Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-02-28
SERMON
Rev. DR.. CaInla::r

Subject: What Religion Does For the
ProionEntion OF H"mn" Eife-lseiigi"n
10 Not . Hearse-Care OF the Health y
Positive Christian Du'y.
ICopyrIGht IUoI
WASHINGTON, D. C.-This sermon OF DR.
Talmage presents gospel for this life as
we'll rs the next aud shows what religion
does for the prolongation of earthly exist
ence; text. Psalm xci., l6, with long life
will satisfy him."
Through tine mistake OF its friends reliS-
ion has been chiefly associated with sick
beds and graveyards. The whole subjec.
to many people Is odorous with chlorine
and carbolic acid. There are people who
cannot pronounce 10 word religion with
out hearing In 1t the clipping chisel OF the
tombstone cutter. 1t is high time that this
thing were changed and that religion, in-
stead OF being represented as u hearse to
carry out the dead, should be represented
as a chariot In which the living are to tri
umph.
ones vitality, Is a glorious addition. 1t is
sensitive, curative, hyRlenic. 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
not speak OF 1t as u mild sickness or an
cancellation or an attack OF moral and
spiritual cramp. He speaks OF 1t as 1.-THE
saving health of ali nations" while God in
the text promises longevity to the pious.
saying, with long life will satisfy him.
The fact Is that men and women die too
soon. 1t IL high time that religion Joined
the hand Of medical science in attempting
to improve human longevity. Adam lived
$50 years; Methuselah lived 969 years. As
IL Al
sian there were at one time In his empire
forty-flve people 1875 years old. So far down
as the sixteenth century Peter Tartan died
at 1856 years Of age. do not say that relig.
ion will ever take the race back to ante
diluvisn longevity, but do say that the
length OF human life will be greatly i'm
proved.
It is said In Isaiah lxv., 20, 1.-THE child
shall die 100 years DID," Now, II, accord.
ing to Scripture, the child Is to be 100
years old may not the men and women
reach to 800 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 under bondage for cen
turies. Give them a chance, and they de-
velop Toussaint POuverture. And II the
white race shall be brought out from under
the serfdom OF sin what shall be the body,
what shall be the soul2 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?
MY design is to show that practical re-.
ligion is the friend of longevity. prove
1t, first, from the fact that 1t makes the
care OF our health q positive Christian
duty. Whether We shall keep early or late
hours, whether we shall take food digest
able or indigestable, whether there shall be-
thorough or Incomplete mastication, 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
1t the temple OF the Holy Ghost, and to dsr
face it's affairs or mar its rwaiiAs OF cruinble
Its pillars is God defying sacrilege." He
sees Gods caligraphy In every page-nnH-
tomical and physiological. He says, "God
has given me a wonderful body for noble
purposes" That arm with thirty-two cur
ious bones welded by forty-six curious
muscles, and all under the brains teleg-
raphy - $50 pounds OF blood rushing
through the heart every hour. the heart In
twenty-four hours beating 100 900 times,
during the same time the lungs taking in
fifty-seven hogsheads of air. and all this
mechanism not more mighty than delicate
and easily disturbed ana demolished.
The Christian man says to himself, 'If
hurt my nerves, II l hurt my brain, II 1
hurt any OF my physical faculties, insult
0Ou anu Gull IOI uIT0 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 physical
condition, and man who through irregular
or gluttonous eating ruins his health is not
Offering to God such a sacrifice. Why did
Paul write for his cloak at Troas? Why
should such a great man as Paul be anx-
ious about thing so Insignificant as an
overcoat? 1t was because he knew that
with pneumonia and rhematism he would
not be worth half as much to God and the
church az with respiration easy ani foot
free.
When it becomes a Christian duty to take
care OF our health, is not the whole ten
dency toward longevity II toss my
watch about reckiessly and drop it on the
pavement and wind 1t up mt any time OF
day or night 1 happen to think OF 1t. aud
often let 1t run down, while you are care ui
with your watch and never abuse it aud
wind 1t mp just at the same hour every
night and put 1t In place where it will
mosphere, which watch will last ths
longer? Common sense answers. Now,
the human body Is Gods 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. Oh, be careful
and do not let II run down!
Again, I remark that practical religion
IL friend OF longevity In the fact that It
Ia protest against designations which in
jure and destroy the health. Bad men
and women live very short life. Their
sins kill them. know hundreds OF cool
old men, but do not know half "a dozen
bad old men. Why? They do not &c, OIL
Lord Byron died at MissolOnghi at thirty
six years Of nge, himself his own Mazeppa,
his unbridled passions the horse thar
dashed with him Into the desert. Elgar
a. Poe died at Baltimore mt thirty eight
years Of age. The black raven that
alighted on his bust above his cha Der
door was delirium tremens.
Only this and nothing more.
Napoleon Bonapnrie lived only just be-
yond midlife, then died ut st. Helena, and
one OF his doctors said that his disease was
induced by excessive snufilng. The hero
OF Austeriitz, the man who by one step OF
his foot In the center OF Europe shook the
earth, killed by snuffbox. On, how many
people we have known who have not lived
pations and indulgences. Now practical
religion is protest against all dissipation
of any kind.
But" you say, professors of religion
have fallen, professors OF reii sion have got
drunk, professors OF religion have misap-
Ion have absconded." Yes, but they threw
away their religion before they did thrir
morality. II u man on II White Star line
steamer bound for Liverpool In mid-At
lantic jumps overheard and is drowned. is
that anything against the White Star lines
capacity to take the man across the ocean?
And II a man jumps over the grnwale Of
his religion and goes down never to rise Is
that any reason for your believing that re-
ligton has no capacity to take the man
clear through? In the one case IL he had
kept to the steamer his body would hnvs
been saved; In the other ease II 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 resi- stance than
hundreds OF people who lie in the ceme-
tertes to-day slain by their own Vices. The
doctors made their case kind and plens-
ant as they could, and 1t was called con-
gestion Of the brain or something else, but
the snakes and the blue files that seemed
to crawl over the PILLOW in the sight OF tho
delicious patient showed what was the