The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-10-04
HOW TO LIVE LONG,
The Rev. Dr.. T. DEWITT Talrage's
Prescriptions for Longevity.
PEACE NOW AND HEREAF FTEP.
His Tex Was, with Long Life
Will Satisfy Him Help
IN Practical Religion. A
Protest Against Dis
sipa+ion.

In this discourse Ut. 1ailnaSe e1Nes
prescriptions for the prolongation OF
and breaches the gospel Of physl-
al health. The text is Psalm: xci, l6,
With long life will satisfy him. "
Through tie mistake Of It's frienasre re
lision has been chiefly associated with
sick beds and sraveyards. The whole
subject tv many people Is ooorous ~l'A
chlorine and carbolic acid. There ar
people who cannot pronounce the wore
tsrelieion' without hearing in 1t the
clipping chiSel Of the tombstone cutter.
It is high time that this thing were
changed and that religion, instead q
beiug represented as a hesrse 70 carr
out the dead, should be represented as
chariot in which the living are to 'ri-
umph, 60.
ones vitality, is glorious addition. IL
is sanative, curative, hygiene. 1t Is
good for the eyes, good for the ears,
good for the spleen, good for the dlEeS-
ton, good for the nerves, good Tor the
muscles. When David IN another part
of the psalm prays that religion may be
dominant, he does not speak OF 1t as
mild sickness or an emaciation or an at
tack of moral and spiritual ccamp: de
speaks Of it as ''the saving health OF
all nations" while God in the text
promises longevity to the pious, saying.
s.With long life will l satisfy him.
The fact is that men and women die too
soon. 1t is high time that religion
ioineG tie hand of medical science IN
attempting toimprove human longevity;
Adam lived $50 years; Me'huselah lived
996 years. As late in the history OF
the world as Vespasiar there were at
one time "a his empire 43 people l3o
years cid. So far down as the SIX.
teenth century Peter Tartan died at loo
wears of age. I do not say that re!lg-
ion will ever take the race back to an
tediluvian longevity, but | do say the
length of life will be increased.
It is said in Isaiah, The child shall
die a hundred years old" Now, if, ac
cordiDg to Scripture, the child IS to be
a hundred years old, may not the men
and women reach to 800 and 400? The
fact is that we are mere dwarfs and
skeletons compared with some OF the
generations that'are to come. Take the
African race. They have heep under
bondage for centuries. Give then
chance, and they develop Frederick
DOUGLASS or TousSaint L LOuvertUrA
And, if 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 it full power for lew
centuries, and who can tell what Will
be the strength Of man and the beauty
of women and the longevity Of all?
Ny design is to show that practlca!
religion is the friend Of long life. |
prove it first from the fact that 1t makes
the care of our health positive Chris
tian duty. Whether we shall keep ear
" or late hours, whether We shall take
food digestible or indigestible, whether
there shall be thorough or incomplete
mastlcation, are questions very often
deferred 10 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
It the temple of the Holy Ghost, and to
deface its affairs or mar its walls or
erunble its pillars is God defylng
eoori]ape :" He sees Gods caligraphy
in every page, auatoui:sl AID physiol-
ogical. he says, God has given me
wonderful body for noble purposes
that arm with 80 curious bones Wleid-
ed by 46 curious muscles and all urder
the brains telegraphy, $50 pounds Vi
blood rushing through the heart every
hour, the heart in q hours beating
100000 times, during the y hours the
lungs taking.in 81 hossheads Of air, ard
al this mechanism rot mere n1lSh'y
than delicate aud easily disturbed aad
demolished. The Christian man SAYS
to himself, IF l hurt my nerve, II |
hurt my brain, if I hurt aOy OF my Ply
sical faculties, insult God aud call Tor
dire retribution." Why did God tell
the Levites not to offer to him in sacrl-
fee animals imperfect and diseased? He
meant to tell US in all the ages thar We
are to offer to God our very best physi-
cal condition, and man who through
irregular or gluttonous eating ruins his
health is not Offering to God such sac
rifce. Why did Paul write for his
cloak at Troas? Why should such a
great man as Paul be anxious about
thing so Insignificant as an overcoat.
It was because he knew that with pneu
monia and rheumatism be would not be
worth half as much to God aud the
church as with respiration easy and foot
free.
An intelligent Christian man would
consider it an absurdity to kDeeI dow
at night aud pray and ask God 5 protec-
ton while at the same time he kept the
windows Of his bredroom tight shut
against fresh air. He would just as
soon think of goiag 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 physi
cal health to the realm Of whicsiyality
or to the pastry cook or to the butcher
OF to the baker or to the apothecary or
to the olothier you are not acting like
a Christian. Take care ofall your ply i
sical forces-nervous, muscular, bone,
brain, cellular tissue-for all you must
be brought to judgment: Smoking
your nervous system into fdgets, burn.
ing out the coating Of yous stomach
with wine legwooded and stry chnined,
walking with thin shoes to make yoar
feet look deli ;ate, pinched at the wals5
until you are nigh cut in two cnd
neither part worth anything, groanlag
about sick headache and raIpitation OF
the heart. which you think came froi.1