The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1900-04-21
TALhAGKsl,
SERMON

Subjsct: What Religion Does For III.
Prolongation Of Human Lifs-Rslixios
10 Not q Hearse-Carc OF the Health {
Positive Christian Duty.
tcopyrsaht isOc.I
wAsHIseToS, d. C.-This sermon Of DR.
falmage presents a gospel for this life q.
we'll as the next and shows what religion
1oes for the pfolongatlon Of earthly exist
snce; text, Psalm xci., Is, "With long LIE
will satisfy him.
Through the mistake Of its friends rslfg.
lon has been chiefly associated with sick.
beds and graveyards. The whole subjsc!
] 20 many people Is odorous with chlorine
md carbolic acid. There are people who
;annot pronounce the word religion with.
| put hearing In !. the clipping ehisel OF The
! tombstone cutter. 1t Is high time that thii
hing were changed and that religion, In.
| stead OF being represented as hearse tc
;arry out tine desd, should be represented
As chariot In wblch the living are 10 tri.
| ampb.
ones vitality, fs a glorious addition. It Is
sensitive. curative, hygienic. Il Is good
Tor the eyes. good for the ears, good for
The spleen, good for the digestion, good
Tor the nerves, good for the muscles. When
| David, in another part Of the Psalms. prsys
that religion may be dominant, he does
! not speak Of 1t as q rnild sickness or an
snaclation or an attack OF moral and
| spiritual cramp. He speaks Of It as "the
| The text promises longevity to the pious,
| saying, with long life viii I satisfy him.
The fect Is that men and women die too
| soon. 1t Is high time that religion Joined
the hand OF medical science In attempting
! o improve human longevity. Adam lived
| $50 years; Methuselah lived ESQ years. Az
| Iato 10 the history of tho world as vespa-
Sian there were at one time ia his empire
forty-hve people 135 years old. So far down
| as the sixteenth century Peter Tartan died
| 1t 1875 years Of age. do not say that relig.
ion will ever take the race back to ante.
1nuvian longevity, but do say that the
length OF human LIE will be greatly I'm
proved.
It is said in Isaiah Ixv., 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 5oO2 The fact Is
that we are mere dwarfs and skeletons
compared with some OF the generations
That nre to como. Take the African raco.
They have been under bondage for GEN.
turtles. Give them chance, and they de-
velop Toussai1t nOuverture. And II the
white raco shall be brought out from under
The serfdom OF ST.. what shall! be the body,
what shall be the soulp Religion has only
Just touched our world. Give It full power
Tor q few centuries, aud who can tell what
will be the strength Of man and the beauty
Of woman and the longevity OF alls
My desigc Is to show that practical re-
tigion IL the friend o: longevity. prove
Il, first, from the fact that 1t makes the
:are OF our health positive Christian
duty. Whether We shall keep early or late
hours, whether we shall take food digest
able or fndigestable, whether thore shall be
thorough OF incomplete ,nastication, are
questions very often referred to the realm
81 whimsicality, but the Christian man
lifts this whole problem of health into the
accountable and the Divine. He says. God
has given mo this body, and He has called
i the temple OF the Holy Ghost, and to de-
lace Its affairs or mar its walls or crumbls
It's pillars is a God defying sacriiege." He
.omical and physiological. He says, "God
1as given me n wonderful body for noble
purposes" That arm with thirty.two cur.
lous bones wieldsd by forty-sfx curious
muscles, and all under the brains telsg-
raphy - $50 pounds OF blood rushing
through the heart every hour, the heart In
.wcnty-four hours beating 100 900 times,
turing the samo time the lungs taking 10
lfty-seven hoysheads Of air, and ell this
and easily disturbed anu demolished.
The Christian man Gays to himself, "If
hurt my nerves, II hurt my brain, II
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 diseussdf
Hc meant to tell US In all the ages that We
arc to offer to God our very best physical
condition, and man who through irregular
or Rluttonous eating ruins his health is not
Offering to God such a sacrifice. Why did
Paul write for his cloak at Troas? Why
should such q great man as Paul be anx.
ous about a thing so Insignificant as an
cvercoat? 1t was because he knew that
with pneumonia and rhematism he wjuld
not be worth half as much to God and the
,hurch as with respiration easy and foot
trea.
When It becomes Christian duty to take
:ars Of our health. IL not the whole ten
dency toward longevity? II I toss my
watch about reeklessly and drop 1t on the
pavement and wf1d 1t up ut any time OF
Jay or night hcppen to think OF It, and
often let 1t ria Gown, while you are careful
with your watch and mover abuse 1t and
wind II up just at the same hour every
night and pu: 1t N place where * will
aot suffer from :he violent changes OF at
n ospSere, which watch will last the
longer? Common sonse answers. Now,
The human bodyis Gods watch. You see
tho hands Fl the watch. You SEQ the face
of thr watch, bnt the Beating OF the heart lie
the ticking of the watch. o., be careful
md do not l-t u run dowai
Again, rsmafk that practice! religion
g frlond OF longevity In tue iact that 1t
Is protest against dissipation: which In
lure and destroy tho health. Dad men
and women live very shor. life. Their
sins kill them. ] knc W hundreds o. good
I'D men, but do not know Ealf dozen
bad old men. Wbyp They DO not get old.
Lord Byron died at Missolocehi mt thirty
sIx years OF age, himself his own Eazappa,
ais unbridled passions the Loose that
dashed with him into tho desert. Edgar
Poe died at Baltimore ut tiirty-eight
years Of age. The black raven that
llighted on his bust abc:o lis chamber
1oor was delfrium tremens.
Only this and ncthiry more.
Napoleon Bonaparte lived oaly just be-
1ond midlife, then died at st. Helena, aad
,ne OF his doctors said that his disease was
Induced by excessive snuffing. The hero
u Austeriitz, the man who by one step OF
MS foot In the center of Europe shook the
,arth, killed by a snuGbox. Oh, how many
,eopie we have known who have not lived
but hall their days because of their dissi-
,ations and indulgences. Now practical
eligion is q protest against all dissipation
" any kind.
"But," you say, professors OF religion
ave fallen, professors Of religion have got /
trunk, professors OF religion have misap.
trust funds. professors OF relig-
on have absconded." Yes, but they threw |
way their religion sfore they did their |
morality. II a man on a White Star line |
steamer bound for Liverpool In mid.At-