The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-06-15
TABERNACLE SERVICES.
REV. 7. De WITT TALMAGE'S SUM-
DAY MORNING DISCOURSE.

REV. 7. De WITT TALMAGE'S SUN
DAY MORNING DISCOURSE.
Religion II ssnstive, Curative, HYGIENE
It May Not Give Antedilavian Longeyit,
to the Human Race. but WIN Greatl,
Lengthen Our Lives.
BROOKLYN, June 1O.-At the Taber'
nacle this morning, after expoundine
some passages Of Scripture in regard to
the diet Of Daniel and his abstemious
habits, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, d.
D., gave out the hymn beginning:
Glory to God ON high,
Let heaven and earth reply.
He announced as the subject Of his
sermon: "Does Religion Prolong Life2'
and preached from the text found in Ps.
xci, 10: with long life will ! satisfy
him." Following is the discourse in
full:
Through the mistakes of its friends re-
ligion has been chiefly associated with
sick beds and graveyards. The whole
subject to many people is odorous with
chlorine and carbolic acid. There are
people who cannot pronounce the word
religion without hearing in it the clipping
chisel Of the tombstone cutter. 1t is high
time that this thing were changed and
that religion, instead Of being represented
as 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. 1t
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 muscle.
When David, in another part of the
Psalms, prays that religion may be DOM
inant he does not speak of it as mild
sickness, or an emaciation, or an attack
of moral and spiritual cramp; he speaks
Of it as "the saving health Of all ma
tions;" while God, in the text, promises
longevity to the pious, saying: "With
long life will satisfy him."
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 nine hundred and thirty
years. Methuselah lived nine hundred
and sixty nine years. As late in the his
tory of the world as Vespasian, there
were at one time in his empire forty-five
people one hundred and thirty-ive years
old. So far down as the Sixteenth cen
fury, Peter Tartan died at one hundred
and eighty-five years of age. 1 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 improved.
1t is said in Isaiah: 'The child shall
die hundred years DID," Now, if &C.
cording to Scripture tho child is to be a
hundred years old, may not the men and
WON en- reach to three hundred and four
hundred and five hundred? The fact is
that we are mere dwarfs and skeletons
with some of the generations
that are to come. Take the African race.
They have been under bondage for CEN
turtles. Give them chance and they de-
velop Frederick Douglass or Toussaint
And if the white race shall
be brought 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
he beauty of woman, and the longevity
# all2
My design is to show that practical re-
igion is the friend of long life. prove
t, first, from the fact that it makes the
are of our health positive Christian
luty. Whether we shall keep early or
ate hours. whether we shall take food
ligestible or indigestible, whether there
hall be thorough or incomplete mastica-
ion, are questions very often deferred
o the realm of whimsicality; but the
Christian man lifts this whole problem OF
health into the accountable and the di-
zine. He says: "God has given me
his body, and he has called it the temple
5aface it's