Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-09-29
CHARIOTOFTRIUMPH
RELIGION REPRESENTS LIFE, NOT TIE
GRAVE.
Rev. DIR. TalmaRe Discourses on
Physical Health and PrescFibes
For the ProIonsnfion of Life-Cor-
rects n Common Error.

4
Physical Health and Pr~scribes
For the Proion::nfion of Life-Cor-
rects a Common Error.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24.-In this dis
course Dr. Talmaee gives prescrip-
tions for the prolonga ton of life and
breaches the gospel of physical health.
The text is Psalms xci, 16. With long
life will satisfy him."
Through the mistake of its 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 it the clipping chisel Of the
tombstone cutter. 1t is high time that
this thing We're changed and that re-
ligion, instead of being represented rs
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 glorious addi-
| ton. IL 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-
er part of the psalm prays that religion
ruay be dominant, he does not speak
of 1t as a. mild sickness or an emacia-
ton or an attack or moral and spiritual
cramp. 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 | satisfy
| him." The fact Is that men and women
die too soon. 1t is high time that reli-
| gion Joined the hand of medical science.
| in attempting to improve human ioD-
gevity. Adam lived $50 years. Me-
thuselah lived 9G9 years. As late in the
! history of the world as Vespasian there
were at one time in his empire 45 peo-
pie 135 years old. So far down as the
sixteenth century Peter Tartan died at
1S5 years of age. do not say that re-
ligion will ever take the race back to
antediluvian longevity, but | do say
the length of life will be increased.
1t is said In Isaiah, 1.-The child shall
die hundred years DID," Now, il, ac-
ccrding to Scripture, the child Is to be
hundred years old, may not the men
and women reach to 800 and 400 and
500? The fact is that we are mere
some of the generations that are To
come. Take the African race. They
have been under bondage for centuries.
Give them chance, and they develop
Frederick Douglass or Toussaint
EOuverture. And, if the white race
shall be brought from under the serf-
dom of sin. what shall be the body,
what shall be the soul? Religion. has
only just touched our world. Give it
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.
prove it, first, from the fact that it
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,
Holy Ghost. and to deface its altars,
or mar its walls, or crumble its pillars,
is a God defying sacrilege." He sees
Gods caligraphy in every page, ana
tomical and physiological. He says,
God has given me wonderful body
for noble purposes"-that arm with 80
curious bones welded by 46 curious
muscles and all under the brains teleg-
raphy, $50 pounds Of blood rushing
through the heart every hour, the. heart
in "a hours beating 100000 times, dur
ing the "a hours the lungs taking In
81 hOgshead of air. and all this mech
anism not more mighty than delicate
edShN ciStuluCu u6l1OllSDcu
The Christian man says to himself,
eff l hurt my nerves. If l hurt my
brain, if hurt any of my physical
faculties. 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?
Hemeant to tell us in all the ages that we
are to offer to God our very best phys
ical condition, and 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
great man as Paul be anxious about
thing so Insignificant az an overcoat?
1t was 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 it an absurdity to kneel down
at night and pray and ask Gods pro-
lection 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
+ng off 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-
sicalfty or to the pastry cook or to the