Sharp County record., 1888-01-12
audiences assembled at the concert Or the


cuperate the physical and mental ener-
gies, While there are 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 exuberance and
exhilaration of life. There are many
Christian people deSpondent from year to
year, who might, through such an institu-
tion, 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 and
Robert Hall were invalids, they think that
by tie same sickness they may come to
the same grandeur of character l want
to tell the Christian people of my congre.
cation that God will hold you sponsible
for your invalidsm if 1t 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 ac-
knowledge. Put man of mild dispoSi'
tion upon the animal diet of which the
Indian partakes, and in little while his
blood will change its chemical proper
tions. 1t will become like unto the blood
of the lion, or the tiger, or the bear, while
his disposition will change, and become
fierce, cruel and unrelenting. The body
has powerful effect uron 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 and intellect5
in bodies worn out by their own neglects
magnificent machinery, capable of pro-
peliug Great Eastern across the Allan
tic, yet fastened in a riclety North River
propeller. Martin Luther was so mighty
for God, first because he had a noble
SOUL aud secondly, because he had q
muscular development which would have
enabled him to thrash any five of his per-
secutors, if it had been Christian
so to do. Physical development
which merely shows itself in
fabulous lifting, or in perilous rope
walking, or in pugilistic encounter, ex-
cites only our contempt; 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. Oh it seems to
me outrageous that men, through neg 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, employing 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 modicament.
Still further: | commend to you large
class of parlor games and recreations
There is way of making our homes a
hun dred 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
your home surly and unsympathetic, and
with half-condemnat tory look because
of the sportfulness Of your children. You
were young once YOURSELF; let your chill
dren be young. Because your eyes 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. | thank
q oI b,t Il, o,,r Il n II, in or-roOnc oO6 in on,
parlors there are innumerable games and
sports which have not upon them the
least taint of iniquity. Light up all your
homes with innocent hilarities. Do not
sit down with tho rheumatism, wonder
ing how children can go on so. Rather
thank God that their hearts are so light,
and their laughter is so free, and that
their checks are so ruddy, and that their
expectations are so radiant. The night
will come soon enough, and the heart
break and the pang and the desc ation-it
will come soon enough for the dear chill
dren. But when the storm actually cloud S
the skv, it will be time enough for you
to haul out your reef tackles. Garry,
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 sportfulueSs of all the past ages
chess, and charades, aud tableaux, and
battledore, and calisthenic', and lawn
tennis, and all those amusemsntS which
the young people of our homes know so
we'll how to contrive. Then there will be
the parlor soc altieS-groups of people
assembled in your homes, with wit and
mimicry and joviality, filling the room
with joy from the door to the mantol, and
from the carpet to the ceiling. Oh, is
there any exhilaration like a score o t
genial souls in one room, each ono adding
a contribution of his own individual mer-
riment to the aggregation of general hlar-
itv?
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-
tian Museum and the Historical Society
rooms full of rare curostes, 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, 4,
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