The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1899-12-01

Dnngers and Temptations That Sur
round Our Watering Places
Necessity OF Period Of
Inoccupatlon.

tAis discourse OF DIR. Iaimage is sug-
geltive and appropriate The text is
john 5.2, 9: "a pool, which is called
in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having
five porcAes. In these lay "a great multi
tuse OF impot,ut folk. of blind. halt,
withered, waiting for the moving Of the
wttcr."
Outside the city of Jerusalem there
was a sauatiye watering place, the pop
ular resort for inyaiids. To this day
there is a dry basin of rock which shows
that there may have been a pool there
500 feet long. $50 feet wide and IS feet
deep This pool was surrounded by five
piazzas, or porches, OF bathing houses,
where tie patients tarried until the
time when they were TO step into the
water. So far as reinvigorating was
concerned. it must have been a Sara
loga and "a Long Branch on small
scale. bennington and a Brighton
.ombined- medical and therapeutic.
Tradition SAYS that at a certain season
Of the year there was an officer of the
government who would go down to that
water and pour in il some healing quail
ty, and after that the people would
'omc and get the medication. But
prefer the plain statement of Scripture,
that at a certain season an angel came
down and stirred up or troubled the wa
ter, and then the people came and got
Inc healing. That angel of God that
stirred up the Judaean watering place
had bis counterpart in the angel of heal
Ing who. in our day, steps into the min
,ral waters of Congress or Sharon or
sulphur Springs, or into the salt sea at
cape Navand Nahant. where multitudes
who are worn out with commercial and
professional anxicties, as well as those
who are afflicted with rheumatic, neu-
ralgic and splcnetic diseases. 20 and are
cured 10y the thousands. These blessed
Bethcsdas arc scattered all up and down
our country.
We are at season of the year when
.ail trains are laden with passengers
and 6acgare on their way TO the noun
lains and the lakes and the seashore.
Multtudcs of our citizens are away for
a restorative absence. The city heats
are pursuing the people with torch and
fear of sunstroke. The long, silent halls
81 snmptuous hotels are all abuzz with
excited arrivals The antlers Of Adiron-
lack deer rattle under the shot of city
snOrtsmen, the trout make fatal snap at
he hook of adroit sportsmen, who toss
heir spotted brilliants into the game
basket: the baton of the orchestral lead
r taps the music stand on the hotel
green. and American life has put on
'estal array. and the rumbling Of the
enrin alley. and the crack Of the ivory
oails on the green-baized billiard tables,
md the ioltinC of the barroom goblets,
and the explosive uncorking of the
champagne bottles. and the whirl and
he rustic Of the ballroom dance, and
he Gathering hoofs Of the race courses
md other signs of social dissipation at
lest that the season for the great Amer
can 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
hat faggcd-out American life for the
most part has an opportunity TO rest
md that lerves racked and destroyed
will find thesda. believe in water
ng places. They recuperate for active
,ervioe MAN. Who were worn out with
.rouble or ovcrwork. They are nation
Il restoratives.
Let not The commercial firm begrudge
he clerk. or the employer the journey
nan. or the patient the physician. or the
church its pastor a season Of inoccupa-
non. Luther used to sport with his
.hildren: Edmund Burke used to caress
bis favorite horse; Thomas Chalmers,
N the dark hour of the church's disrup-
iou. played kite for recreation-so |
ras told by Lis own daughter-and the
tusv Christ said TO the busy apostles:
Come We apart awhile into the desert
and rest yourselves" And / have OBJ
ierved that they who do rot know how
o rest DO not know how TO work. But
have 20 declare this truth to-day-that
some of our fashionable watering places
are the temporal and eternal destruc-
lion oi "a multitude that no man can
nun and amid the congratulations
of th' season and the prospects Of the
iepartr~o OF many of you for the coun-
Try / must utter a warning, plain, ear
nest and unmistakable.
tr4 4Ea4 IL ont IN
iover i'm this direction is to leave your
riety at home. You will send the dog
and cat and canary bird TO be well cared
for somewhere else, but the temptation
aiil be 10 leave your religion in the
room with the blinds down and the
doors bolted. and then you will come
pacl, I'm the autumn TO find that it is
starved and suffocated, lying stretched
on the rue. stark dead. There is no sur
plus of pietv at the watering places.
never knew anyone to grow very rapid
v i'm grace at the Catskill Mountain
'ouse or Sharon S-r'ngs or the Falls of
Montmorcrcv. II is generally the case
that the Sablef is more of carousal
.han any other day, and there are Sum
day walks. and Sunday rides, and Sum
day excursions. Elders and deacons
and ministers Of religion who are en-
tirely consistent at home, sometimes
when the Sabbath dawns on them at
Niagara falls or the White mountains
take day to themselves. If they 90
20 the church. IT is apt to be sacred
narade. and the discourse, instead Of be-
ing plain talk about the soul, is apt to
be what is called n crack sermon that