Women -- Social and moral questions; Women -- Social conditions
traitor to the soul, and played the adversary with fearful power. Who
can tell the countless temptations to evil which flow in from a
neglected, disordered, deranged nervous system,--temptations to anger,
to irritability, to selfishness, to every kind of sin of appetite and
passion? No wonder that the poor soul longs for the hour of release from
such a companion.
But that human body which God declares expressly was made to be the
temple of the Holy Spirit, which he considers worthy to be perpetuated
by a resurrection and an immortal existence, cannot be intended to be a
clog and a hindrance to spiritual advancement. A perfect body, working
in perfect tune and time, would open glimpses of happiness to the soul
approaching the joys we hope for in heaven. It is only through the
images of things which our _bodily_ senses have taught us, that we can
form any conception of that future bliss; and the more perfect these
senses, the more perfect our conceptions must be.
The conclusion of the whole matter, and the practical application of
this sermon, is:--First, that all men set themselves to form the idea of
what perfect health is, and resolve to realize it for themselves and
their children. Second, that with a view to this they study the religion
of the body, in such simple and popular treatises as those of George
Combe, Dr. Dio Lewis, and others, and with simple and honest hearts
practise what they there learn. Third, that the training of the bodily
system should form a regular part of our common-school education,--every
common school being provided with a well-instructed teacher of
gymnastics; and the growth and development of each pupil's body being as
much noticed and marked as is now the growth of his mind. The same
course should be continued and enlarged in colleges and female
seminaries, which should have professors of hygiene appointed to give
thorough instruction concerning the laws of health.
And when this is all done, we may hope that crooked spines, pimpled
faces, sallow complexions, stooping shoulders, and all other signs
indicating an undeveloped physical vitality, will, in the course of a
few generations, disappear from the earth, and men will have bodies
which will glorify God, their great Architect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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