The Yale expositor., 1899-10-06

W uSldCe the temple Ol lHe I1Oly
Ghost? What is the ear? 1t is the
whispering gallery of the soul. What
is the eye? 1t is the observatory God
constructed, it's telescope sweeping the
heavens. What is the hand? An in
strument so wonderful that when the
earl of Bridgewater bequeathed in his
will 10000 for treatises to be writ
ten on the wisdom, power and good
ness OF God, Sir Charles Bell, the
great English anatomist and surgeon,
found his greatest illustration in the
construction of the human hand, de-
voting his whole book to that subject.
So wonderful are these bodies that God
names his own attributes after differ
ent parts of them. His omniscienee-
it is Gods eye. His omnipresence-
it is Gods ear. His omnipotence-it is
Gods arm. The upholstery of the
midnight heavens-it is the work of
Gods fingers. His life-giving power
1t is the breath of the Almighty. His
dominion-"the government shall be
upon his shoulder" A body so divine
ly constructed, let us be careful not to
abuse it, When it becomes a Chris
ticn duty to take care OF our health,
is not the whole tendency toward lon
gevity? If toss my watch about reck
lessly. ahl drop it on the pavement,
and wind it up any time of day or
night happen to think Of 1t, and often
let it run down, while you are careful
with your watch, and never abuse it,
and wind it up just at the same hour
every night, and put it in place where
1T will not suffer from the violent
changes of atmosphere, which watch
will last the longer? Common sense
answers. Now, the human body is
Gou S watch. You see the hands of the
watch, you see the face of the watch,
but the beating of the heart is the
ticking of the watch. Be careful and
do not let it run down!
Again; 1 remark that practical re-
ligion is a friend of longevity in the
fact that it is a protest against dis
sipations, which injure and destroy the
health. Bad men and women live a
very short life. Their sins kill them.
l know hundreds of good old men, but
l do not know half a dozen bad old
men. Why? They do not get old.
thirty-six years of age, himself his
own Mazeppa, his unbridled passions
the horse that dashed with him into
the desert. Edgar A. Poe died at Bal
timore at thirty-eight years of age.
The black raven that alighted on the
bust above his door was delirium
tremens-
only this and nothing more"
Napoleon Bonaparte lived only just be-
yond mid-life, then died at ST. Helena,
and one of his doctors said that his
disease was induced by excessive snuff
ing. The hero of Austerlitz, the man
who by one step of his foot in the cen
ter of Europe shook the earth, killed by
a snuff-boX! How many people we
have known who have not lived out
half their days because of their dis
sipations and indulgences! Now, prac-
teal religion is protest against all
designations Of any kind.
But" you say, professors of re-
ligion have fallen, professors of re-
ligion have got drunk, professors Of re-
ligion have Incorporated trust
funds, professors of religion have abb
seconded" Yes; but they threw away
their religion before they did their
morality If man 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 re-
ligion has no capacity to take the man
clear through? In the one case, if he
had kept to the steamer his body
would have been saved in the other
case, if he had kept to his religion his
morals would have been saved.
There are aged people who would
have been dead twenty-five years ago
but for the defenses and the equipoise
of religion. You have no more natural
resistance than hundreds of people
who lie in the cemeteries today, slain
by their own vices. The doctors made
their case as kind and pleasant as they
could, and it was called congestion of
the brain, or something else, but the
snakes and the blue flies that seemed
to crawl over the pillow in the sight
of the delirious patient showed what
was the matter with him. You, the
aged Christian man, walked along by
that unhappy one until you came to
the golden pillar of a Christian life
You went to the right; he went to the
left. That is all the difference between
you. If this religion is protest
against all forms of dissipation, then
it is an illustrious friend of longevity.
with long life will satisfy him.
Again: Religion is a friend of lon
gevity in the fact that 1t takes the
worry out of our temporalities. 1t is
not work that kills men, it is worry.
When a man becomes a genuine Chris
tian he makes over to God not only his
affections, but his family his bust
ness, his reputation, his body, his
mind, his soul-everything. Indus
trious he will be, but never worrying,
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