Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-10-29

letter to his young kinsman, T. NJ. Ran
dolph Jr.: without health there is no
happiness. Our attention to health
then. should take precedence of every
other object. The time necessary to
secure this by active exercise should be
devoted TO it in preference to every
other pursuit. I know the difficulty
with which busy man tears himself
away from his work at any given mo-
ment of the day. but his happiness and
that of his family depend upon it. The
most uninformed mind, with healthy
body, is happier than the wisest vale
tudinarlan." Good advice for Thomas
Jefferson to give 100 years ago; just as
good advice to give to the young people
Of the present day.
Value of Health.
Not only happiness, but also most Of
temporal and spiritual usefulness, is
dependent upon physical health. We
read with amazement what Alexander
Ii. Stephens was able to accomplish
when he, as an invalid, confessed to
Senator Vest that for over forty years
he had never seen a day without suf-
fering physical pain. We study with
wonderment the gigantic work of the
invalid Robert Hall, Of the invalid
Frederick w. Robertson, of the invalid
Robert Louis Stevenson, of the invalid
j. II. Green and Of the invalid Henry
Kirke White, who continued to work,
although he was fighting death step
by step. Yet for the most part you
will find that the great leaders of the
world have had strong bodies. Go
and sit today in the gallery Of the Unit
ed States senate, and you cannot gain
say this fact. Some of the United
States senators are now very aged
men, yet even in the decay Of their
physical organisms. as among the ruins
of Melrose abbey, you can still trace
the strength and the power Of bygonc
days But, though the necessity of
physical health should be an axiom.
yet the strange fact remains that most
people by countless follie> are tlagrant-
ly undermining the physical walls of
the temple of the Holy Ghost. They
nre overworking the body, as you
sometimes see tired horse compelled
to pull too big load. They are abus-
ing the body with the idea that God
will forgive them because they are try
ing TO do his work. No, no. my friends.
| This abuse of the body must not be.
The temple of the Holy Ghost should
be physically a strong temple. The
broader n mans shoulders the heavier
is the load he can lift for Christ. The
louder his voice the farther, all things
being equal lie can sound forth the
message of a Saviours sacrifice.
Moral CIeaxliness.
The temple of the lEoly Spirit, in the
next place, should be clean body.
There are some men whose bodies are
given over to moral tilthness. They
are like some of the ancient heather
temples which we-.a avowedly dcdicat-
ed to the detics of lust. drunkenness
and dcbauchery, the existence of which
was national dishonor. The worship
performed in those temples was so vile
that you could not describe it in public
without bringing Il blush of shame to
every modest cheek and demand for
silence from every modest lip. The pic
lures found OH the walls of the cx-
| humed city of Pompeii show that those
! temples were veritablc charnei houses,
where bats and owls and carrion birds
gorged themselves on the decaying
| corpses OF truth. purity and love. Let
the temple Of your body be clean, as
Christ wanted the Jerusalem temple
| TO be clean when he drove the traders
out of that temple. crying rs il not
written my house shall be called of all
nations the house of prayer, but ye
have made 1t a deg of thicycsf clean
ms David wanted his physical altar to
be clear when he uttered the agoniz-
ing prayer, wash me thoroughly from
my iniquity and cleanse me from ny
| sin or that other pleading beseech-
ment. Cleanse thou me from secret
faults or clean as Paul meant us to
be clean when in this same letter to
the Corinthian church he wrote these
warning words: ''If any man dcfile the
| temple of God, him shall God destroy.
for the temple of God is holy, which
temple We are" Oh. the terrible con-
domination which is to be visited upoA
those whose bodies are dcfiled by the
| indulgence of degrading vices, Oh, the
awful doom awaiting the spiritual des-
ecration OF the temple of the Holy
| Ghost
| Consuming Fire.
Have YOU ever seen q sanctuary of
brick and stone which has been dedi-
Gated to God destroyed by earthquake
or by fire? Well. have. On dark,
stormy night | was awakened in my
Brooklyn home by the rumbling of the
fire engines | heard n quick rap at
my door as my sister called; Wake
up! Tho Tabernacle is in flames" l
hurredly dressed and assembled to the
cupola of our house, which overlooked
the city There the whole family were
gathered, Tho air seemed charged
and surchargvG with electricity. or
IN the distance a." public buildings of
the city looked like the great white
mansions of celestial city, making by
contrast the scene more dramatic. The
church did not burn as other buildings
seemed TO burn, but its roof in its en-
tirety was mass of living Goals 1t
looked like an altar, a huge altar upon
which was being sacrificed the whole
lifes ministry Of the noble father who
stood by my side. Suddenly il swayed
and shivcred, like unto dazed and
dying man. There ii goes" said