The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1900-02-23
LIVING IN CHRIST.
Dr.. Talmage Speaks of the Benefits
of a Religious Existence.
How 1t Makes Its DevOtees Happier
Practical Religion the Friend
of Longevity - Gospel of
Everyday Life.
copyright. 1900, by Louis Klopsch.)

the next and shows what religion does
for the prolongation of earthly exist
ence: text, Psalm xoi., 16: with long
hfe will 1 satisfy him"
Through the mistake of its friends
religion has been chiefly associated
with sickbeds and graveyards The
whole subject to many people is odor-
6sIs with chlorine and carbolic acid.
There are people who cannot pro-
nounce the word religion without
hearing in it the clipping chisel of
the tombstone cutter. 1t is high time
that this thing were changed and that
religion instead of being represented
as hearse to 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 glorious addi-
ton. 1t is sanitive, curative, hygienic.
II 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,
I'M another part of the Psalms, prays
that religion may be dominant, he
does not speak of it as mild sick
ness or an emancipation or an at
tack of moral and spiritual cramp.
He speaks of it as "the saving health
Of all nations" while God in the text
promises longevity to the pious, say
ing: with long life will 1 satisfy
him"
The fact is that men and women
die too soon. 1t is high time that re-
ligion joined the hand of medical sci
ence in attempting to improve human
longevity. Adam lived $50 years.
Methuselah lived 900 years. AS late
IA the history of the world as Vespa-
sian there were at one time in his en-
pire As people 1875 years old. So far
down as the sixteenth century Peter
Tartan died at 1876 years of age. l DO
not say that religion will ever take
the race back to antediluvian longev-
fly, but L do say that the length of hui
man life will be greatly improved.
It is said in Isaiah lXv., 20: ''The |
shild shall die hundred years old"
Now, if, according to Scripture, the
child is to be a hundred years old,
may not the men and women reach |
to 300 and 400 and 500? The fact is
that we are mere dwarfs and skele-
tons compared with some of the gen.
STATIONS that are to come. Take the |
African race. They have been under
bondage for centuries. Give them a
chance and they develop a Toussaint
fOuverture. And if the white race
shall be brought out from the serf-
dom of sin what shall be the body?
What shall be the soul? Religion has |
only just touched our world. Give it |
full power for a few centuries, and |
who can tell what will be the strength |
of man and the beauty of woman and
the longevity of all?
My design is to show that practical
religion is the friend of longevity; l |
prove it, first, from the fact that it
makes the care of your health a posi-
tive Christian duty. Whether we shall
keep early or late hours. whether we
shall take food digestibe or indigesti-
BILE, whether there shall be thorough
or incomplete mastication, are ques-
tons very often referred to the realm
of whimsicality, but the Christian man
lifts this whole pro Dlem 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 affairs
or mar its walls or crumble it's pillars
is a God-defying sacrilege." lie sees
Gods caligraphy in every page-an-
stomical and physiological. He says:
"God has given me a wonderful body
for noble purposes" That arm with
80 curious bones welded by 46 Gu
rious muscles. and all under the
brains telegraphy-350 pounds of
blood rushing through the heart every
hour-the heart in "a hours beating
100000 times. during the same time
the lungs taking in 81 hogsheads 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
lire retribution." Why did God tell
INT LtNIltS uOl To olcI 10 him ID !
sacrifice animals imperfect and dis
-ased? He meant to tell us in all
the ages that we are to offer to God
bur very best physical condition. and
4 man who through irregular or glut-
.onous eating ruins his health is not
offering to God such a sacrifice. Why
lid Paul write for his cloak at Troas?
Why should such great man as Paul
Re anxious about a thing so insiguif-
ant as an overcoat? 1t was because
he knew that with pneumonia and
rheumatism he would not be worth
lalf as much to God and the church
Is with respiration easy and foot free.
An intelligent Christian man would
onsider 1t an absurdity to kneel down
t night and pray and ask Gods pro-
ection while at the same time he kept I
he windows Of his bedroom tight shut I
gainst fresh air. He would just as
Don think of going to the top of his
ouse and leaping off and then pray (
Dg to God to keep him from getting :
urt just as long as you refer this
7hole subject of physical health to G
be realm of whimsicality. or to the {
L Al 4