Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1896-04-02
of music to rally your scattered battal-

best musical Instruments and the
sweetest voices, people may find enter
tainment. ratronize such entertain
ments when they are afforded you.
Bny season tickets, if you can, for the
philharmonic" and the Handel and
Hayden" societies. Feel that the dol
lar and n half or two dollars that You
spend for the purpose of hearing an
artist play or sing is IA profitable in
vcstment. Let your academies of music
roar with the reclamation of apprecia-
tive audiences assembled at the concert
or the oritorio.
Still further: | 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
recupcrate the physical aud mental
energies. While there are good many
people who have employed in this in
stitution, there is a vast number who
are ignorant of its excellencies. There
are men with cramped chests and weak
sides and Respondent spirits who,
through the gymnasium, might he
reused up to exuberance and exhilara-
ton of life. There are many Christian
people Respondent from year to year,
who might, through such an institu'
ton, be benefited in their spiritual re-
lations. There are Christian people who
seem To think that it is a good sign
to be poorly; and because Richard
Baxter and Robert Hall were invalids,
they think that by the same sickness
hnx Got n1,a Nf
character. | want to tell the Christian
people of my congregation that God
will hold you responsible for your in
validism if it is your fault, and when,
through right exercise and prudence,
YOU might he athletic and well. The
effect of the body upon the soul you
acknowledge. Put a man of mild dis
position upon the animal diet of which
the Indian partakeS, and in little
while ilis blood will change its chemical
proportions. 1t will become like unto
the blood of the lion. or the tiger, or
the bear, while his disposition will
change, and become fierce and unre-
lenting. The body has q powerful eff
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 eter-
nifty. There are men with great hearts
and intcllects, in bodies worn out by
their neglects machinery,
capable of propelling Majestic across
the Atlantic yet fastened in n 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 it had been
Christian enough to do So. 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 con-
fess to great admiration for the man
who has n great soul in au athletic
body, every nerve, muscle and bone of
which is concentrated to right uses.
Oh, it Seems to he outrageous that men,
through neglect, should allow their
physical health to go down beyond re-
pair-a ship which ought, with all sail
|
carrying a rich cargo for eternity, en-
ploying all its men in stopping leal>ages
When you may, through the gymna.
stun. work off your spleen and your
querulousness and one-half of your
physical and mental ailments, do not
turn your back upon such a grand
medicament.
Still further, / commend to you a
large class of parlor games and recrea-
tions. There is a way of making our
homes a hundred-fold more attractive
than they are now. Those parents can
not expect to keep their children away
from outside designations unless they
make the domestic circle brighter than
anything else they can find outside OF
it. DO not. then. sit in your home sur
ly and unsympathetic, and with half
condemnatory look because of the
spoctfulness of yorr children. You
were young once yourself; let your
children be young. Because your eyes
are dim and your ankles are stiff dc
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.
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 limo.
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 checks
are so rnddy, and that their expecta.
tions are so radiant. The night will
come soon enough, and the heart-break
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 OWL
day, but the games which come down
with the sportfulness of all the past
ages-chess and charades and tableauN
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 lie the parlor socialties-
groups of people assembled in your
homes, with wit and mimicry and jovi
atty, filling the room with joy from
! door to mantel, and from the carpet to
the ceiling. Oh, is there any exhilara
) ton like score of genial souls in one
room, each one adding a contribution
of his own individual merriment 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 the exquisite
collections of pictures. You will find
the museum and the historical society
rooms full of rare curiosities, and scores
, of places which can stand plainly the
test of what is right and wrong in
| amusements. You will find the lectur
: ing hall, which has been honored by
the names of Agassiz in natural history
; Doremus in chemistry, Boynton in ge
ology, Mitchell in astronomy, John Il
, Cough in moral reform, and scores anC
, hundreds of men who have poured theii
3 wit and genius and ingenuity through
t that particular channel upon the heart.