The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-03-06
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY The NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Welfare of the Body-simple
Life Conduces to Longevity - Religion
the Great Renewer Worry Hastens
the Advance of Age.
Copyright 1901.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-1n this discourse
DR.. Talmage shows how any one can con-
quer the effect of years and grow younger
in spirit; text, Psalms CHI, 5, $50 that thy
youth is renewed like the eagles"
There flies out from my text the most
majestic of all the feathered creation-an
eagle. Other birds have more beauty of
plume and more sweetness of voice. but
none of them has such power of beak:
such clutch of claw, such expansion of
ness of dominion: Its appetite rejects the
carrion that invites the vulture, and in
most cases its food is fresh and clean.
Leveling its neck for fight, in spiral
curve, it swings itself toward the MONDAY
sun. It has been known to live a hun.
dred years. What concentration of all
that is sublime in the golden eagle, the
creasted eagle, the imperial eagle, the
martial eagle. the booted eagle the Jean
lie Blanc eagle! But after awhile in its
life comes the molting process, and it
looks ragged and worn and unattractiye,
and feels like moping IN its nest on the
high crags. But weeks 60 by and the old
feathers are gone and new ornithological
attire is put on. and it's beak. which was
overgrown, has the surplus of bone beaten
off against the rocks. and it gets back its
old capacity for food, and again it mounts
the heavens in unchallenged and bound
less kingdoms of air and light: David,
the author of the text, had watched these
lnonarchs of the sky, and knew their hab-
it's, and one day, exulting in his own ply
sical and spiritual rejuvenescence, he says
to his own soul: "You are getting younger
all the time; You make, me think of an
eagle which I saw yesterday, just after it's
ley of Jehoshaphat and then circling
around the head of Mount Olivet. o my
soul. thy youth is renewed like the
The fact is that people get old too fast.
They allow the years to run away with
them. The almanac and the family record
discourage them. Some of you are older
than you have any business to be. You
ought to realize that as the body gets old
er the soul ought to get younger: Coming
on toward old age you are only in the
molting season, and after that you will
have better wings, take higher flight and
bids us to look after the welfare of the
body as well as of the soul, and the first
part as we'll as the latter part of my sub
ject is appropriate for the pulpit.
Many might turn the years backward
and get younger by changing their physi
cal habits. The simpler life one lives the
longer he lives. Thomas Parr, of Shrop-
shire, England, was a plain man and
worked on farm for a livelihood. At l20
years of age he was at his daily toll. He
lived under nine kings of England. When
l52 years of age he was heard of in Lon
don. The king desired to see him, and or.
richly and royalty treated that it de-
stroyed his health, and he died at l52
years and nine months Of age.
When DR.. Harvey. the discoverer of the
circulation of the blood, made post NOR
tenn examination of Thomas Parr, he de-
clared there were no signs of senile decay
in the body. The man must have re-
newed his youth, like the eagle, again and
again.
All occupations and professions have
afforded Illustrations of rejuveaescence:
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, lived
lO9 years, and among those eminent in the
medical profession who became septuage.
narians and octogenarians and nonagena-
rians were Darwin, Gall, Boerhaave, Jen-
ner and Ruysch, observing themselves the
laws of health that they taught their pa
tients.
In art and literature and science among
those who lived into the eighties were
Plato and Franklin and Carlyle and
Goethe and Button and HALEY. Sopho-
cles reached the nineties.
Haydn's oratoria, ''The Creation" was
composed at seventy years of age. Hum
boldt wrote his immortal work, The Cos
mos" at seventy-fve. William Cullen
Bryant, at eighty-two years. of age, in my
house, read without spectacles "Thanatop-
SIS" which he had composed when eigh-
teen years of age. Isocrates did illustrious
work at ninety-four.
Lontinus Gorgias was busy when death
came to him at 107 years of age. Herschel
at eighty years of age was hard at work
in stellar exploration. Masinissa, king Of
Numidia, at ninety years of age, led VIC
torious cavalry charge against the Cartha-
genians.
Titan was engaged on his greatest
painting when he died in his one hun
dredth year. How often they must have
renewed their youth!
But the average longevity Of those in
private life, and with less mental strain
and no conspicuous success, is much larger
than the average longevity OF the, re-
nowned. There are hundreds Of thou
sands of men and women now renewing
their youth like the eagles, SO that the
possibility of such turning back of the
years is all around US being demonstrated.
Bismarck, the greatest of German states
men, a long while before his decease,
passed his eightieth milestone. When
Gladstone was eighty-three years Of age,
ran with him up and down the hills of Ha-
warden. We started for a walk, but it
got to be run. All those men again and
again renewed their youth.
Some one writes me, "Is not threescore
and ten the bound of human life, accord
ing to the Bible" My reply is that Moses
giving a statistic of his own day.
Through better understanding of the
laws of health and advancement of medi-
cal science the statistics of longevity have
nightly changed since the time of Moses,
and the day is coming when a nonagena-
rian will no longer be a wonder. Phlebot-
omy shortened the life of whole genera
tions, and the lancet that bled for every
thing is now rarely taken from the doc
tors pocket. .,
Dentistry has given power of healthy
maStlcatlon 10 tne human race, anu illus
added greatly to the prolongation OF life.
Electric lights have improved human
sight, which used to be strained by the
dim tallow candle. The dire diseases
which under other names did their fatal
work. and were considered almost incWa-
BILE now in a majority of cases are con-
quered.
Vaccination. which has saved millions
of lives and baked the greatest scourge
of nations, and surgery. which has ad-
yanced more than any other science, have
done more than can be told for the prolon-
CATION Of human life.
The X-ray has turned the human body,
which was Opaque into lighted castle.
1t is easier in this age to renew ones
youth than in any other age.
But the body is the smallest and least
important part of you. 1t is your soul