Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-09-28
HOW TO LIVE LONG.
THE REV. DR.. T. DE WITT TALMAGE'S
PRESCRIPTIONS FOR LONGEVITY.
gIis Text WINS, "with Long Life VIII
I satisfy Him"-Iielp In Practical
RcIigion-A Protect Against Dissi-
pations-DcstrOycrs of Life.

Copyright Louis klopsch, lSgpl
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24.-ln this dis
course Dir. Talmnge gives prescriptions
for the proongation of life and breaches
the gospel Of physical health. The text
is Psalms xci, IL, with long life will
satisfy him"
Through the mistake of its friends re.
lcion has been chiefly associated with
sick beds mud graveyards. The whole
subject to many people is odorous with
chlorine and carbolc acid There are
people who cannot pronounce the word
"religon" without hearing in it the clip
ping Chiscl of the tombstone cutter. 1t
is high time that this thing were changed
mud that religion, instead of being repre-
scented as hearse to carry out the dead,
should he represented as n chariot in
which the living are to triumph.
Religion, so far from subtractng from
ones vitality, is glorious addition. 1t IS
sanativc, 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
yrays that religion may be dominant, he
does not speak of it ms mild sickness or
an emaciation or an attack of moral and
spiritual cramp. He speaks of it as tho
saving health of all nations while God
in the text promises longevity to the p-
Gus, 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 medical science in at
tempting to improve human longevity.
Adam lived 900 years; Mcthusclah lived
$50 years. As late in the history of the
world as Ncspasian there were ut one
time in his empire - people l3j years
old SO far down as the sixteenth cen
fury Peter Tartan died at $50 years Of
age ! do not say that religion will ever
take the race back to antcdluvian lon
cevity. but do say the length Of lie will
be increased
A Hundred Years Old.
1t is said in Isaiah, "The child shall die
hundred years old" Now, if, accord
ing to Scripture, the child is to be hun
dred years old, may not the men and wo-
men reach to 300 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 under bondage for cen
turtles. Give them n chance, aud they
develop Frederick Douglass or Tous-
saint LOuverture. 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
Df all?
My design is to show that practical re-
ligion is the friend of long life. | prove
1t first from the fact that ii makes the
care Of our health positive Christian
duty. Whether we shall keep early or
late hours, whether we shall take food
digesthle or indigestihle, whether there
shall be thorough or incomplete masti-
cation, are questions very often deferred
to the realm of whmsicality. 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 al
tars OF mar its walls or crumhle its pill
lars is a God defying sucrilege." He
sees Gods caligraphy in every page,
anatomical and physiological. lie says,
Good has given me wonderful body
foI noble purposes that arm with 81
curious bones-wielded by 4G curious
muscles and all under the brains telcg-
raphy, $50 pounds of blood rushing
through the heart every hour, the heart in
"A hours beating 100000 times, during
the "a hours the lungs taking in 81 hogs
heads Of air. and all this mechanism not
more mighty than delicate and easily dis
turbed and demolished The Christian
man says to himself, "If | hurt my
nerves, if hurt my brain, if | hurt any
Of my physical faculties | insult God
and call for dire rctribution.' Why did
God tell the Levites not to offer to him
in sacrifice animals imperfect and dis
eescd? He meant to tell MS in all the
ages that we are to offer to God our very
best physical condition, and man who
through irregular or gluttonous eating
ruins his health is not offering TO Goo
such Il sacrifice. Why did Paul write fol
hi cloak at Troas? Why should such q
great man as Paul be anxious about q
thing so insignificant as an overcoat? II
was because he knew that with pneu
monia and rheumatism he would not be
worth half as much TO God and the
church as with respiration easy and foo
free.
Care For Your Physical Forces.
An intelligent Christian man would
consider it an absurdity to kneel down a
night and pray and ask Gods protection
while at the same time he kept the win
dows Of his bedroom tight shut agans
fresh air. He would just as soon thinl
of going out on the bridge between New
York and Brooklyn, leapng off and thel
praying to God to keep him from gettin!
hurt. Just as long as you refer this who'll
subject Of physical health to the realm o
whimsicality or to the pastry cook or t.
the butcher or to the baker or to thu
apothecary or to the clothicr you are no
acting like a Christian. Take care of al
your physical forces-nervOus, muscular
bone, brain, cellular tissue-for all yol
must be brought 10 Judgment. Smokin,
your nervous system into fdgets, burning
out the coating Of your stomach will
wine logwoOded and strychnincd. walking
with thin shoes to make your feet lool
delicate, pinched at the waist until yol
are nigh cut in two and neither par
worth anything, grooming about sicl
hc0daChe and palpitation Of the heart
which you think came from God, wheI
they came from your own follyi
What right has any man or woman t.
defacc the temple of the Holy Ghost
What Is the ear? 1t is the whispering
gallery of the soul. What is the eye?
is the observatory God constructed it
telescope sweeping the heavens VIVA
is the hand? An instrument so wonderful
that, when the Earl OF Bridgcwater be