Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-02-23
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE EMINENT DIVINE'S SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject: What Religion Does For the
ProlOngatlon of Human Life-ReIigion
is Not Hearse-Care of the Health a
Positive Christian Duty.

fOsltlve Cnr1Stian Dutys
Copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. C.-This sermon OF DR..
'ralmage presents gospel for this lie us
we'll as the next and shows what religion
loes for the prolongaton of earthly exist
once; text, Psalm xci., 16, "Wlth long Lille
will satisfy him."
Through the mistake of its friends relg-
lon has been chiefly associated with sick
beds and graveyards The whole subject
TO many people is odorous with chlorine
and carbolic acid There are people who
cannot pronounce the 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, ia
stead of being represented as hearse to
carry out the dead, should be represented
as a chariot in which the living are to trl-
umph.
Religion, so far from subtractlng from
ones vitality, is glorious addition. 1t is
sensitive, curative, hyglenic. 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 it as mild sickness or an
emaciation or an attack OF moral and
spiritual cramp. He speaks OF 1t as THE
saving health of all nations" while God in
the text promises longevity to the pious,
saving. "With long life will 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 longevity. Adam lived
$50 wears: Methuselah lived 500 years. AS
late in the history OF the world as Vespa-
sian there were at one time in his empire
forty-fve people 1876 years old. So far down
as the sixteenth century Peter Tartan died
at 1876 years of age. do not say that relig-
ion will ever take the race back to ante
diluvian longevity, but l do say that the
length OF human life will be greatly i'm
proved.
1t is said in Isaiah lxv., 20, "The child
shall die 100 years DID," Now, If. accord
ing to Scripture, the child Is to be 100
wears 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 GEN.
turtles. Give them chance, and they de-
velop a 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 soul? Religion has only
lust touched our world. Give it 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?
Ny design is to show that practical re-
ligion is the friend OF longevity. I prove
it, first, from the fact that 1t makes tho
care Of our health positive Christian
duty. Whether we shall keep early or late
hours, whether we shall take food digest
able or ndigestable, whether there shall be
thorough or incomplete masticatlon, 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 de-
face its affairs or mar its walls or crumble
its pillars Is God defying sacriege." He
sees Gods caligraphy in every page-ana-
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 10000 times,
during the same time the lungs taking In
ffty-seven hogsheads OF air, and all this
mechanism not more mighty than delicate
apd easily disturbed and demolished.
The Christian man says to himself, 'If |
hurt my nerves, If l hurt my brain, II
hurt any OF my physical faculties, insult
God and call for dire retrbution." 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 sacrifice. Why did
Paul write for his cloak at Troas? Why
should such great man as Paul be anx-
ious about thing so Insignificant as an
oyercoat? 1t was because he knew that
with pneumonia and rhematism he would
not be worth half as much to God and the
church as with respiration easy and foot
free.
When 1t becomes Christian duty to take
care of our health, is not the whole ten.
dency toward longevity If l toss my
watch about recklessly and drop 1t on the
pavement and wind it up at any time OF
day or night happen to think OF 1t, and
often let it run down, while you are careful
with your watch and never abuse 1t and
wind it up Just at the same hour every
night and put 1t in q place where it will
not suffer from the violent changes Of at
mosphere, which watch will last the
longer? Common sense answers. Now,
the human body is Gods watch. You sec
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 il run down!
Again, I remark that practical religion
is friend of longevity In the fact that 1t
is a 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 good
old men, but do not know half dozen
bad old men. Why? They do not get old.
Lord Byron died at Missolonghi at thirty
six years Of age, himself his own Mazeppa,
his unbridled passions the horse that
dashed with him into the desert. Edgar
A. Poe died at Baltimore at thirty-eight
years of age. The black raven that
alighted on his bust above his chamber
door WAS delirlum tremens.
Only this and nothing more.
Napoleon Bonaparte lived only just be.
yond midlife, then died at st. Helena. and
one OF his doctors said that his disease was
| induced by excessive snuffing. The hero
of Austerlitz, the man who by one step OF
| his foot in the center OF Europe shook the
earth, killed by snuffbox. Oh, how many
people we have known who have not lived
| out half their days because OF their dissf-
pations and indulgences. Now practical
religion is a protest against all dissipation
| OF any kind.
But" you say. professors Of religion
| have fallen, professors Of religion have got
| drunk, professors OF religion have misap.
| ION have absconded." Yes, but they threw
away their religion befofs they did their
| morality. II man on a White Star line
| steamer bound for Liverpool, in mid-At-
| lantic Jumps overheard and is drowned, is
| tbat a1vtbino against the White Star lines