The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-06-24

| WI WOhdCI NlC1O blOoO lCllOWS
get their money from. We have to toll
and drudge. They do nothing" To
these gay men life is thrill and an ex-
citement. They stare at other people
and in turn are stared at The watch
chain jingles The cup foams The
cheeks flush. The eyes flash. The mid
night hears their guffaw. They swag-
ger. They jostle decent men off the side
walk. They take the name of God in
vain. They parody the hymn they
learned at their mothers knee, and to
all pictures of coming disaster they cry
out, "Who cares - and to the counsel
of some Christian friend, "Who are
your" Passing along the street some
night you hear shrek in a grogshop,
the rattle of the watchman's club, the
rush of the police What is the matter
now? Oh, this reckless young man has
been killed in grogshop fight. Carry
him home to his father house. Parents
will come down and wash his wounds
and close his eyes in death. They for
give him all he ever did, though he can
not in silence ask it. The prodigal has
got home at last. Mother will go to her
little garden and get the sweetest flow
ers and twist them into chaplet for
the silent heart of the hayward boy and
push back from the bloated brow the
long locks that were once her pride.
And the air will be rent with the IA
theirs cry, ooh, my son, my son, my
poor son; would God l had died for
thee, oh, my son, my s)n!'
You may judge of amusements by
their effect upon physical health. The
need of many good people is physical
recuperation. There are Christian men
who write hard things against their i'm
mortal souls when there is nothing the
matter with them but all incompetent
liver. 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 char
acter. | want to tell Christian people
that God will hold you responsible for
your invalidism if it is your own fault
and when through right exercise and
prudence you might be athletic and
we'll. The effect of the body upon the
soul you acknowledge. Put a man of
mild disposition upon the animal diet
of which the Indian partakes, and in a
little while his 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, cruel
and unrelenting. The body has pow
erful effect upon the soul. There are
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 put the
jewel of eternity. There are men with
great hearts and intellects in bodies
worn out by their own neglects. Mag
nificent machinery capable of propelling
a great Etruria across the Atlantic, yet
fastened in a rickety North river pro-
peller. Physical development which
merely shows itself in a fabulous lift
ing or in perilous rope walking or in
pugllistic encounter eXcites only our
contempt, but we confess to great ar
miration for the man who has great
soul in an athletic body, every nerve,
muscle and bone of which is consecrated
to right uses. Oh, it seems to me out
rageous that men through neglect should
allow their physical health to go down
beyond repair, spending the rest of their
life not in some great enterprise for
God and the world, but in studying
what is the best thing to take for dyS-
pepsia. A ship which ought with all
sails set and every man at his post to be
carrying a rich cargo for eternity, en-
ploying all its men in stopping up leak
ages. When you may through some Of
the popular and healthful recreatiOns Of
our time work off your spleen and your
querulousness and one-half of your
I physical and mental ailments, do not
turn your back from such grand med
icament.
Again, judge Of the places of amuse-
ment by the companionship into which
they put you If you belong to an Or
ganization where you have to associate
with the incorporate with the I'M
clean, with the abandoned, however
well they may be dressed, in the name
of God quit it. They will despoil your
nature. They will undermine your
moral character. They will drop you
when you are destroyed. They will not
give one cent to support your children
when you are dead. They will weep
not one tear at your burial. They will
chuckle over your damnation. But the
day comes when the men who have ex-
erted evil influence upon their fellows
will be brought to judgment. Scene, the
last day Stage, the rocking earth. En-
ter dukes, lords, kings, beggars, clowns.
No sword No tinsel. No crown. For
footlights, the kindling flames of a
world For orchestra, the trumpets
that wake the dead. For gallery, the
clouds filled with angel spectators. For
applause, the clapping floods of the sea.
For curtains, the heavens rolled togeth-
er as a scroll. For tragedy, the doom of
the destroyed. For farce, the effort
to serve the world and God at the
same time. For the last scene of the
fifth act, the tramp of nations across
the stage-some to the right, others to
the left.
l,ot