Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-03-22
AMONG THE POOR.
A SERMON IN BEt;AL- OF THE
LOWER FIVE"
How Are We to lie Saved?-Can u
Starved Body Sustain IA Great soul'-
The Part Played by Women In the
Battle for Bread.

Many persons run away with the
idea that the soul is something that Is
apt to go off at tangent and needs
careful pruning. through restrictions
on bodily comforts, to keep 1t within
bounds. Some also think that God in
some spiritual sense feeds the soul.
This is all wrong. The soul of man,
that which comprehends or desires TO
worship deity is controlled by the con-
ditions of the body. and this again
is controlled by the condition of the
blood and nervous system, and TINS
in turn is fed, supplied, created II you
please, by the products of labor, such
as food, clothing, shelter, etc.
For instance let a most spiritually
minded preacher be kept without food
from Sunday to Sunday and see now
he will lack spiritual power and Ter
vency until his system has been sup
piled with food through the natural
channel. On the other hand, let him
swallow a quart of Walkers best whis-
key just before going into the pulpit
and no miracle could make that man S
soul keep close to his subject.
And let such person be compelled
to live on poor, unnutritious food
without any variety, and he Will not
only produce poor sermons, but MS
children, fed frcm the same table, Will
be lacking of manhood or soul lire.
This poor food may be lack in the
IN lypnw1aIun nf how m Use
the land. Compare the Indian OF this
country with the white man now Nv
ing on it.
Look for a moment at the system OF
transmission of life or souls. And
here are two wives, each working
equally hard to assist their husbands
to meet the demands of growing fam
lily. The one lives in the fourth story
tenement in a city. Her husbands
wages are so small that she has to take
in washing to make ends meet though
three little ones claim by right her
undivided attention. She has no time
to read or develop her mind. Ihere
is no music, but the never-ceaslng
rumbling of the traffic on the street.
There are no trees, or flowers, or
scenery, except the surrounding prlcK
walls and smoking chimneys. Her
food is of the simplest, poorest, not
often fresh, and very little variety. A
fourth baby is born into the home in
the city slums. What must its soul
life be under those conditions?
The other wife is the helpmate OF
a farmer. She, too, has three chill
dren, and soon is to be the mother OF
a fourth. She, too, works equally as
hard as the other wife. But when she
goes out after a meal of fresh 1000
there is the music of the birds. there
is the perfume of the wild flowers,
and the ozone from the trees lends
vitality to the air that is drunk into
her lungs and tingles her blood with
the power of health. Her eyes gaze
on the pictures drawn by the brush OF
nature; perhaps the blossomirg trees
of the boughs laden with fruit or the
leaves tinged with autumn's brown, or
their branches holding in its white
purity the spotless snow. Mothers
from these conditions, even when
overworked, have given civilization
many great souls. But slum mothers
never.
But look again at the souls of the
rich in this life; those who have the
best surroundings, the greatest variety
of the products of labor-but who don't
labor. What is the size of their souls in
tellectually or morally? Imbecile chill
dren are almost the sure and certain
heritage of those who do not labor, in
the third and fourth generation. This
fact is universally known. God who
made us made us to labor. He gives
his gift of soul life, with all it stands
for. only to those who sweat in toll
that he has concentrated and made
holy; whoever avoids this law is ac-
cursed by it's penalty. And God is low
ing. kind and bountiful to his crea-
ture. man. All His gifts are for him,
but not one can he obtain without la
Dor. This is the only restriction. Not
a soul can exist or develop to its full
ness without this.-Thos. Bawden in
Detroit News-Tribune.