Connecticut western news., 1896-04-02

.nspiriting air r,,-and no sooner did they strike the air than ihe hignianders were rallied and helped to win the day. Oh. ye who have been routed in the conflicts of life, try by the force of music to rally your scattered battalions.
 am glad to know that in our great cities there is hardly night in which there are not concerts, where, with the best musical instruments and the sweet est voices, people may find entertain ment. Patronize such entertainments when they are afforded you. Buy season tickets, if you can, for the Philharmonic and the Handel and Haydn societies. Feel that the $l. 50 or $a that you speud for the purpose of hearing an artist play or sing is a profitable investment. Let your Academies of Music roar with the exclamation of appreciative audiences as- sembled at the concert or the orntorio.
 A Sound Body.
 Still further, I commend, as worthy of their support, the gymnasium. This institution is gaining in favor every year, and know of nothing more free from dissipation or more calculated to reouperate the physical and mental en- ergies. While thero are good many people who have employed this institu- tion there is vast number who are ig- uorant of its excelleucies. There are men with cramped chests and weak sides and Respondent spirits who through the gymnasium might be reused up to axuberance and collaboration of life. There are many Christian people de- spondent from year to year who might through such an institution be benefited in their spiritual relations. There are Christian people who seem to think that is n good sign to.be poorly, and be- ,ause Richard Baxter and Robert Hall were invalids they think that by the anne sickliness they may come to the anne grandeur of character. want to ell the Christian people of my congre- ,ation that God will hold you respon- ;fble for your invalidism if it is your fault and when, through right exercise md prudence, you might be athletic md we'll. The effect of the body upon he soul you acknowledge. Put man ,f mild disposition upon the animal liet of which the Indian partakes, and n little while his blood will change ts chemical proportions. twill become like unto the blood of the lion or the tiger or the hear, while his disposition will change and become fierce and un- relenting. The body has a powerful ef- feet upon 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 in- tellects in bodies worn out by their own neglects-magnifcent machinery, capable of propelling a Majestic across the Atlantic, yet fastened in a rickety North river propeller. Martin Luther was so mighty for God, first, because he had noble soul, and, secondly, because he had a muscular development which would have enabled him to thrash any five of his prosecutors if 1t had been Christian so to do. Physical develop ment which merely shows itself in fabu- lous lifting, or in perilous rope walk ing, or in pugilistic encounter, excites only our contempt, but we confess to treat admiration for the man who has treat soul in an athletic body, every ierve, muscle and bone of which is con-
 ecrated to right uses- Oh, it seems to ne outrageous that men. through neg
 ect, should allow their physical health
 go down beyond repair-a ship which lught, with all sail set and every man U his post, to be carrying rich cargo
 or eternity, employing all its men in
 stopping up leakages. When you may, through the gymnasium. work of your ipleen and your querulousness and one half of your physical and mental ail- .nents. do not turn your back upon such ! grand medicament.
 Innocent Hilarities.
 Still further, commend to you large class of parlor games and recrea-
 ions. There is way of making our ,omes a hundredfold more attractive
 han they arenow. These parents can- lot expect to keep their children away rom outside dissipations unless they make the domestic circle brighter than anything they can find outside of it. Do lot, then. sit in your home surly and lnsympathetic and with a half con- lemnatory look because of the sportful- ness of your children. You were young once yourself; let your children be young. Because your eyes are dim and your ankles are stiff do not denounce iportfulness in those upon whose eyes
 here is the first luster and in whose foot there is the bounding joy of robust health. thank God that ,n our draw
 ng rooms and in our parlors there are
 nnumerable games and sports which nave not upon them the least taint of
 niquity.
 Light up all your homes with inno- rent hilaritjes. Do not sit down with ,he rheumatism, wondering how chil. lren can go on co. Rather thank God that their hearts are so light, and their laughter is so free, and their cheeks are SO ruddy, and that their expectations 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 inven- lions of our own day, but the games which come down with the sportfulness of all the past ages-chess and charades and tableaux and battledoor and calis- thenics and lawn tennis and all those amusements which the young people of our homes know so we'll how to con- trive. Then there will be the parlor so- cialities-groups of people assembled in your homes, with wit and mimicry and l joviality, filling the room with joy from door to mantel and from the carpet to the ceiling. Oh. is there any exhilara- ton like a score of genial souls in one | room, each one adding contribution of his own individ dual merriment to the | aggregation of general hilarity?
 Suppose you want to go abroad in the | n-z Il