Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-01-26
THE INDIAN RIVER.
Unsanitary Condition and the Invited
nfaacGaa of India

| Unsan1tary Condition and the Invited
/ Diseases of India.
An English resident in India recently de-
scribed in private letter journey made
by him through the district of Santhalia.
Through this region, he reports, there
flows river of remarkable depth and pur-
ity. Its waters are so clear that the peb-
bles can easily be seen at the bottom.
| But the villages on its banks are I'M
| drained, and even more vile and filthy
| than Asiatic towns commonly are. Lep-
rosy, typhoid and malarial fevers and
| other diseases produced by uncleanness
! abound. The wretched, sickly inhabitants
crawl every day to the edge of the bright,
strong, rolling food and look into it with
out thought that it could cleanse and
heal their diseased flesh.
Nothing can be more e1asperating,"
says the practical European, than the
sight of these inert, despairing victims of
diseases, the result of the foul conditions
around them, passiyely dying while clean
illness, strength and life itself pass I'M
needed by their very DOORS"
Many of the readers of the Companion
| will probably make the application of this
story as soon as they have read it, for it is
a truth as old and hackneyed as life itself
that cleanliness and health of soul are
within the reach of every man. and that
many choose instead foul diseases and
death. 1t is so old and hackneyed, indeed,
that boys and girls are apt to think of the
river which flows from Gods throne"
and the summons to come and wash in it
and be clean" as a figure of speech-some-
thing well enough for the minister to
preach upon ON Sunday, but not practical
everyday matter.
1t was, they think, doubtless true to
David or Abraham or Jacob. But is this
river of health and life actually flowing
through Boston and New York and the
little towns and farms where our readers
live?
To every one of these boys and girls,
wherever they may be, comes, each hour
and minute of their lives, the chance to
choose whether they will die or tell the
truth whether they will speak the kind
or the malicious word; whether they will
keep their Trains clear and strong, or
poison them with tobacco and whisky;
whether, in Short their lives shall be pure
and helpful and noble, or dissolute and
vile.
Many a boy, perhaps, who reads these
words will tell himself that the choice is
not easy to make. His surroundings are
unclean, or he may have inherited appe-
tites which lead him naturally to selfish
ness, drunk enness, CT debauchery, Just as
the poor natives Of Santhaia are born in
the filthy huts, in the midst OF leprosy and
fever.
But there is always waiting for him the
truth which Christ taught. Faith in him
will wash away all disease of the soul.
This is the river of which the Psalmist
spoke, "The streams whereof shall make
glad the City of God"
This living helper can do the same
to-day for the school-boy in America, who
is beginning to grow profane and vicious,
which he did for the leper in the Cali
lean village, or for the woman ''who was
sinner" cleanse him from the leprosy of
an impure mind, and forgive his sins
Does our reader despise the fever
stricken Indians who sit stupidity dying on
the bank of the stream which has brought
life to their doors?
The stream passes you by, also. Do
you know the touch of its waters? Is
your sole alive, growing stronger each day
by free use of the pure river of the water
of life Youths Companion.