The Penn's Grove record., 1899-09-29
DR.. TALMAGES SERMON.
UNDAY's DISCOURSE BY THE HoTED
DIVINE.
Subject; The Chariot of Triumph-Reiig-
ion Represents Life, Not the Grave
Advice About Physical Health and a
Prescription For prolonginc Life,

Subject; The Chariot of Triumph-Iseiie-
ion Represents Life, Not the Grave
Advice About Physical Health and a
Prescription For ProlonginG Life.
copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1921
WASHINGTON, D. Gin this discourse
Or. Talmage gives prescriptions for the
p~rolongation OF life and breaches the gos-
pei of physical hualth. The text Is Psalms
rci., 16, ''With long life will l satisfy him"
Through the mistake OF its friends relig-
ion has. been chiefly associated with sick
beds and g~raveyards. The whole subject
to many people Is odorous with chlorine
and carbolic acid. There are people who
cannot pronounce the word religion with
out hearing in it the clipping ehisel of the
tombstone cutter. 1t Is high time that
this thing were changed and that religion,
Instead OF being represented as a hearset 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 q glorious addition. 1t is
sanative, curative, hygienie. 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 muscles. When David
In another part OF the psalm prays that re-
ligion may be dominant, he does not speak
of 1t as a mild sickness or an emanciation
or an attack OF moral and spiritual cramp.
He speaks OF 1t as "the saving health of all
nations" 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 medl-
cal science in attempting to improve human
longevity. Adam lived $50 years. Methuse-
lab lived 969 years. As late in the history
of the world as Yespasian there were at
one time in his empire forty-lve people 1876
years old. So far down as the sixteenth
century Peter Tartan died at 1875 years of
age. | do not say that religion will ever
take the race back to antediluT longe-
witty, but l do say the length Of life will be
increased.
1t is said In Isaiah, 1.-THE child shall die
a hundred years DID," Now, II, according
to Scripture, the child Is to be a hundred
years old, may not the men and women
reach to 800 and 400 and 800? The fact is
that we are mere dwHrfs and skeletons
compared with some of the generations
that are to Take the African race.
They have been under bondage for centur-
les. Give them a chance, and they de-
velop Il Frederick Douglass or a Toussaint
L'0uverture. And, If the white race shalt
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 1t full power for n few con-
turtles, and who can tell what will be the
slItuklu IL muu anu lub ubuulH il WOluuu
and the longevity OF all?
My design to show that practical religion
Is the friend of long life. Iprove 1t, first,
from the fact that K makes the care Of our
health a positive Christian duty. Whether
we shall keep early or late hours, whether
we shall take food digestible or indigesti-
BILE, whether there shall be I orough or In
complete mastication, are questions very
often deferred to the realm Of whimsicality.
But the Christian man lifts this whole
problem of health into the accountable and
the divine. He says, "God has given me
this body, and He has called 1t the temple
Of the Holy Ghost, and to deface its affairs,
or mar its walls, or crumbie its pillars, is a
God defying sacrilege." He sees Gods
caligraphy in every page, anatomical
and physiological. He says, "God has
given me a wonderful body for
noble purposes"-that arm with thirtytwo
curious bones welded by forty-six curious
muscles and all under the brains teleg-
raphy, $50 pounds OF blood rushing through
the heart every hour. the heart IN twenty
four hours beating 100, 600 times, during
the t~wenty-four hours the lungs taking in
ffty-seven hogshead OF air, and all this
mechanism not more mighty than delicate
and easily disturbed and demolished. The
Christian mai says TO himself, ST | hurt
my nerves, il l hurt my brain, If 1 hurt
any of my physical faculties, | insult GOO
and call for dire ~retribution." Why did
God tel the Levites not to offer to Him in
sacrifice animals imperfect and diseased?
He meant to tell us 10 all the ages hat we
are to offer to God our very best physical
condition, and a man who through irregu-
lar or gluttonous eating rims his health is
not Offering to God such a sacrifice. Why
did Paul write for his cloak at Troas? Why
should such a great man as Paul be anx-
ious about a thing so Insignificant as an
oyercoatp 1t was because he knew that
With .pa,t ,,nnta md rha an ~ a. ffo =. la -N,IA
not be worth half as much to God and the
church as with respiration easy and foot
tree.
An intelligent Christian man would con-
slider it an absurdity to kneel down at night
and pray and ask Gods protection while
at the anne time he kept the windows of
bis bedroom tight shut against fresh air.
He woul( just as soon think of going out
on the bridge between New York and
Brooklyn, leaping off and then praying to
God to keep hin from getting hurt. Just
rs long as you refer this whole subject OF
physical health to the realm of whimsical
ity or to the pastry cook or to the butcher
or to the baker On to the apothecary or to
the clothier you are not acting like a
Christian. Take care OF all your physical
lorces-neryous, muscular, bone, brain,
tellular tissue-for all you must be brought
10 iudgment. Smoking your nervous sys-
lem into hdgets, burning out the coating
Of your stomach with wine logwooded and
strychnined, walking with thin shoes to
make your feet look delicate, pinched at
the waist until you are nigh cut In two
and neither part worth anything, grooming
about sick headache and palpitntion OF the
heart, which you think came from God,
when they came from your own folly.
What right has any man or woman to de-
face the temple OF the Holy Ghost? What
is the ear? 1t is the whispering gallery OF
the soul. What is the eye? 1t is the OBJ
seryatory God constructed, its telescope
sweeping the heavens. What IL the hand?
An instrument so wonderful that, when
the Earl of B~rldgewater bequeathed in his
will $40 900 for treatises TO be written on
the wisdom, power and goodness of God,
Sir Charles Bell. the great English
anatomist and surgeon, found his greatest
Illustration in the construction of the
human hand, devotlng his whole book to
that subject. So wonderful are these
bodies that God names His OWE attributes
after different parts OF them. His omnis-
eience-it is Gods eye; His omni-
presenee-it is Gods ear; His omnipotenee
it is Gods arm the upholstery OF the
midnight heavens it is the work Of Gods
fingers; his l~ife-giving power-it is the
breath of the Almighty; his dominion
"the government shall be upon his shout
ier."
A body so divinely honored and so d.
sinely constructed, let us be careful not to
abuse it. When it becomes a Christian
duty to take care of our health, Is not the
whole tendency toward longevity? III
toss my watch about rccklessly and drop 1t
on the pavement and wird it up any time
of day or night | happen to think of It and
often let 1t run down, while you are care
tui with your watch and never abuse 1t and