The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-25
DR.TALnAdE's sERnON
The Eminent Divlne's Sunday
Discourse.

tcllcct-luHuCuce or tho Gospel in BuHi- |
ness-Can You Got Along without II? |
WAsmNGToN, D. C.-In this discourse
DIR. Idlmage advocates the idea that the |
Christian religion is as good for this world !
as the next, and viii help us 90 do any
thing that ought 60 be done at all: L Tim. !
othy Nv, 8, Goodness is profitable unto !
AL things having promise of the life that
now is and OF that which is to come"
There is a gloomy and passive way of
waiting for events to come upon us, and
there Is a heroic way Of going out to meet
them, strong in God and fearing nothing
When the body of Catiline was found on
the battlefield, it was found far in advance
OF all his troops and among the enemy, and
the best way is not for US TO lie down and
let the events of life trample over us, but
to 60 forth in a Christian spirit deter
mined to conquer. You are expecting pros
perity, and / am determined so far as /
have anything to DO with it, that you shall
not be disappointed, and, therefore, / pro-
pose, as God may help me, to project upon
your attention a new element Of success.
You have in the business firm frugality,
patience, industry, perseverance, economy
"a very strong business tirm-but there
needs to be Cde member added, mightier
than them all, and not silent partner
either, the one introduced by my text,
Goodness, which Is profitable unto all
things, having the promise of the life that
now is as well as of that which is to come"
l suppose you are all willing to admit
that goodness is important in its eternal
relations, but perhaps some of you say,
CAN | want is an opportunity to say
prayer before / die, and all will be we'll"
There are a great many people who sup
pose that if they can finally get safely out
of this world into a better world they will
have exhausted the entire advantage of
our holy religion. They talk as though re-
ligion were mere nod of recognition
which we are to give to the Lord Jesus on
our way TO a heavenly mansion; as though
it were an admission ticket, of no use ex-
cept to give in at the door Of heaven And
there are thousands of people who have
great admiration for a religion of the
shroud and a religion of the coffin and q
religion of the cemetery who have no APP
probation of a religion for the bank for
the farm, for the factory, for the ware
1 house, for the jewelers. shop, for the office.
Now, while I would not throw any slur on
a post-mortem religion, | want to-day to
eulogize an antesmortem religion. A relig-
ion that is of no use to you while you live
will be of no use to you when you die.
Goodness is profitable unto all things,
/ having promise of the life that now is as
well as of that which is to come" And [
! have always noticed that when grace is
/ very low in a mans heart he talks a great
! deal in prayer meetings about deaths and
/ about collins and about graves and about
/ churchyards. l have noticed that the
/ healthy Christian, the man who is living
near to God and is on the straight road to
/ heaven, is full of jubilant satisfaction and
/ talks about the duties of this life, under
standing well that if God helps him to live
right He will help him to die right
l. Now, IN the first place, l remark that
/ godliness is good for a mans physical
| health. | do not mean to say that it will
restore a broken down constitution or
! drive rheumatism from the limbs or neural
gia from the temples or pleurisy from the
side, but l do mean to say that it gives
one such habits and puts one in such con-
4ition as are most favorable for physical
health. That believe, and that l avow.
Everybody knows that buoyancy of
spirit is good physical advantage. Gloom,
unrest, detection, are at war with every
pulsation of the heart and with every res
piration of the lungs. They lower the vi
tally and slacken the circulation, while
eXhilaration of spirit pours the very balm
Of heaven through all the currents of life.
The sense Of insecurity which sometimes
hovers over an unregenerate man or
pounces upon him with the blast of ten
thousand trumpets of terror is most depict
ing and most eXhausting, while the feeling
that all things are working together for
our good now and for our everlasting vel
fare is conducive to physical health.
You will observe that goodness induces
industry, which is the foundation of good
health. There is no law of hygiene that
will keep a lazy man well. Pleurisy will
stab him, erysipelas will burn him, jaun-
dice will discolor him, govt will cripple
him, and the intelligent physician will
not prescribe antiseptic or febrifuge
or anodyne, but saws and hammers
and yardsticks and crowbars and pick.
axes. There is no such thing as good
physical condition without positive work
of some kind, although you should sleep
on down of swan or ride in carriage Of
softest upholstery or have on your table
all the luxurios that were poured from the
wine watts of Ispahan and Shiraz. Our re
igion says: "Away to the bank, away tC
the field, away to the shop, away to the
factory! Do something that will enlist al
the energies of your body, mind and soul!'
'Diligent in business, fervent in spirit
serving the Lord" while upon the bare
! back of the idler and the drone comes
down the sharp lash of the apostle as h
says, eff any man will not work, neither
she'll he eat"
Oh, how important is this day, when 81
J much is said about anatomy and physio
} Iogy and therapeutics and some new stylt
of medicine is ever and anon springinl
: upon the world, that you should under
stand that the highest school of medicine
J is the school of Christ, which declares tina
"godliness is profitable unto all things
having the promise of the life that now j
as well as of that which is to come" s.
if you start out two men in the world will
( equal physical health, and then one o
them shall get the religion of Christ in hi
heart and the other shall not get it, tn
j one who becomes a son Of the Lord Al
r mighty will live the longer. with lon
I life will I satisfy him and show him M,
salvation"