Connecticut western news., 1900-02-22

cal ReAf0asn-Care of the Health s Peaitivs Christian Duty-A Gospel of Life.
 rCopyright, Louis Klopsch, 1So0l
 WASHINGTON, Feb. 1S.-This sermon of pr. Taimage presents a gospel for this life as well as the next and shows what religion does for the prolonga- . ton of earthly existence; 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 ous with chlorine and carbolic acid. There are people who cannot pro- nounce the word religion without hear ing In 1t the clipping chisel of the tombstone cutter. It is high time that this thing were changed and that re ligion. instead of being represented as hearse to carry out the dead, should 2 be represented as chariot in which the living are to triumph.
 Religion. so far from subtracting from one's vitality, is glorious addi- ton. It Is sanative, curative, hygienic. 1t Is good flor 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 an other part of the Psalms, prays that religion may be dominant, he does not speak of it as a mild sickness or an 2 cancellation or an attack of moral and ES nf f the saving health of all nations, :" while God in the text promises lon gevity to the pious, saying, With long life will satisfy him.
 The fact Is that men and women die too soon. It is high time that religion Joined the hand of medical science in attempting to improve human longey- ity. Adam lived 930 years Methuse lah lived 969 years AS late in the his tory of the world as Vespasian there were at one time in his empire 45 peo- pie 1855 years old. So far down as the sixteenth century Peter Zartan died at 1855 years of age. I do not say that re- ligion will ever take the race back to antediluvian longevity, but I do say that the length of human life will be greatly improved.
 It Is said In Isaiah lxv, 20, ''The child shall die 100 years old" Now, if. ac- cording to Scripture, the child is to be 100 years old may not the men and wo- men reach to 300 and 400 and 500? 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 a Tous- saint POuverture. And if the white race shall be brought out from under the serfdom of sin what shall be the body. what shall be the soul? Religion has only just touched our world. Give 1t 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?
 Friend of Longevity.
 My design Is to show that practica. religion Is the friend of longevity. prove it, first, from the fact that it makes the care of our health a positive Christian duty Whether we shall keep early or late hours, whether we shall take food digestible or indigestible, whether there shall be thorough or in- complete mastfcation, are questions 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 altars or marsits walls or crumble it's pillars Is a God defying sacrilege." He sees Gods caligraphy in every page-ana- tomical and physiological He says, God has given me wonderful body for noble purposes" That arm with 32 curious bones wieided by 46 curious muscles, and all under the brains teleg- raphy-300 pounds of blood rushing through the heart every hour, the heart in A hours beating 100000 times, dur ing the same time the lungs taking in 51 hogsheads of air, and all this mech anism not more mighty than delicate and easily disturbed and demolished.
 The Christian man says to himself, If I hurt my nerves, if hurt my brain, If hurt any of my physical fac ulties, insult God and call for dire retribution." Why did God tell the Levites not to offer to him in sacrifice animals imperfect and diseased? He meant to tell us in all the ages that we are to offer to God our very best phys. Asical condition, and a man who through irregular or gluttonous eating ruins his health Is not offering to God such a sacrifice. Why did Paul write for bis cloak at Troas? Why should such @ great man as Paul be anxious about a thing so insignificant as an overcoatI It 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 dowI at night and pray and ask Gods pro tection while at the same time he kep' the windows of his bedroom tight shu against fresh air He would just as soon think of going to the top of hi: house and leaping of and then pray ing to God to keep him from getting hurt. Just as long as you refer thi' whole subject of physical health to thu realm of whimsicality or to the pastr, cook or to the butcher or to the bake or to the apothecary or to the clothier you are not acting like a Christian Take care of all your physical forces nervous, muscular, bone, brain, cellu lar tissue-for all you must be brough to judgment
 Smoking your nervous system int fidgets, burning out the coating of you @ ytomach with wine, logwooded ant strychnined, walking with thin shoei to make your feet look delicate, pinch ed at the waist until you are nigh GU in two and neither part worth any thing, grooming about sick headach' and palpitation of the heart, whicl hf,,ly 1a xx-ha fhn,