The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1899-08-26
SUMNER VACATIONS.
Dr.. Talmage Draws Some Lessons
from Our Annual Outings
DaaEers aad TenEtatisas rst ssr-
rosad Oar watering Piaees-
Necessity Of q Period Of
InoeeaPatioA

At this season Of the year, when al
who can get . vacation are taking IL
this discourse Of DR.. Talmage Is sug-
gestiVe and appropriate. The text IL
John So ?; "A pool which Is called
in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda having
i've porches. In these lay AgreAi 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
uAr resort for iuvahds To this day
there Is ady basin Of rock which shows
that there may have been a pool there
go feet long, 30 feet wide and Is feet
deep. This pool was surrounded by five
piaz&s or Porches, or bathing houses,
where the patients tarred until the
time whea they were 20 step into the
water. 50 far As reinugoizung was
concerned. it must have been = sara
togA and > Long Branch on = small
scale; a bennington and a Brighton
combined-medical and therapeutic
Tradition says hai 1T q certain a
Of the year there was an Officer Of the
government who would 90 down 10 that
water 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 9 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 JudAean 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 Al
Cape May and Nahant, where multitudes
who are worn out with commercial and
professional anxietes, as well as those
who are afflicted with rheumatic, neu-
ralgic and spleneuc diseases, go and T
cured by the thousands. These blessed
Bethesdasare scattered all up and down
our country.
We are at a season of the year when
AAAA daAA1 nc A1ANh Win H1tE[LkEAn
and baggage on their way TO the noun
tsins and the lakes and the seashore.
Multiiudes Of or citizens are away for
a restorative absence. The city heats
are pursuing THE people with torch and
fear Of sunstroke. The long. silent halls
Of sumptuous hotels are ell abuzz with
excited arrivals. The aDtlers Of Adiron-
dack deer rattle under the shot Of city
sportsmen. the trout make fatal snap At
the hook Of adroit sportsmen, who toss
their spotted brilliHnts into the game
basket. the baton of the orchestrallead-
er taps the music stand on the hotel
green, and American life has put on
festal array, and the rumbling Of the
ieupin alley. and the crack OF the ivory
balls on the green-bsized billiard tables,
and the loltnR 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 at
test that the season for the great Amer
lean watering places Is in full play.
Music! Flute and drum and cornet-a-
piston and clapping cymbals wake the
echoes Of the mountains. Glad am I
that tagged out American life for the
most part has an opportunity to rest
and that nerves racked aud destroyed
will find a Bethesda. / believe In water
ing places. They recuperate for active
service many who were worn u with
trouble or oyerwork. They are nation
al r~eStOratives.
Let not the commercial firm begrudge
the clerk. or the employer the journey
man, or the patient the physician, or the
church its pastor a season Of inoccupa-
ton. Luther used to sport with his
children; Edmund Burke used to caress
his fayorite horse; Thomas Chalmers,
in the dark hour Of the church's disrup-
ton, played kite for recreation-so
was told by his own daughter-and the
busy Christ said to the busy apostles:
Come We apart awhile Into the desert
and rest yourselves" And I have OBJ
served that they who do not know how
to rest do not know how to work. But
have TO declare this truth tO-day-tha,
some Of our fashionable watering places
are the temporal and eternal destruc.
ton Of "a multitude that no man car
number" and amid the congratulations
Of this season and the prospects Of tn,
departure Of many Of you for the coun
try | must utter a warning, plain, ear
nest and unmistakable.
The first e%mptation that is apt u
hover in this direction Is to leave you
piety at home. You will send the doI
and cat and canary bird to be well care,
for somewhere else, but the temptation
will be TO leave your religion In Tn
L room with the blinds down and tn
doors bolted, aud then you will com
back in the autumn e find that 1t !
starved and ~suffocated, lying stretches
on the rug, stark dead. There is no sur
plus Of piety at the watering places.
never knew anyone TO grow very rapid
y in grace at the Catskill Mountai
house or Sharon Springs or the Falls c
Montmorency. II is generally the cas-
, that the Sabbath is more Of a carousi
than any other day, and there are SUI
day walks, and Sunday rides, and Sur
, day excursions. Elders and deacon
!, and ministers Of religion who are Ell
Z tirely consistent at home, sometim,
when the Sabbath dawns on them
Niagara falls or the white mountain
take a day TO themselves. II they &
to the church, II is apt TO be a sacre
parade, and the discourse, instead Of b
ing a plain talk about the soul, is apt
be what is called a crack sermon-thi
is, some discourse picked out Of the e
u fusions Of the year as the one mo
adsped 10 excite admiration, and
u those churches, from the way the lsdi'
d hold their fans, you know that they al
not 80 much impressed with the heat
n with the pieturesqueness Of half di
a closed features. -Four puny souls star
Ir In the organ loft and squall a tune tn
nobody knows, and worshipers, Wi
-, $4,000 worth Of diamonds on the rig
= hand, drop a cent into the poor box, al
" then the benediction Is pronounce
" and the farce Is ended. The tOughe
U thing / ever tried 20 do was TO be go'
=, at q watering place. The air is b
n witehed with the "world, the flesh Al
the devil" There are Christians wi
a in three or four weeks In such a pla'
b, have had such terrible rents made
their Christian robe that they had
?, keep darning II until Christmas to &
" II mended.
ne The health Of a great many peoE
makes an annual visit to some miner
, spring an absolute necessity, but Ia.
y your Bible along with you, aud take
hour for secret prayer every do
though you be surrounded by guffl
and s~aturnalia. Keep holy the sa
or bath. though they deride you az a b
,taJ pNVSfau Gland nY frnfu 0aunbIi