The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1889-01-11
DOES RELIGION PAY?
DR.. TALMAGE's DISCOURSE FOR
THE NEW YEAR.

Ho Has u Word to Say as to Whether
Righteousness IL ProGtabIe-GodiinessI Il
Good for the InteIIect-It Is Also
| Healthy.
BROOKLYN. Jan. Cat the Tabernacle
today the Rev. T De Witt Talmage, D. D.,
preached discourse on the subject: "Does
Religion Payr' The opening hymn was:
My days are gliding swiftly by
Aud l. pilgrim stranger,
Would not detain them as they fly,
These hours Of toll and danger
The text was; Goodness Is profitable unto
| Il and Of that which Is to come. III Timothy
| ", 8. DIR. Talmage said:
A happy New Year TO one and ALI
There is a gloomy and passive way of wait
ing for the events Of the opening year to come
upon us, and there is heroic way of going
out to meet them, strong in God and fearing
| nothing When the body Of Catiline was
found In the battlefield it was found far in
advance Of all his troops, and among the
enemy; and the best way Is not for us to Lie
| down and let the events Of life trample over
| us, but to go forth in q Christian spirit deter
| mined to conquer.
The papers were made out and some Of
you have just entered into businessspartner-
| ships, and others Of you take higher positions
| In the commercial establishment where you
were engaged, and others have entered upon
new enterprises, and there were last week In
these cities ten thousand business changes
You were expecting prosperity, and am de-
termined, so far as l have anything to do
with 1t, that you shall not be disappointed,
and therefore / propose, as God may help me
this morning, to project upon your attention
a new element of success You will have in
the business firm, frugality, patience, indus
try, perseverance, economy-a very strong
business firm, but there needs to be one mem
Der added, mightier than them all, and not a
silent partner either-the one introduced by
my text: Goodness which is profitable unto
all things, having the promise of the life that
now is as well as of that which is to come"
TOO MUCH LEvTTY IN LATTER DAY RELIGION.
suppose you are all willing to admit that
Goodness Is important In its eternal relations;
but perhaps some Of you say: "Al want is
an opportunity to say prayer before | die,
and all will be well" There are a great
many people who suppose that If they can
finally get safely out Of this world into bet
ter world, they will have exhausted the en-
tire advantage Of cur holy religion. They
talk as though religion were a mere nod of
recognition which we are to give to the Lord
Jesus on our way up to a heavenly mansion;
as though 1t were an admission ticket of no
use except to give In at the door of heaven.
And there are thousands Of people who have
great admiration for a religion of tho
shroud, and q religion of the coffin,
and a religion of the hearse, and
religion of the cemetery, who have no
appreciation Of q religion for the bank. for
the farm, for the factory, for the warehouse,
for the jewelers. shop, for the brokers' Office.
Now, while would not throw any slur ON q
post-mortem religion, want this morning,
and on the first Sabbath Of the new year, to
eulogize an ante-mortem religion. A religion
that Is Of no use to you while you live, will
be Of no use to you when you die. "Godli-
ness is profitable unto all things, having the
promise of the life that now is as well as of
that which is to come" And have always
noticed that when the grace is very low in a
mans heart he talks great deal in prayer
meetings about deaths, and about collins, and
about graves, and about churchyards I
have noticed that the healthy Christian, the
man who is living near to God. and is on the
straight road to heaven, is full of jubilant
satisfaction, and talks about the duties of this
life, understanding well that If God helps
him to live right he viii help him to die right
Now, in the first place, remark that
godliness is good for a mans physical health.
/ do not mean to say that it will restore o
broken down constitution or drive rheuma-
tism from the limbs, or neuralgia from the
temples, or pleurisy from the side; but do
mean to say that it gives one such habits and
fe
for physical health. That believe and that
avow. Everybody knows that buoyancy
Of spirit is good physical advantage Gloom,
unrest, detection are at war with every pull
sation of the heart and with every respira-
ton of the lungs It lowers the vitality, it
slaclnens the circulation, while exhilaration
Of spirit pours the very balm Of heaven
through all the currents Of life The sense
Of insecurity which sometimes hovers over an
unregenerate man, or pounces upon him with
the blast Of ten thousand trumpets Of terror,
Is most depicting and most exhausting, while
the feeling that all things are working to-
gether for my good now, and for my ever
lasting welfare, is conducive to physical
health
You will observe that godliness induces
industry, which Is the foundation of good
health There Is no law of hygiene that
will keep a lazy man well Pleurisy will stab
him, erysipelas will burn him, jaundice will
discolor him, govt will cripple him, and the
intelligent physician will not prescribe anti
septic or febrifuge or anodyne, but saws and
hammers and yardsticks and crowbars and
pickaxes There is no such thing as good
physical condition without positive work of
some kind, although you should sleep on down
Of swan or ride in carriage of softest uphol-
stery or have on your table all the luxuries
that were poured from the wine watts of Ispa-
han and Shiraz. Our religion says. Away
to the bankI away to the fieldl away to the
shopl away to the factory Do something
that win enlist all the energies Of your body,
mind and soul" "DIigent in business, fer
vent in spirit, serving the Lord" while upon
the bare back Of the idler and the drono
comes down the sharp lash of the apostle as
he says: "If any man will not work, neither
shall he eat.
HOW RELIGION rs GOOD FOR THE HEALTH.
Oh, how important Ia this day, when so
much is said about anatomy ind physiology
and therapeutics, and some new style of medi-
cine Is ever and anon springing upoa the
world, that you should understand that tho
highest school Of medicine is the school Of
Christ, which declares that Goodness is
profitable unto all things, having the promise
of the life that now Is as well as of that which
Is to come" So If you start out two men in
the world with equal physical health, and
then ono Of them shall get the religion of the
Lord Jesus Christ in his heart, and the other
shall not get 1t, the one who becomes a son of
the Lord Almighty will live the longer.
"With long life win satisfy thee and show
thee my salvation"
I ,orIy l,of is
the intellect. l know some have surpassed
that just as soon as a man enters INTO the
Christian life his intellect goes into q boz
dwarfing process So far from that, religion
will give new brilliancy to the intellect, new
strength to the imagination, new force to tho
will, and wider swing to all the intellectual
faculties Christianity is the great central
fire at which philosophy has lighted its
brightest torch The religion of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the fountain out of which
learning has dipped its clearest draught
The Helicon poured forth no such inspiring
waters as those which flow from under the
throne of God clear as crystal Religion
has given new energy to poesy, weep
ing In Dr. Young's might Thoughts"
teaching in Cowper's TASK" fam
ing In Charles Wesley's hymns, and
rushing with archangelic splendor through
Millions Paradise Lost" The religion of
Jesus Christ has hung in studio and in gallery
Of art and in Vatican, the best pictures-T-
tian's Assumption, Raphael's "Transfgura-
ion," Rubens' Descent from the Cross,n
Claude's Burning Bush, " and Angeles Last
Judgment" Religion has made the best mu-
sic of the world-Hadyn's "Creation," Ham
dels Messiah" Mozarts REQUIEM" Is 1t
possible that religion which builds such in
destructible monuments and which lifts its
ensign on the highest promontories of worldly
power, can have any effect upon mans in
tellect hut elevation and enlargement Now,
commend golliness AZ the best mental dis
eipline-better than belles-lettres to purify
the taste. bette than mathematics to bar