Connecticut western news., 1899-09-28
CHARIOT OFTRIUMPH
RELIGION REPRESENTS LIFE, NOT THE
 GRAVE.
Rev. Dr. Talmaxe Discourses on Physical Health and Prescribes For the ProlonKation of Life-Cor- rects . Common Error.

Rev. Dr. TalmaGe Discourses on Physical Health and Prescribes
 For the ProlonEation of Life-Cor-
 rects . Common Error.
 lCopyrigbt. Louis Klopsch. 1s9o.l
 WASHINGTON, Sept. 24.-In this dis course Dr. Talmage gives prescrip- tions for the prolongation of life and preaches the gospel of physical health. The text Is Psalms xci. Is, With long life will satisfy him."
 Through the mistake of it's friends religion has been chiefly associated with sick beds and graveyards. The whole subject to many people Is odor- ous with chlorine and carbolic acid. There are people who cannot pro- nounce the word religion without hear ing In 1t the clipping chisel of the tombstone cutter. It Is high time that this thing were changed and that re- ligion, instead of being represented as a hearse 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 a glorious addi- ton. It is sanative, curative, hygienic 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 anoth- CT part of the psalm prays that religion nuny be dominant, he does not speak of it as a mild sickness or an emacia- ton or an attack of moral and spiritual crnmp. He speaks of it as 'the saving health of all nations," while God In the text promises longevity. to the pious, saying, With long life will I satisfy him." The fact Is that men and women die too soon. It Is high time that reli- zion joined the hand of medical science in attempting to improve human lon gevity. Adam lived 930 years. Me thuselah lived 9G0 years. As late in the history of the world as yespasian there were at one time in his empire 45 peo- pie 135 years old. So far down as the sixteenth century Peter Zartan died at 1S5 years of age. do not say that re ligion will ever take the race back to antediluvian longevity, but I do say the length of life win be increased
 It is said in Isaiah, ''The child shall die n hundred years old" Now, if, ac- ccrding to Scripture, the child Is to Dc a hundred years old, may not the men and women reach to 300 and 400 aud 5GO1 The fact ia that we are mere dwaffs and skeletons compared with some of the generations that are to come. Take the African race. They have been under bondage for centuries Give them a chance, and they develop | Frederick Douglass or Toussaint LOuverture. And, If the white race shall be brought from under the serf- dom of sin, what shall be the body, what shah be the soul? Religion has only just touched our world. Give 1t full power for few centuries, and who can tell what will be the strength Of man and the beauty of woman and the longevity of all?
 Friend of Longevity.
 My design is to show that practical religion Is the friend of long life. I prove 1t, first, from the fact that 1t makes the care of our health positive Christian duty. Whether we shall keep early or late hours whether we shall take food digestible or indigestible. whether there shall be thorough 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, md he has called 1t the temple of the Holy Ghost. and to deface its altars, or mar It's walls, or crumble its pillars, is q God defying sacrilege." He sees Gods caligraphy in every page, ana tomical and physiological. He says, God has given me a wonderful body for noble purposes" "-that arm with g curious bones wielded by 46' curious muscles and all under the brains teleg- raphy, $50 pounds of blood rushing through the heart every hour, the heart In 24 hours beating 100000 times, dur ing the 24 hours the lungs taking in 57 hogshead of air, and all this mech anism not more mighty than delicate and easily disturbed and demolished. The Christian man says to himself, "If I hurt my nerves, if hurt my brain. If hurt any of my physical faculties,I Insult God and call for dire retribution." "Why did God tell the Levites not to offer to him in sac rifice animals imperfect and diseased? meantto tell us in an the ages thatwe are to offer to God our very best phys ical condition, and a man who through irregular or gluttonous eating ruins 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 anxious about a thing % insignificant as an overcoat? It swds because he knew that with pneumonia and rheumatism he would not be worth half as much to God and the church as with respiration easy and foot free.
 Care of the Body.
 An intelligent Christian man would consider 1t an absurdity to kneel down ut night and pray and ask Gods pro tectien while at the same time he kept the windows of his bedroom tight shut against fresh air, He would just as soon think of going out on the bridge between New York and Brooklyn, leap ing of and then praying to God to keep him from getting hurt Just as long as you refer this whole subject of physical health to the realm of whim-
 
 sicality or to the pastry cook or to the butcher or to the baker or to the apothecary or to the clothier you are not acting like g Christian. Take care of all your physical forces-nervous, muscular, bone, brain. cellular tissue for all you must be brought to 1udg ment. Smoking your nervous system into fidgets. 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. groaning about sick head ache and palpitation of the heart, which you think came from God, when they came from your own folly!
 What right has any man or woman