St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-04
Urging That It Increases the Years on
This Earth, and Insures Life
Everlasting.
Mr.. Beecher Likens the Development
OF Man TO That OF the Tiny
Mustard Seed.
The Chief Ends OF Man Love, JOY,
Peace, Long-Sufering, Gentle
ness and Self-Control.
DIR. TaImage,s sermon.

January Sd, 1856 The old almanacs and
the old memorandum flung aside. Every
thing TO remind US of the fact that another
volume in he 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 mistake 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
cannot pronounce the word religion" with
out hearing in it the clipping chisel of the
tombstone cutter. It is high time that this
thing were changed, and that religion
instead of being represented as a hearse TO
carry out the dead. should be represented
as a chariot in which the living are To
triumph. Religion so far from subtracting
from ones vitality is a glorious addition.
II Is sanatiye, 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 that religion may
be dominant he does not speak of il as a
mild sickness or an emaciatiOn. or an attack
OF
MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CRANP;
he speaks of it as 1.-THE saving health of all
nations" while God pronounces 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
$50 years. AS late in the history of the
world as VeSpasian there were ut one time
in his empire fOrty-tive people 135 years
old. So far down as the sixteenth century
Peter Tartan died at 1S5 years of age. do
not say that religion will ever take the race
back to antediluyian longevity, but do say
the length of human life will be greatly i'm
proved. 1t is said in Isaiah XIV. 20: 1.-The
child shall die hundred years old" Now,
If, according to the scriptures, the child
is to be hundred years old, may not the
men and women reach to three hundred
and four hundred and five hundred? The
fact is that we are mere dwarfs and skele-
tons compared with some of the generations
that are to come. Take the African race.
They have been under bondage for cen
turtles. Give them a chance and they de-
velOp Frederick Douglass OF TOussaint
FOuyertUre, 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 full 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? 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 health
a positive Christian duty. Whether we
shall keep early or late hours, whether we
shall take food digestible or indigestlble,
whether there shall be thorough or ineOm-
plete masticatiOn. are questions very often
deferred to the realms of whimSicality. but
the Christian man lifts this whole problem
of health to the accountable and divine.
He says: God has given me this body and
He has called it the temple of the Holy
Ghost, and to deface its affairs or mar its
walls or crumble its pillars is GOd-defying
sacrilege." He sees Gods caligraphy in
every page. anatomical and physiological.
He says: God has given me wonderful
body for noble purposes" That arm with
thirty-tw curious bones, welded by forty
six curious muscles, and all under the brain
telegraphy; three hundred and fifty pounds
OF blood rushing through the heart every
hour; the heart in twenty-fOur hours beat
ing one hundred thousand times, during the
twenty-four hours overcoming resistance
amounting TO two hundred and twenty-four
million pounds weight; during the same
time the lungs taking in fifty seven hogs
heads of air; and all this mechanism not
more mighty than delicate, and easily dis
turbed and demolished. The Christian
man saws to himself: IF 1 hurt my nerves
l hurt my brain, if hurt any of my physi-
cal faculties
INSULT GOD
and call for dire retTibutiOn." Why did God
tell the Levites not to offer TO Him in sacri-
fee animals imperfect or diseased? He
meant to tell us in all the ages that we are
to offer to God our very best physical con-
ditiOn; and man who, through irregular or
gluttonOus eating, ruins his health, is not
offering to God such a sacrifice. Why did
Paul write for his cloak at Troas? Why
should such great man as Paul be anxious
about thing so insignificant as an over
coat? 1t was because he knew that with
pneumonia and rheumatism he would not
be worth half as much to God and the
church as with respiration easy and foot
free. An intelligent Christian man would
consider it an absurdity to kneel down at
night and pray and ask Gods protection,
while at the same time he kept the windows
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 subject of
physical health to the realm of whimsi
cality, or to the pastry cook, or to the
butcher, or to the baker, or to the apothe
cary, or to the clothier. you are not acting
like a Christian. The care of all your
physical fOrceS-nervOuS, muscular, bone,
brain, cellular tisSue-for all you must be
brought to judgment. Smoking your nerv-
Gus system into idgets, burning out the
coating of your stomach with wine log
wooded 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;
groaning about sick headache and palpita-
tons Of the heart, which you think come
from God, when they come from
YOUR OWN FOLLY!
What right has any man or any woman
to deface the temple of the Holy Ghost?
Accept the sacrifice Of religion and quit
worrying. Take the tonic, the inspiration,
the longevity of this truth. Religion is
sunshine; that is healthy. Religion is fresh
air aud pure water; they are healthy. Re-
ligion is warmth; that is healthy. Ask all
the doctors. and they will tell you that a
quiet conscience and pleasant antieipations
are hygienic. 1 offer you perfect peace
now and hereafter. What do you want in
the future world? Tell me and you shall
have it. Orchards? There are the trees
with twelve manner of fruits. yielding
fruit every month. Water? Scenery?
There is the River Of Life from under the
- C~I cfal nd hc
OF glass mingled with fire, Do you want
muSic9 There il the OratOriO of the Crea-