St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-03-24
LIVING IN CHRIST.
Dr.. Talmage Speaks Of the Benefits
Of q Religious Existence.
How It Makes It's Devotees HappieE
Practical Religion the Friend
Of Longevity Gospel Of
Everyday. Life.
Copyright. 1900. by Louis Kl0psch9
Uash;rCfop

| the next anu SHOWS NHdt IciiS I'm wv
for the prolongation of earthly exist
ence; text, Psalm xci., 16: with long
life will satisfy him.
Through the mistake Of it, 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 chisel 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 a chariot i'll
which the living are to triumph.
Religion, SO far from subtracting
from ones vitality, is glorious addi-
ton. 1t is sanitive, curative. hygienic.
II il 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.
He speaks of it as 1.-The saving health
| of all nations" while God i'm the text
promises longevity to the pious, say
ing: "With long life will l satisfy
him."
The fact is that men and women
die too soon. 1t is high time that re-
ligion joined the hand Of medical SCI
ence in attempting to improve human
longevity. Adam lived $50 years.
Methuselah lived 969 years. As late
in the history Of the world as Vespa-
sian there were at one time in his em-
pire As people 1875 years old. So far
down as the sixteenth century Peter
Tartan died at 1s5 years of age. 1 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 XIV, 20: 1.-The
child shall die hundred years old"
Now. if, according to Scripture, the
child is to be hundred years old.
may not the men and women reach
to 800 and 400 and 500? The fact is
that we are mere dwarfs and skele-
tons compared with some of the gen.
erations that are to come. Take the
African race. They have been under
bondage for centuries Give them
chance and they develop a Tonssaint
rOuverture. 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 a few centuries. and
who can tell what will be the strength
of man and the beauty of woman and
the longevity of all? Fss f.f#S
My design is to- show that practical
religion is the friend of longevity; 1
prove it. first, from the fact that it
makes the care of your health a posi-
tive Christian duty. Whether we shall
keep early or late hours, whether we
shall take food digestible or indigesti-
BILE, whether there shall be thorough
or incomplete mastication. are ques-
-tions 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 pagan
atomical and. physiological. He says:
God has given me a wonderful body
for noble purposes That arm with
- curious bones welded by 46 Gu
rious muscles. and all under the
brains telegraphy-35O pounds Of
blood rushing through the heart every
hour-the heart in - hours beating
100000 times, during the same time |
the lungs taking in 81 hogshends of
air, and-all- this mechanism not more |
mighty than delicate and easily d.
turbed and demolished.
The Christian man says to himself:
III I hurt my nerves. il hurt my
brain. if I 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
eased? He meant to tell us in all
the ages that we are to offer to God
our very best physical condition. and
a man who through irregular or giut-
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 she would not. be worth
half as much to God and the church ,
as with respiration easy and foot free.
An intelligent Christian man would
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 of and then pray
ing to God to keep him from getting
hurt. Just as long as you refer this
whole subject of ply steal health to
the realm of whimsicaiity. or to the
pastry cook. or to the butcher, or to
he baker, or to the apothecary, or 10
he clothier, you are not acting like
; Christian. Take care of all your
physical forces-nervous. muscular.
Done. brain, cellular tissue-for all you
must be brought to judgment 81
Smoking your nervous system into
idgets, burning ont the coating of
'our stomach with wine logwooded
ind strychnined. walking with thin
hoes to make your feet look delicate,
,inched at the waist until You are
Ugh cst ia gtwO. and neither part
worth anything, groaffng about sick
headache and palpitation Of the heart.
which you think came from God,
when they came from your. own folly.
What right has any man or woman
o deface the temple of the Holy :
ihost? What is the ear? Why. ii is
he whispering gallery of the human
oul. What is the eve2 II - tho oh. /,