The Brookhaven leader., 1886-01-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Short Sermon on Long Life for
the Human Race.
How We shorten our Lives by Dis
obedience to- Natural LawS-The Re-
llsion of Health Christianity
and Hygiene.


the following text h'ing usel as the foun-
dation:
That thy da, may 20. long upon the land
which tho Lord thy GnI g.vath thcc.-ENo.
dus NJ, y
January ID. I>>j' The Old almanacs and
the oil m.mprauims Hun aside. Every
thing To remind Us of tL- fact that another
volume in the history OF time has begun,
and every thrughtful man and woman at
such time discusses the lyngth or the short
ness OF human life. Faithful discharge Of
duty j., in my text Sc: forth as having much
10 do with tbe length of our earthly stay.
Through the mistakes Of its friends religion
has been chiefly associated with sick beds
and graveyard- This whole subject to
many people is oiorous with chlorine and
Carholic acil. There arc people who can
not pronounce the word rel gion" with
out hearing in it the clipping chisel of the
tombstone cutter 1t is high time that this
thing were changed and that religion, in
stead OF being represented as a heGrse TO
carr, out the dead, should be represented
a. a chariot in which the living are % tri-
umrh. Relision, 50 far from subtracting
from ones vitality, is a glorious addition.
Ii is sanative, curative, hygienic. Il is
good Tor the eyes. good for the ears. good
for the spleen, good for the digestion,
good Tor the nerves, good FOR the muscles.
When David in the Psalms pravs
/ that religion may be dominant he does not
speak Of il q, a mid sickness or an enacia-
ton, OF an attack of moral and spiritual
cramp; he speaks OF it as "the saving
health Of all nations while God pro-
nounces LONG lie to the pious, saying:
"With long life viii satisfy thee"
The fact is that men and women die too
soon. II i high time that religion joined
thu hand OF medical science in attempting
to improve human longevity. Adam lived
9@e rrars. Mcthusalph lived $50 years. AS
lat in the history of the world as NespG-
sian, there were at one time il his empire
fort;-five people 135 years old. SO far
down the sixteenth century Peter Ear
tan died a Isl years OF aEe. | do not say
that religion will ever take the race back
TO antediluvian longevity, but dc say the
lenxth of human life viii lie greatly i'm
proved. 1t is said in Isaiah Ky, -: The
child shall die 4 hundred wears old" Now,
if according to the Scriptures, the child is
10 he i hundred years old. may not the
Inca and women reach to 800, and 100 and
boz The fact is that We are mere dwarfs
aal skeletons compared with some OF the
generations that arr to come.
Take the African race. They have been
under bondage Tor centuries. Give them
q chance and they develop Frederick
Douglass or Touesaiu5 FOuyerture. And
ii lhe " hit race shall he brought out from
under the ,-rtdom Of sin, what shall he the
body: What shall be the soul: Religion
has only just touched our world Give it
fun power Tor few centuries, and who
can tell what VIII be the strength of man
and the hraU.y OF woman and the long life
or all:
My desi N IS to show you that practical
religion IS the friend OF long life, and l
prove il FIRST from the fact that it makes
the care Of our physical health a positive
Christian duty. Whether we shall keep
early Or late hours: whether We shall take
food digasdble OF indigrstble; whether
there shall s'e thorough o. incomplete mas
tIcation, are questions very often deferred
to the realm Of whimsicalisy; but the
Christian man lifts this whole problem OF
health into the accountable and the divine.
lie says: God has given me this body
Ghost, and . defuce its affairs. or mar its
walls, or crumhIa its pillars is a od-deGy-
Ing -acrilrge." He sees Gods callisraphy
in every page, anatomical and physiologi-
cal Tie says: "God has given me Won
derI"l body for noble purposes" That
arm, with thirtytwo curious bones, WELD
81 Y forty-six curious muscles, and all
under the brain tele graphy; $50 pounds Of
blood rushing through the heart every
hour: the heart in ;wenty-four hours beat
ing lI),oo) times; during the twenty
four hours overcoming resistance
amounting to 22l,0Q0,0O9 pounds
weight; during the same time the lungs
taking in fifty seven hogsheads of air: and
all this mechanism not more mighty than
delicate, and easily disturbed and demol-
ished The Christian man says to himself:
"if aurt my nerves, if hurt my brain, il
han" any of my physical faculties, l in
Suit God and call for dire retribution."
Way did God tell the Icyites not to offer
10 him in sacrifice animals imperfect or
diseased: He meant to tell us in all the
ages that we are to offer to God our very
, best physical condition; and a man who
/ through irregular or gluttonous eating,
/ ruins his health, is not Offering to God such
sacrifice. Why did Paul write for his
/ cloak at Troas: Why should such great
man as Paul be anxious about thing SO
ms gniicant as IN overcoat? 1t was be-
cause he knew that with pneumonia and
rheumatism he would not be worth half as
much to God and the Church as with res
piration easy and foot free.
An intelligent Christian man would con-
slider il an absurdity to kneel down at
night 20 pray and a k Gods protection,
while at the same time he kept the win
dows of his bedroom tight shut against
fresh air. He would just as soon think of
going out on the bridge between New
York and Brooklyn, leaping off and then
praying to God to keep him from getting
hurt. Just as long as You defer this whole
rubiect Of physical health to the realm OF
I whmSicality, OF 20 the pastry cook,
/ or to the butcher or to the baker, Oh to the
/ apochccary, OF to the clOthier, you are
not acting like Christian. The care of
all your physical forces-nervous, mus
cular, bone, brain, cellular tissue-for all
you must be brought to judgment.
! Smoking your nervous system into
| fidgets; burning out the coating of your
stomach with wine logwooded and
strychnined; walking with thin shoes to
make your fee look delicate; pinched at
the waist until you are nigh cut in two,
and neither part worth anything; groan-
| ing about sick headache and palpitatiOn
of the heart, which you think come from
! God, when they come from your own fol-
/ ly! What right has any man or any
woman 10 deface the temple of the Holy