The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-03-02
A HEALTHY RELIGION.
Or. TALMAGE ON THE GOSPEL OF
EVERYDAY LIFE.
What 1t Does for the Prolongation of
Earthly Existence and How 1t Makes
Its Devotees Happier.


a gospel for this life as well as the
e and shows what religion does Tor
the prolongation Of earthly existence;
text, Psalm xci. 16. with long life will
I satisfy him"
Through the mistake o. it's friends
religion has been chiefly associated
with sickbeds and ~graveyards. The
whole subject to many peopia is odor-
Gus with chlorine and carbolic acid.
Their are people who cannot pro-
nounce the word religion without hear
ing in il the clipping chisel OF the
tombstone cutter. 1t is high time that
this thing were changed and that re-
lgfon instead OF being represented as a
hearse to carry out the dead ould be
represented as a chariot in which the
living are to triumph
Religion, so far from ~subtracting
from ones vitality, is a glorious add
ton. 1t is sanitiye, 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
il as a mild sickness or an emaciation
or an attack of moral and spiritual
cramp. He speaks of it as 1.-The saving
health Of all nations" while God in the
text promises longevity to the piOus,
saying. With long life will l 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
attempting to improve human longev-
ity. Adam lived $50 years. Methuselah
lived 969 years. AS late in the history
of the world as Vespasian there were
at one time in his empire 45 people 135
years old. So far down as the sixteenth
century Peter Tartan died at 1S5 years
of age. / do not say hat religion will
ever take the race back to antedilu-
Wan longevity, but l do say that the
length of human life will be greatly
improved.
1t is said in Isaiah lxv. 20, THE child
shall die a hundred years old" Now, if
according to Scripture, the child is to
be a hundred years old, may not the
men and women reach 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 under bondage for centuries.
Give them a chance and they develop
a Toussaint POuverture. And if the
white race shall be brought out from
under the serfdom of sin what shall be
the DOOy. what SndlI De tHe Jul.
Religion has only just touched our
world. Give it full power for a few CEN
turtles. and who can tell what will be
the strength of man and the beauty of
woman and the longevity of all?
RELIGION AND LONGEVITY.
Ny design is to show that practical
religion is the friend of longevity; 1
prove 1t, first, from the fact that 1T
makes the care of our health a positive
lA- NO shall 1nnD
early or late hours, whether we shall
lake food digestible or indigestible.
whether there shall be thorough or in
complete ma~SticatiOn, are questions
very often referred to the realm of
whimsicality, but the Christian man
lifts this whole problem of health into
the 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 it's affairs or
mar it's walls or crumble its pillars is
a GOd-defying sacrilege." He sees
Gods ~caligraphy i'll every page-an-
arOmicaI and physiological. He says,
God has given me a wonderful body
for noble purposes" That arm with 80
curious bones welded by 46 curious
muscles, and all under the brains tel
egraphy-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 me-
chanism not more mighty than deli
cate and easily disturbed and de-
molished.
The Christian man says to himself,
eff I hurt my nerves, if / hurt my
brain, if 1 hurt any of my physical
faculties, 1 insult God and call for dire
r%etribution." Why did o tell the Lee
yites not to offer TO him in sacrifice
--s-1alr s~Dnrf0nT on6 6iCnaSn63 He
meant to tell us in all the ages that we
are to offer to God our very best ply
steal condition and a man who through
irregular or g~luttonous eating ruins
hts 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 anxious about a
thing so, insignificant 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.
PRAYER AND FRESH AIR.
An intelligent Christian mar 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 his
house and leaping off and then praying
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 a Christian. Take
rare es all your physical f~orces-nerv-
Gus, muscular. bone. brain, cellular
tissu@for all you must be trough to
Judgment. |
Smoking your nervous system INTO
1dgets. burning out the coating of your
stomach with wine logwooded n
strychnined, walking with thin shoes
to make your feet look delicate. pinch
Cd at the waist until you are nigh cut
In two. and neither part worth any
fhinS. %groaning about sick headache
and palpitation Of the heart, which
yen think came from God, when they |
came from your Owl folly.
what right has n lar or woman
to aeface the temple of the Holy
6host? What Is the ear? Why. it is the |
whispering gallery of the human soul. |
49, L