The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-02-23
LIVING IN CHRIST.
Dr.. Talmage Speaks of the Benefits
of a Religious Existence.
How 1t Makes Its DevOtees Happier
Practical Religion the Friend
of Longevity Gospel of
Everyday Life.
Copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.)
Washington

Washington,
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 10 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
he 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 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 al nations" while God in the text
| promises longevity 10 the pious, say
| ing: with long life will l satisfy
| him"
The fact is that men ard 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 Nespa-
sian there were at one time in his en-
pire 45 people 135 years old. So far
down as the sixteenth century Peter
Tartan died at 1S5 years of age. l do
! not say that religion will ever take
the race back to antedilUvian longev-
ity, but | do say that the length of hu-
man 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
Y
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
eratiOns that are to come. Take the
African race. They have been under
bondage for centuries. Give them a
chance and they develop a Toussaint
HOuverture. 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
che longevity of all?
Ny design is to show that practical
religion is the friend of longevity; /
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
OF incomplete masticatiCn. 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 a 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 "a hours beating |
100000 times, during the same time |
the lungs taking in 81 hogsheads of |
air, and all this mechanism not more |
mighty than delicate and easily dis
turbed and demolished
The Christian man says to himself: |
If l hurt my nerves. if l hurt my |
brain. if l 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 ali
the ages that we are to offer to God
our very best physical condition. and
i man who through irregular or glut-
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 a great man as Paul
be anxious about thing so insignifi-
cant 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
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 off and then pray
ing 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 care of all your
physical forces-nervous, muscular, &