Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-08-24
WATERING PLACES.
Or. TALMAGE DRAWS SOME LESSONS
FROM SUMNER OUTINGS.
The Necessity For n Period of Inoc-
cupn;ion - Dangers and Tcmpta-
lions of Popular Rcsorts-No sur
plus Of Pict, Mt Those Places.
[copyrlght, Louis Klopqch. 1870 |

Copyright. Louis <lopsch. 1901
WAsuINGIoN, Aug. 20.-At this sea-
son of the year, when all who can get Il
vacation are taking it, this discourse Of
DR.. Talmagc is suggestive and appro-
pirate. The text is John V. >, 3: "a pool,
which is called in the Hebrew tongue
Bethesda, baving five porchcS. In these
lay great multitude of impotcnt folk,
of blind, halt, withc"ed, waiting for the
moving of t1e water"
Outside the city of Jerusalem there
was a sanatve watering place, the pop
ular resort for invalds 10 this day
there is a dry basin of rock which shsWs
that there may have been n pool tfr,"
800 feet long, 1870 feet wide and - feeS
deep. This pool was surrounded by five
piaz2as, or porchcs, or bathing houses.
where the patients tarried until the time
when they were TO step into the water
So far as rcinyigorating was concerned,
it must have been Saratoga and Il
Long Branch on q small scale; Lean
ington and Brighton combined med
ical and therapeutic. Tradition says
that at certain season Of the year there
was an officer of the government who
would go down TO that water and pour
In it soIHe healing quality, and after that
the people gould come and get the mcdi-
cation. ISt prefer the plain statement
of Scripture, that at certain season an
angel came down and stirred up or trou-
blcd the water, and then The people came
and got the healing. That angel of God
that stirred up the Judacan watering
place had his counterpart in the angel of
healing who, in our day, steps into the
mineral waters Of Congress or sharon
Sol. L., t,,t, q H.. -,1t
at Cnpc May and Nahant, whore multi
tudcs who are worn out with commercial
and professional anxicties as we'll ms
those who are afflicted with rheumatic.
ncuraCic 90 spcnctic diseases, 20 and
nre cured by the thousands. These
blessed BctEcsdaS are scattered all up
and down our country.
We are ut n season of the year when
rail trains are laden with passengers and
baggage on their War to the mountains
and tho lakes and the seashore. Multi
tudes OF our citizens are away for Il re-
storativC absence. The city heats are
pursuing the people with torch and fear
of suustrokp. The long, silent halls of
sumptuous hotels are all abuzz wtk ex-
cited arrivals. The antlers of Adiron
dack deer rattle under the shot of city
sroitSmen, the trout make fatal snap Mt
the hook Of adroit sportsmen. who toss
their spotted brlliants into the game
basket; the baton OF the orchestral lead
or taps the music stand on the hotel
green, and American life has put on fes
tai array, and the rumbing OF the tenpin
fllcy, and the crack of the ivory balls on
the green bazed billiard tables, and the
jotinC Of the barroom goblets, and the
explosive uncorking of the champagne
bottles, and the whirl and the rustic of
the ballroom dance, and the Gathering
hoofs of the race courses and other signs
of social dissipation attest that the sea-
son for the great American watering
places is in full play. Musi5' Flute and
drum and cornet.a-piston and clappins
rymbals wake tie echoes Of the noun
,ans. Glad am / that tagged on. Amer
lean life for the most part has an oppor
tunity to rest and that nerves rackcd and
destroyed will find a Bethesda. | believe
in watering places They recuperate for
active service many who were worn out
with trouble or overwork. They are ma
tonal reStoratives.
Need of VacntiOrH.
Let not the commercial firm bcgrudge
TIE clerk. or the employer the journey
man, or the patient the physician, or the
church its pastor a season of inoccupa'
tion. Luther used to sport with his chill
drcn; Edmund Burke used to Caress his
favoritc horse; Thomas Chalmers, in the
dark hour of the church's disruption
played kite for recrcation-so ! was told
by his own daughtcr-and the busy Christ
said to the busy apostles, come We apart
awhile into the desert and rest your
selves" And | have observed that they
who do not know how to rest do not
know how to work. But | have to de-
clare this truth today-that some of our
fashionable watering places are the tenn
poral and eternal destruction of "a multi
tude that no man can number and amid
the congratulations of this season and
the prospects Of the departure OF many
Of You for the country | must utter a
warning, plain, earnest and unmistaka-
BILE
The first temptation that is apt to
hover in this direction is to leave your
piety at home. You will send the dog
and cat and canary bird to be well cared
for somewhere else, but the temptation
will be to leave your religion in the room
with the blinds down and the doors bolt
ed and then YOU will come back in the
autumn to find that it is starved and suf-
located, lying stretched on the rug, stark
dead. There is no surplus of piety at
the watering places. | never knew any
one to grow very rapidly in grace at the
CSsskill Mountain House or Sharon
Springs or the Falls Of Montmorency. 1t
is generally the case that the Sabbath Is
more Of carousal than any other day,
and there are Sunday walks, and Sunday
rides, and Sunday excursions Elders and
deacons and ministers of religion who
are entirely consistent at home, some
times when the Sabbath dawns on them
at Niagara Falls or the White noun
tains take n day to themselves. If they
60 to the church, it is apt to be n sacred
parade, and the discourse, instead Of be-
Ing a plain talk about the soul is apt to
be what is called a crack sermon-that
Is, some discourse picked ont OF the eff
fusons Of the year as the one most
adapted to excite admiration, and in
those churches, from the way the ladies'
hold their fans, you know that they arc
not so much impressed with the heat as
with the picturcSquencss Of half diSclos-
ed features. -Four puny souls stand in
the organ loft and squall tune that no.
body knows, and worshipers. with 81 600
worth of diamonds on the right hand,
the bencdiction is pronounced, and the
farce is ended. The toughest thing
ever tried to do was to be good Mt n wa
tcring place. The air Is bcwitchcd with
the world, the flesh and the devil"
There are Christians who, in three or
fOur WppkS i'm such n ulacp hnVp Ind