The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-05-28
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
q Practical Sermon on the Gospel
Of Health.
Effects Of Disease Upon Our Surroundings
The Spiritual Condition Affected by
the Physical state-Cost OF
Sowing wild Oats.

Sowing wild Oats.
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
| lowing sermon, gives words of warn.
ing to young men in relation to .he
sowing of wild oats. 1t is based on
| the text:
TIN dart strike through his liyer.-PrevLrbs
| vii, 22
Solomon's anatomical and phvsiolo-
gical discoveries were so very great
that he was nearly 5000 years ahead
of the seien fists of his day. He, more
than 1000 years before Christ, seemed
to know about the circulation of the
blood, which Harvey discovered 1,619
| years after Christ, for when Solomon,
! in Ecclesiastes, describing the human
body, speaks of the pitcher at 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 Dali
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 Cod
built castle of the human body, its
selecting and secreting power; it's curl
Gus cells, its elongated branching tubes,
a 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
eye 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 a slight
wound, but piercing it from side to
side It'll a dart strike through his
liver" Galen and Hippocrates ascribe
to the liver the most of the worlds
moral depression, and the word mel
ancholy means black bile.
preach to you the gospel of health.
In taking diagnosis of diseases of the
soul you must also take diagnosis of
Tho of ha AC ,-aa-
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 5, 600 were fed;
he also recognizes the sparse diet of
the prOdigal away rom home, and the
extinguished eyesight of the beggar by
the wayside, and lets us know of the
hemorrhage of the dying Christ and
the miraculous post-mortem resuscita-
tion. Any estimate of the spiritual
conditions that does not include also
the physical condition is mplete.
When the doorkeeper of congress
fell dead from excessive joy because
Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga,
and Philip V. of Spain dropped dead at
the news of his country's defeat iu
battle, and Cardinal Wolsey faded
away as the result of Henry Wills
anathema, it was demonstrated that
the body and soul are Siamese twins,
and when you thrill the one with joy
OF sorrow you thrill the other. We
may as well recognize the tremendous
fact that there are two mighty for
tresSes in the human body, the heart
and the liver; the heart the fortress of
the graces, the liver the fortress of the
furies. You may have the head filed
with all intellectualities, and the ear
with all musical appreciation, and the
mouth with all elOquence, and the
hand with all industries, and the heart
with all generosities, 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 cclsecrated
man has found his spiritual sky be-
logged and his hope of Heaven blotted
out and himself plunged chin deep in
the slough of despond, and has said:
MY heart is not right with God, and
think l must have made a mistake,
and instead of being a child of light l
am child of darkness. No one can
feel as gloomy as feel and be Chris
tian." And he has gone to his minis
ter for consolation, and he has col
lected Flavers books and Cecil's books
and Baxter's books and read and read
and read, and prayed and prayed and
prayed, and wept and wept and wept,
and groaned and groaned and groaned.
My brother, your trouble is not with
the heart, ii is gastric disorder or a
rebellion of the liver. Yen need
more than you do a clergy
man. 1t is not sin that blots out
not only yellOws your eyeoalls, and
furs your tongue, and makes your head
ache, but swoops upon your soul in de-
jections and forebodings. he devil is
after you. He has failed 80 despoil
your character, and he does the next
best thing for him-he raffies your
peace of mind. When he says that you
are not forgiven soul, when he says
you are not right with God, when he
says that you will never get to Heaven.
he lies. If you are in Christ you are
Just as sure of Heaven as though you
were there already. But Satan, find
ing that he can not keep you out of
the promised land of Canaan, has de-
termined that the spies shall not bring
you any Of the Eschol grapes before
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