Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-01-30
THE BIBLE ON PHYSICAL EDU-
CATION.
BY NJ. P. Boyles

opinion OF our HldlItdiiitlS StiViiS
and vigorous bodies when he says;
KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE
THE TEMPLE OF GOD AND THAT
THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLETH
IN YOU? IF ANY MAN DEFILE
THE TEMPLE OF GOD HIM
SHALL GOD DESTROY; FOR THE
TEMPLE OF GOD is HOLY, in
WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE"
In spite of this divine injunction
man has violated Gods law from
the time the above quotation was
uttered until the present time. My
own opinion is that ignorance of ply
Biological imperfection. II this be
true the dreaded diseases, tuberculor
sis, veneral diseases etc. are due to
| ignorance and may be controlled and
reduced to a minimum. Conditions
in this particular way are indeed bad
but | am convinced the people of the
world are improving in this regard
and as time goes on still greater I'M
provement will be made.
/ am a profound believer in edu-
/ cation. Some one has wisely said,
knowledge is Power" Since there
is more knowledge then there was
nineteen hundred years ago when st.
Paul spoke the above words | de-
duct there is more power. And by
like process of reasoning we conclude
that when nineteen hundred years
have rolled around the worlds store
house Of knowledge will have grown
and the worlds power will be- infin-
itely greater than now.
The Teutonic enemy Of the world
has been met and vanquished but
there is the great enemy ignorance
still with U.S. There are worlds OF
ways in which ignorance is apparent
ignorance Of the Bible, ignorance
in politics, government, education and
how to keep healthy. 1t is this latter
form Of ignorance that ] especi-
ally have mind in this article.
Not many years ago the sale OF
intoxicating liquors in West Virginia
was considered an honorable occup-
ton for the seller and an inoffensive
act for one to buy them and drink
Them West Virginia was voted dry
and recently three fourths of the
state Legislatures of the United
States adopted our example and as
result the nation will be made dry
this year. What has made the
change? say education, People
have learned that it is an expensive
traffic to maintain, even if few pal
try dollars do accrue to the govern
meat as revenue. About twenty
years before our state went dry
there was a vote taken and the vets
carried Overwhelmingly. 1t remained
for the presentgeneration to vote
West Virginia dry We did so by a
10000 majority the result of edu-
cation.
Barbour County once had saloons,
Belington had saloons. It would be
indeed interesting to know what it
cost the taxpayers in extra taxation
4 to pay for the murder trials, the
shooting and cutting scrapes and the
stealing that resulted from drink
juries had to be paid, sheriffs and
constables had to be paid, witnesses
to the crime had TO be paid, to say
nothing of supporting the criminals
) that filed our jails-Should we have
sympathy for such criminals, but re-
calling that society was responsible
for their crime? To repevt the
county ard state paid dearly in dol
lars and cents for supporting nefar-
iousiasiness. ! have not space to
write about the heart-aches.
But the record says the state is
, dry, the nation will be dry, what does
the writer mean? My idea has been
that the old way was to punish the
; offender after crime had been com
; mitted and to show that a better
plan is to prevent the individual from
committing a crime by educating
, him. Again, | believe it would be
better economies to pay our money
to the education of our boys and
girls than to pay it out to lawyers,
juries etc: as we used to do.
This same idea may be oted in an
other field. Many of our diseases
are the outgrowth of ignorance. A
disease has slowly but gradually been
working on man. He consults his
physician. The physician calls the
, affection dyspepsia. For the first
time the patient realizes he has dys-
! pepsia. He pays out great sums in
doctor bills tryig to get re-
lief. 1t is expensive to say nothing
of the hours he suffers. A prema-
ture death probably is the result
Had he had proper knowledge Of the
amount and kind Of things to eat,