A PARSON ON FOOTBALL.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 48, 24 August 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PARSON ON FOOTBALL.

At the Wesleyan Ohurch, Warrai gul\Victoria), the Eev. A. P. Bladen, ' who was at one time an enthusiastic 1 player of football, gave a very elol quent discourse on the attractions and i the repulsions of football. He said ] i St. Paul in his Epistles repeatedly i referred to the Isthmian games at . Corinth Football, which engrosses ; the attention of such a large proportion of the colonial population, is a . noble game, improving the physical i and mental powers of those who . engage in it. It cultivates the faculty i of decision, and enables a man to take i in at a glance a critical situation and i act upon it. The football field is i also an excellent school for the temper. The man who loses his temper in the i field makes an ass of himself, and is soon made to feel and know it. Unselfishness is another good trait of football, and is cultivated by the habit of giving up to a better man than ourselves the gratification of kicking a goal. Obedience and discipline are other lessons taught on the football field which may in after life prove invaluable. Among the repulsions of the game the rev. gentleman mentioned gambling and professionalism, the latter opening the way for bribery and corruption. The preacher drew interesting analogies between the noble game of football and the nobler game of life.