The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-30

chests and weak sides and Respondent
spirits who through the gymnasium might
be reused up to eXuberance and eXhilera-
ton of life. There are many Christian
people Respondent 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 it Is a good sign to be poorly; and
because Richard Baxter and Robert Hall
were invalids, they think that by the
same sickness they may come TO the
same grandeur of character. l want TO
tell the Christian people of my congrega-
ton that God will hold you responsible
for your invalidism if 1t is your fault,
and when, through right exercise and pru-
dence, you might be athletic and well.
The effect of the body upon the soul you
acknowledge. Put man OF mild dlSpo-
sition upon the animal diet OF which the
Indian partakes, and in a little while his
blood will change its chemical proper,
tons 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 unrelenting The body has
powerful effect upon the soul.
There are good people whose ideas of
heaven are all shut out with clouds or
tobacco smoke There are peopN who
dare to shatter the physical vase Ia &hich
God has put the jewel of eternity. There
are men with great hearts and intellects.
in bodies worn out by their own neglects
magnificent machinery capable OF pro-
pelling a Majestic across the Atlantic, Vet
fastened In a rickety North river propei-
Ter Martin Luther was so mighty for
and secondly because he had muscular
development which would have enabled
him to thrash any five of his Prosecutors
If IL had been Christian so to do. Phys-
ical development which merely shows it.
self in fabulous lifting, or in perilous rope
walking, or in pugilistic encounter, eX-
cites only our contempt; but we confess
to great admiration for the man who has
a great soul in an athletic body, every
nerve, muscle and bone of which Is con-
secrated to right uses. Oh, II seems to me
outrageous that men, through neglect,
should allow their physical health to go
down beyond repair-a ship which ought,
with all sail set and every man at his
post. to be carrying rich cargo Tor
eternity, employing all its men In stopping
up leakages When you may, through
the gymnasium. work off your spleen and
your querulousness and one-half of your
physical and mental ailments, do not turn
your back upon such grand medicament
Still further: | commend to you large
class of parlor games and recreations.
There is a way of making out homes
hundred-fold more attractive than they
are now. Those parents cannot expect to
keep their children away from outside
designations unless they make the domes-
tic circle brighter than anything they can
find outside of it. Do not, then, sit in
your home surly and unsympathetic, and
with half-condemnatory look because OF
the sportfulness 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 de-
nounce sportfulness and those upon whose
foot there is the bounding joy of robust
health. thank God that in our drawing
rooms and in our parlors there are in
Vulnerable games and sports which have
not upon them the least faint of iniquity.
Light up all your homes with innocent
hilarities Do not sit down 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 their cheeks are so ruddy
and that their expectations are so radi-
and the heart-break and the pang, ana
the desolation-it will come soon enough
for the dear children. But when the
storm actually clouds the sky, ii viii be
time enough for you to haul out your
eef-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 battle
dore and calisthenics and lawn tennis, and
all those amusements which the young
people of our homes know so well how to
contriYe. Then there will be the parlor So
calities-groups of people assembled IN
your homes, with wit and mimicry and
joviality, filing the room with joy from
door to mantel, and from the carpet to
the ceiling. oh, is there any eXhileration
like a 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 collec-
lions of pictures You will find the museum
and the Historical Society rooms full of
rare curosities, and scores of places
which can stand plainly the test of what
is right and wrong in amuSements. You
will find the lecturing hail. which has
been honored by the names of AgasSiz in
natural history Doremus in chemistry.
Boynton in geology, Mitchell in astrono-
my. John B. Cough in moral reform. and
scores and hundreds of men who have
poured their wit and genius and ingenuity
toni Ohio
hearts and consciences and imaginations
of men, setting this country fifty years
farther in advance than il would have
been without the lecture platform
I rejoice in the popularization of out
door sports. l hail the croquet ground
and the fisherman's rod and the sports
mans gun, in our cities, life is so I'M
healthy and unnatural that when the
census-taker represents a city as having
100000 inhabitants, there are only 100000
since il takes at least two men to amount
to one man, so depicting and unnerving
and eNhausting is this metropolitan life
We want more fresh air, more sunlight
more of the abandon of field-sports. l cry
out for il in behalf of the church of God
as well as in behalf of secular interests
l wish that our ponds and our rivers and
our Capitoline grounds might be all
aquake with the heel and the shout of the
swift skater. l wish that when the warm
weather comes. the graceful oar might dip
the stream, and the eVeningtde be re-
sonant with bOatman'S song the bright
PROV splitting the crystalline billow.
We shall have the smooth and grassy
lawn, and we will call out people Of all Oc-
equations and professions and ask them TO
join in the bail players sport. You will
come back from these outdoor exercises
and recrea tions, with strength in your arm
and color in your cheek and a 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
stout lungs and mighty muscle I bless
Zoo mat tnefe are so many recreatiOnS