Pure Air | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 10, 1863

Pure Air.

THE proper ventilation of meeting houses is a subject in which all who love to be found in the courts of the Lord have a vital interest, as all are more or less affected by the atmosphere therein, according to the state of their health, and the texture of their physical organization.

We are so constituted as to be greatly dependent on the quantity and quality of the air we breathe, for the amount of electricity we have in our system, and it is this subtle agent that we inhale that propels the life-current, the heart acting as the regulator. If impure air is taken into the system, it is deprived of that quantity of life-force which it demands by the laws of its own being, and which the Creator intended it should have when he breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life.

God has given us an atmosphere forty-five miles high, and even this could be exhausted in time, did it not contain within itself the means of its own purification, one of which is, that trees and plants live on carbonic-acid gas, which is exhaled from the lungs of men and animals, and by some mysterious process, only known in nature's secret laboratory, is decomposed, the oxygen returning to the atmosphere. It is a matter of scientific experiment that a man exhales twenty-four cubic inches each minute, of this poisonous carbonic-acid gas, and inhales an equal quantity of the life-giving oxygen, thus rendering a very large quantity of air impure, and unfit to be breathed over again in one hour.

Is it any wonder then, when a congregation is assembled on the Sabbath, without any thorough ventilating process, that the meeting is characterized by dullness, inattention, drowsiness, and a general feeling of stupor, with here and there a burning cheek, distressed palpitation of the heart, headaches, etc., etc.

Is it any wonder that the free Spirit of the Lord does not circulate freely from heart to heart, believing as we do that whatever hurts the body affects the mind, as it only exists in an organized form?

Is it any wonder that ministers so often complain of ill-health, standing as they do, elevated above the congregation, and taking in at every respiration the poisonous exhalations that might escape if proper means were in use? God is not honored nor glorified by his people's neglecting to observe the laws that regulate a healthy atmosphere. I would that some instrument, bearing the same relation to the purity of the air that the thermometer does to the heat, was in use, that nature's proportion of twenty-one pounds of oxygen to seventy-nine of nitrogen could evenly be maintained through the entire meeting; thus insuring as pure air for the closing services as for the opening song of praise.

"Throw open the window and fasten it there, Fling the curtain aside, and the blind, And give a free entrance to heaven's pure air; 'Tis the life and the health of mankind.

"Are you fond of coughs, colds, dyspepsy, and rheums, Of headaches, and fevers, and chills? Of bitters, hot drops, and medicine fumes, And bleeding, and blisters, and pills?

"Then be sure when you sleep that all air is shut out; Place, too, a warm brick at your feet, Put a bandage of flannel your neck quite about, And cover your head with a sheet.

"But would you avoid all forms of disease, Then haste to the fresh open air, Where your cheek may kindly be fanned by the breeze; 'Twill make you well, happy, and fair.

"Then open the window, and fasten it there, Fling the curtain aside and the blind, And give free admission to heaven's pure air; 'Tis light, life, and joy to mankind."

M. H. L.

REMARKS. The above lines of poetry were probably written in summer, and will not seem extravagant when applied to the warmer seasons. The philosophy of health in most cases is greatly neglected. The place of worship, whether it be the meeting-house or school-house, should be warmed at so early an hour, that the heat of the stoves be not on the increase as the speaker arises to address the audience. But one man should be allowed to tend the fires, and he should understand his business. He should never suffer the room to get so heated as to make it necessary to lower the windows to cool the house. The windows may all be lowered one or two inches in a cold day, but never so low that speaker or people can feel a strong current of keen air blowing upon them. Never!

The most ignorant farmer who, perhaps, cannot read a word, acts like a philosopher when he drives his team to market in a cold winter's day. If his team be warm, he seeks the best shelter, and covers his horses with blankets till they be cool and dry. Christians assembled for the worship of God sometimes act like idiots, or mad-men, in reference to their speaker and themselves.

The fire is built about twenty minutes before the time for the speaker to take the stand, and when he is fairly under way, warming up in the heat of his discourse, the stove or stoves begin to pour out a dreadful heat. The sweat rolls down his face, his voice becomes husky, he calls for water. The windows are dropped from one to two feet, the icy breeze pours into the windows upon the speaker wet with sweat, and upon the smothered audience, and they all take a severe cold. The veriest ignorant Dutch farmer would consider it a crime to treat his horses with as little wisdom.

It is true there are sudden changes in the atmosphere, and that we assemble sometimes in rooms where it is impossible in a cold day to have the house comfortable to all. Some are too warm, others too cold. But we would appeal to our brethren to avoid as far as possible those extremes which are wearing away the lives of our preachers, and endangering the health of the people.

We usually sleep with two windows open at opposite sides of the room, summer and winter, and take a cold-water sponge-bath in the morning, hence a healthy atmosphere, not destroyed by heat, is most congenial to our feelings. But few men have as strong lungs as we have, notwithstanding they were once broken down and weak. But few women have the strength of lungs that Mrs. W. has, though she has been given over by physicians to die with consumption. Had we allowed ourselves to be smothered in close sleeping-rooms, and given up to every pain and ache of the lungs, and throat, and head, and kept up a perpetual dosing with this and that medicine, we might now be silent in death, or dragging out a miserable existence, of no benefit to any one. Air, water, and light, are God's great remedies. If the people would learn to use these, doctors and their drugs would be in less demand.