Puslapio vaizdai
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life. Whenever we find a tendency to it in ourselves or in others, it should be resisted. It is nothing less than abominable egotism which is contemptible enough even where restrained, but becomes positively dangerous when entrusted with power.

When, therefore, the preservation of health is urged as a duty the very last thing intended is to lay down rules for every man, woman, and child alike. By the aid of those gifted scientists who make this matter their special study, every man and woman must find out for himself and herself what to eat, drink, and avoid-how to live, in fact, so as to maintain a full degree of health and strength. It would be downright folly to say to all alike, You must touch no wine, or beer, or spirits; you must never smoke, you must never be out of bed after ten o'clock, you must bathe in cold water daily all the year round, you must walk your twelve miles a day and soforth; all excellent rules for some people, but very bad ones for others. Each must find out by a prudent amount of study and attention what suits him best, and what is hurtful, and be guided accordingly, living by the laws he has thus discovered which regulate his own health. But the chief errors of the day are that men are so immersed in occupation, in making money, or in pursuing their various tastes, that they sacrifice their health to their pursuits, they build up fortunes while they shorten their days, or they gratify present inclinations and appetites at the expense of soundness and vitality. That is one error. The

other is that the young presume npon their youth. That beautiful elasticity which Nature provides before they have become hardened aud moulded by age and habit makes them spring up so fresh after a season of depression, that while they are young they will have their fun, as they think, without paying much for it, if it cost anything at all. Their morning headache and incapacity for breakfast is washed away by some extra glasses of sherry or soda and brandy, and by about midday they are once more ready for a healthy meal, little dreaming that every such attack of pain or indigestion-particulary when driven away by stimulants without food-leaves them absolutely less vigorous, less vital, and more liable to chronic disease than before.

But this is only an illustration and was not intended to divert the attention of older people or sober matrons, or steady young men and women, from the duty of keeping themselves as healthy as they possibly can. Ten thousand causes are at work to tempt people to neglect their health. Sometimes not wealth, but poverty is the temptation; and short-sighted matrons, out of mistaken economy, deprive themselves either of proper nourishment or needful rest, thus robbing their families of what is infinitely more valuaable to them than the wretched pence which their self-denial may have saved. Good, kind, and thoughtful children too may do an irreparable wrong to their parents all through a mistaken kindness to save expense. They will go without proper protection from rain and cold, with boots and shoes not mended in time; will walk home through wild weather or at late hours to save the cost of a cab, and by some such well-meant but most stupid actions bring on an illness which costs a hundred times more than the money saved, to say nothing of the misery which sickness brings into a household.

And here I am landed at the kernel of what I wanted to say to you to-day. Does it need any words of mine to shew the pain and toil and anxiety which sickness entails, not only upon the invalid, but upon those who love him? Can one go and do a more cruel wrong to father and mother, or husband or wife, or child, or brother and sister, than by carelessly getting ill, or losing health by avoidable behaviour?

To anyone who knows what it is to witness sickness in one who is dear; who knows not merely the toil of nursing, the perpetual supply of wants, the running up and down stairs, or the still worse confinement and gloom of a sick-chamberthese are all bearable and in a grim sense consolatory offices borne for love-but to anyone who knows the sorrow which clouds the heart and loads the spirit through native sympathy, and the worse dull pain of suspense and fear as to how the attack may end, will know also what a cruel thing it is to be ever ill if one can help it. There is only one thing worse, and that is to be wicked. For no greater wrong can we do to those on whom we are dependent for care and

sustenance than to pile up on the top of a load of extra duties and expenses, a weight of sorrow and care which only the hearts of parents or husbands and wives can ever know. If the young could only realize at what cost parental care and love have been showered upon them from their very birth, they would before all things-sin only exceptedavoid exposing themselves to the inrcads of disease.

And they in turn have the same sacred claim over their parents and guardians. The father and mother have no right for anything in the world save their children's good to risk their lives or even the interruption of their health. The more precious they are, the more valuable their lives as the household stay and the source of its order and well-being, the greater should be their care of themselves, as of a sacred trust which they hold for the welfare of their families. The care of health should be paramount to all things save the maintenance of virtue and the health of others. No worldly interests, no ambition, no adoration of pounds or pence, no regard for the gossip of one's neighbours, nothing great or small should be allowed to interfere with the faithful performance of this second but great commandment. The first is "Thou shalt be good." The second is "Thou shalt be in perfect health if thou canst."

Moreover, do we owe nothing to posterity? Some of us assuredly do not; to them the perilous honour of parentage has been denied or been by them refused. But what of parents and would-be parents? Are we to forget for a moment that law of nature by which our offspring inherit our health and our disease; by which an unborn yet uumberless posterity may be blessed with soundness of body and mind, or doomed to suffering, if not final extinction, by the poisons which now run in our veins. It is a solemn thought, and we in this century have less excuse than our ignorant ancestors; for we cannot say as they could say "We know not the law.".

Science has spread abroad enough knowledge at least to warn us against the crime of entailing on our posterity the consequences of preventable disease. Could an angel guide us through the wards of the Hospitals for which we are sub

scribing this day and trace for us, through the mercifully concealed past, every pain, and pang, and dying sigh, up to its parent sin or folly, I think we should take a somewhat more true and more solemn view of our responsibilities as the guardians of our own health and of that of the generations yet to come. The insight might shake our reverence for our honoured ancestry, but we should learn by it once for all that to injure our health wilfully or not to preserve it to the best of our power is nothing less than a crime against God and man.

CARTER & WILLIAMS, Printers, 14, Bishopsgate Avenue, Camomile Street, E.C.

The Letter and the Spirit.

A SERMON,

PREACHED AT ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LANGHAM
PLACE, JUNE 20, 1875, BY THE

REV. CHARLES VOYSEY.

2 COR., III., 6.—" The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

T is a characteristic of modern orthodoxy to make frequent use of this profound aphorism; and so far from ridiculing the practice, I consider it not only the truest wisdom, but the most hopeful sign of a coming momentous change in orthodox minds.

Whether the Bible itself and the Christian dogmas derived from it be accepted literally, or be interpreted after a so-called spiritual manner, must indeed make an enormous difference to those who regard the Bible and the dogmas as of Divine authority. So long as they are accepted in their literal sense, no escape is possible from the flagrant errors which abound therein; the same absurdities, contradictions, incredibilities, immoralities, and unconscious blasphemies must retain their hold upon the believer's mind. But if once the principle of a spiritual interpretation be admitted; if, in fact, it be allowed to affirm that the words of God do not mean exactly what they say, and that the most sacred mysteries of theology are presented in language which does not exactly correspond to the facts or assumed facts which the dogmas affirm; then the whole fabric of Christian belief is in grave peril; for the very foundations are sapped, and the fall of the super-structure is only a question of time.

Rev. C. Voysey's sermons are to be obtained at St. George's Hall, every Sunday morning, or from the Author (by post), Camden House, Dulwich, S.E. Price one penny postage a halfpenny.

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