The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1899-11-25
TALMAGE SERMON.
teRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE olY.NE's SUM-
DAY DISCOURSE.

Subject: The Chariot of Triumph-kelig.
ion Represents Life. Not the Grave
Advice About Physical Health and =
Prescription Fer ProloDging Life.
copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1891
WAsHISeroN, d. GIN this discourse
DR.. Talma9e gives prescriptions for tbs
prolongation OF life aud breaches the gos-
pei OF physical health. The text Is Psalms
xci., 16, "Wlth long life will satisfy him"
Through the mistake Of its friends relig
ion has been chiefly associated with sick
beds and graveyards. The whole subject
to many people Is odorous with chlorine
and carbolic acid. Thore are people who
cannot pronounce the word religion with
out hearing in 1t the clipping chisel Of the
tombstone cutter. 1t Is high time that
this thing were changed and that religion,
instead OF being represented as hearseto
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 addition. 1t is
sanative, curative, hygenic. 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 another part of the psalm prays that re-
liglon may be dominant, he does not speak
OF 1t as a mild sickness or an emanoiation
or an attack Of moral and spiritual eramp.
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 religion Joined the hand OF medi-
cal science in attempting to improve human
longevity. Adam lived $50 years. Methuse-
lah lived 969 years. As late in the history
OF the world rs Vespasian there vera at
one time in his empire forty-fve people 1875
years old. So far down as the sixteenth
century Peter Tartan died at 1875 years OF
age. l DO not say that religion will ever
take the race back to antedlu7ian longe-
witty, but do say the length OF life will be
Increased.
1t is said in Isaiah, 'The child shall die
a hundred years DID," Now, il, according
to Scripture, the child is to be Il hundred
years old, may not the men and women
reach to 500 and 400 and 500? The fact is
that we are mere dwaris and skeletons
compared with some OF the generations
that are to come. Take the African race.
| They have been under bondage for centur-
| les. Give them a chance, and they de-
velop Frederick d ouglass CT Toussaint
L'Ouverture. And, IL the white race snail
! 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-
l
! strength CT man and the beauty OF woman
and the longevity OF all?
by design to show that practical religion
Is the friend of long life. Iprove it, first,
| from thu 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 indigesti-
BILE, whether there shall be thorough or in
complete masticatlon, 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, and He has called it the temple
OF the 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, anatomical
and physiological. He says, 'God has
given me wonderful body for
noble purposes"-that arm with thirtytwo
curious bones welded by forty-six curious
muscles and all under the brains te!eg-
raphy, $50 pounds OF blood rushing through
the heart every hour. the heart In twenty
four hours beating 100,0 900 times, during
the twenty-four hours the lungs taking In
ffty-seven hogshead OF air, and all this
mechanism not more mighty than delicate
and easily disturbed and dem olished. The
Christian man says to himself, "lt | hurt
my nerves, II hurt my brain. II l hurt
|
and call for dire retribution." Why did
God tel the Levites not offer to Him IN
sacrifice animals imperfect and diseased:
He meant to tell Us in all the ages that we
are to offer to God our very best physical
condition, and II man who through lrregu
lar or gIuttonous eating ruins his health Ii
not Offering to God such a sacrifice. Why
did Paul write for his cloak at Troas? Why
should such d great man as Paul be anx
lous about thing so Insignificant as al
, overcoat? 1t was because he knew thai
with pneumonia and rheumatism he would
not be worth half as much to God amt TIT
, church as with respiration easy and FOO
rec.
An intelligent Christian man would con
sker i. an absurdlty to kneel down at nigh
and pray and ask Gods protection viii Il
at the same time he kept the windows o
ais bedroom tight shut against fresh air
would just as soon think OF going on
L On the bridge between New York ant
[ Brooklyn, leaping off and then praying t.
= God to keep him from getting hurt: JUS
!, as long rs you refer this whole subject Q
= physical health to the realm OF whimsical
f. ity or to the pastry cook or to the butche
. or to the baker or to the apothecary or t
! The clothier you are not acting like
i Christian. Take care OF all your physics
,orces-pervous, muscular, bone, Drall
= cellular tissue-for ali you must be brougl
q % Judgment. Smoking your nervous sys
n :en into fldgets, burning out the coatin
. IL your stomach with wine logwooded an
,trychnined, walking with thin shoes
make your feet look delicate, pinched {
the waist until you are nigh cut In Nv
- and neither part worth anything, groanln
~ about sick headache and palpttation OF tn
n heart. which you think came from Cos
II when they came from your own folly!
"a What right has any man or woman TO d'
- tace the temple of the Holy Ghost? Whit
i is the ear? It Is the whispering gallery
he the soul. What is the eye? 1t is the o.
Ia ,eryatory God constructed, its te!escoI
n rveepipg the heavens. What is the hant
~ An instrument so wonderful that, whs
the Earl of Bridgewater bequeathed in
d will $40 900 for treatises TO be written
ia the wisdom, power and goodness OF Go
Sir Charles Bell, the great Engll:
D. anatomist and surgeon, found his create
~ illustration in the construction OF q
l. human hand, devoting his whole book
= that subject. So wonderful are the
y bodies that God names His own attribut
l. after different parts OF them. His omni
J. cience-it is Gods eye; His omI
"A presence-it is Gods ear; HIS omnipoten
1t is Gods arm; the upholstery OF {
midnight heavens-it is the work OF Goo
fingers; his fe-giving power-it Is I
breath of the Almighty; his dominion
d, 1.-THE government shall be upon his sho'
It. der"
A body so divinely honored and so
~ yinely constructed, let US be careful not
e, abuse IL. When it becomes Christi
be duty TO take care of our health, Is not
n. whole tendency toward longevity? Il
:. toss nv watch about recklessly and droE
III on the pavement and wird it up any II