The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-02-04
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-
Mgion of Health-Christianity
and Hygiene.

and Hygiene.
DR.. TaImage, in a recent sermon, took
the subject of "Long Life" as his theme,
the following text being used as the foun-
dalton:
That thy days may be long upon the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee.-Exo-
dus XIX, Il.
January Sd, 1886! The old almanacs and
the old memorandum flung aside. Every
thing to remind US of the fact that another
volume in the history of time has begun,
and every thoughtful man and woman at
such time discusses the length or the short
ness of human life. Faithful discharge of
duty is in my text set forth as having much
to do with the length of our earthly stay.
Through the mistakes of its friends religion
has been chiefly associated with sick-beds
and graveyards. This whole subject to
many people is odorous with chlorine and
carbolic acid. There are people who can
not pronounce the word religion" 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
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carry out the dead, should be represented
as chariot in which the living are to tri-
umph. Religion, so far from subtracting
from ones vitality, is a glorious addition.
It is sanative, curative, hygienic. 1t is
good for the eyes, good for the ears, good
for the spleen, good for the digestion,
good for the nerves, good for the muscles.
When David in the Psalms prays
chat religion may be dominant he does not
speak of IL as mild sickness or an emacia-
zion, or an attack of moral and spiritual
cramp; he speaks of it as "the saving
health Of all nations" while God pro-
aounces long life to the pious, saying:
"With long life will satisfy thee"
The fact is That men and women die too
soon. 1t is high time that religion joined
the hand of medical science in attempting
to improve human longevity, Adam lived
$50 years. Methusaleh lived 969 years. As
late in the history of the world as Vespa-
sian, there were at one time in his empire
forty-fve people 1856 years old. So far
down as the sixteenth century Peter Ear
tan died at 1856 years of age. do not say
that religion will ever take the race back
to antediluvian longevity, but I do say the
length Of human life will be greatly i'm
proved. 1t is said in Isaiah lxv., 20: "The
child shah die hundred years old.n Now,
if, according to the Scriptures, the child is
to be hundred years old, may not the
men and women reach to 800, and 400 and
500? The fact is that we are mere dwarfs
and skeletons compared with some of the
generations that are to come.
My design is to show you that practical
religion is the friend of long life, and /
prove it first from the fact that it makes
the care Of our physical health positive
Christian duty. Whether we shall keep
early or late hours: whether we shall take
food digestible or indigestible; whether
there shall be thorough or incomplete mas
tication, are questions very often deferred
to the realm of whimsicality; but the
Christian man lifts this whole problem of
health into the accountable and the divine.
He says: "God has given me. this body
and he has called it the temple of the Holy
Ghost, and to deface it's affairs, or mar its
walls, or crumble its pillars is God defy
ing sacrilege." He sees Gods calligraphy
In every page, anatomical and physiologi-
CAL He says: "God has given ms won
derful body for noble purposes" That
arm, with thirty two curious bones, WELD
ed by forty -six curious muscles, and all
under the brain telegraphy; $50 pounds of
blood rushing through the heart every
hour; the heart in twenty -four hours beat
ing 100000 times; during the twenty
four hours overcoming resistance
amounting to 224,000,000 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-
tshed. The Christian man says to himself:
"If hurt my nerves, if hurt my brain, if
Ihurt any of my physical faculties, in
suit God and call for dire retribution. 4"
Why did God tell the Levites not to offer
to 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 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 a great
man as Paul be anxious about a thing SO
Insignificant as an overcoat? Il 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 it an absfrdity to kneel down at
night to pray and ask Gods protection,
while at the same time he kept the win
dows of his bed-ro 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
subject Of physical health to the realm Of
whimsicality, or to the pastry cook
or to the butcher, or to the baker, or to the
apothecary, or 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
fdgets; burning out the coating OF your
stomach with wine iogwooded and
strychnined; walking with thin shoes to
make your feet look delicate; pinched Al
the waist until you are nigh cut in two
and neither part worth anything; groan.
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