The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-08
International
SundaySchoolLesson
RY WILLIAM II. ELLIS.

a about Health; I. Cor. 6:1s. 20:
9:24, 27; Gal. SD, s.
Heresies About Health.
For the current three months the
Sunday schools of the world are study
ing a series of topical lessons on
Some Social Teachings of the Bible"
This second lesson of the course deals
with "Bible Teachings About Health"
These present comments are planned
while the writer lies in a hospital in
Porto Rico, looking out upon the palm
trees and the blue waters Of the Carib
bean sea. after an operation and an
experience which took him to the
very gates of the life wherein there
is neither pain nor sorrow. So the
subject is treated from a somewhat
expert and authoritative standpoint.
At least, what follows is the fruit of
long and quiet musings in a place
where everything is attuned to the
note of physical suffering.
Naturally, amid such conditions.
one might be expected to echo the
common cry, Health is the most i'm
portant> thing in the world" On the
contrary I am clear in the conviction
that neither the Bible nor human exs
perience supports this popular idea.
Instead, there is ample reason for de-
claring that this modern cult of
health, despite all that is right and
desirable in it. is one of the greatest
heresies of our modern times. Our
day has exalted physical well-being
and physical sensations into wholly
disproportionate Importance.
Health is not the first considera-
stion of life; any civilization that makes
1t so is bound to so the way of body
Lpampering Rome.
The Carcass as an Idol.
nx. ~ Shaak aoabaro af eo ka41x
of our western worlds democracy is
that millions of men and women are
sohefly thinking about the trend of
the times and about things in gen
eral. And the common observation
of all who give real thought to the
symptoms and tendencies of our own
day is that people generally are plac-
ing too strong an accent upon the body
and its sensations. Materialism has
the right of way. Pleasures of the
senses are engrossing the world. Eat
ing and drinking and seeing and feel
ing land the general indulging and
adjoining of the body are the present
engrossment of the race. Our days
mood is frankly and rather shameless
ly carnal. The pendulum has swung
to the limit away from the high hero
ism of self-sacrifice which it reached
during the war.
All this is so obvious that it needs
no bill of particulars. A glance at
the clothes of the young people, espe-
eially of the young women: a peep
into the motion picture theaters of
even the smallest towns; a scanning
of the news columns of the daily pa
pers; a thought of the relative i'm
poFtance of athletics and scholarship
lin our colleges-in almost every di-
rection one turns, this present mood
of Inaterialism is manifest. The body
and it's appetites is in the saddle to-
do To- e-TaF ~ il
world root back into sheer earna1-
mindedness; and neglect of the Scrip
tural teaching that "A mans life con-
sistethsnot in the al undance of things
which he possesses.
Ss4y prses yet. The land has been
seized with a5yast vogue of what may
Ne called health religions" There
are perhaps a dozen creeds and cults
today which make healing and phys
ical welfs being central to their teaehS
ings. They call themselves by more
or less metaphysical names, :but the
betterment Of the physical life. The
popularity of these body-bettering re-
ligions is of profound significance.
They are a radical departure from
Saint Paurs principle: ~ keep my
body under"
Sharpening the Souls Scythe.
This idea that physical well being
is first, which is at the basis of the
devastating principle of raciticisIn,
must be met boldly and faced in the
spirit and with the teachings of the
New Testament.
OF course, it goes without saying
that our bodies are the zoois with
which our personalities work, and
therefore should be kept in condition.
Care of the body is as important as
the sharpening of the farmer scythe
hI1t aff a 70 he q aIx a
scythe; it is not the farmer I'VE
have bodies" runs the old saying, TO
which a wise man retorted, Yes, we
have bodies, but we are souls" Our
souls are not the servants of our
bodies; but our bodies are the servants
of our souls.
Some reader is saying, "Does not
our lesson text tell us that our bodies
are the temples of the Holy Spirit ?"
Assuredly; but they are only the tenn
pies, meant for ministry of the Divine
Inhabitant; they are not the Holy Spi-
rift. The body's place is a secondary
place, not a primary one. The real
reason, which the Scripture makes
clear. for taking care of the body is
that it may fulfill its highest spiritual
mission. The three passages assigned
as the basis of the present Lesson are
all to the effect that the physical man
should be kept subordinate to the
soul. That the International Lesson
Committee could find no stronger plea
for the care of the iealth is almost
sufficient comment upon the Lesson
They seem to say, Keep the body
scythe sharp, that it may do the souls
work we'll"
Who Is at the Helm?
Said a wise Scotch shipmate te me
the other day, >as we talked of hooks
and men, s'fThere seem to be no great
books being written these days.
Then he went on to explain that he
meant books of noble vision; fiction of
high idealisHl, works that would live
Instead, we have a dreadful torrent OF
trivial and smart and sensual
stories; and a stage that is salacious
beyond belief
Obviously, the reason is that our
generation has put the body at the
helm of life's ship; and one wonders