The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-11-02
TO ENJOY LONG LIFE.
A Prescription Prepared by Rev.
Dr.. Talmage.
..eligiOn VIII Offset the Dissip pal Z ON =
and DestrOycrs of Life-The
Gospel a Chariot for
the Living.
copyrighted. 1899. by Louis Klopsch)

prescriptions for the prolongation of
life and breaches the gospel OF physical
health. The text is Psalms 81, 16, with
long life will satisfy him.
Through the mistake of its friends re-
ligion has been chiefly associated with
sick beds and graveyards. The whole
subject to many people is odorous with
chlorine and carbolic acid. There are
people who cannot pronounce the word
religion without hearing in it the clip
ping chisel of the tombstone cutter. 1t
changed and that religion, instead of
being represented as hearse to carry
out the dead. should be represented as
a chariot i'm which the living are to tri-
umph.
Religion, SO far from subtracting
from ones vitality, is a glorious addi-
ton. 1t 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 another
part of the psalm prays that religion
may be dominant, he does not speak of
| it as mild sickness or an emaciation or
| an attack of moral and spiritual cramp.
He speaks of it as ''the saving health of
all nations while God in the text prom
ises 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
| :nin ha of =
tempting to improve human longevity.
| Adam lived $50 years; Methuselah lived
969 years. AS late in the history of the
world as Nespasian there were at one
time in his empire As people 135 years
old. So far down as the sixteenth CEN
tury Peter Tartan died at 1s5 years of
| age. do not say that religion will ever
take the race back to antediluvian lon
| geyity, but l do say the length of life
will be increased.
1t is said In Isaiah: 1.-The child shall
die hundred years Old Now, if, ac-
cording 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 been un-
der bondage for centuries. Give them
a chance, and they develop Frederick
Douglass or Toussaint L'Ouverture.
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 few
centuries, and who can tell what will be
the strength of man and the beauty OF
women and the longevity of all?
My design is to show that practical re.
lgion is the friend of long life. Iprove
it first from the fact that it makes the
care of our health positive Christian
duty. Whether we shall keep early OF
late hours, whether we shall take foot
: digestible or indigestible, whether there
} shall be thorough or incomplete masti
cation. are questions very often de
ferred to the realm of whimsicality. Bu
the Christian man lifts this whole prob
lem of health into the accountable ant
: the Divine. He says: God has giveI
me this body, and He has called it th'
temple of the Holy Ghost, and to de
face it's affairs or mar it's walls or crum
J BILE its pillars is God defying sacri
lege." He sees Gods caligraphy il
every page, anatomical and physiolog
ical. He esays: God has given me a won
derful body for noble purposes"-tha
arm with 80 curious bones-wieIded b,
: 46 curious muscles and all under tn
brains telegraphy, $50 pounds Ct bloc,
; rushing through the heart every hour
the heart in "a hours beating 10000
| times, during the "a hours the lung
7 taking in 81 hogsheads of air, and al
this mechanism not more mighty thar
delicate and easily disturbed and de
molished The Christian man says t
: himself: IF hurt my nerves, if hur
!. my brain, if l hurt any of my physica
faculties, l insult God and call for dir
retribution." Why did God tell the LIZ
vites not to offer to Him in sacrifice an
mails imperfect and diseased? He mean
to tell us in all the ages that we are t
:. offer to God our very best physical cor
: dition, and a man who through irres
ular or gluttonous eating ruins hi
health is not offering to God such sal
rifice Why did Paul write for his cloa
at Troas? Why should such grea
> man as Paul be anxious about thin
Z so insignificant as an overcoat? 1t wa
because he knew that with pneumoni
and rheumatism he would not be wort
, , half as much to God and the church q
4 with respiration easy and foot free.
II An intelligent Christian man woul
= consider it an absurdity to kneel dow
. at night and pray and ask God prote'
ton while at the same time he kept Ii
window of his bedroom tight shl
{ against fresh air. He would just as 500
think of going out on the bridge b
J tween New York and Brooklyn. lea]
ing off and then praying to God to kee