Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-03-30
LIVING IN CHRIST.
Dr.. Talmage Speaks of the Benefits
of a Religious Existence.
How II Makes Its Deyotees Happier
Practical Religion the Friend
of Longevity - Gospel of
Everyday Life.
Copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch)
Washington,

Copyright. 1900 by Louis Klopsch)
Washington,
This sermon of DR.. Talmage pre-
sents IA gospel for this life as well as
the next and shows what religion does
for the prolongaton of earthly exist
ence: text, Psalm Xci., 16: with long
life will l satisfy him.
Through the mistake of its friends
religion has been chiefly associated
with sickbeds and grayeyards. The
whole subject TO many people is odor-
Gus with chlorine and carbolic acid
There are people who cannot pro-
nounce the word religion without
hearing in it the clipping clisel of
the tombstone cutter. 1t is high time
that this thing were changed and that
religion instead of being represented
as a hearse to carry out the dead
should be represented as chariot in
which the living are to triumph.
Religion, so far from subtracting
from ones vitality, is a glorious addi-
ton. 1t is sanitive, 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 Psalms, prays
that religion may be dominant, he
does not speak of it as a mild sick
ness or an emancipation or an at
tack of moral and spiritual cramp.
lie 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 | satisfy
him"
The fac. is that men and womeL
die too soon 1t is high time that re-
ligion Joined She hand of medical sci
ence in attempting to improve human
longevity. Adam lived 900 years.
Methuselah lived 969 years. As late
in the history of the world as Vespa-
sian there were at one time in his en-
pire 45 people 1875 years old So far
down as the sixteenth centurv Peter
Tartan died at 1S5 years of age | do
not say that religion will ever take
the race back to antediluvian longev-
ity, but do say that the length of hui
man life will be greatly improved.
1t is said in Isaiah lyy.. 90: "The
child shall die a hundred years old"
Now if, according to Scripture, the
child is to be 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
crations that are to come. Take the
African race. They have been under
bondage for centuries Give them a
chance and they develop Toussant
l'Ouverture. 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 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; |
prove it, first, from the fact that it
makes the care of your health posi-
tive Christian duty. Whether we shall
keep early or late hours, whether we
shall take food digestible or indigesti-
or incomplete mastication, are ques-
tons very often referred 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 affairs
or mar its walls or crumble its pillars
is God-defying sacrilege." He sees
Gods caligraphy in every page-an-
atomical and physiological. He says:
God has given me wonderful body
for noble purposes" That arm with
30 curious bones welded by 46 Gu
rious muscles, and all under the
brains telegraphy-35 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
dire retribution." Why did God tell
the Levites not to offer to Him in
sacrifice animals imperfect and dis
the ages that we are to offer to God
our very best physical condition, and
a man who through irregular or glut-
tonous eating ruins his health is not
offering to God such a sacrifice. Why
did Paul write for his cloak at Troas
Why should such great man as Paul
be anxious about thing so insignifi-
cant as an overcoat? 1t was because
he knew that with pneumonia and
rheumatism he would not be worth
half as much to God and the church
as with respiration easy and foot free.
An intelligent Christian man would
consider it an absurdity to kneel down
at night and pray and ask Gods pro-
lection while at the same time he kept
the windows of his bedroom tight shut
against fresh air. He would just as
soon think of going to the top of bis
house and leaping off and then pray
ing to God to keep him from getting
hurt. just as long as you refer this
whole subject of physical health to
the realm of whimsicality, or to the
pastry cook, or to the butcher, or TO
the baker, or to the apothecary, or to
the clothier, you are not acting like
\ Christian. Take care of all your
physical forces-neryous, musc,ls'i