Page:How to Get Strong (1899).pdf/86

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HOW TO GET STRONG

Thomas Guthrie, first tying one hand behind him, with the other could whip any man in Oxford who would also fight one-handed. Who doubts that the vigor so evinced had much to do with the faithful, arduous life's work he did, and did so well that all Scotland is to-day justly proud of him? Of Dr. Guthrie and Norman Macleod, Professor John Stuart Blackie says:


"Two men, the large human breadth, the sunny cheerfulness, strong good sense and the dignified grace of whose preaching will remain deeply engraven on every Scottish heart as long as Scotland is Scotland."


Had the magnificent breadth and depth of Spurgeon's chest, and his splendid outfit of vital organs, no connection with his great power and influence as a preacher of world-wide renown? Had the splendid physique and abounding vitality of Henry Ward Beecher—greater almost than that of any man in a hundred thousand—nothing to do with his ability to attend to his duties as pastor, author, lecturer, and editor—work enough to kill half a dozen ordinary men—and with the tireless industry which preceded his marked success in them all?

Is there anything feeble about any of these? Put the tape-measure around them anywhere you like, and see how generous nature has been with them. Is it all a mere chance that they had splendid bodies? Why is it that we never hear of such as these having "ministers' sore throat," and "blue Mondays;" and having to be sent by their congregations, every now and then, away to a foreign land to recruit their health, and keep them up to their work? Do sound and sturdy bodies, and due attention daily to keeping them in good repair,

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