds of
tobacco smoke. There are people who
dare to shatter the physical vase in which
God has put the jewel of eternity There
are men. with great hearts aud intellects
in bodies worn out by their own neglects
magnificent machinery capable of pro-
pefiing a Great Eastern across the Allan
tic, yet fastened in a ricSety North River
propeller. Martin Luther was so mighty
for God, first, b,causs he had a noble
soul, and secondly, because hs had a
muscular development which would have
enabled him to thrash any five of his per-
secutors, il it had been Christian
so to do. Physical development
which merely shows itself in
fabulous lifting, or in psrilous rope
walking, or in pugilistic encounter ex-
cites only orr contsmps; but we confess to
great admiration for the man who has a
great soul in an athletic body, every
nerve, muscle and bone of which is con-
secrated to right uses. Ga. it seems to
me outrageous that men, through uegl ect,
should allow their physical health to go
down beyond repair. A ship which ought,
with all sail set and every man at his
post, to be carrying a rich cargo for
eternity, employs ing all its men in stop
ping up leakages. When you may,
through the gymnasium, work off your
spleen and your querulousness and one
half of your physical and mental all
ments, do not turn your back upon such q
grand medicament.
Still further: l commend to you a large
class of parlor games and recreations,
There Is way of making our homes a
hundred fold more attractive than they
are now. Those parents can not expect
TO keep their children away from outside
dissipation unless they make the domestic
circle brighter than any thing they can
ind outside of it Do not, then, sit in
your home surly and unsympathetic, and
with a half-condemnatory look, because
OF the sportfulness of your children. You
were young once yourself; let your chill
dren be young. Because your ewes are
dim and your ankles are stiff, do not de-
nounce sportfulness in those upon
whose eyes there is the first luster,
and in whose foot there is the bound.
ing JOY of robust health. l thank
God that in our drawing rooms and in our
parlors there are innumerable games and
sports which have not upon them the
least faint of iniquity. Light up all your
homes with innocent hilartie Do not
sit down with the rheumatism, wonder
ing now children can go on so. Rather
tnank God that their hearts are so lioht.
and their laughter is so free, and that
tneir cheeks are SO ruddy, and that their
expectations are so radiant. The night
VIII come soon enough, and the heart.
break and the pang and the desc, ation-it
VIII come soon enough for the dear chill
dfen. But when the storm actually clouds
the sky, it will be time enough for Won
20 haul Gut your reef tackles. Carry,
then, into your homes not
only the innocent sports and
games which are the inventions of our
own day, but the games which come down
with the sportfulness Of all the past ages
chess, and charades. and tableaux, and
battledore. and calisthenics, and lawn.
tennis, and all those amusements which
the young people of our homes know so
well how to contrive. Then there will be
the par.or soc'alt:es-sroups of people
assembled in your homes, with wit and
mimicry and joviality, filling the room
with JOY from the door to the mantel, and
from tho carpet to the ceiling. Oh, is
there any exhilaration like a score of
genial souls in one room, each ono adding
contribution of his own individual mer
riment to the aggregation of general hiIar-
ity?
suppose you want to go abroad in the
city, then you will find the panorama and
the art gallery, and exquisite collections
OF pictures. You will find the Metropol.
tan Museum and the Historical Society
rooms full of rare curio stiles, and scores
OF places which can stand plainly the test
OF what is right and wrong in amuse-
ments. You will find the lecturing hall,
which has been honored by the names of
Agassiz in natural history, Doremus in
chemistry, Boynton in geology, Mitchell
in astronomy, John B. Cough in moral re-
form, and scores and hundreds of men
who have poured their wit and genius and
ingenuity through that particular chan
mel upon the hearts and consciences and
imaginations of men, setting this country
fifty years farther in advance than it