News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-01-05
and mental ailments, do not turn your back

| dlSSlDatlOnS
less they make the domestic circle brighter
than anything they can find outside of it Do
not, then, sit in your home Surly and unSym-
pathetic, and with half condemnatorv look.
because of the SpOrtfuneSS 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 denounce
sportfulnesS in those upon whose eve there is
the first lustre, and in whose foot there is
the bounding joy of robust health | thank
| God that in our drawing rooms and in Our
parlors there are innumerab.e games and
sports which have not upon them the least
faint of iniquity. Light up all your homes
with innocent hilaritieS. Do not sit dow
with the rheumatism, wondering how
children can go on so. Rather thank God
| that their hearts are so light and their
| laughter is so free, and that their cheeks are
| so ruddy and that their expectations are so
| radiant The night will come soon enOuoh
| and the heartbreak, and the pang, and the
| deSoatlon-lt Will come soon enough for the
/ dear children. But when the storm actually
| clouds the sky it will be time enough for
| you to haul out 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 parlor soci-
| alltleS-groupS of people assembled in your
| homes, with wit and mimicry and jovialitv
filling the room with joy from the door to
| the mantel and from the carpet to the CELL
| ing. Oh! is there any exhilaration like a
| score of genial souls in one room, each one
| adding a contribution of his own Individual
merrlment to the aggregation of general
| hilarity.
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 Metropolitan Museum and
| the Historical Society rooms full of rare curl
osities, and scores of places which can stand
plainly the test of what is right and wrong in
amusements. You will find the lecturing
| hall, which has been honored by the names
| of Agassiz in natural history, DOremus i'll
| chemistry, Boynton in geology, Mitchell in
| astronomy John B. Cough in moral reform,
| and scores and hundreds of men who have
| poured their wit and genius and ingenuity
through that particular channel upon the
hearts and conscienceS and imaginations of
men, setting this country fifty years farther
in advance than it would have been without
the lecture platform.
l rejoice in the popularization of outdoor
sports. L hail the croquet ground and the
fiSherman'S rod and the SpOrtSman'S gun. In
our cities life is so unhealthy and unnatural
that when the census taker represents city
as having 500, 900 inhabitants, there are only
4O0,O since it takes at least two men to
amount to one man, so depicting and unnerY-
ing and exhausting is this metropolitan life
We want more fresh air, more sunlight more
of the abandon of field sports. l cry out for
it in behalf of the church of God as we'll as in
behalf of secular interests. I wish that this
winter our ponds and our rivers and our
CapitOline grounds might be all awake with
the heel and the shout of the swift skater. |
wish that when the warm weather comes the
graceful oar might dip the stream and
the evening tld9 be resonant with
boatmans song, the bright PROV
splitting the crystalline billOw. We
shall have the smooth and grassy lawn, and
we will call out people of all occupations and
professions, and ask them to join in the ball
players sport. You will come back from
these outdoor exercises and recreations with
strength in your arm, and color in your
cheek, and flash in your eye, and courage
in your heart. In this great battle that is
opening against the kingdom of darkness we
want not only cOnSeCrated soul, but a
strong arm and stout lungs and mighty
muscle. l bless God that there are so many
recreations that have not on them any faint
of iniquty; recreatiOns in which we may
engage for the strengthening of the body,
for the clearing of the intellect, for the illu-
mination of the soul.
There is still another form of recreation
which commend to you, and that is the
pleasure of doing good. | have seen young
men weak and cross and sour and repelling
in their disposition, who, by one heavenly
touch, have Weakened up and become blessed
and buOyant, the ground under their feet and |
the sky over their heads breaking forth into
music. "Oh,n says some young man III the |
house to-day, 81 should like that recreation |
above all others. but have not the means"
My dear brother, let us take an account of |
stock this morning. You have large estate, |
if you only realzeit. Two hands. Two feet |
You will have, perhaps, during the next year, |
at least $40 for charitable contribution. You |
will have twenty-five hundred cheerful looks, |
if you want to employ them You will have |
five thousand pleasant words. if you want to |
speak them. Now, what an amount that is
to start with.
You 90 out tomorrow morning and you
see a case of real destitution by the Way.
man hears the pennes rattle in his hat, and
he says: Thank you, sir; God bless you"
You pass down the street, trying to look in
different; but you feel from the very depth
of your soul a profound satisfaction that you
Their, and find poor boy with a whcclbar-
row, trying to get it up on the curbStone.
He fails in the attempt You say: "Stand
back, my lad let ME try" You push it up
on the curbstone for him, and pass on. He
wonders who that well tlrcsi ed man was that
helped him. You did a kindness to the boy,
but you did a great joy to Your own soul.
You will not get over it all the week.
On the street tomorrow morning you will
see sick man passing along. "Ah," you say,
"What can do to make this man happy. He
certainly does not want money; he is not poor
but he is sick" Give him one Of those tw nty-
five hundred cheerful looks that you have gar
nered up for the whole year. Look JOY and
hOpefulness into his soul. 1t VIII thrill him
through and there will be a reaction upon
your own soul. Going little farther on you
will come to the store of a friend who Is en-
barrassed in business matters. y GU will go i'll
and say: What a fine store you have!
think business will brighten up, and you will
have more custom after a while. | think
there is coming great prosperity to all the
country. Good morning" You pass out. You
have helped that young man, and you have
helped yourself And that night you 20
home; you sit by the fire, you talk little
you sing little, you laugh Il little; you say:
''Ireally don't know what is the matter wi tn
me. | never felt SO splendid in my life"
| will tell what is the matter with you
You spent only two cents out of the $40; you
have contributed one out of twenty five hun
dred cheerful looks; you have given ten, fit
teen or twenty of the five thousand pleasant
words you are going to speak during the
year: you have with your own hands helped
the boy with the wheelbarrow, and you feel
in body, mind and soul the thrill of that
recreation. Which do you think was the
happier-Col. Gardiner, who sat with his
elbow on table spread with all eXtravagant
viands. looking off at a dog on the
rag, saying: elbow I would like to
change places with him; / be the dog
and he be Colonel Gardiner" those two
Moravian missionaries who wanted to go
into the lazarettO for the sake of attend
ing the sick, and they were told: of you go
in there you will never come out We never
allow any one to come out, for he would
bring the contagionn Then they made their
wills and went in, first to help the sick and
then to die. Which was the happier, Colonel
Gardiner or the Moravian missionaries dying
for others Was it all sacrifice when the
missionaries wanted to bring the Gospel TO
the negroes at the Barbados and, being
denied the privileges, sold themselves into
slavery, standing side by side and lying
side by side down in the very ditch of
suffering in order that they might bring
those men up TO life and God and heaven!
oh, there is a thrill ill the joy of doing good.
1t is the most magnificent recreation t,
which a man ever puts his hand or his head
or his heart.
But, before closing, l want to impress upon
you that mere secular entertainments are not
fit foundation for your soul to build on.
l was reading of a woman who had gone
all the rounds of sinful amusement, and she
came to die She said: 81 will die tonight
at 6 o'clock "Oh," they said Il guess
not, you don't seem to be sick" Il shall die
at O'clock, and my soul will be lost.
know it will be lost l haze sinned away
desired to seek religious counsel
"Oh," she said lit is of no use My day is
gone. have been all the rounds of worldly
pleasure, and it is too late. | shall die to
night at O'clock" The day wore away, and
it ct.me to 4 O'Clock, and to ) o'clock, and she
cried out at o'clock: " Destroyed spirits, we
shall not have me yet; it is not 9, it is not
o." The moments went by, and the shadows
began to gather and the clock struck &: and
while it was striking her soul went What
hour God will call for us 1 do not know