The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-06-24
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Discourses on
the Effects of Disease.
One Csn not Abuse the Body without
Crea ing Conditions that Affect the
Spiritual w Welfare Effects of Dis
ease ON Ourc Surroundings


| Dewitt Talmage is designed to serve
as warning to young men in relation
to the sowing of wild oats. 1t is based
on the text:
Till a dart strike through his liver.-Proverbs
| vii, %.
Solomon's anatomical and phvsiolo-
| gical discoveries were SO very great
that he was nearly 5000 years ahead
of the scientists of his day. He, more
| than 900 years before Christ, seemed
to know about the circulation of the
blood, which Harvey discovered 1919
| 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
mails 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."
Ia 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 a 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, its elongated branching tubes,
Divine workmanship in central and
right and left lobe, and the hepatic
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 EN-
what awful attacks sin and dissipation
make upon it, until the fiat 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 d slight
wound, but piercing it from side to
|
liver" Galen and IIippocrates ascribe
to the liver the most of the world S
moral depression, and the word mel
ancholy means black bile.
Ipreach to YOU the gospel of health.
In taking 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 bv
pouring in oil and wine. and recog-
. nlzes hunger as hindrance to hearing
; the Gospel, so that the 5000 were fed:
he also recognizes the sparse diet OF
the prodigal away from home, and the
extinguished evcsight of the beggar by
the wayside, and lets us know of the
| hemorrhage of the dying Christ and
the miraculous post mortem resuscita-
ton. Any estimate of the spiritual
conditions that does not include alsC
the physical condition is incomplete.
= When the doorkeeper of congress
fell dead from excessive JOY because
: Burgovne had surrendered at Saratoga
:. and Philip V. of Spain dropped dead a,
: the news of his country's defeat il
s battle, and Cardinal Wolsey fadeC
: away as the result of Henry WILL
e anathema, it was demonstrated thai
e the body and soul are Siamese twins
{ and when YOU thrill the one with Joy
d or sorrow you thrill the other. We
: may as well recognize the tremendou!
q fact that there are two mighty for
c tresses in the human body, the hear
e and the liver; the heart the fortress o
d the graces. the liver the fortress of the
: furies. You may have the head filled
d with all intellectualities, and the ca
with all musical appreciation, and th'
mouth with all eloquence, and th
hand with all industries, and the hear
<, with all generosities, and yet "a dar
:, strike through the liver.
o First, let Christian people avoid tn
j. mistake that they are all wrong wit
l. God because they suffer from depres
d sion of spirits. Many a consecrate
!. man has found his spiritual sky be
e logged and his hope of Heaven blotte
= out and himself plunged chin deep i
l. the slough of despond, and has sale
a "My heart is not right with God, an
p l think | must have made mistake
4 and instead of being child of light
" am child of darkness. No one ca
y feel as gloomy as feel and be Chri
y tian.' And he has gone to his mini
ter for consolation, and he has CO
lected Flavel's books and Cecil's boob
4 and Baxter's books and red and rea
and read, and prayed and prayed an
10 prayed, and wept and wep' and wep
II and groaned and groaned and groane'
My brother, your trouble is not wit
le the heart, it is a gastric disorder or
ID rebellion of the liver. You need
At physician more than you do clerg.
man. 1t is not sin that blots o,
your hope of Heaven, but bile.
10 not only yellows your eyeballs, al
u furs your tongue, and makes your he:
'e ache. but swoops upon your soul in d
h. ieesious and foreteaiass The aeY,l