The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-01-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
a Short Sermon ON Long Life for
the human Race.
Uow We shorten Our Lives by Dis.
obedience to Natural Laws-The Re.
uSioa Of Health-Christianity
and Hygieae.

and Hysieae.
Dr.. Talmage, in . recent sermon, took
the subject Of "Long Life" as his theme,
the following text being used as the foun.
dation:
That thy days may be long upon the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee--E1o-
dus xx, l..
January Sd, 1886! The old almanacs and
the old memorandums 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
20 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 i. the clipping chisel Of the
tombstone cutter. It is high time tina this
thing were changed and that religion, in
stead Of being represented as a hearse to
carry out the dead, should DO represented
umph. Religion, SO far from subtractiag
from ones vitality, is a glorious addition.
1t is sanative, curative, hygienic. 1t is
good for the eyes, good for the ears, good
for tie spleen, good for the digestion,
good Tor the nerves, good for the muscles.
When David in the Psalms prays
that religion may be dominant he does not
speak of i. as 4 mild sickness or an emacia-
ton. or an attack of moral and spiritual
cramp; be speaks of it as ''the saving
health of all nations" while God pro-
nounces long life to the pious, saying:
18th long life will l 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
t. improve human longevity. Adam lived
80 years. Methusaleh lived $50 years. As
late in the history of the world as Vespa-
sian, there were at one time in his empire
forty-tive people 1:j years old. So far
down as the sixteenth century Peter Ear
tan died at iSJ years of age. do not say
that religion will ever take the race back
TO antediluvian longevity, but do say the
length of human life will be greatly i'm
proved. 1t is said in Isaiah XIV, 20: "The
child shall die hundred years old" Now,
il. 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
genera tipnS TN at ara To coma
Take the African race. They have been
under bondage for centuries. Give them
a chance and they develop a Frederick
Douglass or Toussaint rOuverture. And
If the white race shall be brought out from
under the serfdom OF sin, what shall be the
body? What shall be the soul? Religion
has only just touched our world. Give it
fuu power for few centuries, and who
can tell what will be the strength of man
and the beauty of woman and the long life
of all?
Ny design is to show you that practical
religion is the friend of long life, and 1
prove it first from the fact that it makes
tie care of our hysical health q positive
Christian duty. Whether we shall keep
early or late hours: whether We shall take
food digestibie or indisestible; whether
there shall be thorough OF incomplete mas
tication, are questions very often deferred
to the realm of whimscality; 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 lie has called it the temple of the Holy
Ghost, and to deface its 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 me a 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 biography; $50 pounds of
blood rushing through the heart every
hour: the heart in twenty -four hours beat
ing 10000 TINES; during the twenty
four hours overcoming resistance
amounting to a24,OOO,0O0 pounds
weight; during the same time the lungs
taking in fifty hogsheads of air; and
ali this mechanism not more mighty than
delicate, and easily disturbed and deaol-
ishej. The Christian man says to himself:
eff hurt my nerves, if hurt my brain, if
hurt any of my physical faculties, in
suit God and call for dire retribution."
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 a man who
through irregular or gluttonou, eating,
ruins his health, is not offering to God such
a sacrifice. Why did Paul write for his
Cloak at Troas: Why should such a great
man as Paul be anxious about thing so
Insignificant as an 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-
nj at to pray and ask Gods protection,
while at the SAME time he kept the win
6ows 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 of 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
no. acting like Christian. The care OF
all your physical forces-neryous, 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 feet look delicate; pinched at
the waist until you are nigh cut in two,
and neither part worth anything; groan-
ins about sick headache and palpitation