The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-10-06
CHARIOT UF TRIUMPH.
RELIGION "EPRE~EN IS LIFE, noT
TStH GR VS..

For the al Ekfe-CcF-
reefs n Common rror.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch, 1890
InAthis discourse DIR. Talmage gives
prescriptions for the ~prolongation of
life and breaches the gospel of physical
health. The text Is Psalms zci, IS,
With long life win / satisfy him"
Through the mistake OF it's friends
religion has been chiefly associated with
sick beds and graveyards. The whole
subject TO nan people is odorous with
chlorine and carbClic acid. There are
people who cannot pronounce the word
religion without hearing in it the clip
ping cnfsel of the tombstone cutter. 1t
IS high time that this thing were chang
ed and that religion, instead Of being
represented as a hcar5e to carry out
bhe dead, should be represented as
a CHARIOT an which n living are to
STiumph~
Religion. 80 far from ~subtractlng
from eneS vitality, is a glorious addi-
sion. 1t is Sanative, curative, hyglen1c.
1t fs good for the eyes, good for the
cars. good for the spleen, good for the
AIRCSLEOIL RODu III IlC lAGI WIS., 6OOd
Cor the muscles. When David in anoth-
CT part Of the psalm prays that religion
may be dominant, he does not speak
of st as a mild sickness or an emancia-
SOn or an attack of moral and spiritual
sraxnp. He speaks of it as 1.-THE saving
Ae'alth OF all nations" while God in the
text promises longevity to the pious,
saying, With long life viii L satisfy
hirA" The fact is that men and women
II a. - IE-AL 4s~4 AL-+ .~is
gioa Joined the hand of medical science
in attempting to improve human lon
gevtty. Adam lived $50 years. Me-
thuselah lived 500 years. AS late in the
history of the world as VeSpasian there
were at n time III his empire 20 peo-
pie 1856 years old. SO far down as the
sixteenth century Peter Tartan died at
1856 years Of age. / do not say that re-
hgfUn will ever take the race back to
antediiuVian longevity, but | do say
the length of life will be increased.
II is said in Isaiah, The child snail
die a hundred years old" Now, if, ac-
eordfng to Scripture, the child is to be
q hundred years old, may not the men
and women reach t. 300 and 400 ard
500, The act is that we are mere
dwa4-As and skeletons compared with
some OF the generations that are to
come. Take THE African race. They
have keen under bondage for centuries.
Give them a chance, and they develop
n Frederick Douglass or a ToussaInt
LiOuverture. And, if the white race
ahaAq be brought from under the serf-
dom OF sin, what shall be the body,
wh9sc shall be the soul? Religion has
only just touched our world. Give lit
full power for a few centuries, and
who can tell what Will be the strength
of naan and the beauty Of woman and
ths 9sn sevTty of all?
SIN KILLS QUICKLY.
Again. l remark that practical re-
ISlen rs a friend of longevity in the
fact that it is a protest aginSt dissi-
patton1, which injure and destroy the
heaath. Bad men and women live a
very short life. Their sins xii! them.
1 know hundreds of good Old men, but
[ do not know half a dozen bad old
meH. Why? They do not get old.
Lord Byron died at Missolonghi at SO
yeaEs of age, himself his own Mazep-
pa. abs unbridled passions the horse
THAT daShed with him into the desert.
Edgar A. Poe died ait Baltimore at SO
wears Of age. The black raven tina:
alighted ON the bust above his door
was delirium tremens-
emily this and nothing more
Napoleon Bonaparte lived only just
ley+ond midlife, then died at st. Hele-
ma, and one of his doctors said that his
disease was induced by excessive snuff
fling. The hero of Austerlitz, the man
who by one step of his foot in the GEN.
ter of Europe shook the earth, killed
by q snuff box! How many people we
have known who have not lived out
half their days because of their dissi-
pations and indulgences! Now, prac-
ticak religion is a protest against all
designations of any kind.
But" you SAY, professors OF reli-
gfOa ave fallen, professors of religion
have got drunk, professors of religion
have misappropriated trust funds,
professors Of religion have absconded.'
Yes, but they threw away their reli-
gion before they did their morality. If
q ma1a on a White Star line steamer,
bound for Liverpool, in mid-Atlantic
jumps overheard and is drowned, is
that anything against the White Star
lines capacity to take the man across
the ocean? And if a man jumps over
the gunwale of his religion and goes
down never to rise, is that any reason
for your believing that religion has NO
capacity to take the man clear through?
In one case, if he had kept to the
steamer, his body would have been
saved; i'm the other case. if he a
kept his religion his morals would have
been saved.
There are aged people who would
nave been dead % years but for
the defenseS and the eQuipoise of reli-
gion. You ave no more natural resis-
tance than hundreds of people who lie
1n the cemeteries today slain by their
own vices. The doctors made their
case as kline and pleasant as they
could. and it was called congestion OF
the brain or something else. out the
snakes and the blue flies that seemed
10 crawl over the pillow in the sight
of tire delirious patient showed what
was the matter with him.. You. the
aged Christian man, walked along by
that unhappy one until o came to
the golden pillar of a Christian life
You went to the right: he went to the
left. That is the difference between
you. If this religion is a protest against
all forms of dissipation, then it is an
Industrious friend of logevity. with
Long life will I satisfy him"
FRIEND OF LONGEVITY.
Ny design is to show that practica
religion is the friend of long life.