The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-04-04

homes a hundred-fold more attractive
than they are now. Those parents
cannot expect to keep their children
away from outside designations unless
they make the domestic circle brighter
than anything they a find outside of
it. Do not, then, sit in your home sur
ly and unsympathetic, and with a half
condemnatory look because of the
sportfulness of your children. You
were young nee yourself; let your
children be young. Because your eyes
are dim and your ankles are stiff, do
not denounce sportfulness in those
upon whose eyes there is the first
luster, and in whose foot there is the
bounding joy of robust health. 1
thank God that in our drawing-rooms
and in our parlors there are innumera-
BILE games and sports which have not
upon them the least faint of iniquity.
Light up all your homes with inno-
cent hilarities. Do not sit down with
the rheumatism, wondering how chill
dren can go on so. Rather thank God
That their hearts are SO light, and their
laughter is so free, and their cheeks
are SO ruddy, and that their expecta-
tions are SO radiant. The night will
come soon enough, and the heartbreak,
and the pang. and the desolation-it
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 tab
leaux and lawn tennis, and all those
amusements which b young people
of our homes know SO we'll nov to on
trive. Then there will be the parlor
socialities-groups OF people assembled
in your homes, with wit and mimicry
and j~oviality, filling the room with joy
from door to mantel, and from the
carpet to the ceiling. Oh. is there any
exhilaration like a score of genial souls
in one room, each one adding a contri-
button of his own individual merri-
ment to the aggregation of general
hilarityf
Suppose you want to go abroad in
the city, then you will find the piano.
rama and the art gallery and the ex-
quisite collections of pictures You
will find the museum and the histor-
ical society rooms full of rare curiosi-
ties, and scores of places which car
stand plainly the test of what Is right
and wrong in amusements- You will
find the lecturing hall, which has been
honored by the name of Agassiz, in
natural history, Doremus in chemistry,
Boynton in geology. Mitchell in astron-
omy, John Il 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 on
sciences and imaginations of men, set
ting this country so years farther in
advance than it would have been with
out the lecture platform.
1 rejoice in the popularization Of out
door sports. hail the croquet ground
and the fishernan's rod and the sports
mans gun. In our cities life is so I'M
healthy and unnatural that when a
census taker represents a city as hav-
ing 400, 600 inhabitants there are only
200, 900, since 1t takes at least two men
to amount to one man, so depicting
and unnerving and exhausting is this
metropolitan life. We want more
fresh air, more sunlight, more of the
abandon of the field sports. 1 cry out
for it in behalf of the church of God as
well as in behalf Of secular interests.
I wish hat our ponds m our rivers
and our capitoline grounds might be
all aquake with the heel and shout of
the swift skater. / wish that when
the warm weather comes the graceful
oar might dip the stream, and the
evening tide be resonant with boat
mans 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 r~ecreations with strength
in your arm and color in your cheea
and a flash in your eye n courage in
your heart In this great battle that
Is opening against the kingdom OF
we want not only a con
secrated soul, but a strong arm and
stout lungs and mighty muscle. l
bless God that there are SO many rec
that have not on them any
faint of iniquity; recreations in which
we may engage for the strengthening
the body, for the clearing of the in.
~tellect, for the illumination of the soul.
There is still another form of recre-
alton which I commend to you, and
that is the pleasure of doing good. I
seen young men, veal and cross
and sour and repelling in their disposi-
ton, who by one heavenly touch have
wakened up and become blessed and
ht,O,o4k tLa -,,l ,,aIo. fhatr faat
and the sky over their heads breaking
young man in the house to-day, 81
should like that recreation above all
others, but have not the means"
My dear brother, let us take an ac-
count of stock. You have a large
estate, If you only realize it. Two
hands. Two feet. You will have, per-
haps, during the next year at least $40
for charitable contribution. You will
have $500 cheerful looks, If you want
to employ them. You will have 5000
pleasant words, if you want to speak
them. Now what an amount that is
to start With
You go out tomorrow morning and
you see a case of real restitution by
the wayside. You give him two cents.
The blind man hears the pennies rattle
his hat, and he says, THANK you,
sir; God bless you'll" You pass down the
trying to look Indifferent; but
you feel from the very depth of your
soul a profound satisfaction that you
made that man happy. You GO still fur
on, and find a poor boy with a
wheelbarrow, trying to get it up on the
He fails in the attempt You
say. stand back, my lad; let me
You push it up on the curbstone
for him and pass on. He wonders who
we'll dressed man was that helped
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 a sick man passing along.
you say, what can l do to make
man happy? He certainly does
not want money; he is not poor, but
he is sick" Give him one of those =, 500
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