The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-06-15


live q very short life. Their sins kill them.
] know hundreds of good old men, but I do
not know half dozen bad old men. Whyi
They do not get old. Lord Byron died at
Missolonghi at thirty-six years of age. him
self his own Mazeppa, his unbridled lssions
the horse that dashed with him into the
desert. Edgar A. Poe died at Baltimore at
thirty-eight years Of age The black raven
that alighted on the bust above his chamber
door was delirium tremens-
Only this and nothing more.
Napoleon Bonaparte lived only Just beyond
midlife, then died at st. Helena, and one of
his doctors said that his disease was induced
by excessive snuffing The hero of Auster-
litz, the man who by one step of his foot in
the center of Europe shook the earth, killed
by snuff box. Oh, how many people we
have known who have not lived out half
their days because Of their designations and
indulgences! Now, practical religion Is a
protest against all dissipation Of any kind.
But" you say, professors Of religion
have fallen, professors of religion have got
drunk, professors of religion have misappro-
priated trust funds, professors of religion
have absconded" Yes; but they threw away
their religion before they did their morality.
II man on a White Star line steamer bound
for Liverpool in mid-Atlantic jumps over
board and is drowned, Is that anything
against the White Star line'scapacity to take
the man across the oceani And II man
jumps over the gunwale of his religion and
goes down never to rise, is that any reason
for your believing that religion has no ca
pacity to take the man clear through? In the
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body would have bsen saved; In the other
case, IL he had kept to his religion his morals
would have been saved.
There are aged people who would have
been dead twenty-five years ago but for the
defenses and the equipoise of religion. You
have no more natural resistance than hun
dreds of people who lie in the cemeteries to
day, slain by their own vices. The doctors
made their case as kind and pleasant as they
could, and it was called congestion of the
brain, or something else, but the snakes and
the bluefies that seemed to crawl over the
pillow in the sight of the delirious patient
showed what was the matter with him. You,
the aged Christian man, walked along by
that unhappy one until you came to the
golden pillar of Christian life. You went
to the right; he went to the left. That is all
the difference between you. Oh, if this re-
ligion is protest against all forms Of dissi-
patton, then it is an illAstrions friend of
longevity. with long life will satisfy
him."
Again, religion is friend Of longevity in
the fact that it takes the worry out Of our
temporalities. It is not work that kills men,
it is worry. When a man becomes a genuine
Christian he makes over to God not only his
affections but his family, his business, his
reputation, his body, his mind, his soul
everything Industrious he will be, but
never worrying, because God is managing
his affairs. How can he worry about bust
ness when in answer to his prayers God tells
him when to buy and when to sell; and if he
gain that is best, and if he lose that is besti
Suppose you had a supernatural neighbor
who came in and said: "Sir, want you to
call on me In every exigency; am your fast
friend; could fall back on sc, 0O0, 900; I can
foresee panic ten years; hold the control
ling stock in thirty of the best monetary in
situations Of New York; whenever you are
in trouble call on mo and I will help you
you can have my money and you can have
my influence; here is my hand in pledge for
it" How much would you worry about
businessl Why you would say: "rll do the
best can, and then I'll depend on my
friends generosity for the rest"
Now more than that Is promised to every
Christian business man. God says to him:
81 own New York and London and St
Petersburg and Pekin, and Australia and
California are mine; can foresee panic q
million years; have all the resources Of the
universe, and am your fast friend; when
you get in business trouble or any other
trouble, call on me and will help; here is
my hand in pledge Of omnipotent deliver
ance." How much should that man worryi
Not much. What lion viii dare to put his
paw on that Danieli Is there not rest in
this? Is there not an eternal vacation in thisl
''Oh," you say, "here Is a man who asked
God for blessing in G certain enterprise,
and he lost five thousand dollars in it Ex-
plain that" will Yonder is O factory,
and one wheel Is going north and the other
wheel is going south, and one wheel plays
laterally and the other plays vertically.
go to the manufacturer and Isay: 20 manu-
facturer, your machinery Is a contradiction.
Why do you not make all the wheels go one
wayY" "Well," he says, ~ made them to go in
opposite directions on purpose, and they pro-
duce the right result. You go downstairs
and examine the carpets we are turning out
in this establishment and you will see."
60 down on the other floor and see
the carpets, and am obliged to confess that
though the wheels in that factory 60 in OPP
posite directions they turn out a beautiful re-
suit; and while I am standing there looking
at the exquisite fabric an old Scripture
passage comes into my mind, "All things
work together for good to them who love
God" Is there not rest in that Is there
not tonic in thati Is there not longevity in
that
Suppose a man Is all the time worried
about his reputation9 One man says he lies,
another says he Is stupid, another says he is
dishonest, and half a dozen printing estab-
lishments attack him, and he Is in q great
ssate of excitement and worry and fume, and
cannot sleep; but religion comes to him and
says: "Man, God is on your side; he will
take care Of your reputation; If God be for
you, who can be against your How much
should that man worry about his reputation
Not much. If that broker who some years
ago in Wall street, after he had lost money,
sat down and wrote q farewell let
ter to his wife before he blew his
brains outfit instead Of taking out Of his
pocket pistol he had taken out well read
New Testament there would have been one
less suicide Oh, nervous and feverish people
of the world, try this almighty sedative.
You will live twenty five years longer under
Its soothing power. It Is mot choral that
you want, or morphine that you want; it is
the Gospel Of Jesus Christ. "With long life
will satisfy him"
Again, practical religion is a friend of
longevity in the fact that it removes all cor
roding care about a future existence. Every
man wants to know what is to become of
him. II you get on board a rail train you
want to know at what depot it is going to
stop; IL you get on board a ship you want to
know into what harbor it is going to run, and
IL you should tell me you have no interest in
what is to be your future destiny, would in
as polite way as know how tell you did
not believe you. Before had this matter
settled with reference to my future existence
the question almost worried me into ruined
health. The anxieties men have upon this
subject put together would make a martyr
dom. This is state of awful unhealthiness
There are people who fret themselves to death
for fear Of dying.
want TO take the strain OFF your nerves
and the depression Off your soul, and make
two or three experiments. Experiment first:
When you go out Of this world il does not
make any diff, renee whether you have been
good or bad, or whether you believed truth
or error, you win go straight to glory. elm
possible" you say; my common sense as
well as my religion teaches that the bad and
the good cannot live together forever. You
give me no comfort in that experiment"
Experiment the second: When you leave this
world you will go into an intermediate
state where you can get converted
and prepared for heaven. Impossible you
say; "as the tree falleth so it must lie, and
/ cannot postpone to an intermediate state
reformation which ought TO have been ef-
fected in this state" Experiment the third:
There is no future world; when man dies
that is the last of him. Do not worry about
what you are to do in another state of being.
4 ~