The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-10-11
DR. TALMAGES SERMON.
cuN.Av'S DISCOURSE BLYTHE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: The Chariot of Triumph-Ee!fG-
ion Represents Life. Not the Grave
Advice About Physical Health and 4
Prescription For ProlonginG Life.

Prescription For Prolonging Lie.
rCopyrigh., Louis Klopsch. 1897
WASHING roS, D. C.-In this discourse
Or. Talmage gives prescriptions, for the
protoppation OF life and breaches the cos-
oel of physical health. The text is Psalms
xci.. 1G, "Wlth long life will satisfy him" "
Through the mistake OF Its friends relig-
ION has been chiefly associated with sick
beds and graYeyurds. The whole subject
to many people is odorous with chlorine
aud carbolic acid. There are people who
cannot pronounce the word religion with
out hearing in It the clipping chisel Of the
tombstone cutter. 1t Is high time that
this thing we're changed and that religion,
instead OF being represented as hearse to
carry out the dead, should be represented
as n chariot in which the living are to
triumph.
Religion, 50 far from subtractiug from
ones vitality, Is q glorious addition. 1t is
sanetive, curative, hygienic. It's good Tor
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 rs q mild sickness or an emapciation
or an attack OF moral and spiritual cramp:
He speaks OF II as "the saving health OF all
nations" while God in the text promises
life will satisfy him." The fact is that
men and women die too soon. It is high
time that religion joined the hand OF medi-
cal science In attempting to improve human
longevity. Adam lived $50 years. Methuse-
Cab lived 969 years. AS late in the history
of the world as Vespasian there were at
one time in his empire forty-ave people 135
years old. So far down as the sixteenth
century Peter Tartan died at 1S5 years OF
age. do not say that religion will ever
lake the race back to antediluTian longe-
Sity, but do say the length Of life will be
Increased.
It Is said in Isaiah, "The child shall die
a hundred years old" Now, II, according
20 Scripture, the child is to be hundred
years old, may not the men and women
teach to 800 and 400 and 500? The fact Is
that We are mere tdwarfs and skeletons
compared with some OF the generations
that are to come. Take the African race.
They have been under bondage Tor centur-
les. Give them a chance, and they de-
7elop Frederick D ouglass CD Tous5alnt
L'Ouverture. And, II the white race shall
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 few con-
iuries, and who can tell what will be the
strength CT man and the beauty OF woman
and the longevity OF all?
My design to show that practical religion
Is the friend OF long life. Iprove It, first,
from the fact that It makes the care Of our
aealth positive Christian duty. Whether
we shall keep early ur late hours, whether
we shall take food digestible or indigesti-
BILE, whether there shall be thorough or In
complete mastication, are questions very
often deferred TO the realm OF whlmsicality.
But the Christian man lifts this whole
problem OF health into the accountable and
she- divine. he says, "God has given me
this body, and He has called 1t the temple
Of the Holy Ghost, and to detace Its altars,
Or mar its walls, or crumble its pillars, IS
God defying sacrilege." He sees Coos
and physiological. He says, "God has
q. 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-
>aphy, $50 pounds OF blood rushing through
the heart every hour. the heart In twenty
:our hours beating 100000 times, during
:he twenty-foar 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 man says 10 himself, eff I hurt
my nerves, il hurt my brain. II hurt
any OF my physical faculties, I insult God
and call for dire retrlbution." Why did
Sod tel the Levites not to offer to Him in
sacrilce animals imperfect and diseased?
He meant to tell US in all the ages that Wa
are to offer to God our very best physical
condition, and man who through irregu-
car or gluttonous eating ruins his health Is
aot Offering to God such sacrifice. Why
did Paul write for bis cloak ut Troas? Why
should such great man as Paul be anH-
tc-is about thing so insignificant as an
overcoat? It WIS because he knew that
with pneumonia and rheumatism he would
DOT be worth half as much to God ami the
shurch US with respiration easy and foot
Sree.
An intelligent Christian man would con-
slider 1t an absurdity to kneel down at night
ind pray and ask Gods protection while
at the same time he kept the windows OF
ais bedroom tight shut against fresh air.
He would Just as soon think Of going out
IN the bridge between New York and
Brooklyn, leapin1 of and then praying to
dod to keep him from getting hurt. Just
as loug as you refer this whole subject OF
ehyslcal health to tue realm OF whimsical
tty or to the pastry cook or to the butcher
Or to the baker or to the apothecary or to
Shs clo.hler you are not acting like q
christian. Take care OF oil your physical
iorces-nervous, muscular, bone, brain,
tojudgment. Smoking your nervous sys-
:em into fidgels, burning out the coating
81 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, gfoaning
about sick headache 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 to de-
lace the temple Of the Holy Ghost? What
Is the ear? It is the whispering gallery OF
the soul. What is the eye' 1t Is the or
servatory God constructed, its telescope
sweeping the heavens. What Is the hand?
An instrument so wonderful that. when
the Earl OF Bridgewater bequeatLed in his
will $40, 900 for trentises 10 bs written on
the wisdom, power and goodness Of God,
Sir Charles Bell, the great English
anatomist and surgeon, found bis greatest
illustration in the construction OF the
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-
presence-it Is Gods ear; His omnipotence
it is Gods arm; the upholstery OF the
midnight heavens-it Is the work OF Gods
angers; bis life-glving power-it Is the
breath Of the Almighty; his dominion
'tthe government shall be upon his shoul-
DER
A body so divlnsly honored and 80 di.
vlnely constructed, let US be careful not to
abuse 1t. When it becomes Christian
duty to take care Of our health, Is not The
whole tendency toward longevity? II
toss my watch about recklessly aEi drop II
On the pavement and wird 1t up any time
Of day or night I happen to think OF 1t and
often let 1t run down, while you are care
ful with your watch and never abuse it and
wind 1t up inst Mt the same hour every
uight and put 1t In a place where it will
aot suffer from the violent changes OF at