St. Tammany farmer., 1897-06-19
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Diecoursee on
the Effects Of Disease.

One Can Not Abuse the Body Withoa
Creating Conditions that Affect. the
Spiritual Welfare-ERects Of DlD.
ease on Ours surroandings
The following discourse by Rev. r
Dewitt Talmage is designed to serve
as warning to young men in relation
to the sowing of wild oats. It is based
on the text:
Till dart strike through his liver.-Proverb.
vii, 3
Solomon's anatomical and physiolo
gical discoveries were so very great
that he was nearly 3,OcO years ahead
of the scien fists of his day. He, more
than 1000 years before Christ, seemed
to know about the circulation Of the
blood, which Harvey discovered 1,6ls
years after Christ, for when solomon,
in Ecclcsiastes, describing the human
body, speaks of the pitcher 1T the foun.
tain, he evidently means the three ca
nails leading from the heart that re-
ceive the blood like pitchers. When
he speaks in Ecclesiastes of the silver
cord of life, he evidently means the
spinal marrow, about which, in our
day, Drs. Mayo and Carpenter and Dal-
ton and Flint and Brown-Sequard have
experimental. And Solomon recorded
in the Bible, thousands of years before
scientists discovered it, that in his time
the spinal cord relaxed in old age, pro-
ducing the tremors of hand and head:
'Or the silver cord be loosed."
In the text he reveals the fact that
he had studied that largest gland Of
the human system, the liver, not by the
electric light of the modern dissecting
room, but by the dim light of . COM
paratively dark age. and yet had seen
its important functions IN the God
built castle of the human body, its
selecting and secreting power; its curl
GUS cells, itselongated branching tubes,
. Divine workmanship in central and
right and left lobe. and the hepatic
artery through which flow the crimson
tides. Oh, this vital organ is like the
eve Of God in that it never sleeps
Solomon knew of it, and had noticed
either in vivisection or post-mortem
what awful attacks sin and dissipation
make upon it, until the fat of AL
mighty God bids the body and soul
separate. and the one it commends to
the grave, and the other it sends to
Judgment A javelin of retribution.
not glancing off or making slight
wound, but piercing it from side to
side It'll dart strike through his
liver" Galen and Hippocrates ascribe
to the liver the most of the worlds
moral depression, and the word mel
ancholv means black bile.
Ipreach to you the gospel Of health.
In taking q diagnosis of diseases Of the
soul you must also take . diagnosis Of
the diseases of the body. As if to rec
ognize this, one whole book of the New
Testament was written by physician.
Luke was a medical doctor, and he dis
courses much of the physical condi-
tions, and he tells Of the good Samari-
tan's medication of the wounds by
pouring in oil and wine, and recog-
nlzes hunger as a hindrance to hearing
the Gospel, so that the ), 900 were fed;
he also recognizes the sparse diet of
the prodigal away from home. and the
evesight of the beggar by
the wayside, and lets us know of the
of the dying Christ and
the miraculous post-m0rtem rcsuscita-
ton. Anyi estimate Of the spiritual
THAT does not include also
the physical condition is incomplete.
When the doorkceper of congress
fell dead from excessive joy because
had surrendered at Saratoga,
'ss Sskp Hs j j Of sis .sss ssss 1T 1T
battle, and Carlipafs Yolsey faded
away as :the: resa nry Wills
if was defEo6strated that
the. body and soul. are ,Siamese twins,
.pd when you th1!lll kne with joy
II Ertow you tllriAR{; other. we
may as well recognize the tremendous
TACT thdt there ~ tnighty for
tresses in the human body, the heart
and the liver; the net1ft the fortess of
ths q grsfaffs; e; the liysEfaf fortress Of the
Wit witklifDSael1paEjaA and the ear
With all musical appreciation. and the
no1iV1f00 e1atence. and the
hand with all Industries. and the heart
with an. genefosities, and yet "a dart
strike through the liver
First: let Christian people avoid the
mistake that they are all wrong with
God, because they suffer from depres-
sion of spirits. Many a .consecrated
nan has found his spiritual sky be-
logged and his hope of Heaven blotted
,ut and himself plunged chin deep in
The slough Of despond, and has said:
my heart is not right with God, and
think must have made a mistake,
md instead of being a child of light 1
I'm a child of darkness. No one can
Feel as gloomy rs feel and be q Chris
ian" And he has gone to his minis
ser for consolation, and he has col
ected Flavers books and Cecirs books
md Baxter's books and read and read
md read. and prayed and prayed and
prayed, and wept and wept and wept,
ind groaned and groaned and groaned.
Ny brother, your trouble is not with
he heart, it IS : gastric disorder or =
,ebellion Of the liver. You need =
,hysician more than you do = clergy
nan. 1t is not sin that blots out
'our hope OF Heaven. but bile. 1t
lot, only yellows. your eyeballs, and
urs your tongue, and makes your head
Iche, but swoops upon your soul in de-
ections and forebodings. The devil is
lfter you. He has failed to despoil
'our character, and he does the next
,cst thing for him-he ruffles your
re MOI ( fsjSkiven sotl. when he says