Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-02-21
Weekly Sermon
BE GOOD TO YOURSELF.

De GOOO 10
1t was an ordinary street parting
that provoked the Thought. Two men
were shaking hands in the crowded
they separated. WELL. so long, old
man, be good to YOURSELF" You may
hear about the same thing half a doz-
EN- times i'm the course of ~ day ia
town.
1 caught myself wondering what
would happen if Jimsie with the suit
case and the new straw hat should
follow the advice of his friend literal
ly. He would find it a pretty thorough
going prescription. that is sure. III
Jimsic hould decide to be really
good" to himself during the 15 days
of his time away from the office. this
summer might yield something new in
the WAY of vacations to the aforesaid
YOUNG gentleman.
Acting on the jovial counse bestowed
Jimsie would begin to be good to him
self i'm the matter OF health. If he sits
mp half of each night. smokes cigarets
till his fingers are yellow. swallows
periodic high balls. or low ones for that
matter. he is not being good. but dis
tinctly bad to himself. He is abusing
the most wonderful and intricate ma
chine shop OF the earth, the human
body.
When o consider how inestimable
is the blessing OF health it is "A seven
days wonder that people can treat 1t
so carelessly. Yout rarely reflects
how easily the funds i'm natures bank
may be overdrawn nor how surely we
are punished for extravaganza. A va
cation that sends you back to work
more tired thar when you left is truly
a wretched investment OF time and
money. To make up arrearages of
sleep. to breathe much fresh air, to
rest the ~ on quiet scenes and lovely
landscapes. this is part of the good
treatment one may accord himself in
vacation days.
Vacation likewise offers to Jimsie a
chance to be good to another part of
himself. his mind. Ordinarily he has
little time for reading. Each morning
he skins the sporting pages and the
market quotations. Night usually
finds him too tired to enjoy anything
more SOLID than IA repetition of the
same diet. 1t is Impossible In the
chinks of time at his disposal, to din
into anything that cannot be finished
in & quarter hour.
~ he Will. in vacation days, he can
give himself the real treat OF sitting
down with "A worth while book or two.
Something in the way OF biography or
travel or science might prove a gen
uine tonic. His outlook needs to be-
~broadened and his thought stimulated.
III a bit of solid reading proves dis
tasteful to Jimsie the fact ought to
''A'' w i"k WIN SIIC VI HIS It'll.
ture has atrophied. 1t might we'll
spur him on to try and get out of his
mental ruts oftener till he RECEIVERS
FORMER tastes and powers.
1T is worth amy mans while to keep
alive the finer and more spiritual
powers of his being. Some day he will
regret it if he allows himself to go to
seed till commonplace topics or the
mere grind of money getting are all
that interest him. Charles Darwin
writes that early in life he loved no
etry and music but that in later Years
these were neglected. When in old age
and illness he tried to revive his lost
loves he found the esthetic faculty
dead within him. Then he wrote. .if
] had to live my life again / would
make it a rule to read some poetry
and listen to some music at least once
every week: for perhaps the parts of
my brain now atrophled would thus
have been kept active through mse.',
The body is an important part OF "a
man but it is not all OF him. He ONLY
is good to himself who remembers
that he is an immortal being and
takes thought for the culture OF a soul
that is going on al endless way.