Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-06-15
The Possibility Of the Return of The
Human Race to AntedilNian
Longevity.
VS. sre Msrs DMzrfs and Skeletons
Compared with Memo OF the Genera.
items THAI Are TO Gene.
r Dewitt TalnaEe Argues that Practical
Religion IL the Friend 10 Physical De-
velopneEt nnd Long LAfe.
special to the Gazette.

BROOKLYN, H.Y., June lo-As the
Tabernacle this morning, after expound-
ing some passages Of Scripture in regard
TO the diet OF Daniel Snd his Rbstemious
habits, the Rev. =. Dewitt Talmsge,
DID, gave out the hymn beginning:
Glory to God on high.
Let heaven and earth reply.
He announced as the subject OF h!a
sermon: "Does Religion Prolong Lif=7"
snd preached from the text found in
Psalm Of, V. Is: ,"WiGh long life will l
satisfy him" Following Is the discourse
in full:
Through the mistake Of It's friends re-
lision has been chi ~ associated with
sick beds and graveysrds. The who'll
subject to mnny people is odosous With
chlorine and csrbohc acid. There are
people who cannot pronounce the word
religion without hearing in il the clippiD G
chisel Of the tombstone cutter. Il is
high time that this thing were charged
ami that religion, instead OF being repre-
serted IS hesrse 30 carry ouE the dead ,
should be represented as chariot in
which the living are To triumph.
Religion, so far from substrsctipg from
ene's vitality, is glorious addition. 1t
is ssn6tive, curative, hygiepic. 1t is good
for the eyes, good for the ears, good for
the spleen, good for the digestion, good
fer the nerves, good for the muscles.
When DsvId In another part Of the
Psalms, pr4ys that religion may be domi-
rAnt he does Lot speak OF 1t as
mild sickness, or an emaciation,
or az attack Of moral and
spiritual cramp; he speaks OF It as
"the saving health OF all nations;"
while God, in the tex, promises Iongev-
ity to the pious, saying: "With long life
Will I satisfy him"
The fact Is that meu 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
nine hundred and thirty ye.Ts. Methuse-
lLh lived nine hundred and Sixty-nire
years. AS late in the history Of the world
as Vespasian, there Were at one TINA in
his empire forty-nve people one hundred
and thirty dive years cid. So far down IS
the sixteenth century, Peter Z1rtan died
ST one hundred and eignty-h Vo years OF
age. do not sEy thst religion will ever
take the race back to antediluviHn longev-
i.y, but / do ssy the length Of humaa life
viii De greatly improved.
II Ia said in Isaiah: "Tne cdild shall
die hundred years old" Now, IL &C
cordiIg to Scripture the child Is 10 be
hundred yeErs old, may not the men and
women reach TO three hundred and four
hundred aud five hundred? The fact is
that we sre mere
DWARFs AND SKELETONS
compared win some of the gene atoms
that are to come. Take the African race.
-, Asn fO- ,Gr3
ries> Give them chsnce and they de-
Velop Frederick Douglass or Tous-
saint L'Ouverture. And il the white race
shall De brought from uader the serfdom
of sin, WHIST shall be the body? what shall
be tina soul? Religion mas only just
touched our world. Give 1t full power
for q few centuries, and who can tall
what will be the strength OF man and the
beauty Of woman, sn6 the longevity OF
Ali
My design is to show that practical re-
ligIon is the friend of long life. prove
1t FIRST, from the fact that 1t makes the
care of our health positive Christian
duty. Whether We snail keep early or
Iats hours, whether we sasll tsks
food digestible or indigestiole,
whether there shall be thorough
or incomplete msstication, are questions
very often deferred to the realm CT 1him-
slcality, bur the Christian man lifts this
whole problem Of health into the account.
sole ard 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 msr its walls, or
crumble It's pillars is God-de!ying SAC
rilege."
He sees Gods csligrsphy IN every
psge-anstomical ard physiological. He
says: "God has given me wonderful
body for noble purposes"
That arm with thirty-two curious bones,
welded by forty-six curious muscles,
and all under the brains telegrep6Y; $50
pounds of blood rushing through the
heart every hour, the heart intwenty-four
hours beating 100, 600 times, during the
twenty-four hours overcoming resistances
amounting to 224, ooG,o00 pounds OF
weight, during the same time the lungs
are taking in hity-seVen hogshesds OF sir,
and all this mechanism not more mighty
than delicate eaeily disturbed and demoi-
ished.
The Christian man says to himself
AT hurt my nerves, il hurt my brain.
II hurt any Of my physical faculties l
Insult God and call for dire retribution."
Why did God tel the LeVltes not 10 enef
10 Him in sacrifice animals
INrRRFECT AND DIsuAsEDf
He meant to tell as in all the ages that |
We sre to offer to God our very best |
physics 81 condition and 8 man who through |
Irregular or glutonous eating ruins his
health is not Offering to God such sacrl-
Ace. Why did Paul write for his cloak at
Troas2 Why should such great man as
Paul be anxious about thing SO insig-
nincsnt as an overcoat? 1t was because
he knew that with pneumonis and rheu-
mstisR he would not be worth half as
much TO God and the church IS with res
plration easy and foot free.
An intelligent Christian man would con-
sIoer It an absurditY to kneel down OF
night and prsy and ask Gods protection
while at the same tine he Kept the win
doHs of his bedroom tight shut agains!
fresh air. He would just as soon think
Of going out on the bridge between New
York and Brooklyn, lesping OF and then
to God to keep him from getting
hurt. Just &C long IS you defer this
whole subject Of physical health TO the
realm of whinsiCsli!y, or to the pastry
COOK, or to the butcher, or to the baker,
or to the appthecnry, or 10 the clotnier,
you are not acting like Christian. Take
n ave- ~ a II uour phu sica1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. |