The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-02-24
LIVING IN CHRIST.
Dr.. Talmage Speaks of the Benefits
of a Religious Existence.
Raw 1t Makes Its Devotees Happier
Practical Religion the Friend
of Longevity Gospel of
Everyday Life.
Copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.)
Washington,

AoAf
This sermon of DR.. Talmage pre-
sents a gospel for this life as well as
the next and shows what religion does
for the prolongation of earthly exist
ence: text, Psalm Xci., 16: with long
life will L satisfy him."
Through the mistake of its friends
religion has been chiefly associated
with sickbeds and graveyards. 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 q hearse to carry out the dead
should be represented as a chariot in
which the living are to triumph.
Religion, so far from subtracting
from ones vitality, is a glorious addi-
ton. 1t is sanitive, 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 it as a mild sick
ness or an emancipation or an at
tack of moral and spiritual cramp.
He speaks of it as the saving health
of all nations" while God in 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 900 years. As late
in the history of the world as Vespa-
sian there were at one time in his en-
pire As people 1875 years old. So far
down as the sixteenth century Peter
Tartan died at 1876 years of age. I do
not say that religion will ever take
the race back to antediluvian longev-
ity, but l do say that the length of hui
man life will be greatly improved.
1t is said in Isaiah Ky, 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
to 300 and 400 and 500? The fact is
that we are mere dwarfs and skele-
tons compared with some of the gen
eratlons that are to come. Take the
African race. They have been under
bondage for centuries. Give them a
chance and they develop a Toussaint
IOuverturc. 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 il
tuH power for a few centuries, and
who can tell what will be the strength
of man and the beauty of woman and
che longevity of all?
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-
bic, whether there shall be thorough
or incomplete mastication. are cues
tons very often referred to the realm
OF whimsicality, but the Christian man
lltts 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 a God-defyirg sa~crilege." He sees
"ods caligrnphy in every page-an-
atomieal and physiological. He Y
God has given me a wonderful body
Tor noble purposes" That arm with
d2 curious bones welded by 46 en-
rious muscles, and all under the ,
brains telegraphy-350 pounds of
rushing through the heart every
hour-the heart in "a hours beating
IOo'o00 times, during the same time
the lungs taking in 81 hogsheads of
ar n all this mechanism not more
mighty than delicate and easily dis
turbed and demolished. :
The Christian man saws TO himself. ,
II L hurt my nerves, if / hurt nv .
orain' II hurt any of my physical +
faculties, l insult God and call for :
lire retribution." Why did God tell ,
the Levites not to offer to Him in !
animals imperfect and dis ,
eased? He meant to tell us in all Z
the ages that we are to offer to God ,
our very best physical condition. and ,
man who through irregular or glut- +
eating ruins his health. is not ,
offering to God such a sacrifice. WHY !
I'D Paul write for his cloak at Troas? :
why should such a great man as Paul :
De anxious about a thing so i%nsignif- 9
amt as an overcoat? 1t was because ,
ne knew that with pneumonia and i
rheumatism he would not be wortj, I
lalf as much to God and the church
is with respiration easy and foot free y
An intelligent Christian man would j,
it an absurdity to kneel down G
It night and pray and ask Gods pro- n
ection while at the same time he kent =
he windows of his bedroom tight shut =
.gainst fresh air. He would inst ne II
Don think of going to the top of his -.