Virginia gazette. [volume] (Williamsburg, Va.) 1893-192?, 1899-08-26
SUMNER VACATIONS.
DR.. Taimage Draws Some Lessons
from Our Annual 0utingA
Dangers srd Temptations That SAP
round Our w.tersaE Places
Necessity of q Period OF
rnoocupstton-
rcoDyrish,. 1893. by LOui. Kiop,eA.I

this discourse of DR.. Talmage is sug-
gestive and appropriate. The text is
John S;2, }: "A pool, which il called
in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having
five porches. In these lay n great multi
tude of impotent folk. OF blind. halt,
withered. waiting for the moving OF the
water"
Outside the city of Jerusalem there
was a sanative watering place, the pop
ular resort for invalids. To this day
there is a dry basin of rock which shows
that there may have been a pool there
SEQ feet long. l3O feet wide and IS feet
deep. This pool was surrounded by five
piazzas, or Porches, or bathing houses.
where the patients tarried until the
time when they were 10 step into the
water. So far as reinvigoratin9 was
concerned. II must have been a Sara
toga and q Long Branch on a small
scale: a bennington and a Brighton
Combined-mcdical and therapeutic.
Tradition says that At a certain season
OF the year there was an officer Of the
government who would 60 down 20 that
Dvuter and pour in IL some healing quail
ity, and after that the people would
come and get the medication. But
prefer the plain statement Of Scripture,
that at q certain season an angel came
down and stirred up or troubled the WA
ter. and then the people came and got
the healing. That angel Of God that
stirred up the JudRean watering place
had his counterpart In the angel OF heal
ing who. in our day. steps into the min
eral waters Of Congress or Sharon or
Sulphur Springs. or into the salt sea az
Cape May and NahAnt. where multitudes
who are worn out with commercial and
professional anxleties. as well as those
who are aSiicted with rheumatic. neu-
ralEc aud splenetic diseases. go and are
cured by the thousands. These blessed
Bethesdasare scattered all up and down
our country.
We are at a season OF the year when
rail trains are laden with passengers
and baggage on their way 10 the noun
tains and the lakes and the seaShore.
Multitudes OF our citizens are away for
n restorative absence. The city heats
are pursuing the people with torch and
fear OF sunstrolSe. The long. silent halls
OF sumptuous hotels are ali abuzz with
excited arrivals. The RntlerS OF Adiron-
dack deer rattle under she shot OF sity
sportsmen, the trout make fatal snap at
the hook OF adroit sportsmen. who toss
their spotted brilliants into the game
basket: the baton Of the orchestral lead
er taps the music stand on the hotel
green. and American life has put on
festai array. and the rumbling Of the
tenpin alley. and the crack of the ivory
balls on the green-baiZcd billiard tables.
and the joiting OF the barroom gCbletS.
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 at
teEt.that the season for the great Amer
lean watering places is in full play
NuSicl Flute and drum and cornet-a-
piston and ciapping cymbals wake the
echoes of the mountains. Glad am I
that fagged-out American life for the
most part has an opportunity 10 rest
and that nerves racked aud DESTROYED
will find Bethesda. / believe in water
ing places. They recuperate for active
service many who were worn out with
trouble or overwork. They are nation
al restoratives.
Let not the commercial firm begrrdge
the clerk. or the employer the journey
man. or the patient the physician. or the
church it's pastor a season Of inoccupa-
tion. Luther used TO sport with his
children; Edmund Burke used to caress
his favorite horse; Thomas Chalmers.
in the dark hour of the chureh's disrup-
ton. played kite for recreation-so /
was told by his own daughter--and the
busy Christ said 10 the busy apostles:
Come re apart awhile into the desert
and rest yourselves" And have OBJ
served that they who do not know how
90 rest do not know how 10 work. But
/ have to declare this truth to-day-that
some OF our fashionable watering places
are the temporal and eternal destruc-
tioB of "a multitude that no man can
number" and amid the congratulations
OF fhis season and the prospects OF the
departure of many of you for the coun-
try I mast utter a warning. plain. ear
nest ead unmistakable.
The first emptation that is apt 70
hover in this direction Is 20 leave your
piety at home You VIII 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 bolted. and then you will come
back In the autumn 20 find that IL Ia
starved and suffocated. lying stretched
ON the rug, stark dead. There Is no sur